AEROPROFESSIONAL CASE STUDY 

Norwegian Air Shuttle Case Study

In 2013, the low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle opened its UK base and partnered with AeroProfessional to provide all their UK cabin crew human resource requirements. AeroProfessional provided everything from initial recruitment to ongoing, day-to-day employee management, continuing to develop and deliver a bespoke HR solution tailored to all the airline’s needs.

Why did Norwegian outsource its HR requirements for cabin crew?

There were three main reasons:

1.Lack of local market expertise
Norwegian was looking to set up in a new country where they lacked detailed knowledge of the local employment legislation, HR policies, and practises. They needed to engage the crew, ensure a compliant payroll solution, and ensure the relevant social security and tax laws were adhered to.

To help them achieve these goals, they wanted to find someone who had demonstrable experience of high volume recruitment, who could assist with their recruitment strategy and had the capability to tap into the local labour market.

2.To reduce risk

When trialling a new base, the airline wanted to limit the amount of risk it was exposed to. By working with AeroProfessional they had access to immediate expert advice, helping to reduce the risk of making unnecessary mistakes and ensure ongoing compliance.

3.To minimise cost
It is cheaper (and less effort) to work with a partner who already has an established base and network compared to starting from scratch and investing time and money in all the fixed assets and overheads required to set up and run a new base.

What services did Norwegian use?

AeroProfessional provided Norwegian with an end-to-end recruitment and engagement solution. This service included recruitment planning and strategy, search and selection, large scale recruitment assessment days, on-boarding, compliant engagement solutions, and ongoing employee management and HR Service.

This meant that AeroProfessional directly employed the crew and subcontracted to Norwegian, taking care of all day-to-day employee relations and HR matters, whilst Norwegian maintained complete operational control.

Their bespoke solution enabled AeroProfessional to run all HR management on their behalf, including payroll, annual leave, sickness and absence management, grievance, disciplinaries, all employee information and consultation including engagement with a self-selected employee forum, plus managing union relations.

What tangible benefits did Norwegian see as a result of AeroProfessional’s HR services?

By using a specialist HR partner, Norwegian benefitted from:

• • The ability to recruit at short notice
  • Dedicated resources for their recruitment campaigns to include complete management of the assessment centres
  • Assistance with ID pass applications at Gatwick, an often time-consuming part of the airline recruitment process
  • Crew optimisation to deliver cost savings and efficiencies
  • Access to expert advice and production of all HR policies and procedures including tailored employee terms and conditions and an employee handbook
  • Management (and funding) of all incentive and reward programmes for employees

Why did Norwegian choose AeroProfessional?

AeroProfessional’s proven experience of high volume cabin crew recruitment for HiFly and Qantas, including being recognised on the Qantas Preferred Supplier List, made the partner stand out from any other typical aviation recruitment agency.