The Retention Stool Has Four Legs: What Flight Departments Get Wrong about Keeping Talent

In a Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit (CALS) roundtable on retention, an aviation staffing expert and flight department leaders traded hard-won lessons on money, culture, and knowing who you’re really competing with.

By AIN Staff • AIN Staff

August 27, 2026

Executive Summary

At a CALS roundtable on retention, Sheryl Barden, CEO of Aviation Personnel International, led flight department leaders through a candid discussion of why people actually stay or leave. Participants have been anonymized by role only. Three themes dominated the conversation. First, retention rests on four legs—culture, work-life balance, leadership, and compensation. Second, chasing the compensation leg alone rarely works; staffing ahead of the curve means planning for retirements and departures years in advance and understanding who you are truly competing with for talent. Third, building a real partnership with HR before a crisis forces the issue is what makes the other two possible.

Retention Is a Four-Legged Stool, and Money Isn’t the Leg To Chase

Barden opened by describing retention as a stool with four legs: culture, work-life balance, leadership, and compensation. If one leg is a little short, the stool wobbles; if two are too short, it falls over entirely. Employees will give up compensation for a strong culture, she said, but leadership is what ultimately determines whether people stay, since people don’t leave companies; they leave leaders—whether through poor leadership or a values clash with an otherwise capable one.

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