“Survey says”
Most new hires think their training is top drawer

[Published in the February 1999 edition of Reporting Point, the monthly newsletter of the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association.]

By David Stewart
Most new hires expressed satisfaction with every aspect of SWA flight training in a study conducted for SWAPA by O'Neil Associates, Inc., of Tempe, AZ.
On 75 percent of the questions, pilots returned a mean satisfaction rating of better than 4.0 (4.0 is the point value given by those answering “satisfied”). Only three questions returned a mean rating of less than 3.5.
“I’m very pleased with the results,” said Milt Painter, director of flight standards and training.
“Throughout the last four or five years, we’ve tailored training from an operational aspect. The results of that survey were quite pleasing because I think we’re accomplishing what we set out to four or five years ago.”
The study, which was conducted over the summer months, covered four general areas: instruction, training components, orientation, and post-training experience. Instruction received the highest mean satisfaction rating (4.38) while orientation received the lowest (4.12).
Responses were collected from self-administered survey questionnaires that were completed by 109 SWA pilots who recently completed their initial training at the SWA Flight Operations Training Center.
On each question, pilots were asked to rate their level of satisfaction on a five-point scale, ranging from very satisfied (5) to very dissatisfied (1). Three points were given to those who concluded they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
The only legitimate problem area brought to light by the study was training on the 737-700. One pilot in three expressed dissatisfaction with the 737-700 training. Still, over half the pilots surveyed were satisfied with the 737-700 training.
“Since the survey, we’ve changed our -700 training. Now we’re putting the pilots in a -700 simulator,” Painter said.
“Now they’re flying L.O.F.T. (Line Oriented Flight Training). It’s a new kind of training. I think their attitudes would have been different had they received L.O.F.T. training,” Painter insisted.
Painter believes there is more he can learn from the survey results.
“I haven’t pinpointed all the changes we might make yet. We’re going to a check-pilots symposium in February. We’ll discuss possible changes with them before we make any final decisions,” he noted.
The survey also indicated that new hires had some reservations about parts of the SWAPA orientation.
The new hires on average rated the information on the 401(k) plan, contract, elected representatives, SWAPA dues and Pilot Mutual Aid, as slightly below the 4.0 or “satisfied” level.
“We don’t do much training on the 401(k) and these other subjects because it will be 12 months before they can participate in the association,” explained John Kramer, president of SWAPA. “They are so busy learning and training that we try not to overload them with things that won’t affect them for some time to come.”
“We also recognize that we can do better and that effort has already begun. It used to be that we just went over and visited with new hires.
“Now we have put together a professional-looking presentation to explain key aspects of the association. Then we bus them over to the headquarters and sit down to visit with them informally.”
“We will study the survey results with the idea of fine-tuning this already improved presentation,” Kramer added.
The survey asked the new hires to compare their training at SWA with training they had received elsewhere.
Forty-six percent said that their SWA training was better than other training they had received (including 17 percent who rated it “much better”). Thirty-three percent rated it “about the same,” and 17 percent rated it “worse” (including 3 percent who rated it “much worse”). Four percent had had no other training.
The survey of 109 pilots generated results with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 9.4 percent or less.
“I do feel like this was valid survey,” Painter said. “The questions that were asked allowed the pilots a chance to hit every aspect of their training and being a new pilot at SWA.”
“I didn’t see it before it was sent out,” he added.
It is important to note the results do not reflect the feelings of all SWA pilots, but just new hires.
“Training new hires is much different than what we do with the experienced pilots. The whole attitude there is toward the operations,” Painter pointed out.
“We hope to survey pilots going through the upgrade (FO to Capt.) at some point in the future,” Kramer said.
The survey results are available at each domicile for pilots to review for themselves.
Overall, Painter himself was quite satisfied. “I was most pleased that the pilots felt they were prepared to go on the line and be productive quickly,” Painter said. “I think that was evident in the survey. We can improve but our goals are being reached.”