National Air Traffic Services Reviews

Pros

NATS is a forward thinking company which offers excellent remuneration and benefits for employees and a working environment which is hard to beat, doing a job which contributes to some of the safest airspace in the world.

The remuneration is excellent for most staff, especially for air traffic controllers but is also very competitive for engineers, scientists (my role), administrators, managers and other types of staff. The company offers superb annual leave provisions, and other types of leave, and a good pension. The headquarters in Fareham and the major radar control centre in Swanwick are superb, both modern buildings with great facilities.

The team environment was good and seemed broadly reflective of similar types of team. People do seem to work together and try to have fun. Unacceptable behaviour is rare but would be dealt with. Personally, I always found management to be very good, and they had the right intention with a genuine and unwavering focus on safety.

Overall NATS is somewhere I always look back on very fondly - I've worked there twice and only left to move oveseas. Should I find myself in the UK again, I would always consider NATS as an employer of choice. As an employer, it is hard to beat.

Cons

There is a growing discontent with management among controllers concerning pay and conditions. Pay rises in the past have been good and consistent, but with the financial crisis pay rises may be out. Personally, I think this is entirely reasonable. The emphasis should be on saving jobs (especially those that add real value to the company...).

Controllers also sometimes look down on non-operational staff, not seeing that the company could not run without them. In some ways the company seems to be over staffed, with some staff in roles of questionable value. Operational staff are understandably cynical of anything that resembles 'spin', but this can descend into a closed minded attitude. I do agree that NATS is a place that may tend to overdo it a bit on this front. However, generally, many staff in NATS are actually striving to make a difference, to improve safety and efficiency. Perhaps sometimes this is miscommunicated.

Non-operational staff sometimes get frustrated with what they perceive as an entitlement attitude among controllers, most of whom earn very high salaries having had free training and without the need for a University degree. The final salary pension scheme is now closed to new entrants - this is a fairly big minus. One of the issues that that NATS has very high staff retention, but this means that staff (especially operational staff) have often not experienced life with other employers. In effect, they can become spoilt and sometimes don't realise how good they have it.

Advice to Senior Management

Maintain the focus on safety, and ensure that any schemes, programs or initiatives involve people at al levels to reduce resentment.