This is an interesting development from Emirates – over the past couple of months, the airline has started sending emails to a select number of cabin crew candidates inviting them to take part in an abbreviated assessment process. The email tells these lucky candidates that an “internal review process” has identified a select number of strong applicants who will benefit from the new process.
This email is being sent to candidates who previously reached the Final Interview stage but then received an ‘Unsuccessful mail’ or in rare cases, where a candidate reached the group assessment stage. In some cases, the email is being sent up to 4-5 months after the candidate was rejected by the airline.
In normal circumstances, candidates who fail the Final Interview have to wait an entire 12-months before they are eligible to reapply.
The emails reads…
We would like to thak you for your interest in pursuing a career with Emirates and for your application to the position of Cabin Crew.
We are pleased to inform you that as part of our internal review process, we have decided to reconsider a select number of strong applicants for Cabin Crew positions.
The first step in our process is to determine whether you still wish to be consodered for the role of Cabin Crew at Emirates. If you remain interested, we will review your application and then invite you for a web-based interview. Please note that you will not be going through the full assessment process as you have already completed parts of the evaluation.
Emirates is famed for being particularly fussy when it comes to selecting cabin crew and candidates never ordinarily get a second chance. So, what could be behind this new initiative? There are several possible reasons…
- The recruiters made a mistake
- Emirates needs lots more cabin crew
- Recruitment might actually slow down
Recruiters made a mistake
Everyone who has been to an Emirates recruitment event knows that the subjective opinion of just one recruiter can have a big impact on whether you get shortlisted and proceed to the next stage. The fact that the email talks about an “internal review process” suggests that the airline has identified some anomalies in who was shortlisted and who was rejected.
Were there one or two recruiters being unfair? Or perhaps human error resulted in some candidates being sent UM’s by mistake? This could be the reason behind this email.
Emirates needs lots more cabin crew
Or it could be because Emirates need to hire a lot more cabin crew – we already know the airline is suffering quite a high attrition rate and is needing to bring more cabin crew into training. Despite holding recruitment events around the world, Emirates may have identified suitable candidates who they can quickly hire at a reduced cost than holding an expensive Open Day in a foreign city.
Recruitment might actually slow down
Which brings us on to the final theory – last week, the chairman and chief executive of the Emirates Group, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told staff that Emirates would only fill vacant positions when “absolutely critical” as part of a big push to control costs. Clearly, the role of cabin crew is a ‘critical position’ because flights can’t go anywhere without enough crew but recruiters may have been told to reduce the overall cost of hiring new crew.
At present, Emirates is holding just as many Open and Assessment Day’s around the world as it has ever done but there is a possibility that these events become less common.
As it stands, this email shouldn’t change how you treat an Emirates Open Day. There’s absolutely no guarantee that your application will get a second chance if you are rejected at the first stage and there’s no reason to believe that Emirates has reduced it’s minimum requirements.
There are, worringly, some signs that Emirates might be about to slow down cabin crew recruitment again but it’s too early to tell whether it might completely suspend recruitment just like it did in 2017.
If you’ve had a recent experience, we’d love to hear your experience…
