American Airlines

American Airlines Outline a total compensation strategy, including incentives and benefits, that you would recommend the company use to improve motivation and employee retention for this job position. The job of airline customer service agent is one of tremendous challenge. Where, representatives are expected to sell tickets, check baggage, make reservations for customers, provide information to passengers and have the ability to navigate the various programs in the airlines ticketing system. On average, the total compensation from the industry is $31, 070 a year or $14.94 per hour.

("Summary Report," 2010) For Oceana Air to be able to attract and retain the best customer service agents for the new hubs, requires: a compensation package that goes above and beyond what traditional airlines will offer. Comparing the benefits offered by American Airlines, provides the greatest insights as to how to structure competitive packages.

Where, they provide total health care coverage for their employees / families, a 401K with matching benefits, profit sharing, financial resources to aid employees / families, educational assistance and the ability to travel anywhere the airline travels for free (in most cases employees as well as their families can receive discounts for travel on other carriers). ("Employee Benefits," n.d.) in the case of Oceana, they can offer the traditional benefits of American and other airlines with their own unique benefits.

In this particular case, they can offer the same health, 401K / profit sharing, financial resources, educational assistance and travel resources. However, this can be taken one step further, where Oceana could offer employees access to various health clubs as a part of the incentive plan. They could have special events for employees in the various locations such as: discounts on concerts, sporting events and movie tickets.

The company could then go above and beyond what the traditional carriers are offering by: providing the best employees with additional compensation in the form of housing allowance. This is where; the best employees could receive an additional $500 per month to help support their families. Another important fact that can not be overlooked is: the average hourly wage that the industry is currently paying for customer service representatives.

Since the industry average is $14.94 per hour, means that in the cities where they will be expanding to, Oceana will need to pay above this average. The reason why is: the airline industry has been facing severe financial pressures as well. This means that many highly skilled customer service representatives could be facing financial challenges. When you offer a higher salary many agents who have experience will consider switching to Oceana. Then, the additional benefits will ensure that they stay with airline.

Using such an approach will have a significant impact on motivation and employee retention, especially when you consider the fact of the overall complexity as well as hours involved. A Draft Training Program that Oceana could use to Develop Employees in this Job Position To effectively determine the overall training needs requires that a system of evaluation must take place. This is where the company could have possible candidates go through a pre-hire test that will determine their levels of knowledge.

At which point, the employees can then be divided into different levels of training ranging from experienced to inexperienced. Where, those that are the most experienced will receive on the job / in house training to prepare them for the position. While those employees who require more extensive amounts of training could be sent to the company training facilities, to be introduced to the various company policies / procedures and technology.

The objectives for this position are: to ensure that all customer service representatives can be able to work independently, with little to no supervision. The techniques that the company should consider using, is augmenting the existing training that new employees have received with company specific training. Where, an evaluation will help management identify how many experienced customer services agents can be ready to go, with minor amounts of training. Those who require more in depth training would go through the more formalized training that company has.

This would involve: a 9 to 12-month training program, including an apprenticeship with experienced customer service representatives. The training should be flexible, with random follow ups occurring every three to six months. ("Summary Report," 2010)This is where management will pose as passengers and will test the customer service representative, under a variety of situations. In general, the training program should be evaluated every single year.

The reason why such a time table was selected was: to ensure that Oceana is continuing to keep up with changes that are occurring in the industry. This.