Operators reported ongoing organisational change can increase the risk of less experienced staff moving into key roles. Managing this requires proper training and clear development pathways for new staff.
Hiring and keeping skilled aviation workers in this sector is also a constant problem due to:
- rising living costs
- increased competition from other industries like road and marine.
What can operators do?
You should manage risks from organisational change through your Safety Management System (SMS). A structured approach to change helps find, assess and reduce risks from changes to operations, organisation and staff. You should:
- consider the combined impact of multiple changes happening at once
- assess safety impacts using current risk management processes
- report safety impact through governance channels, including aviation safety committees
- address safety at all stages of the change: planning, implementation and review.
To help hire and keep staff you should:
- use a good training system that tracks requirement updates
- give effective training
- have an onboarding process and make sure you include all training requirements
- avoid relying on a single person and make sure there are backups for important roles
- make sure the right people are in the important positions
- offer career pathways and progression to staff
- encourage a positive safety culture to help crew feel comfortable raising concerns.
Where maintenance staff are less experienced you should consider:
- mentoring
- regular safety briefings
- open discussions.
These help in:
- sharing operational knowledge
- reinforcing lessons learned
- improving safety awareness.
You should also have standard operating procedures to:
- reduce variation
- support decision-making
- manage workload in complex environments.
What are we doing and what have we already delivered?
We have put in place regulatory requirements through Parts 42 and 145 of the CASR:
- Part 145 sets requirements for approved maintenance organisations. This includes having systems to ensure organisations train, qualify and assess staff as competent before they perform aircraft maintenance.
- Part 42 sets requirements for continuing airworthiness and requires organisations and individuals managing it to ensure they train and assess staff as competent.
Together, these rules support a structured approach to workforce competency. It ensures maintenance staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to perform their duties safely. They also support the use of human factors principles, recognising the importance of human performance in aviation safety.
We have also published guidance material to help organisations meet these requirements, including how to:
- build effective training systems
- maintain staff competency
- include human factors in maintenance operations.