RPO case study: KLM meets high-volume hiring needs quickly.
Airline successfully recruits more than 400 cabin attendants in 4 months with selective RPO.
| 3 min read |
the challenges of high-volume recruitment
For an organization like KLM, that flies millions of passengers to over a hundred destinations each year, it is crucial to ensure they have a specialized cabin crew team. The company pays high attention to the hiring of all its employees – it currently employs about 10,000 cabin crew members and hires about 400 new cabin attendants on average annually.
As a result, evaluating thousands of applications, responding to all candidates individually and managing a complex assessment process can be challenging to manage effectively. Due to the high volume of hires and project time-constraints, KLM decided to partner with recruitment experts for support.
Working with Randstad Sourceright, KLM implemented a selective recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solution to address its hiring needs.
an automated process – with a human touch
The RPO is responsible for sourcing and pre-qualifying candidates for the flight attendant role, which opens once or twice a year and attracts an extremely high number of applicants. In 2019, the job advertisement, which was open for a period of four weeks, attracted more than 4,600 candidates from across the Netherlands, giving the client a massive talent pool.
The team evaluates all applications individually and communicates directly with all candidates, providing feedback on applications. Candidates that match the pre-defined criteria proceed to the next steps through an automated process that includes a series of online assessments, tailor-made to KLM’s needs.
Successful candidates are invited to participate in the next steps of the recruitment process, which include meet and greets with the client and additional assessments.
“Working together with Randstad Sourceright helps KLM to recruit just in time qualified flight attendants in a short time period. The RPO helps to manage the bulk process and assures a positive candidate journey.”
— Tanja van Grieken-Kraaijveld, manager, Recruitment Flight Crew, KLM
flying further together
To ensure consistent messaging and an overall smooth candidate experience, strong collaboration between both parties is crucial. KLM and Randstad Sourceright have been working closely together to manage the company’s high-volume recruitment needs within a short time frame. The teams have weekly calls, and detailed reporting ensures the project is on track.
With a dedicated team that can scale up and scale down as and when needed, KLM has gained access to Randstad Sourceright’s expertise, technology and talent insights. Speed and quality targets are continually met: Randstad Sourceright introduces the first candidates within 48 hours. As a result, both teams continue to meet or exceed their KPIs and KLM manages to recruit more than 400 cabin attendants in 4 months on average, annually.
The project has been running smoothly and both teams are currently working on further program advancements, possibly leveraging Modern Hire video interviewing, from Randstad Sourceright’s Talent Velocity HR tech stack. They are also exploring new ways to expand KLM’s diversity hiring and achieve a more diverse workforce.