IATA needs to retain, motivate and develop employees who are high performing leaders in order to:
- Support the successful implementation of IATA's vision
- Facilitate the succession planning mechanism
- Increase the overall quality of management at all levels
- Encourage "new/fresh" approaches to speed up business processes and challenge current management and organizational assumptions
- Further extend the network of "change agents" who will support the alignment of processes and structures to IATA strategic vision
In order to fill this need, IATA has created the IATA Leadership Development Program (ILDP). In the ILDP, IATA has identified a limited number of employees having leadership potential (i.e. ideas, values, energy and edge) and eligibility for promotion to senior management positions. These individuals are being offered development opportunities as well as specific management support. These opportunities include:
- Participation as "Leaders Tomorrow" for IATA Change Leadership (ICL)
- Internal visibility including exposure to senior management meetings, special departmental project responsibilities and other significant assignments
- Leadership of IATA projects
- Priority consideration for management vacancies
- Involvement in recruitment panels and other HR projects
- Priority for external Management development courses and degree programmes
The ILDP does not give the selected employees any special status, guarantee for promotion or financial reward. The rewards are professional challenges, visibility, exposure, opportunities, management monitoring and coaching. The ILDP is an open and dynamic process; every year the lists of selected staff are reviewed and updated.