FROM THE EDITOR
FEEDBACK
A recent note from one of our readers got me thinking about the topic of feedback. Reader Louis Anderson from Toronto, Canada sent us an email questioning why DOMs and other maintenance managers don’t take advantage of feedback from instructors when hiring students from maintenance training programs (see Readers Speak on page 51). That’s a good question Louis! Think of all the ways we use feedback
to make decisions in our personal and professional lives. We rely on feedback from our customers to determine how our products or services are stacking up. We take in marketing messages and ask for feedback from our coworkers and peers when choosing a new product or service provider. Feedback plays an important role in our
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
JOE ESCOBAR
jescobar@DOMmagazine.com 920.747.0195
home. Although our signifi cant other’s verbal message may say, “I’m fi ne,” their crossed arms and red face tell us something totally diff erent. If we respond appropriately to that non-verbal feedback we can likely come to the root cause of the problem. Look at all of the technology that has been developed to provide us with feedback. Not so long ago, if we wanted to buy a new tool we would talk to the sales person to get his or her opinion before we made the purchase. Now we can look at our computer, smartphone or tablet and read customer reviews in order to make our purchasing decision. Want to try a new restaurant? We can open up an app such as Yelp and search nearby restaurants and look at feedback from prior customers. I think you’ve got the point. So why are many maintenance managers
not reaching out to the schools for feedback on their potential new hires? And why aren’t more maintenance managers developing closer relationships with their local schools in order to help students understand what it takes to be successful in an aviation maintenance career? I have seen this lack of contact with schools fi rst-hand. Over a quarter of a century ago (doesn’t it make me
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DOMmagazine.com | may 2016
seem OLD when I say it like that?), our maintenance manager hired a new mechanic right out of A&P school for our shop. Let’s call the new hire John Doe. John was was a good guy, and had a positive attitude. He was a classic car collector and had done several restorations himself. He interviewed well, and our manager felt he would be a good fi t for the job. John was hired, and joined the scheduled maintenance crew I was working on at the time. Unfortunately, several problems came
up over the next several weeks. Our crew leader wanted to instill the importance of always referring to the maintenance manual before beginning any maintenance task. John didn’t want to do that. He would tell her, “Just tell me what to do.” We also realized that he didn’t want to sign off his work. He would say, “My handwriting is bad. Could you just fi ll it out and I will sign my name?” Another problem was that he didn’t know how to safety wire. Yes, safety wiring is simple enough to learn, but wouldn’t you think that after spending tens of thousands of dollars for A&P school, you would expect to be taught how to safety wire?
So what happened? John got fi red after
a short time. Did our manager go to the school and ask, “Why would someone coming out of your school not know how to read or write or even how to safety wire?” No he didn’t. Did he contact the school or its instructors before making future hires? Not that I know of. So the fact that someone could graduate from a Part 147 school without a grasp of the English language and without basic aircraft mechanic skills was the schools fault. In a way, it was also our fault as an employer because we didn’t provide feedback on John’s performance. And it will continue to be our fault as an industry if we don’t build closer relationships with the schools that are training the mechanics and maintenance managers of the future. Thanks for reading, and we appreciate your feedback! – Joe
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