When you run an airport or airline, you’re expected to deliver great service all the time.

That’s not easy in this tough industry landscape. You need to deal with changing market conditions. You have to keep employees happy and ensure they’re equipped to do their jobs. At the same time, you need to ensure compliance with a wide range of regulations and labor agreements – early this year, Cebu Pacific was slapped with a P52mil ($1.2mil) fine for flight cancellations and delays during Christmas season due to inadequate staffing.

For Cebu Pacific, an intelligent workforce planning system could be a game changer. As it is for other airports and airlines. With a capable planning system, these companies are able to overcome planning hurdles and turn them into competitive advantage.

However, not all planning systems are created equal. You’ll need to take a closer look before you can determine whether your workforce planning system is holding you back from reaching full business potential.

Mindboggling dashboards

If your planners are spending too much time figuring out how to navigate the system, it’s not a good sign. When the dashboards are over-complicated and unfriendly, it’s difficult for planners to see what’s going on or find the data they require. What they need is a simple, intuitive interface. It has to be configurable to role-specific needs and provide visual insight to exceptions that require attention.

Read also: The 5 costliest planning gaps in airlines services

Multiple systems that reduce visibility and control

The most efficient airlines and airports use ‘single system’ workforce planning solutions. The rest use a combination of different modules – some of which talk to each other, some of which do not.

Relying on fragmented systems is an old-fashioned, uneconomical way to work. Long term planning and day of operations may appear to be different from one another and require separate systems, but they are actually interdependent. Having them all organized and optimized by one integrated system will help to reduce overall operating costs and maximize employee productivity and passenger satisfaction.

And more airline planning gaps that are hurting your profits

These are only two costly planning gaps that can severely impact your bottom line. Want to find the rest? Click here to read about the three other costliest planning gaps in airport and airline services, and how you can conquer these challenges effectively. Catch that tailwind now!