If you’ve been keeping up with current affairs this summer, you won’t have failed to notice the turmoil the aviation sector is in. After 2 years of near dormancy, demand for air travel has rebounded vigorously this year, with both airlines airports struggling to staff their operations adequately in response to the increased demand.
In June, Heathrow introduced a daily cap on passenger numbers at 100,000, and low-cost carrier easyJet has been forced to operate at 87% capacity this summer due to its internal staffing crisis. During the pandemic there was an assumption that air travel would never return to pre-covid levels, and that layoffs across the board were a necessary evil to protect the fortunes of the ailing industry. This has resulted in thousands of skilled, highly trained personnel leaving the industry, many of them unlikely to return having found alternative employment in other sectors.
The crux of the matter is that it’s not easy to become a commercial pilot. Depending on the path taken, attaining a commercial pilot’s licence can take anything between 18 months to 4 years and involve an outlay of between £70,000 and £120,000 for training. The end result is a sector where the most skilled professionals are in highest demand, and with the immense levels of commitment and cognitive ability needed, it’s unlikely that the crew shortage problem is likely to be resolved in the near future.
Planes don’t fly without pilots… nor can your business flourish without the right technology resources – access to specific sets of skills & certifications, as and when you need them to fulfil a vital role to help your business progress.
The issue of workforce pliability
What do we mean by “workforce pliability?” Workforce pliability defines the ability to acquire skills, expertise and esoteric knowledge in response to increased demand or for application to short-term projects or goals. As we’ve discussed, the aviation sector is currently struggling to acquire personnel with the right skill-sets to plug operational gaps, as the sector grapples with rapid and profound changes. This could be described as an issue of “workforce pliability,” with the available manpower unable to quickly adapt and bend to a changing environment and short-term pressures.
However, such issues are by no means unique to aviation.
Organisations across many sectors struggle to insert the required talent at the right time; either to assist with projects, offer expert guidance or bring in new skills in response to new challenges. When the project or challenge focuses on an arcane subject the pool of available talent shrinks further, often scuppering progress and putting plans on hold until the people with the right expertise can be found.
Here at Centrality, we’re acutely aware of how suffocating it can be when your business’s goals and ambitions fail to align with the skills and expertise available to you. Your team are brilliant at what they do, but among them you can’t find the knowledge required to execute a specific project, resulting in an uphill struggle. We understand that small to medium sized enterprises in particular, cannot afford to employ an extensive suite of IT professionals, leaving skills “blind spots” which make it difficult to progress with more complex projects.
Fear not, as a solution is at hand…
Centrality’s Technical Assurance Programme (TAP) – Trusted technical excellence on-hand when you need it.
Our Technical Assurance Programme offers on-demand technical expertise at a pre-agreed, competitive fixed price and to pre-defined service levels.
Leveraging decades of IT sector experience we can offer the technical assistance, consultancy or support you need on an as-and-when-required basis. You’ll enjoy a vast spectrum of IT expertise, without the hassle and cost of employing a large technical team. Benefit from support and guidance that is responsive and adaptable to your short term project goals and ambitions.
How it works…
In advance of each 12-month period, customers are allocated TAP (Technical Assurance Programme) credits. Upon requiring a TAP service or resource, our customer liaison manager will route your request to the appropriate member of our technical team and orchestrate your support from beginning to end. Simply explain what you’d like help with, and we’ll make sure the most suitably qualified experts are assigned to your case. Our Technical Assurance Programme is comprised of three distinct components:
Technical Consultancy
Our extensive technical consultancy offering can bring your IT systems into perfect harmony with your business’s goals and ambitions. With our expertise and your intimate understanding of your business, we can work together to tackle the pressures and challenges you face through the application of cutting-edge technical solutions. Our technical consultancy also offers top-tier technical support for issue escalation, with MS premier support available for the most pressing issues.
Technical Support
Our technical support team incorporates cloud, network infrastructure and endpoint expertise to provide rapid-response technical assistance for the most urgent problems. We can also allocate resources to perform routine tasks on a monthly or weekly basis as required.
Telephone Support
Sometimes all you need is to the pick the brains of a technical expert, and that’s exactly what our telephone support offers. Friendly support, guidance and advice is only a phone call away!
While our expertise is grounded in the Microsoft ecosystem, our skills and knowledge extend far beyond to cover every area of modern IT; from network infrastructure and endpoint support, to cloud migrations and cybersecurity. Our Technical Assurance Programme irons out the technical bumps and plugs knowledge gaps when they arise, so that you can enjoy trouble-free IT that helps your business progress.
While other sectors battle crippling staff and skills shortages, you can rest assured that your systems are supported by the best technical support as and when you need it.
Technical resources, on-tap
If you have identified gaps in your skill set, require absence cover, or have projects or requirements that require specialist skills for a short-window, our Technical Assurance Programme is here to help. We invite you to get in touch with our team today to develop a plan tailored to your needs.