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The 3 C’s of Engaging & Retaining Cabin Crew

Caitlin Kirwan

External Contributor - Internal Comms & Engagement Expert

July 11 2024

Looking for tried-and-tested ways to better engage and retain cabin crew? Caitlin Kirwan explains the 3 C’s of building a loyal and motivated team in the sky.

More than a third of the 3.6 million global employees working in the airline industry are members of cabin crew, also referred to as flight attendants. With worldwide air traffic expected to rise by 4% each year, analysts predict that around 725,000 new cabin crew will be needed by 2040. And as airlines typically experience higher-than-average staff turnover, it’s more important than ever to retain existing cabin crew.

Putting retention to one side, cabin crew engagement levels have more of a direct impact on the passenger experience than any other employee in the airline.

If your crew in the sky is feeling disengaged, unmotivated, or dissatisfied, the chances are your passengers will know about it.

Long shifts, disrupted sleep, difficult passengers, time away from family and frequent delays can make for long and exhausting work days. And although they carry the majority of the responsibility for the safety and happiness of passengers, cabin crew salaries are lower than you may think – particularly for those based outside of the US.

What can airlines do to engage and retain their cabin crew, despite these challenges?

Focusing on the following three priority areas – the 3 C’s of cabin crew engagement – will help you build a loyal and engaged workforce in the sky!

The 3 C’s of cabin crew engagement

The airlines operating at the top of their game have made employee engagement a core part of their strategy, focusing on creating a positive culture that attracts the best talent from across the industry.  

When someone feels informed and engaged and included, the culture can come alive because the employee can do their best work.

Linda Rutherford, Chief Communications Officer, Southwest Airlines

Focusing on the following three priorities enables airlines to elevate cabin crew engagement to sky-high levels. And I’m a comms person… I can’t help but love a good bit of alliteration! So let’s explore the 3 Cs of cabin crew engagement. 

 

Priority 1: Community

Building a sense of community is one of the most powerful ways to boost engagement and increase retention.

Employees who feel part of a workplace community are shown to be 55% more engaged and are 58% more likely to thrive at work. And further research specifically focusing on flight attendants shows that those who feel supported by their colleagues have enhanced employee engagement and improved performance.

Creating a sense of community is an engagement superpower. Employees work in a more collaborative manner, support one another, and better understand how their work contributes to the organization’s overall goals.

But within larger airlines, it’s not uncommon for cabin crew to fly with different colleagues every day for weeks – or even months – on end. So how is it possible to build a sense of community when crew members are often meeting for the first time, every day?  

The answer lies in technology.

Having a central platform that brings together the entire workforce – from cabin crew to ground staff to the finance team – builds connection and community. An employee experience platform (EXP) like Workvivo acts as the digital heart of an airline, allowing cabin crew to build relationships and share feedback in real time, regardless of their location.

Features such as community Spaces allow airline employees to connect and collaborate on common interests, enabling cabin crew members to feel part of a broader community. The key to ensuring cabin crew and other frontline workers in the airline feel included is to make your EXP truly mobile-optimized, selecting a solution that has been designed with remote access in mind.  

 

Priority 2: Career

The second priority for engaging cabin crew is career. As an organization, you need to show that you genuinely care about the career development and progression of crew members.

Regular check-ins with management, ongoing feedback, and career mapping are all important. But this priority goes much further than that. It’s about empowering cabin crew by giving them more ownership over their work, more opportunities to contribute to the airline, access to more channels that amplify their voices, and more chances to develop new skills and take on new challenges.

In practice, this involves things like:

  • Using ‘listening tools’ like engagement and wellbeing surveys
  • Providing development opportunities outside of the day-to-day work, such as supporting new crew recruitment or providing input on marketing campaigns
  • Hosting regular focus groups and drop-in sessions that allow cabin crew to give practical feedback on things like new employee platforms or new benefits  
  • Giving members of cabin crew the chance to become ‘communications champions’ who work closely with central teams to represent their colleagues
  • Introducing an employee recognition program that celebrates and rewards members of cabin crew who go above and beyond
  • Focusing on strategic alignment for cabin crew – ensuring they feel part of the airline’s overarching strategy and see how their daily work contributes to its overall success

The aim should be for cabin crew to view their time with the airline as a long-term career, rather than just a job.

 

Priority 3: Communication  

Last but by no means least is communication.

Mark Duffy, Director of Talent for Ryanair, put it best when he said

We’ve got 20,000 crew whose only office is the aircraft. As a management function, we need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively with our people  

Effective communication is one of the most impactful ways to turn the dial on cabin crew engagement, ensuring team members can access information that is relevant, helpful, and timely. It’s good news for retention, too, as the IC Index 2024 found a direct link between effective internal communication and employees’ intention to stay with their employer for longer.

But perfecting your internal communications for frontline workers, like cabin crew, is no walk in the park. And as things currently stand, only 35% say they’re happy with the quality of the workplace comms they receive. Which is why it’s so important to develop an IC strategy that addresses the following four areas.

  • Ongoing opportunities for two-way communication and regular employee listening
  • A dynamic channel matrix that meets the needs of each different internal audience
  • An employee experience platform that is mobile-optimized and accessible from anywhere
  • Aligned and effective line manager and leader communications throughout the airline

Read our guide on how to close the engagement gap for airline employees to find four actionable ways to communicate effectively with the frontline workers in your airline.

And in the meantime, happy flying!

 

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