INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

PARTICIPANT 1: MUHAMMAD AIMAN SHAH BIN AMIR SHAH – Operation Manager

Interviewer: Can you briefly explain about your company and what type of business form do you
do?

Participant: As you already knew, the company name is called as the Cloudera Aviation Services
Sdn Bhd. However, in earlier days the company was well known as Cloudera Sdn Bhd only. The
change of name occurred back in year 2016 once our company got registered by the Department
of Civil Aviation Malaysia which now known as the Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia. The
change of name was mainly due to the change in our services where started to provide ground
handling and technical services to the private jet aircrafts. So now we are fully focused on ground
handling services which can be divided into several categories as ground administration &
supervision, passenger handling, freight & mail handling, aircraft services, aircraft maintenance,
flight operations & crew administrations, surface transport, catering services, baggage handling,
RAMP handling, fuel and oil handling and etc. Currently our hangar base is at Subang Airport and
our headquarters is at Oasis Corporate Park, Damansara. Our company’s key management is
considering to be very small since we are still can be categorized as a new comer to this aviation
business and that’s why the number of employees in our company is very limited. You can refer
to our website to get in more details of the organization structure, certificates achieved and so on.

Interviewer: What is the major challenge or issue that is currently being faced by your company?

Participant: As I have mentioned earlier, our company consist of limited number of employees.
In addition to that currently due to this on-going pandemic issue we are in the midst of carrying
out our general activities with existing employees as we have paused our recruitment process.
However, if we look into in earlier days as called before pandemic the number of employees has
gradually decreased due to high employee turnover rate. We also have recognized that even with
our existing employees the performance levels are not much up to the management satisfaction
level. This actually affects our company’s overall performance in terms of completing the given
tasks within the turnaround time. In aviation industry, TAT is very crucial and must be
emphasized. As from my point of view, seeing from the position as operation manager our
company employees is not giving their 100% of effort into the work. This can be considering as
the major challenge or issue that we are facing currently within the company.

Interviewer: What are the factors that contribute to the lower level of performance among
employees and high turnover rate?

Participant: The lower level of employees actually can be lead due to some specific reasons. Me
as the operation manager of the company once a week I will be conducting weekly performance
reporting activity. I have tried to communicate with them to take into count and understand the
reasons for the less effort given. Several employees have given put their opinions as due to the
compensation issue. Since our organization is very small we did not practice the non financial
rewards towards the employees. However, we do practice financial rewards. A few of the
employees are actually ok with these practices but still some are not satisfied. I have even
communicated with the ex staff members of the company to get to know the reason for them
leaving the company. The common feedbacks that I have received thus far are that other
companies are offering much better compensations. In our company staffs from the operation side
are working in rotation shift basis to carry out the maintenance of aircrafts and also to schedule
the flight planning for the aircrafts to fly. Some staffs they also had to over work to complete their
give tasks on time. So I guess that from my point of view they think that it’s unfair for them since
we are not providing any additional compensations or rewards to encourage them.

Interviewer: May I know what is the current practice of motivation tool by your organization
towards employees?

Participants: Currently we are not practicing any kind of physical rewards due to the financial
constrains in our company. Only monetary kinds of rewards are being in place in our company in
terms of salary packages and bonuses. Other than that, we also do have arranged some training
programs such as like human factors, safety management and so on just to be in case keep our
employees up to date with the current standing operating procedure. Thus far salary, bonus and
trainings are the existing practice of motivation tool to be said in Cloudera. Sometimes we also do
have employees gathering time such like going for lunch or dinner together to improve the
relationship among employees.
Interviewer: How does the performance level of employees affect the organization’s
performance?

Participants: Normally we get to identify the performance level of employees based on the key
performance which we cater from the appraisal. This will be normally being conducted by human
resource team of the company. It will occur at least 2 years once. TAT of the employees is the
main contributor which directly and in-directly gives impact to the company’s performance. The
longer the aircraft stays on ground the higher the expense will be. So we expect our staffs to
complete the given tasks within the stipulated time. The organization’s performance will be
categorized as well doing only if the TAT target has achieved between 80% to 90%. However,
Cloudera is still in the range of 70% of achievement level due to the lack of employees and lower
performance.

Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions on how to improve employees’ performance while
retaining them within the organization?

Participants: Based on the weekly reporting by employees I get to understand that not all
employees’ wants and needs are same. Their expectations are being different from each person in
terms of recognition for jobs well done. If we compare Cloudera with any other aviation
companies situated at Subang Airport most of them are providing compensations to employees
which is not related to money such as like offering vacation rewards, movie tickets, recognitions,
flexible working hours, job security and many more. So, most probably my suggestion would be
start implementing those kind of compensations as a reward or incentives for employees so that
they could feel more motivated to carry out the given task. I’m not going to suggest anything
specifically in terms of what type non-financial rewards that can put in place. This one is based on
the management decision since they have go through financial performance and budget as well.

Interviewer: What is your opinion about implementing non-monetary incentives practice as a

motivation tool to increase the employees’ performance?

Participant: I would say that this can be a great start for the company to retain employees’ and to
improve their performance as well. It will be like a step moving forward to get to know more
about our employees and their needs. As of a start up, the management actually maybe should not
try to implement anything extremely. It can be a slow movement to see the impacts towards
employees’ performance level.

Interviewer: Based on your opinion, what type of non-financial rewards can be implemented
among the employees to improve their performance level?

Participants: As how I like mentioned earlier, they can start up with a minimal financial
inclusive kind of incentives. However, from a rough idea I could suggest something like job
security, recognitions, physical rewards, appreciation awards, career development and so on.

Interviewer: Do you think practicing non-monetary incentive to motivate employees can

overcome the issue of low performance level?

Participant: It may have chances to overcome the issue but still it depends on how effectively the
implementation going to be towards the staffs. Just in case if within the stipulated given period
time for this intercession turns out well then I would say this should continue to be implemented.
However, anything is based on the outcomes that are going to be.