Part 4 of our series with VHR Technical Recruiter Matthew Jasper - recorded ahead of MRO Americas 2026, Orlando, 21–23 April.
Read the series: Part 1 - Capacity Gaps | Part 2 - Behavioural Attributes | Part 3 - Role Design and Career Progression [JG1]
About VHR
VHR is a global technical recruitment specialist with deep roots in aviation, aerospace and defence. Operating across North America, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, VHR partners with airlines, MROs and OEMs to source, place and develop high-quality technical talent at every level, from certified A&P mechanics and AME technicians to senior operations and quality leadership. In a sector where a staffing gap is never just an HR problem, it's a compliance risk, a revenue event, and in some cases a safety concern, VHR's value lies not just in finding candidates, but in understanding the regulatory environments, endorsement landscapes and workforce dynamics that shape every hire.
Meet the Contributors
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Jerome Gray is a Growth Marketing Specialist at VHR, focused on the aviation and defence sectors across North America and the Middle East. |
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Matthew Jasper is a Technical Recruiter at VHR specialising in aviation across the UK and North America. With a background that spans internal HR, hands-on recruitment and deep industry network-building, Matthew brings a perspective that goes well beyond the CV, which, as this blog makes clear, is precisely the point. |
The Question – "Where do clients often underestimate the importance of onboarding investment?"
Most organisations in aviation maintenance understand that hiring is competitive. Far fewer recognise that the work doesn't end when a technician accepts an offer. According to the Brandon Hall Group, a strong onboarding process improves new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. Yet one in three new hires leaves within the first 90 days when the experience falls short. In a market where every qualified technician is already in demand elsewhere, that gap is one no operator can afford to ignore.
Matthew's answer on onboarding is direct: it's the single most undervalued investment in the entire hiring cycle, and the mistakes he sees are almost always the same ones.
Matthew's Answer
"Clients often underestimate how critical onboarding is. In aviation maintenance, especially, onboarding isn't just about giving someone their first job. It's the moment where safety culture, expectations and long-term retention are shaped."
The Assumption That a Strong Hire Will Figure It Out
The first and most common mistake Matthew sees is the assumption that an experienced technician needs minimal onboarding. The logic seems reasonable: if someone has 15 years on 737s, what is there to show them?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
"Even highly experienced engineers still need time to adapt to new documentation systems, internal SOPs, tooling differences, local safety culture, and team communication habits. A lot of companies assume a new hire becomes productive instantly, but that's very rarely the case."
The danger with experienced hires is, in fact, greater than with juniors. A technician who has spent five years at a previous employer has deeply embedded habits, documentation styles, escalation patterns, and communication norms that reflect their last employer's culture, not yours. Without structured onboarding to reset those habits early, misalignments surface months later, by which point they are significantly harder to address. The best time to shape how someone works in your environment is day one. Leaving it to chance is not a neutral decision; it's an active risk.
"Without proper onboarding, the first 90 days are spent guessing instead of performing."
Onboarding Is Employer Branding - And the Probation Goes Both Ways
Matthew draws a clear line between the effort organisations put into recruitment and the effort they put into what comes immediately after.
"I see more and more companies that understand how important the recruitment process is in a competitive market, showing their values, putting their best foot forward. But where I see a lot of companies go wrong is they think once they've got someone, that's where it ends."
It isn't. Onboarding is the first real experience a new hire has of the organisation as an employer. Everything that was promised during recruitment, culture, support, and professionalism is either confirmed or contradicted in those first weeks. In a competitive talent market, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a positive onboarding experience. The inverse is equally true.
Matthew's framing of the probation period is worth holding onto: it runs in both directions. The company is assessing the new hire, but the new hire is equally assessing the company. And in aviation maintenance, where experienced technicians have options, a poor first impression is not easily recovered from.
Small Things That Signal Professionalism
One of Matthew's most practical points concerns the operational basics of day one, and how often they are underestimated.
"At a previous company, I implemented welcome packs, personalised, company-branded items. It sounds very small, but it immediately makes someone feel valued and included and part of the team."
The principle extends beyond welcome packs. Equipment is ready on day one. Workstation set up. System access provisioned. Uniform or PPE issued in advance. Badge ready at the gate. These are not complex logistics, but their absence is immediately visible, and what it communicates is that the organisation was not prepared for this person to arrive. In a safety-critical environment where first impressions of culture and professionalism carry real weight, that signal is damaging.
A strong day-one experience for aviation maintenance technicians should include:
- Welcome pack with company-branded materials that establish identity and belonging from the outset
- Equipment, PPE and uniform issued at induction, not promised for later in the week
- System access and workstation configured in advance, so the first day is spent working, not waiting
- ID and site access prepared, removing friction before it creates a negative first impression
- A named buddy or mentor assigned before arrival, providing a human point of contact beyond the formal induction
What a Strong Onboarding Plan Actually Looks Like
Beyond day one, Matthew outlines what a properly structured onboarding programme should contain, and the threshold he sets is a genuine 30 to 90 day plan, not a one-week orientation.
"It should include clear objectives, introductions to key stakeholders, training on internal processes, compliance and safety modules, and guided learning of documentation and reporting systems. It's going back to the roadmap; it's very important to have that structure instead of leaving someone to figure things out."
Critically, onboarding in aviation maintenance cannot be limited to task induction. Cultural onboarding, communication standards, how the team escalates safety concerns, documentation expectations, and shift handover protocols are as important as the technical briefing. These are the behaviours that define airworthiness culture, and they cannot be absorbed by osmosis.
Matthew also flags something organisations rarely consider: onboarding is the opening step in talent management, not a separate process. The first 90 days are when future leaders begin to reveal themselves, when strong behaviours surface, and when development pathways should first be introduced. As explored in Part 3 of this series, connecting new hires to a capability framework and progression roadmap from day one dramatically increases long-term engagement, and that connection starts at onboarding.
"Recruitment is very much a numbers game. My approach has always been to control the variables you can control to maximise the chance of a hire working out. Onboarding is one of those controllables, and it has one of the largest impacts on whether a hire works or not."
Talk to Our Specialist Team
VHR supports clients not just through the recruitment process, but through the full arc of bringing a technician into your organisation, from sourcing and compliance through to onboarding support and long-term workforce planning.
Coming up in Part 5: Matthew turns to what value a recruitment partner should add beyond simply sending CVs
