Who’s Your Bob?
By now you’ve likely read Joe’s editor’s column “What Would Your “Lucy” Say?” In it, he tells the story of how every employee can make an impact our business – for better or worse.
Before this year’s NBAA Maintenance Management Conference in Portland, OR was over, Joe was sharing his editorial idea with Bob Jones at ATP. A few minutes later, Bob returned to our booth and gave us an idea for a complimentary publisher’s note – Who’s Your Bob?
Bob Jones runs his own website called AskBob.aero. AskBob.aero is a community of experts. The site is hosted by ATP, and contains links to aviation maintenance articles and resources.
Bob Jones suggested that just about every maintenance organization has an expert – a “Bob” if you will. This Bob has spent years working in aircraft maintenance. Bob is a wealth of information. Everyone goes to Bob when they run into a problem on an aircraft system that they can’t solve themselves.
You may have seen a lot of Bobs sitting in IA training seminars. You know them – they are the grey-haired or balding mechanics who wish they were turning wrenches on aircraft instead of sitting on their hind ends for a full day of recurrent training.
Here’s a thought – are our Bobs becoming an endangered species?
Many airlines used to do their own heavy checks in-house. But now the norm is to outsource that work to third-party repair stations in order to save money. Could this be leading to a decrease in experience down the road because none of the heavy maintenance is being done in-house? Could the retirement of aging Bobs create a knowledge vacuum?
This isn’t an issue for the airlines alone. Many of our general aviation Bobs are nearing retirement age. Need proof? Just look around the room at an IA seminar!
What happens if Bob leaves? Does Bob’s knowledge and expertise leave as well?
Then there are those instances where Bob is promoted. He was the best mechanic on the floor, and the company feels he deserves to be the next director of maintenance. Unfortunately, there is no longer a Bob on the hangar floor. The new DOM is no longer Bob. He is struggling because the Bob who was the former DOM left with all of his knowledge and expertise on how to be a good leader and manager. And so the vicious circle continues.
Here are a few thoughts on how we can overcome the “Bob leaving with all his knowledge” problem:
Share your knowledge. If you are the “Bob” in your hangar, share your knowledge with the other mechanics. After all, it will be hard to enjoy your vacation if you are fielding calls every ten minutes from fellow employees asking how to fix something.
Soak up other’s knowledge. We must never stop learning. Jeffrey Buzzell, a mechanic with 40 years experience, stresses the importance of learning in his interview for this month’s cover story. As he says, learning doesn’t just come from books – it comes from observing and listening to others.
Don’t retire. The easiest solution is not to let anyone in the company retire. All right – that’s not a reasonable solution. But employee turnover is just as drastic as someone retiring. If your Bobs are constantly jumping ship, your company will spend a lot of time and money continually training new employees. Do you think the cost of paying someone a little more money and fostering a positive work culture is expensive? The cost of turnover is much more costly!
Does your company have any steps in place to help solve the knowledge drain problem if your Bob leaves? We’d like to hear from you!
Thanks for reading!
Greg Napert, Proud to be an A&P!