The airline industry is a booming industry with over $2 trillion annual economic activity and 58 million jobs worldwide. Furthermore, U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 386,912 workers in November 2014, which was a 1.5 percent increase from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
For an industry that deals with hundreds of open positions at any given moment, video interviews can be a powerful tool to ensure the best people are being hired.
Before we delve into the various ways video interviews can help airline employers make amazing hires, let’s take a look at recruitment challenges that are currently hindering the airline industry:
Airline Industry Recruitment Challenges
High Volume of Candidates
Much like hospitality, the airline industry is a very appealing and exciting industry to work for. Each year, thousands of people across the U.S. apply for positions with various airline carriers.
In October 2012, American Airlines announced they were hiring for 1,500 new flight attendants. Twenty thousand applicants responded and completely overwhelmed the airline that they had to stop taking resumes after eight days. Around the same time, Delta Air Lines announced they would be hiring for 400 flight attendant positions. They received over 22,000 applications in the first week.
Shortage of Qualified Pilots
Due to a large wave of pilot retirements and recently updated rules and requirements from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. airlines industry is facing a shortage of qualified pilots. The changes mean an increase in training for new pilots and more rest for existing pilots at passenger airlines.
How Can the Video Interview Help?
Focus On Only the Best Candidates
The one-way video interview is a powerful solution for airline employers facing large numbers of applicants. With the one-way, employers gain the ability to efficiently wade through tons of candidates while still getting a personal feel for the people best suited for the position.
In the one-way video interview, candidates answer an employer’s questions on video. These video answers can then be viewed by employers at any time and for any duration. If you know immediately that a candidate is not right for the job, you can simply stop watching their video interview and move onto the next person so you’re not wasting valuable time.
Level the Playing Field
Video interviews, specifically the one-way, will allow you to provide every candidate a fair chance at a position. Since you’ll be asking the same set of questions, no one will have an advantage over anyone else. This will also help you to easily determine who to move forward with because you can simply compare candidates’ answers.
Video Interview Questions to Ask Airline Candidates
1. Why are you interested in working for this industry?
You don’t want to hire someone who isn’t serious about working for the airline industry. A candidate’s answer to this question should tell you if they have the passion and excitement to excel at their job and won’t jump ship when the going gets tough.
2. Give me a recent example of a high pressure situation you were in. What happened? How did you handle it?
Asking this question will allow you to determine if a candidate can keep a level head should something unexpected happen. You want to ensure you hire people that will face any challenge head on and not crack under pressure.
3. What is your strongest qualification for this position?
This is an important question to ask because it will give you insight on which of their skills a candidate is most confident about. You will also be able to determine what a candidate believes to be the most important aspect of the position they are interviewing for.
Create a Positive Candidate Experience
As with any industry, candidates are anxious and eager to hear if they’re moving on in the interview process and if they got the job. The convenient shareability of video interviews allow you to better collaborate with colleagues so smart hiring decisions can be reached quickly. Streamlining your interview process with video interviews will enable you to give candidates feedback and results in a timely manner.
Hiring challenges such as high volumes of candidates and a shortage of qualified talent can seem impossible to overcome. However, video interviewing technology is empowering employers with the ability to efficiently screen for only the best and brightest talent out there. Airline employers should take advantage of this readily available and affordable solution to their hiring woes so they can bring on people that will help to bring continued success to their organization.