Playbook for Cultivating Talent in the Airport Environment (2021)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

1   This Playbook provides inspiring, tested, and readily implementable techniques, or plays, for airport leaders and managers, to enhance talent cultivation and knowledge transfer within airport organizations, no matter their size or situation. The Playbook is designed for quick and easy application with key talent planning ideas that can be used by airports of different types and sizes, addressing all levels of the organization from entry level through leadership. The Playbook includes approaches that are tactical, strategic, and structural, and attention is given to strategies and techniques that focus on an organization’s culture and workplace environment. The Playbook contains five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Creating an Environment That Cultivates Talent; Chapter 3: Supporting Employee Growth; Chapter 4: Preparing to Meet Future Talent Needs; and Chapter 5: Metrics. Chapters 2 through 4 con- tain the three workforce challenge areas. A summary of the plays presented in each of these areas is presented as follows. Creating an Environment That Cultivates Talent S U M M A R Y Playbook for Cultivating Talent in the Airport Environment Play 1: Implement cross-functional group sessions to promote organization-wide knowledge sharing A cross-functional group session can enhance employee retention by providing employees with an opportunity to develop relationships, learn from their colleagues, and get guidance regarding problems they are encountering at work, which in turn helps them perform better and accomplish tasks more efficiently. Play 2: Host learning moments forums to share lessons learned Learning moments forums can be described as formally organized and structured discussions in which employees share something they learned, a best practice they developed, or skills they utilized to accomplish a difficult goal. Play 3: Facilitate Think Tank forums to promote innovation Think Tank forums are useful for encouraging innovation among employees and allowing employees to have their voices heard in decisionmaking processes, both of which help increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Play 4: Conduct group visioning sessions with employees to outline shared values and goals Group visioning sessions may be described as formally organized gatherings of employees with the purpose of establishing goals to work toward as a team and values to uphold in pursuit of these goals. Play Overview (continued on next page)

2 Playbook for Cultivating Talent in the Airport Environment Supporting Employee Growth Play Overview Play 7: Provide job shadowing opportunities to broaden employee skills Job shadowing provides employees the opportunity to learn about and observe the responsibilities and interactions of different jobs within the airport without transitioning from their current roles. Play 8: Facilitate reciprocal mentoring opportunities to increase employee capabilities Facilitating a reciprocal mentoring program is a cost-effective strategy for encouraging collaborative learning within the airport and provides employees with opportunities to engage with and learn from their colleagues. p Play 9: Guide employees in ursuing relevant training or certifications to improve their skills Managers may be able to generate a list of acceptable training opportunities for employees by consulting with Human Resources (HR) or training personnel; discussing possible opportunities with other department managers; inquiring about opportunities offered by organizations, such as the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) or Airports Council International−North America (ACI−NA); and searching the internet for any relevant programs. Play 10: Conduct constructive feedback sessions for leaders to promote consistency across employees Constructive feedback involves using facts (versus opinions) to support appraisals of employees’ performance, describing the impact of employees’ actions, and providing guidance for future behavior. Play 11: Share sources for publicly available developmental opportunities to promote growth Providing employees with resources that may aid in their personal and professional development (e.g., online training materials, magazine subscriptions, research articles, conference or workshop materials) is a cost-effective way to encourage their skill-building and knowledge growth, and to support a knowledge-sharing culture. Play 12: Facilitate career path discussions to share career development opportunities with employees A career path is a sequence of jobs an employee can progress through to guide them and provide an understanding of how to reach their career goals. Play Overview Play 5: Conduct employee pulse surveys to understand employee attitudes about work Employee pulse surveys can provide airport managers with an easy and cost-effective way to track their employees’ attitudes throughout the year. honor Play 6: Articulate a peer-nominated employee recognition approach to work successes An employee recognition program is a system used to acknowledge individuals who go above and beyond when performing their job duties and deserve to have their work successes celebrated.

Summary 3   Preparing to Meet Future Talent Needs Play Overview Play 13: Create partnership opportunities for airport leaders to engage with academic programs Fostering relationships and partnership opportunities with academic programs can create a pipeline for new talent in the airport, resolve the learning gaps that new employees may have when first entering the airport industry after completing their education, and provide current airport employees an avenue to continue their education. Play 14: Conduct stay interviews to learn from employees and improve employee retention Stay interviews should be conducted during an employee’s tenure at the airport to help managers better understand what makes employees remain at the organization and what factors might cause them to leave. Play 15: Design internal internship opportunities to prepare future talent Internal internships are opportunities in which employees work in a different position and/or functional area for a fixed period (e.g.,1 to 3 months, full year) to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Employees who participate in internships can gain exposure to other career paths and pursue their career goals and aspirations. Play 16: Create a personal career narrative to share work experiences with employees A personal career narrative is a short description of why individuals selected their career or field, how they have progressed in their career, and their short- and long-term goals. Play 17: Conduct futuring workshops to understand future workforce needs A futuring workshop involves a thought exercise in which managers, key stakeholders, and employees describe the current trends and demands for the specific airport or the airport industry that will impact workforce needs in the future.