How to speed up your aviation recruitment processes

A strong recruitment process is critical to every company. Your staff are your business, so if you don’t have a handle on recruiting skilled professionals, you could be sending plenty of time and money down the drain.

In this blog, we look at strategies you can put in place to streamline your hiring process:

Perfect your job advert

For many businesses, the recruitment process starts with creating an effective job advert. We use effective, because the quick and short ones simply don’t work anymore. Candidates want a fully realised idea of the role they are applying for, so if your job advert says no more than who your company is and contact details to get in touch or apply, you should fully understand that this isn’t likely to bring you many applications at all.

If you want a job advert that sells, consider the information you include in it, how concise it is, and how relevant it is. Our main points on how to create an effective job advert that converts includes:

• Displaying a salary range: this is so important, it’s the first piece of information that attracts a candidate to click onto your job advert.
• Length: Keep it concise. We’re not saying short - but you should consider that a longer advert provides more opportunity for candidates to exit the screen. So the more direct and clear it is, the better.
• Make it appeal to them: Professionals today are demanding. They want company perks, benefits, an attractive salary, flexible working etc. You might not be able to give them anything, but if you can show that you have something your job advert automatically looks better than the company who chose not to display their benefits, or talk about their fun and relaxed company culture, for example. Ultimately, everyone wants to work in a positive and encouraging environment with perks that make being at work all day more appealing - so don’t underestimate how essential this information is to a potential employee.

Find the right platforms to advertise your job

If you’re searching for professionals with niche skills, it makes sense to advertise your jobs on a niche aviation site to attract the right crowd. Put it on a generic job board and you’ll see an increase in quantity, but not necessarily in quality. By using a niche jobs board like Aviation Job Search, you’re more likely to come across those with the right skills and experience to suit your role. And you can use our advanced CV Discovery tool to search for those candidates too.

Don’t sit back

While adding your job advert to a reliable jobs site is a big part of the process, once it’s up, there are ways to promote it so that you can get your advert in front of as many people as possible.

Use social media to promote your role. Send the link to your job to candidates you’ve found on LinkedIn, or you can promote the role internally in the event that your staff might know someone too. Every move you make to promote your job advert could bring you one step closer to finding your ideal candidate. We also work with a network of partners to ensure your jobs reach the widest audience possible. And as we invest heavily into aggregators, PPC, partnerships, content, social media and events, we’re engaging with aviation professionals before they’re even looking for their next job.

Make the most of the technology available to you

The internet has expanded the talent pool, which means you have more potential candidates to recruit. But it does make identifying the right candidate tougher when you’re ready to whittle down. Our CV Discovery tool helps you to filter your search so that you only see the applications most relevant to your search, so that you can avoid the long list of candidates who don’t quite fit the bill.

Set a quick deadline to reply once the application period has closed

Don’t waste time in contacting your shortlist of candidates - remember, they may well have other interviews lined up. Too many recruiters miss out on top talent because they took too long to get in touch - don’t let this be the downfall of your recruitment process, because going back to square one is not a great move for your business. Time and money goes into recruitment, so get in touch at your earliest convenience.  

Create a screening process

Once you have your shortlist of candidates, the next stage might be to give them a call before you invite them to an interview. This can help you iron out any ambiguity from their application to ensure they are a suitable fit for your company and the role, and it means you won’t end up with an irrelevant candidate attending an interview. You can check things like:

• Relevant qualifications
• Experience required for the role
• Certifications
• That the candidate is within a suitable location for the job 

It also provides you an opportunity to tell the candidate more about the company and answer any initial questions they may have about the job advert or company.

Create an interview form

Interviews can last anywhere up to an hour, and based on candidate responses they could take much longer. By creating an interview form, you can develop a structure for your interview to get the information you need in a timely and effective manner. You also have the opportunity to use a simple grading system to rate candidates according to their answers.  

Improve on skill testing - don’t leave it to chance

Skill testing is essential for many jobs - you need to make sure you’re hiring the right person with the correct skills, otherwise it could prove detrimental to your business. Instead of asking candidates to complete the test on site  -which can be quite stressful, send applicants a test to complete online by a specified date and time. This way you can review it in your own time. You could also rank each section, giving them a mark at the end, and filter candidates out that don't meet your expectations.

You might also opt to use augmented reality software to test their experience for a more practical industry like aviation, or you can survey them to assess their basic knowledge level on various topics.

Share your polished recruitment process

Once you’ve taken the above steps and put them into place, you can now share your streamlined recruitment process with others at the company. Train managers in the basic principles and best practice, so you don’t have to rely on just yourself to recruit.

Another bonus of training others is having a team of people who can interview and recommend people for open roles. For large companies, it's a good idea to have representatives from each department who can recruit with best practice. This gives you a better chance of finding someone that has the right skills, while also proving to be a great fit for your team.

Want more recruitment advice? We’re just a phone call away.

Call: +44 1772 978085 now to chat about your recruitment process

Or email: recruiting@aviationjobsearch.com