Air Canada 2014 Annual Report Download - page 18

18 2014 Annual Report
the airline’s 21st Maple Leaf Lounge and one of three
lounges in Europe, along with departure lounges at
Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt. In the United
States, Air Canada operates Maple Leaf Lounges at
Los Angeles International Airport and at New York
LaGuardia. In Canada, Air Canada has 15 Maple Leaf
Lounges at airports across the country.
In 2015, Air Canada plans on enhancing its airport
offerings to ensure it remains competitive with
the world’s leading carriers. The airline intends on
upgrading its airport facilities to create more exclusive
check-in areas for Air Canada Altitude members and
Business Class customers, in addition to refining its
product offerings in its Maple Leaf Lounges. To further
improve the customer experience for its Altitude
Super Elite 100K members and customers travelling in
International Business Class, the airline will be opening
additional concierge offices at Toronto Pearson,
Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
and Vancouver International Airport. Air Canada has
also introduced airside car service for select premium
customers at Toronto Pearson.
CULTURE CHANGE
A healthy and dynamic corporate culture bestows
a competitive advantage that can have a significant
impact on Air Canada’s long-term performance.
A cornerstone of Air Canada’s business strategy
is the transformation of its corporate culture to
one that embraces leadership, accountability
and entrepreneurship. Air Canada continues
to foster positive culture change by promoting
entrepreneurship, engagement, empowerment and
earnings for performance. Air Canada seeks to create
a sense of purpose, shared values and common goals
among employees, and regularly communicates
through multiple channels the rationale behind its
strategic initiatives and the importance of adapting
to changing market conditions. This is reinforced
by continual and consistent invocation of the four
corporate priorities at every opportunity since their
adoption in 2009.
Employee surveys conducted in 2010 and 2014
demonstrated a significant improvement in employee
engagement over that period. Most notably, the
results suggested that most employees are familiar
with Air Canada’s key priorities and believe that
the airline is on the right track towards stability.
Generally, employees observed signs of increased and
improved culture change occurring in the workplace
and revealed their pride in working for Air Canada.
Furthermore, the results indicated employees shared a
heightened sense of community and teamwork.
The cross-functional approach of the airline’s
operational excellence team is also driving employee
engagement while increasing customer satisfaction
levels. Air Canada has initiatives in place to ensure
that all employees understand how the airline and its
employees work together to deliver on the customer
promise. These include a new employee on-boarding
experience and integrated management practices, as
well as programs intended to nurture Air Canada’s
leadership behaviours and values.
Air Canada believes that employees are more likely to
embrace culture change if they take an active part in
the transformation. As such, Air Canada continues to
encourage employee feedback and ideas as employees
are often in a good position to identify improvements
and changes for success. In 2014, Air Canada’s HR and
Operations Excellence teams partnered to conduct
frontline focus groups across the system in order to
gather meaningful feedback on numerous customer
service improvements.
The airline is equally focused on ensuring that
employees have the tools and training required to
provide top customer care. Air Canada’s customized
and adapted language training for frontline employees
ensures that customers receive service in their
language of choice. In addition, Air Canada also offers
specific programs geared towards different employee
groups to encourage professional development and
growth. Internal networking opportunities and cross-
branch projects allow Air Canada to remind employees
of its priorities.
Air Canada regularly celebrates its employees and
their achievements and will continue to host such
employee recognition events going forward. A number
of employee events in 2014 were aimed to foster a
sense of pride and community, including a “World
Skytrax Day”, where employees around the world
celebrated being named by Skytrax as “Best Airline in
North America” for the fifth consecutive year, Boeing
787 events held in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and
Calgary, and Family Days in those same cities.
In October 2014, Air Canada concluded a 10-year
collective agreement with ACPA, which the airline
considers a tangible indication of the positive shift in
culture that is taking shape.
Another indicator of culture change is Air Canada’s
selection in 2015, for the second consecutive year,
as one of “Canada’s Top 100 Employers”, in an
annual survey by Mediacorp Canada. The national
competition evaluates and identifies the country’s
leading companies and organizations for attracting
and retaining employees after a detailed review of
their operations and human resources practices,
including a comparison to others in their industry
and region. It focuses on eight key areas: physical
workplace; work and social atmosphere; health,
financial and family benefits; vacation and time