The shortage of mechanics isn’t the cause of work delays and late deliveries of business jets from maintenance shops, according to Jets MRO founder and CEO Suresh Narayanan. High turnover of mechanics is to blame, and when he launched Jets MRO a key goal was tackling the turnover problem.
Narayanan used to operate fleets of business aircraft and thus gained insight into the effects of high turnover. “When I was an aircraft operator, we dug into why our aircraft were coming out of maintenance so late and over budget,” he explained. “We found out it was not due to the mechanic shortage, but an industry issue with retaining mechanics within these maintenance businesses. The most eye-opening part was learning that mechanics’ turnover rates were not being discussed, which ranged from 30% to 70%!”
He explained that this results in new hires having to undergo training and taking longer to do the work, as well as higher bills to customers and delays in getting the work out the door.
When developing the business plan for Jets MRO, Narayanan decided to focus on how to retain mechanics and he surveyed them to learn why they quit. The feedback showed that key factors were “engaged leadership, culture, benefits, and schedule.”
To counter those factors, Dallas Executive Airport-based Jets MRO gives all full-time employees free family benefits. “Part of the business is carved out to belong to the employees as profit sharing,” the company said, and every month leadership provides financial results to employees “to increase transparency and visibility to how the business is going.”
A process was also implemented to facilitate “honest feedback and communication between all team members to avoid any issues and stay in front of how this business should grow from the point of view of its team.
“While most maintenance businesses label recruiting as a main struggle, it is the least of our worries,” said Narayanan. “I feel like our story and purpose really resonate in the mechanic population, and it shows with our very robust recruiting pipeline of very experienced mechanics waiting to join our team. Our biggest challenge is sharing our mission and letting the industry know we are a new maintenance business with a different take on how we approach the business.”