Engineering a new future

Air New Zealand needs an army of engineers to keep its planes in the air. But the average age of the 2,700-strong workforce has been rapidly increasing, alongside a slump over the past three years in the number of young people interested in engineering apprenticeships.

The company, which serves 52 cities in 13 countries, knew it needed to connect effectively with Generation Y. It also needed to combat the widespread perception among young people themselves, parents, teachers and the general public that aeronautical engineering was no longer a secure, long-term way to earn a living in New Zealand. This perception was probably influenced, says CEO Rob Fyfe, by the loss of 200 engineering jobs in 2006 to rebalance "a cost structure that was unsustainable".  

Video Clip: Supreme Award Winner Air New Zealand

However, all over the world aeronautical engineering is struggling to attract young people, says Simon Pomeroy, Air New Zealand's Manager Sourcing Inspiring People. "We need young people to see the opportunity in this sector, and not see it as a fall-back to academic and professional careers."

Young people were part of planning the recruitment campaign that won Air New Zealand the Supreme Award at the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards 2008. 

The strategy group included a 17-year-old staff member, and a core plank was to talk to young people in the digital environments that are such a large part of their lives. Air New Zealand put this into practice in May 2007 by putting 'Andy', aka AeroCareerBoy - a 21-year-old staff member - on a Bebo social networking site: "We're looking for smart, intelligent people like you to enter into the Air New Zealand aeronautical engineering course!"

"It provided a platform for us to listen carefully to young people and understand what is important to them," says Simon. "Engaging with young people like this, and through a portal they felt comfortable with, was critical to achieving their trust and getting the relationship started."

 Within three months of launching the Bebo site, says Simon, Air New Zealand was talking to 1500 young people.

As a result, other ways of reaching them were developed. Posters sent to schools careers advisers encourage teens to send text messages for more information, with Air New Zealand following up by phone. Internet and paper careers newsletters and an interactive website showcase the sort of work engineers do and emphasise the world-wide career opportunities. School visits and roadshows which put young engineers in front of potential recruits are also an important part of the campaign.

Students who want to know more are then taken to the engineering bases in Auckland and Christchurch for in-depth site visits during which they are buddied up with previous trainees. "We want them to get a warts-and-all version of how young people find working for us," says Simon.

In June, the company launched a fun way to get 14 to 18-year-olds thinking about the practical business of getting jumbos into the air - a competition called Make It Fly, backed up by a lively website linked to a Bebo page. Teams of two to four high school students were challenged to build a glider out of an empty soft drink can, using no more than $20 worth of other recycled items such as glue, tinfoil and string.

The prizes were significant: $20,000 worth of technical and computer equipment for the winning school, with the winning team landing a choice of one of three prizes: travel to the Big Day Out summer music festival in Auckland or Sydney with accommodation and a chaperone for winners aged under 18, a Gold Coast holiday or $2000 worth of holiday vouchers.

The response was "huge," says Simon, and the company built a network of schools from Kaitaia to Bluff. A total of 20 regional heats across the North and South Islands promoted as a family day out took place in September with the finals in October.

An important part of the campaign was engaging parents and teachers, and this push to grab their eyes and ears was timed for the week leading up to the school holidays. Parents were alerted to Make It Fly through advertising in national and regional newspapers, and teachers were sent a letter explaining the benefits, a poster and a newsletter.  

 That time was chosen to get people talking about aeronautics as a career path before the holidays, the idea that the break would give students with a science, crafts and engineering bent time to have some fun with their project. Air New Zealand counted on viral marketing to keep the momentum up over the holidays, backing that with postcard handouts at skate parks, movie theatres, malls, games arcades and the like.

Air New Zealand says its leaders help drive awareness of the benefits of engineering apprenticeships. Potential recruits get to meet senior staff. Each school group that visited the company's Auckland base in 2007 and 2008 was met by Chris Nassenstein, General Manager Technical Operations, and visitors to Christchurch met Sam Lachman, Manager Narrow Body Maintenance.

Engineering recruits are also regularly exposed to more senior people - the management group that oversees the apprentices, the team running technical operations and the overall management team. This helps build what Air New Zealand calls "employment imagination".

And the result of the campaign? It has been a resounding success, says Simon, with 108 engineering trainees recruited in 2007, the highest intake for a decade. The company is talking to more than 4000 young people through social networking sites, competitions and tours of engineering bases.

The cost of developing and running the programme was less than $100,000, says Air New Zealand, in great contrast to the $400,000 invested in attraction strategies in previous years with "significantly less success". This year, the company aims to spend a total of $70,000, which includes design and promotion of Make It Fly, prize money and the maintenance of other communications mechanisms that have worked well.

The company hopes to broaden Make it Fly to parents and teachers, lining them up against students. Air New Zealand also aims to devise programmes to attract the young pilots of tomorrow, as well as underemployed migrants with engineering skills. Rob Fyfe says that prioritising girls' schools over boys' schools is critical to encouraging more young women to become pilots.

Whatever the focus, the company aims to encourage recruits to think long-term. "We want to promote the idea that training is important if you want to be part of New Zealand's tourism future," says Simon.