Nayak Aircraft Services – the Bitsing method in the labor market

• Staff recruitment at its best

• Improving employee performance

Bitseteers are sometimes surprised by their own ideas. This happened to Patrick Morcus of Nayak Aircraft Services. The Bitsing method, used for customer acquisition, became a powerful tool for recruiting staff and improving the organization's performance. What wasn't possible through conventional methods, the Bitsing method did. In eight months, Nayak recruited 124 new employees in a market where they were hard to find.

"Without Nayak, nothing gets off the ground," the presentation boards proclaimed. Patrick Morcus, managing director of Nayak Aircraft Services, showed them to me and said, "Look, I'm honestly not very enthusiastic about this, and I don't know if this will work. Can you also recruit staff using the Bitsing method?"

"If you can attract customers with it, why not employees? Recruiting staff is no different than selling your company to potential employees," I replied. A smile spread across Patrick's face. "Then we need to do that soon!"

Nayak Aircraft Services is an aircraft maintenance company at Schiphol Airport, serving over 60 airlines and operating maintenance stations at 27 European airports. Nayak is the ANWB's roadside assistance service in aviation, as I always say. It ensures that if an aircraft malfunctions, it's repaired immediately so it can safely continue on to its destination. Nayak has been an avid user of the Bitsing method from the very beginning. For many years, it has been using the method to achieve its commercial objectives. Nayak was the first to establish a dedicated department. Instead of a marketing department, it has a Bitsing department, which monitors whether all facets of the methods are implemented correctly. Nayak's success is due to the unparalleled drive and passion of its people. It has acquired a significant position in the international aviation industry. At Schiphol alone, it is responsible for the technical handling of a third of all flights that take off and land. A feat that has not gone unnoticed.

One evening, I received a text message from Patrick: "I'm on stage at the FD Gala. We won the FD Gazellen Award for our 500% growth in recent years and consistent staff quality. Thanks in part to you. Thank you!"

Nayak's growth was unstoppable. At the end of 2007, Nayak signed a major contract with KLM Cityhopper to provide maintenance for all regional aircraft, effective April 1, 2008, for a limited number of aircraft and October 31, 2008, for the entire fleet. To fulfill this contract, a total of 104 aviation technicians had to be recruited, 48 of whom were hired by April 1, 2008. This was no easy task, as these personnel were unavailable (the world's greatest shortage). April 1 was just four months away, and Nayak was under contract.

Everything was pulled out of the stops to recruit people. Recruitment agencies, temporary employment agencies, and even a renowned labor market communications consultancy. Despite all efforts, it didn't work. Patrick was at a loss for what to do. Until that moment, when he asked me: "Can you also recruit staff using the Bitsing method?"

For the first time in the history of the Bitsing method, it was able to prove that it is also effective for any other purpose, including the recruitment of high-quality, specialized personnel.

All seven steps of the Bitsing method were carried out in exactly the same way as commercial goals were approached:

Step 1. A sustainable revenue target was set for employee recruitment.
Step 2. Achieving the target was ensured by focusing on hard (financial) facts.
Step 3. Nayak was made unbeatable, but now with an uncopyable advantage as an employer.
Step 4. An action plan was developed that would help every potential employee climb the six steps of the BITSER ladder.
Step 5. The plan was executed with programs designed according to BITSER techniques.
Step 6. The programs were rolled out based on a performance forecast.
Step 7. Return on investment was guaranteed with a spending plan that invested less money in the programs than they would generate.

Results:
The required 48 employees were recruited well before the April 1st deadline, and on July 15th, I received an email from Patrick: "Stop the presses, we've more than reached our target number!" Within seven months, Nayak had filled all the targeted vacancies, even adding a reserve team of 20 employees. A total of 124 employees were hired instead of the targeted 104. More than three months before the start of the mega-order from KLM, Nayak had its ducks in a row.
A total of 517 interviews were conducted, of which 124 employees were hired: a 24% conversion rate.

The final recruitment costs were extremely low: only a third of the predetermined budget proved sufficient to achieve the objective, a budget based on market-based costs for traditional recruitment methods.

The campaign revolved primarily around Nayak's uncopyable proposition as an employer in the labor market. By focusing on hard financial facts, Nayak discovered that its target group consisted of a mix of different functions, all of which were jointly responsible for generating revenue. It wasn't just technicians that generated revenue; skilled professionals in operational, support, and administrative roles also needed to be recruited to ensure revenue. The number of staff needed for each group could be calculated to meet the service demand. Nayak clearly knew how many people were needed for each target group.

Achieving the objective was commercially translated into a 45% focus on creating brand preference, a 30% focus on stimulating purchasing behavior, meaning the employment relationship, and a 25% focus on ensuring new employees stayed with Nayak, fostering loyalty.
Only 30% of the program activities focused on purchasing behavior, or rather, on the job itself, which played a minor role in recruitment efforts.

