Aviation ground services across Australia and New Zealand: shift-based, high-turnover work where leaders were promoted for operating, not for managing performance. Inconsistent handling drove cost, culture issues, and unfair dismissal risk.
Situation
The network keeps airports moving (baggage, cargo, ramp, passenger services) with tight margins and high tempo. Leaders were often strong operators who had never been given a shared model for performance conversations or discipline.
Complication
Some leaders avoided hard conversations; others jumped to formal discipline without coaching or process. Ports varied from too soft to too harsh; conduct versus capability was unclear; investigations and letters lacked consistency. The business paid in claims, trust, and time.
Intervention
PoweredBy interviewed leaders across the network before designing a one-day, scenario-based workshop covering coaching through to dismissal, grounded in ramp and terminal reality. We introduced a Just Culture decision tree (slip, mistake, violation, deliberate act) with proportional response, plus investigation tip sheets, discipline templates, PIPs, and plain-language handouts. Forty-five face-to-face sessions covered every port and over 700 leaders.
Outcome
40% reduction in unfair dismissal claims within a year
“For the first time, our leaders had a model they could trust. They stopped guessing and started managing. And the people being managed could feel the difference: it was fair, it was consistent, and it was clear.”
What stuck
Just Culture and the toolkit remain standard operating material. Seven hundred leaders share one approach to performance and discipline, which is consistency that outlasted the engagement.