Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd Customer inspired, hand-crafted software. Airline Online Recruitment Management September 2017

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1 Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd Customer inspired, hand-crafted software PostNet Suite 302, Private Bag X3, Northriding, 2162, Republic of South Africa Unit M2, TicketPro Dome, Cnr Olievenhout & Northumberland, Northriding, Gauteng Province, Republic of South Africa. Company Reg. 2005/020930/07 Airline Online Recruitment Management September 2017 Sustained growth of the airline industry Globally, the airline industry is highly regulated in all aspects from the equipment used (aircraft), maintenance, personnel (flight and cabin crew), training, documentation and to the support services employed. Furthermore the aviation industry has, and continues to experience rapid growth requiring airlines to employ vast numbers of personnel to man and maintain their aircraft. Industry commentators and analysts have warned of the shortage of skilled personnel to man and maintain aircraft for a number of years. The pilot shortfall is looming (Avrai & Dr. Schonland, Evolutionary Dynamics of the Regional Airline Industry, 2014). Unfortunately, this skills shortage has become a reality, as witnessed in the USA by SkyWest President and CEO Chip Childs who told the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee that he estimates a shortfall of 15,000 pilots by 2026 (AviationVoice, 01/04/2017). The aviation industry is facing a global pilot shortage. This was initially thought to only be a threat in the rapidly expanding Middle East and Asian markets, but the shortage has spread to North America, Europe and Africa the most conservative outlook represents a global requirement for about new airline pilots annually, or over 400 pilots per week ( 2016). Boeing has quantified the personnel shortage in more detail in their 2016 Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook forecast - between now and 2035, the aviation industry will need to supply more than two million new aviation personnel 617,000 commercial airline pilots, 679,000 maintenance technicians, and 814,000 cabin crew. Meeting this demand will require innovative solutions (Current Market Outlook , Boeing, 2016). See Figure 1. It is therefore imperative that airlines improve, innovate and become highly efficient at recruiting appropriately qualified personnel whilst remaining compliant with global and local regulations Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 5

2 (Fig. 1 Current Market Outlook Page 41, Boeing, 2016). Background Scarecrow was approached during 2016 by a South African airline, which was experiencing an extremely high pilot attrition rate, to develop an online pilot application system. After consulting with the airline and analysing their attrition data Scarecrow developed an innovative online recruitment process. The system was deployed in the live environment on the 1 st December 2016 and has proven very successful vastly improving their recruitment process in terms of efficiency, quality of applicants and data analysis. For example: Applicant interview success rate has improved from approximately 50% to 88%, Applicant testers have access to the entire applicants data when performing tests, enabling them to interrogate weak aspects more fully thereby determining the applicants full depth of skills and knowledge, The entire recruitment process has been made significantly faster, Record keeping of the entire recruitment process has been automated and is electronically stored, and Communication with applicants has been improved. The airline has informed Scarecrow that they would like to expand the online application system to include cabin crew and technicians and commencement of the design and development is imminent. System overview The recruitment activity follows the following process: Applicants complete the relevant biographical information, Applicant completes flying experience, ratings, etc. information, System indicates which fleet (aircraft type) the applicant would qualify for, 2017 Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 5

3 If applicant accepts, a brief questionnaire must be passed in order to progress to the next phase, Airline invites successful applicants to sit a technical exam, If successful the applicant is invited to attend an interview, If successful the applicant is invited to undergo a psychometric test, If successful the applicant is then invited to conduct a simulator test, and If successful the applicant is then eligible for employment if and when the airline requires a position to be filled. All the above mentioned steps in the process are conducted online, barring the psychometric test which the airline opted to do manually with the score being captured into the system. Therefore, the interview panel and simulator instructors capture all elements of their activity on the system, scoring them appropriately. Key differentiators The recruitment process detailed above could be considered a standard recruitment process. Therefore, what makes the online application system different and so successful? Firstly, the brief questionnaire during the initial online application phase filters out unsuitable/unnecessary applicants. Whilst applicants can upload their curriculum vitae (CV) the airline does not use them, but prefers to look at the online information provided. This eliminates the cumbersome labour intensive task of scrutinizing CVs to determine which applicants to invite to the next step of the process, Secondly, the questionnaire and the examination are based on a database of questions (currently in excess of questions) that are randomly generated. The time allocation of the questionnaire is calculated depending on the questions asked, whilst the examination has a fixed time of one hour, Thirdly, the airline clearly understood their recruitment criteria which were derived from the attrition analysis age, licence type, total hours, etc. From this a preferred applicant profile was derived, which has been translated into weighted rankings that are applied in the system, ultimately ranking applicants. At any point in the process the airline can interrogate the applicant database to invite the best (highest scoring) applicants to attend the next step in the recruitment process, and Lastly, interview panels and simulator instructors can look at all aspects of the applicant in order to probe perceived weak attributes. For example the interview panel can see which questions the applicant got wrong in the technical exam and probe more deeply their understanding, or the simulator instructor can test the applicants multi-tasking abilities, or performance under pressure, etc. These differentiators save the airline significant man hours, places the airlines personnel in a much more informed position to conduct their activities more meaningfully, automatically ranks the preferred applicants, projects a more professional image of the airline, and ultimately results in a better quality of pilot being recruited Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 3 of 5

4 System fit to other airlines Most airlines will follow a similar recruitment process but will not have exactly the same requirements or rankings. For example; they may require different minimum total hours, or have age requirements, or minimum size of aircraft flown, etc. They may have other activities in the recruitment process, such as other airlines who require a full medical examination during the selection process. Scarecrow has developed the system in order to cater for these airlines specific requirements easily and cost effectively. The Scarecrow philosophy Scarecrow s systems are based on the premises of simplicity, ease of use, accuracy and robustness. No system realises its full potential without user acceptance and trust. Users must find the system easy to use and trust that their input (data captured) is actioned. Ease of use can be achieved through intelligent system design, functionality, flexibility, knowledgeable and practical system setup and by incorporating applicable user feedback. Trust, however, can only be achieved through robustness, consistency, auditability and security. Ultimately, businesses today require customised technology solutions that meet their unique requirements which are enablers to achieving their strategic goals. Screenshot examples 2017 Scarecrow Mobile Solutions (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 4 of 5

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