Nayak traced emotional propositions to profile the brand, rational ones to choose the job and relational propositions to improve employee performance.

In its positioning, Nayak had to claim an uncopyable employer proposition that other brands simply couldn't claim because they simply weren't allowed to. Nayak had to find this uncopyable proposition within its internal organization, since that's where the work takes place. It turned out that Nayak has an internal culture of "out together, home together." This translated into the proposition: "We never let you down. Do you prefer to work solo or together?" Who wouldn't want to work for a company where everyone stands up for each other?

This was reflected in the implementation, with actual Nayak staff members instead of professional models. A performance forecast quantified how many people needed to be persuaded per program, per target group. The six well-known BITSER program types were used to approach the target groups, each tailored to one of the six BITSER levels.

The brand awareness-building program included billboards around Schiphol Airport, public transportation for broader regional reach, Nayak's own vehicles at the airport, and free publicity in aviation-related publications.

The Imago program was fleshed out with interviews in trade magazines, a "making-of film" (about the role models Nayak employees played in the campaigns) posted on YouTube, a dedicated job market website (explaining Nayak's philosophy), and an event celebrating the presentation of an award (the Dutch Aircraft Maintenance & Repair Award, which put not only Nayak but the entire aviation technology sector in the spotlight).

Interviews were stimulated through a campaign website, www.werkenbijnayak.nl (with vacancies and a personality test to assess whether the candidates had the right character), a promotion on Schiphol's apron and in various parking lots (the Nayak Snack car, which offered technical staff a drink or snack on behalf of Nayak, as well as vacancy leaflets), a photo contest (where an Airbus A380 scale model could be won), and online banners (on sites frequented by the target groups, such as luchtvaartnieuws.nl and various blogs).

Obtaining the employment contracts took place through small group events, personal interviews, a presentation (about Nayak), and case studies (from employees who had just started and shared their experiences on the werkenbijnayak.nl website).

The Satisfaction Program, as the name suggests, was intended to make employees happy. This was achieved, among other things, by means of a Nayakclub.nl (a community where employees can find everything about the Nayak organization, such as birthdays, new colleagues, births, etc.), a suggestion box, various topics such as the "pluim" (give your colleague a compliment and explain why), pools (football and Formula 1), and savings points (for fun gadgets).

Finally, existing employees have been asked to also look for new colleagues, and to earn extra points at Nayakclub.nl (if a new colleague is recruited, rewards can be exchanged for them, such as a helicopter flight, a skid course, or an evening of karting with four friends).

Patrick Morcus says:
"We've been using the Bitsing strategy for many years. What I found exceptional was that it helped us find exceptionally hard-to-find staff, that the quality of the work was excellent, and that almost everyone is still with us. Making quick gains isn't that difficult, but scoring with new employees who stay for so long is a real achievement. With Bitsing, everything is rock solid, the foundation is solid, the messages are good, it was very clear what we needed to do, and the people we hired then are still with us.

The picture we painted matched reality; bitsing doesn't sugarcoat things, and that's partly why the loyalty among new employees has remained. I initially viewed the investment in the programs as short-term, and I assessed it as such. However, I've actually concluded that the bitsing approach has created a degree of loyalty from which I'm still reaping the benefits five years later. You reap the benefits long-term. I hadn't seen it that way before, and I see it differently now. If you think it's about achieving short-term goals, then I consider the investment I'm making in the Bitsing programs to be long-term. You'll also reap the benefits later, provided you handle it correctly.

The uncopyable theme "here we are" is timeless. You can't get rid of it; we still use it. That's because with biting, you're searching for your own "self," your DNA, and that doesn't change.

Everything we did was built on the Bitser model: the programs, the website werkenbijnayak.nl, absolutely everything. The employee loyalty program, too, is still running after all these years and remains a success. It's running like a dream. I think it's the most comprehensive program ever, from start to finish. Even on weekends at home, the staff is busy with the program. Truly fantastic. The program gives employees a kind of loyalty points. They can use them to buy Nayak goodies. There's a huge demand for those items. Imagine that—brand preference par excellence. That's quite a unique presentation for a tech company, which isn't exactly sexy.

With the Bitsing model, salespeople become less and less important. They no longer need to sell, because the sale has already been made. The Bitser programs do that for you. My salespeople are now order takers. When they have an appointment, there's no longer a debate about whether to place an order or not; they simply place the order. So, Bitsing isn't a sales model, but a goals-based model. It's a "manager" who brings clarity to the elusive process of managing, monitoring, and directing employees. It makes internal processes transparent and controllable.

What have I learned from biting in practice? Translating your dreams into goals and realizing that you can achieve them through the method, as long as you stick with it. Trust the model and don't deviate from it too quickly. Things always happen in a business that make you doubt yourself. Its shelf life is longer than the vagaries of the market.