Houston Airport System: Turning Career Pathing into a Strategic Advantage

Employee retention is one of the biggest challenges facing airports today. Front-line roles such as custodians and landside agents see turnover rates soar (in the public sector, annual turnover can reach 20 percent1) yet traditional training and promotion processes often remain reactive and fragmented.

We sat down with Fernando Reis, Workforce Innovation & Development at Houston Airport System, to learn how they turned career pathing into a strategic advantage using Klayo.

The Challenge: From High Turnover to Talent Pipelines

“Staff lacked visibility into the competencies and training needed for the next role. We knew we needed a proactive, data-driven approach to keep talent engaged and ready for new opportunities.” Fernando Reis, Workforce Innovation & Development at Houston Airport System

HAS faced two key obstacles:

1. Unclear promotion requirements: employees didn’t know exactly what qualifications or skills they needed.
2. Fragmented processes: job descriptions, training records and resource links lived in multiple systems and spreadsheets.

Without a single source of truth, career conversations happened ad hoc, and employees often waited until a vacancy appeared but by then it was too late to prepare.

A Strategic Advantage: Klayo’s Career Pathing in Action

Here’s how HAS built it inside the platform they trusted:

1. Define clear ladders and lateral moves
   HAS modeled "up-the-ladder" paths (e.g., Custodian → Custodian Leader → Operations Supervisor - Custodial) and "lateral" moves (Landside Agent → Airport Services Representative I). Each step lists required competencies and minimum qualifications.
2. Real-time job matching
   Employees complete a profile of their current competencies on Klayo, and the system shows how close they are to any target role. So, a Custodian might see they’re 20 percent qualified today for a Landside Agent, and learn exactly which skills to develop next.
3. Embedded learning resources
   Through HAS’s intranet, the career pathing project page will link directly to Klayo and to external partners, like Lone Star College for degree and certification classes, so employees can enroll in courses and update their profiles.
4. Ongoing engagement
   HAS pairs the rollout of the project with weekly workshop sessions which will than transform into monthly sessions for new hires.

Key Benefits: Closing Gaps Before They Become Risks

By making career planning transparent and data driven, HAS is hoping to achieve:

• Reduced turnover: employees trust there is a path forward, so they stay longer.
• Faster promotions: internal candidates arrive qualified when vacancies open, cutting recruitment lead times.
• Better-informed workforce planning: operations leaders spot skill deficits before they become staffing gaps.

1 Source: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University