TiER1 Performance A major U.S.-based domestic and international carrier sought to enhance its safety practices to improve performance outcomes through the creation of an innovative training program for its above-wing and below-wing airport services personnel. Instead of using its existing learning management system and standard compliance training approach, the carrier partnered with TiER1 Performance and NovoEd to provide incremental, ongoing training in a more dynamic and effective way.
The initiative impacted tens of thousands of employees who participated in training on NovoEd’s intuitive, engaging learning platform designed by TiER1’s learning experts. The program has continued to evolve, as has the airline’s capability to rapidly conceive, design, and deliver high-quality training with cutting-edge technology—a capability that will serve the organization well as it faces future market conditions.
The airline industry has navigated major challenges over the last few years, including pandemic-related fluctuations in demand, fuel prices, climate impacts, and workforce availability, underscoring the importance of upholding metrics of quality and efficiency. Besides improving safety outcomes, which are paramount, maintaining safe practices also leads to reduced costs, fewer delays, and higher employee and customer satisfaction, all of which are critical in the competitive airline market.
“Safety is the most important training goal airlines work to achieve and the key to their success.” – Corey Leverette, Principal, TiER1 Performance
To maximize safety outcomes and further improve its success metrics, in 2021, the airline decided to embrace a new training approach. Effective compliance training, its learning leaders insisted, should not only meet minimum required standards, but should also provide development opportunities for staff. It would require targeted investment from the company. At that time, much of the actual training occurred in a decentralized way at the station level, which is critically valuable, but an over-reliance on decentralized training can lead to a lack of standardization and best practices. Thus, the airline seized this opportunity to start evolving its learning culture by making the investment and incorporating a new approach to its training programs.
The initial program was a new quarterly training initiative for above-wing and below-wing airport operations staff. This audience traditionally received only basic compliance training, yet they comprise the majority of the airline’s staff. Starting with this group sent an important message about the criticality of the operations staff and the value of investing in their skill development. The new training program required between 45-60 minutes of professional development time per quarter, which cumulatively, across tens of thousands of staff, represented an incremental investment of hundreds of thousands of training hours per year. This substantial strategic investment sent an important message about how much the airline values both its employees’ professional development as well as a culture of learning together.
Leadership of the airport services group was thrilled to provide learner-centric professional development opportunities, which signaled the organization’s investment in employees.
The airline had recently updated its Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver SCORM-based compliance training. However, the learner experience is generally an afterthought in large corporate LMSs as they are primarily designed to administer and track training efficiently. To redefine the learner experience, the airline seamlessly launched the NovoEd learning platform from its LMS and reported back completion. The NovoEd platform provided a consumer-grade user interface and offered richer engagement opportunities through discussions, feedback loops, video/audio recording practice activities, connections to managers and experts, and more. Although not all of these features would be utilized in the initial training programs, NovoEd’s learning platform provided a long runway on which to develop a wide variety of important training programs in the future.
“NovoEd’s platform is a superb fit for frontline employee training when upskilling must be joined with aligning toward a common goal, reinforced by dialogue and feedback in the course of the learning experience.” – Todd Moran, Chief Learning Strategist, NovoEd
Developing a new kind of program that incorporates new technology requires extensive expertise and planning. The airline tapped its long-time strategy activation partner, TiER1 Performance, to help plan and manage this change and develop the training on the NovoEd platform. TiER1’s change management and learning design experts created a comprehensive plan that considered all the requirements from a technology and process standpoint, before starting the actual work of creating the training content on the NovoEd platform.
Working together with TiER1 and NovoEd, the airline developed the program in just three months. After a beta test in Q1 of 2022, it was rolled out fully in Q2 of 2022 to tens of thousands of above-wing and blow-wing staff.
The program was an immediate success, with nearly all the staff completing the training. Around 9 in 10 participants agreed that the new training approach was useful and effective. When asked how ready they felt to apply what they learned during the training, 93% felt what they learned was applicable to their jobs and 78% felt they could immediately be more successful in their jobs. Though this is self-reported data, this is crucial because the perceptions and confidence of frontline staff are an important aspect of any effective large-scale change effort.
These results provided strong validation not just of the value of the training initiative, but also of the planning and change management efforts required. In subsequent iterations different course topics were offered that were more relevant to specific groups, such as people leaders and the aircraft cleaning teams, and additional social features of the NovoEd platform were incorporated into courses where it made sense.
78% of participants believed they could immediately apply their training to improve their job performance.
This was not a single training initiative. The airline’s larger goal was to enhance the its learning culture and increase its capabilities in producing these kinds of training changes. The success of this effort is evident in the continuous improvement of this learning program and in the plans to enhance and expand training in other areas, such as flight operations and leadership tracks. The airline can now accommodate a wide variety of training needs via a robust learning platform in NovoEd and its partnership with TiER1.
Want to explore how to elevate your organization’s learning culture? Drop us a line in the form below.