More efficient, faster and stronger. airline recruitment. How to attract and assess high-quality talent. smart. valid. preferred.

Transcription

1 More efficient, faster and stronger airline recruitment How to attract and assess high-quality talent smart. valid. preferred.

2 The challenge: attracting and assessing high-quality talent fairly across the region Rapid and planned expansion has meant that an effective and efficient recruitment programme was essential. The senior manager is responsible for attracting and hiring all the staff, from pilots and engineering maintenance staff to cabin crew and all commercial and support services personnel. He comments: The challenge for us was not only to identify high-quality talent but also to find aviation specialists. We knew we must look beyond our region. We knew we needed to have a far-reaching and robust recruiting process. However, it must be one that is exciting and attracts candidates, helping us to become the employer of choice. The first step was to introduce qualifying questions in the early stages of selection. Traditionally, job vacancies were posted on websites. CVs were sent in by applicants and then managed by the recruiting team via spreadsheets. This was a laborious, non-standardised and sometimes subjective process that could have led to talent being overlooked. The solution: introducing initial online assessment followed up with later on-site testing Introducing qualifying questions in the early stages of selection was a key first step. The organisation chose to deploy an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to help in the application management. It was keen to not only have online candidate registration, but also to develop a talent community with the capability of referral built in. The system used by the airline provided this capability. Applicants are now able to sign in using their LinkedIn profile, upload their CV, create a profile manually or use Facebook. However, the airline wanted to go beyond this and work with an intelligent partner to help give the recruiting team more detail and information about the applicants: it chose to work with cut-e. Working alongside the airline, cut-e designed a set of disqualifying questions based on the essential elements of each role. These disqualifying questions tend to screen out approximately 50% of the applicants, thereby automatically reducing the number of applications proceeding to the next stage. Those who pass these questions, move on to the online ability and personality assessments. About the airline With a strong business plan, one of the largest and fastest growing airlines in the Middle East needs to find and recruit talent with the ability, attitude and personality attributes indicative of high performance. The best candidates are identified with the use of online testing, video interviewing and face-to-face assessment centres. The result is a reduced time-to-hire and a cut in process inefficiencies. 2

3 Online assessment the next step Initially, candidates are asked to complete the cut-e online shapes personality questionnaire. The norms or standards used to compare candidates are based on the scores of the incumbent, high-performing employees as opposed to an external benchmark. High performance, as defined by this airline, is based on performance records and line manager ratings all collated on a voluntary basis. By using its own benchmark, this client has been able to identify and create what it sees as the attitude, approach and culture that make it successful. A rating system (ranging from 1 to 5) and measuring Fit with Our Organisation was created. This rating feeds into the interview guide used at the later face-to-face interview stage and highlights areas to probe. Better performing people are now being invited to the assessment centre, resulting in a more cost-effective output. Applicants are also asked to complete cut-e s scales ability tests. These have been tailored to create specific tests for specific job areas for roles including IT, financial, sales, customer service, maintenance, cabin crew and pilots. Video interviewing a time and resource saver With applicants from across the world and in different time zones and with limited in-house recruiting resources to make telephone contact the organisation was keen to look at how it could work more efficiently and drive down costs. It introduced video interviewing for the next stage of selection. Candidates are now ed a link to a website at which they submit their video interviews. They are asked to respond to three questions, with two minutes to answer each question. The competency-based questions, designed by cut-e, are relevant to specific positions. The recruitment team refers to a scoring guideline while it views the candidate responses. This visual snapshot and succinct response means that the team is able to see how the candidates handle and present themselves in a short space of time without the need to travel. The outcome: better targeting of talent, fewer no-shows and higher pass rate of maths and English tests The highest volume recruitment for this airline is that for cabin crew. Cabin crew assessment centres are held every week in different locations across the world and, after introducing the online tests, the conversion rate i.e. those who successfully make it through the assessment centre increased from 19% to 25% within the first quarter. This means that better performing people are now being invited to the assessment centre, resulting in a more cost-effective output. There have been two other key benefits: a reduction in no-shows at the assessment centre; and a higher pass rate for maths and English tests. The noshow rate at assessment centres had been increasing but, after introducing the online assessment process, which requires a bigger commitment from the candidates upfront, the company saw a sharp decline in this figure. This suggests that candidates are more motivated to attend the assessment centres given their investment in the process to date. Both maths and English are tested now in the online assessment process and those invited to attend the assessment centre have much higher pass rates than before. This is because it is merely a re-test: candidates not likely to pass are filtered out earlier in the process. 3

4 Looking forward Realistic Job Previews and exploiting social media Going forward, the team at this airline is committed to building on what they have already achieved and plan to make greater use of social media and predictive analytics. It is exploring with cut-e how to make further use of relevant data. The senior management for recruitment explains: We have started to build a talent community and are working towards encouraging our vacancies to go viral. We believe it is not about creating job alerts but building on the connection already established and positioning us as an employer and airline that people want to be a part of whether it is as an employee or a customer. We are developing approaches that are fun to engage with, such as a Realistic Job Preview for our cabin crew applicants that gives an insight into real life scenarios of our cabin crew. These will help set out job expectations from the outset. Going forward, the team plans to make greater use of social media and predictive analytics. It is exploring with cut-e how to make further use of relevant data. The senior manager for recruitment summarises the impact of the introduction of online testing, saying: We are delighted with the benefits of our new assessment process and we could not have achieved these without cut-e s help and tools. We are able to process a higher volume of applications, ensure that each and every CV or profile is reviewed and analysed, highlight those more likely to succeed later in the process all whilst witnessing a reduction in time-to-hire due to efficiency and effectiveness. However, it is the data analysis which is important as we grow as a business. What is important to us today may not be what is important to us tomorrow and we believe we are in good shape to look at this. We are delighted with the benefits of our new assessment process and we could not have achieved these without cut-e s help and tools. Senior manager for recruitment 4

5 Critical success factors for the airline This company has transformed its application and selection processes across the organisation, speeding up the time-to-hire, identifying those likely to succeed later in the selection process and reducing no-shows at the assessment centre. This is due to the company s: Clear link between recruitment and the organisation s aims. Critical success factors are a long-term vision of how the company needs its recruitment processes to operate. Long-term vision of how the company needs its recruitment processes to operate. Deployment of an ATS capable of integrating with online assessment. Creation of seamless processes for the applicant, ensuring that the ATS provider and cut-e data are integrated into a single applicant record. Identification of what it takes to succeed in the organisation and its focus on validity to ensure those tests and questionnaires used predict success in the role. Commitment to engaging with all applicants fairly, transparently and honestly. Access to, and measurement of, key success metrics: the company knows how it has improved and the impact this has had on its recruitment. Continued process improvement with a view to getting high-calibre applicants through the pipeline and into the assessment centres. 5

6 About cut-e Founded in 2002, cut-e (pronounced cute ) provides online tests, questionnaires and gamified assessments for attraction, selection, talent management and development. The company s smart, valid and innovative psychometrics have made it the preferred partner of multinational organisations. In May 2017, cut-e was acquired by Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. cut-e now operates as part of Aon s global offering in talent solutions, helping clients achieve sustainable growth by driving business performance through people performance. cut-e and Aon, as Aon s Assessment Solutions, undertake 30 million assessments each year in 90 countries and 40 languages. info@cut-e.com cut-e.com C1152INT 06.18