Organization Strategy

Organization Strategy, or Structure, refers to your business hierarchy. A small flight school may have a single owner and a few employees.  But as your business grows and you begin delegating responsibilities it becomes increasingly important each employee understands their role and who they are accountable to.

In the early days at Rainier Flight my business partner and I equally shared responsibilities which essentially meant our few employees had two bosses.  Inevitably this led to the mom-dad scenario.  If an employee approached one of us for guidance but did not like the response, they approached the other owner hoping for a better result.  This was somewhat manageable as we could easily communicate.  But as the business grew, we realized the importance of defined roles and responsibilities.  Through creating job descriptions including how each role supported one another we were able to standardize our expectations and hold each role accountable.  More importantly, each employee had clear expectations for each other.

As you grow your flight school make sure you not only provide titles such as Chief Instructor, Director of Flight Ops or Customer Service Manager but you clearly define their roles and responsibilities while empowering them to make decisions.  If they are indoctrinated with the company’s mission and values you can effectively manage without micromanaging every decision.  Here is an example of a Customer Service Rep job description:

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE

Job Summary: The Customer Service Representative is responsible for anticipating customer needs and exceeding expectations in a friendly and professional manner.

Essential Duties:

• Contribute towards a team effort through coordinating with multiple departments to ensure a safe, efficient and profitable operation.
• Seek to serve customers with the highest quality of customer service.
• Contribute to an atmosphere of inclusiveness and respect.
• Greet customers by name through phone, email and in-person.
• Assist clients and staff with scheduling, payments and records per FAA, TSA and company policy.
• Enter prospective customer and existing client information in CRM systems.
• Maintain public areas for a clean and professional image.
• Use all available resources to resolve service problems professionally.
• Ensure confidential customer/employee personal information is secure and not left in front desk or public areas.
• Report any suspicious actions or behavior observed on business and/or airport property.
• Perform duties as assigned by Office Manager.

Be careful to avoid the ‘It’s not my job’ syndrome. Roles and responsibilities provide guidance, not an all-inclusive list of every minor task. With a strong culture of teamwork everyone understands the importance of working together to accomplish a goal important to the company. However, should you need to take disciplinary steps it is important you reference documentation outlining expectations. See our post on Employee Reviews and implementing a Balanced Scorecard.