IATA flies in to Colombo to brainstorm ‘Talent for Tomorrow’

By David Ebert

‘Talent for Tomorrow’ was the theme at the 2012 IATA Global Human Capital Summit held yesterday at the Hilton Colombo, amidst a large gathering of aviation industry human resource professionals who gathered for two intense days of brainstorming sessions aimed at formulating the next level of human resource policies in the global airline sector in the midst of turbulent economic times.

This year’s summit, being the second such assembly since the inaugural gathering held in Singapore last year, also saw the launch of the IATA human capital network, an online network for industry human resource professionals to share their experiences and challenges.

IATA Vice President Human Capital Guido Gianasso in his opening remarks to the delegates elaborated on the challenges facing the industry in terms of human resources and the new network which he hoped would foster more inter-airline dialogue.

The beginning

“As you may recall, two years ago, based on inputs received from many of you, we decided to create an event where global aviation HR leaders could meet to discuss openly, frankly and collaboratively their challenges, share best practices, learn from each other and develop possibly some joint initiatives and progress.”

He recalled that from this idea, the IATA Human Capital Summit was formed with the support of the Singaporean Government and the first summit was held in Singapore in November 2011. It had been a very successful event and the feedback received had showed that 90% or more of the participants indicated that the summit should be organised on an annual basis.

“Many of you encouraged us to go one step further and launch an IATA human capital network to connect the chief HR officers from airlines around the globe. We carefully listened to your feedback and worked on it and again here we are in Sri Lanka to open the second Human Capital Summit and at the same time with the active support received, we have prepared the launch of the IATA Human Capital Network.”

In conclusion Gianasso said: “Today we will look at the big picture and will share with you where this industry is going in this challenging global economy and will also look at the increasing gap between labour supply and labour demand which is such a big challenge for many of our members especially in Asia and the Middle East.”

Call for greater solidarity

Delivering the keynote speech at the event, Deputy Minister for Finance and Senior Minister for Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama praised the efforts of the industry and called for even greater solidarity and a focused approach in order to sustain it in the current global economic downturn.

“We all know that aviation as an industry is facing turbulent times. There has been a global downturn and predictions of a fast recovery are not proving to be correct as the world economic output published annually by the IMF is below the expected growth levels. These particularly impact the aviation industry.

“So we are facing turbulent times and there are extraneous shocks like volatile oil prices which tend to wipe out profits from your balance sheet. The world gets divided into oil rich and oil poor countries and flag carriers and national airlines of countries that don’t have ready access to cheaper oil face stormy conditions. So it is all the more reason for us to work together to face those challenges and to ride out these difficulties till the global economy begins to recover much faster.”

With Sri Lanka rapidly growing as the next best travel destination in Asia, Dr. Amunugama also pointed out the emerging trends in the Sri Lankan tourism industry and reiterated the Government’s commitment in order to prepare and assist the industry overcome any shifts in the current traveller demographics.

Change in demographics

“The second aspect is of course the change in demographics which is important for business and important for aviation to see who the potential users of the services are. If you take Sri Lanka the pattern of visitors to the country is changing and new developing countries such as BRICS are important economic powerhouses, a large middle class is emerging there and we have to look at these new profiles to see the demographics of travel and aviation in the future.”

“Sri Lanka is now being recognised almost every month as not only a very attractive destination but as a value-for-money destination in the region and we are projecting a growth in tourist arrivals to two million tourists in the next two years. We have plans to make it grow and that is a very big challenge primarily through the carriers, through the people who bring the tourists. I think we need to think out-of-the-box, completely anew and if you look at the countries that are fast increasing the numbers of tourists coming to Sri Lanka, India has come right on top, China is growing, and even Russia is growing so we have to look at those things in terms of the economy of running an airline in difficult times.”

 Amunugama concluded his address saying: “I think we have to pay more serious attention than we have done in the past to plot these shifting patterns of travel if we are to fit into the growth of aviation in our countries. Our Government is very strongly committed to developing Sri Lankan Airlines which is our flag carrier as we are expecting a rapid expansion of tourism in the country.”

Importance of human resources

SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe in his inaugural speech at the summit explained the importance that human resources play in the future development and expansion plans of the airline as well as the importance with which the Government views human resource development as a national policy.

“President Mahinda Rajapaksa is very keen to develop today’s younger generation into a strong and independent workforce and towards this he has included in the country’s national constitution an ideal of human resource development. This shows the importance that the government of Sri Lanka has placed in this particular field of human capital development.

“The company’s employees are its asset and in this multi-disciplined airline industry, we deal with every aspect of human capital from highly skilled professionals to semi-skilled workers, each of whom contributes to the sustenance and development of the industry. Our airline has a deep commitment to developing this priceless resource in its journey towards becoming a training hub for the airline industry in South Asia.”

IATA’s role

Meanwhile, IATA Chief People and Performance officer and Vice Chairman Human Capital Council Ray Gammel spoke on the role that the IATA has to play in the industry, where since its inception in 1945, with only 57 members from 31 nations, it has grown to include 243 members from 126 nations currently.

“Our objective is to lead and serve the airline industry and the airline industry is a people business, therefore representing and leading the industry is not possible without leading in a human capital sense. It’s a must-do today. The work we are going to do over the next few days is critical to the industry; it is critical to the future direction of the most critical part of an airline – its people.”

In closing, Gammel added: “When you reach an airport and fly on an airline, it’s the people that you remember. It’s not just our role to provide leadership in the broad people agenda throughout the industry, but it is our duty and responsibility to be passionate about the role we have to play at the heart of the business. It’s very simple, if the people strategy fails, then the business will fail, the work that we do is that critical.” The summit was organised by SriLankan Airlines’ MICE Department and Human Resources.

 – Pix by Upul Abayasekara