Hainan Airlines Initiates Global Crew Recruitment Drive to Accelerate Talent Diversification

Career Climbers / 21st March 2016

Hainan Airlines held a ceremony initiating this year’s global crew recruitment drive at the Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast on March 17, 2016.

At the event, Hainan Airlines announced its global recruitment plan for 2016, initiating a talent recruitment strategy that focuses on globalization and specialization. The airline has launched a new employee brand based on cartoon characters of flight attendants as angels, with this year’s images following the 12 signs of the Zodiac. This ties in with the company’s recruitment plan for the year which aims to demonstrate a fashionable, dynamic and witty image of the Hainan Airlines employee.

“Flight attendants not only serve passengers but also act as brand ambassadors and practitioners of the corporate culture of the airline they work for,” said Wang Qindong, general manager of human resources and administration at Hainan Airlines. “Following a set of selection criteria based on openness, fairness and impartiality, Hainan Airlines seeks to recruit qualified flight attendants from both within China and around the world who have an international vision, excellent foreign language and communication skills and established familiarity with, and knowledge of, different cultures.”

In 2015, Hainan Airlines held more than 100 special job fairs across nine countries and regions worldwide. This year, the airline, in accordance with its schedule for launching new domestic and international routes, plans to build a global flight attendant recruitment network spanning more than 20 cities and in association with more than 70 colleges and universities across China, recruiting crew members from the U.S., the U.K., Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic and Russia.

Meanwhile, the airline plans to strengthen cooperation with both Chinese and foreign colleges and universities, in a move to explore and develop a more advanced and precise model for the recruitment and training of flight attendants and airline staff.

This year, Hainan Airlines plans to recruit 2,000 flight attendants, including 300 Chinese citizens and 200 nationals from other countries who are proficient in more than one language. The airline plans to improve the proportion of attendants on international routes (including non-Chinese and Taiwanese attendants in addition to those from mainland China) who are proficient in foreign languages in a move to ensure that at least 30 per cent of the airline’s flight staff have this proficiency.

This effort will ensure that all international routes are equipped with a workforce that is familiar with the culture and communication styles of the destination country.

A diversified and excellent collection of talented flight attendants and airline staff is in the process of being assembled with the expectation these new additions to the team will help Hainan Airlines further drive its international development strategy.