The endless ambition of Emirates is seeing the Dubai-based airline grow at a rate that has the rest of the industry catching its breath. The result is that the workforce, currently at 23,000, is expected to top 35,000 by the end of the decade. Ramping up recruitment is just one issue: growing staff levels and maintaining the airline's reputation for quality is the big challenge
The choice of Dubai as the host city for the annual IMF/World Bank meeting in 2003 was an appropriate one. The IMF represents 184 nations - almost as many nationalities as live in the Gulf emirate.
As it is with its home base of Dubai, so it is with Emirates, which this year hired its 5,000th cabincrew member.
Sara Luis Hannan symbolises the international character of Emirates as well as its unstoppable growth. The daughter of Spanish and Irish parents, she graduated in biochemistry from Imperial College, London and previously worked at the Sioux City American Theme Park on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. She joins the airline at a time when new widebody aircraft are being delivered at a rate of one per month to take its fleet from the current 69 aircraft to 169 by 2012. That includes adding the world's biggest fleet of Airbus A380 "superjumbo" aircraft - 45 copies - to its existing portfolio.
The rapid expansion of the fleet, underpinned by two years of record profits, has to be mirrored by a major increase in Emirates staff. The total number at present is 23,000 and it is set to increase to 35,000 by the end of the decade.
Emirates passed two milestones this year: the 5,000th cabincrew member and the 1,000th flightcrew member. Projections suggest that the cabincrew population will rise to 12,000 by 2012 while flightcrew numbers will double in that same period.
While hundreds of new staff are joining each month, in the same period, a staggering average 25,000 applications are received. Handling the workload falls to a staff of 70 recruitment specialists grouped in the Human Resources unit and divided into six teams.
Opportunities
To cope with the flow, Emirates is moving the business of job applications online (at www.emiratesgroupcareers.com). Details of latest career opportunities at the group can be checked anywhere in the world, as well as applications submitted. At the group's Dubai headquarters, a dedicated careers centre enables walk-in jobseekers to access the same information.
The issues faced by the airline are twofold: making the recruitment process faster and more efficient, and ensuring that the massive expansion is not at the expense of the airline's hard-won reputation for quality service and operations.
"We are moving to drive all applications online," says Rick Helliwell, manager, recruitment. "We have been pretty successful since we launched the service. By moving everything online we are able to provide a much better service to candidates.
"We already have around 120 nationalities working for us and we are looking for people from all around the world. Doing things online enables people to reach us easily from anywhere.
"It also enables us to manage our back-end so much more easily, inputting details of candidates straight into our database and processing applications much quicker."
The Internet also enables Emirates to give potential candidates a deeper and broader view not just of the airline but of Dubai and the wider region. This is important because Emirates does not pay the highest salaries in the industry.
As one senior aerospace executive puts it: "Emirates is an excellent employer but they are a little bit more rational about expenditure than a lot of airlines seem to be. We see a lot of airlines in the doldrums because their cost structures are crazy.
"Here in the Gulf, they don't pay their pilots unreasonable amounts of money, yet they don't have any trouble getting people to work for them."
Helliwell agrees that Emirates pilots could attract higher salaries elsewhere. "I would say our salaries are competitive and the overall package that we offer and lifestyle of living in Dubai more than compensates for that."
The package covers everything from benefits, such as accommodation and medical care, to lifestyle. The latter runs from sun, sand and sea to top international shopping and haute cuisine. Dubai was not a place many people would have heard of 20 years ago: today it has its own edition of Time Out - the bible of lifestyle and entertainment.
Use of the Internet enables the airline to convey all of this.
The increasing sophistication of online processing could also eventually feed into the processes of quality control maintenance. Currently, the recruiting unit constantly monitors feedback on new recruit performance both from line managers and from new recruits themselves.
"Our aim is to find out from candidates exactly how the recruiting experience worked for them and use that feedback to improve things. Obviously, we are getting feedback from candidates who were successful in getting a job so that is one kind of view," says Helliwell.
"It would be very useful to get feedback from candidates who were not successful and that may be possible in future using the Internet."
Helliwell sees his role as creating a "strong employment brand" that complements such airline brand values as quality. "To get the best people which is what we want, we have to be seen to be a great airline to work for and one offering great career opportunities."
Strong
He points to a number of specific areas that make Emirates a strong employment brand:
The airline is highly successful and there are no signs that its ambition is diminished.
It operates, or will operate, the latest aircraft types such as the Airbus A340-500 ultra-long-range type and the Boeing 777-300ER and the Airbus A380 "superjumbo" is a couple of years away from entry into service.
Experienced captains can join the airline and move straight into a command position.
Unlike most airlines, Emirates does not require its flightcrew to retire at 55 years. They can continue flying until they are 60.
Emirates' growing international network also makes it attractive. Its latest destination is Dubai-New York, the first direct service to North America. The airline now flies to 75 destinations on five continents and the destination list continues to grow.
Mike Martin
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Source: Flight Daily News
