Case Studies
bmi

The introduction of Bond Talent to the recruitment process at bmi, the second largest airline at Heathrow, has revolutionized both the work of recruiters and the experience of applicants. With the system selected in July 2007, Bond's solution went live the following January. During that period Belinda Barron, Recruitment Manager for bmi's cabin crew, and her team were able to determine precisely how their online recruitment system would perform.

The ability to control the experience of the candidate was in itself something new to the organization. “We've been able to give prospective candidates a better response time,” confirms Barron, “We used to operate on an application turnaround time of two to three weeks, whereas we now process them within the day. As a result, we can spend more time concentrating on the best candidates rather than dealing with paperwork. It was a great opportunity to go right back to basics and decide what we wanted the system to do and how the online experience should feel” Barron continues.

The Challenge

With 1,700 flights a week and 42 jet aircraft, the company receives hundreds of cabin crew applications each week, meaning the small recruitment department frequently found itself buried under resumes and application forms.

“There was a very time-consuming process with our applicants” admits Belinda Barron, “Every application had to be made on one of our application forms, so if we received just a resume we immediately sent them a form. This meant we may be sending forms to people who were not qualified for the position – only with the returned and completed paper form could we determine whether that applicant could continue through the process. The inefficiencies and costs involved with this purely paper-based system speak for themselves.”

Bond Talent has broken this deadlock. By taking the entire process online and retaining a paper based route for applicants unable to access the website, the company has saved thousands in printing savings alone and reduced their postage expenses to a bare minimum.

Better still; the new site can perform pre-screening on job-specific criteria, removing ineligible applicants from the process automatically. “Those applicants who do not meet our initial criteria, are now filtered by the automated system, taking out a large amount of work. Instead we can focus on the best applicants and make sure they come through the process.”

Speeding through

Moreover, the department can focus its attention on bringing in those quality applicants at a far quicker rate than was previously achievable. Each successful application now receives an email response the following day offering a date to attend an interview.

“When we introduced the new system the phones practically became redundant,” says Belinda Barron, “Previously candidates would be constantly phoning us to reschedule. The interview process is much easier to manage via email and the quick response time impresses the applicant because it demonstrates how interested we are in them joining the company.”

“The whole process has streamlined so that we’ve seen a 25% increase in the amount of applications being handled over the past six months” Barron comments, “We are simply better equipped to handle our recruitment drives.”

Single entry

The talent management system takes applicants beyond their successful interview into their first days at the company.

“Practically everything we need from our successful candidates is contained in that first application,” says Belinda Barron, “There is no need for re-entering any information unless that information changes.” Not only this, but in the future a link to the company’s external online reference company will further automate the process delivering still more efficiencies.

Quick and easy

The impact of the new system has been revolutionary, but bringing the system to the department and enabling staff to use it effectively did not require a huge amount of resources. Belinda and her team had two weeks to familiarize themselves with the system, backed with support from Bond, and were able to get great value from the new system as soon as it went live. “Now that we receive much more information about our candidates before they arrive, we have a far better perspective on them” says Barron. Having access to so much information on candidates before they meet them means the recruitment team can ensure high quality face-to-face interviews.

Ultimately, Bond Talent hasn’t just delivered a faster and more effective way of finding and processing candidates – it has opened the door to the recruitment team being able to improve their own processes in a meaningful way thereby delivering greater value to the company. Barron concludes, “The changes brought about by this solution will drive transformations in recruitment processes across the department.”

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