Strategic Hiring - A Case of Emirate Airlines’ Cabin Crew Recruitment
Merlina was just scrolling down the list of friends who liked her recent post on professionalism on her Facebook mobile app. Suddenly, a pop-up link appeared. She was about to close it thinking it was some junk ad when it caught her attention as she read the magical words, EMIRATES HIRING.
The strategic hiring advertisement said, “Where could you be tomorrow?” (Exhibit I).
“Wow! That was the moment I had been waiting for”, she thought aloud.
The ad took her to an Emirates portal, she checked the website of the company and understood the core values for which the company stood for. To her amusement, she found that she endorsed a similar value system as a person (Exhibit II).
The Emirates Group had been successful over the years because it selected, rightly engaged and retained talented employees from across the world who matched the people proficiencies the corporation stood for.
All staffing needs were managed absolutely by the Emirates Group’s Recruitment Department. The Cabin Crew recruitment team travelled regularly to more than 60 countries to select the best people. The Emirates Cabin Crew Recruitment Team held international assessments in different countries each month to choose the best of the talent wherever it was.................
Emirates Recruitment Drive
As a person, Merlina was people focused, compassionate, safety conscious and strived for innovation and service excellence in her personal life. She found that she would be a suitable fit for what the brand stood for as she upheld the same values. Merlina was checking for more details of the recruitment drive and checking whether the HR team would drop in to her city, Bucharest, in Romania. She found it seemingly impossible to go all the way to Dubai, the headquarters of Emirates, looking for a job with her dream company...........
Human Capital Advantage
Once Krishna reached the hotel, the local representative from Emirates informed him that 1,650 people turned up for Air Hostess positions while only 200 got the invitation for the interview. Without blinking an eyelid, he told his team, “We will meet them all, it’s a fair game”.
Krishna knew that it meant his 15 member hiring team had to work four times more, round the clock and late into the night, for next 3 days. It also meant he needed to ask for an extension from the hotel for holding the banquet hall for 2 more days instead of the planned one day..........
Strategic Hiring
After an eventful three-day drive, Krishna issued offer letters to 40 candidates and Merlina was one among them. She took a car drop to her place, Lipscani, a district near Bucharest. As she was going back home, the scenes of the interview were vivid in her mind. The interviewer who picked her CV had giving her a tough time. She had written hobbies as jogging down the historic city of Lipscani, making cocktails with traditional Tuica, distilled plums and making ‘Clãtite’, a Romanian dessert...........
Assignment Questions
I. Krishna gave the chance to all the walk-in candidates even though his team informed that attending the interview was restricted by ‘Invitation only’? What does it speak about the recruitment philosophy of Emirates?
II. .........
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Emirates’ Strategic Hiring Advertisement
Exhibit II: Why Join the Emirates Group?
Exhibit III: Interview Schedule