Recruitment Process Outsourcing: A Perfect Partnering Model
Hiring for the World Class Airport in India
A Leading Airport Operator of India having 3 terminals in one of the busiest capital cities was planning to go for major infrastructure revamping / upgradation in one of the Terminals. The purpose was to increase the passenger area in the entire airport & create opportunity for higher traffic growth by revamping the facilities that were already available but was not utilized fully. Having won Best Airport award in the 25-40 million passenger category almost on every year, the organization clearly indicated that the expansion activities must be carried out without diluting the Airport Service Quality Standards. Achieving this goal certainly required more minds and hands to work together.
There were specialized roles in Security, Terminal Operations and Projects & Maintenance verticals of the company, where approx. 200 numbers were required to be hired in a year’s time. CareerTree was awarded the project and we knew that only through the RPO model that this project can be executed on time. With a two member frontend team and four recruiters supporting from delivery centre we could onboard the professionals with required skillsets in eleven months. The successful onboarding led to the company setting new record in its endeavour to modernization as well as adhering to service quality.
The challenges faced:
Airport professionals (across levels) usually work for extended working hours owing to their nature of work. The assessment process had to go beyond the usual skill test and check the cultural & work pattern compatibility.
- Hiring of Inline Screeners
To fulfill the requirement of experienced Inline Screeners, only Inline Screening certified Candidates were eligible- Inline Screener certification is awarded by only specific Airports in India by undergoing Screener examinations conducted by Government Body BCAS.
Hence, besides hiring inline certified screeners from different airports, X-ray screeners (pool available in Airlines companies also) & competent freshers were hired by preparing a thorough examination based on aptitude, IQ, basic Science knowledge & soft skills. They were expected to be trained & become certified screeners in 3 to 6 months of time.
- Hiring of Customer Service Terminal Operations Team (Ground Staff Support)
The target was talent pool from Hospitality and Aviation industry or Fresh Graduates with outstanding Communication, Presentation skills with high career aspirations. People with this combination of skills were quite limited.
Hence we chose to go for a series of walk-in drives every week and extensive groundwork was initiated. Separate interview plan for experienced candidates, campus drives in best hospitality & aviation institutes & universities were conducted frequently.
- Hiring of Projects & Maintenance Teams (Electrical, Mechanical & Airport Systems)
Since these were high safety critical roles and the skills sets were available only in few Airports in the country – it was a huge asking to get them and onboard within the pre-defined salary range.
Candidates with strong technical expertise were head hunted from large units or other airports (Indian / International). This was done through conducting regular recruitment drives in different parts of the country to shorten the hiring lead-time.
The project was concluded with hiring of 150+ security professionals (Including Screeners & other Security Staff), 50+ Ground staff members & 15+ technical teams (Project & Maintenance) within the agreed timeline and with maintaining TAT, quality standards for all positions.
CareerTree Team was recognized for:
- Strong understanding of Airport sector
- Organized & disciplined approach in hiring
- Adherence to assessment protocols & coordination process.
- Meticulous & persistence style of work of RPO consultants & support given by backend teams
- Quality of hiring done across levels & roles without compromise on requisite number of hires.
By late 2017, manpower was sufficiently ready to support the Organization in a way that led to launch of the Terminal revamp that gave huge facelift to the facility and capacity enhancement to handle 12 million passengers per annum up from 9 million.