#BeYourself Cabin Crew Recruitment Campaign – Virgin Atlantic in partnership with Amberjack

British airline Virgin Atlantic was established in 1984. It operates to destinations all over the world from its main hub at London, Heathrow, had a reported total revenue of £2.9bn in 2022 and has nearly 8,000 employees across its operations.

• Virgin in partnership with Amberjack completely redesigned its recruitment experience to be innovative and engaging, and widen accessibility; it also identified potential instead of focusing on experience. In 12 weeks, it welcomed 5,000 candidates into their process, invited over 1,000 to assessment centres and offered 512 candidates roles within the organisation.
• The branding had to tackle Covid, and it emerged from the pandemic with a new campaign ‘See the world differently’. It focused on championing the rich individuality of the airline’s people and customers, building on research that shows travellers find most airlines’ crew impersonal in their service. In contrast, Virgin Atlantic crew are encouraged to be their true selves on board and on the ground.
• Virgin in partnership with Amberjack received 4,921 candidates, had an application-to-hire ratio of nearly 11:1, and they achieved a net promoter score of +64 compared to the industry average (24+). Offers were made to 516 crew within 12 weeks and the diversity of hire included 20% ethnically diverse candidates, 27% males and 38% to those over 25 years old. All diversity of hire statistics exceed industry averages

Judges’ comments 

“The judges felt there was a clear winner in this category. The campaign in question not only illustrated real success in attracting the volume of talent required, but it did so in very a human way. They showed a real desire to innovate and not be afraid of challenging their brand – really ground-breaking. Well done!”