Behind the scenes: How Scoot organised the 'Epic Interview' recruitment campaign

Last September, Scoot launched the "Epic Interview" cabin crew recruitment campaign.

In a span of 21 days - between 20 August to 9 September, over 300 submissions were received. From there, 18 eligible applicants were invited to Scoot’s assessment centre for a test, group exercises and an interview.

Thereafter, six candidates were scooted off to either Athens or Berlin in an all-expenses paid trip for the final round of their interview in October. There, candidates underwent a series of challenges, 'Amazing Race’ style and were assessed by Scoot’s senior executives on whether they have the desired cabin crew traits.

To find out exactly how this innovative recruitment campaign was carried out, Human Resources spoke to Theresa Tan, Scoot's VP of Human Resources who detailed the process of the campaign, challenges faced and results observed.

Q How was the Epic Interview carried out?

We worked with a few partners, including The Travel Intern, to organise the trip and come up with challenges and activities to bring out the qualities we wanted to test from the candidates. It was important to work with the partners that shared the same vision – we pride ourselves for being different at Scoot, and we aimed to bring that innovative quality across throughout the campaign. We also wanted the activities to have an element of fun and “Scootitude”, to demonstrate how our Scootees can have lots of fun while flying with us and differentiate us from other airlines.

To amplify the campaign, we employed search and display advertising during the open call inviting potential applicants to apply. We also leveraged on social media and word of mouth. We shared regular updates on our career platforms like our Got Scootitude? Facebook page and LinkedIn, and shortlisted candidates were also encouraged to share about their Epic Interview experience on their own personal social media.

The Travel Intern also shared snippets on their social channels to garner interest.

Additionally, some of our partners, such as Glints, an online recruitment and career platform for young talent, noticed and thought the campaign was interesting, and also reached out to us to share it on their web page, further increasing exposure for campaign.

To engage our audience and draw their interest, we also held polls for people to vote for the candidate they think has the most Scootitude. As an added treat, we are producing a behind-the-scenes videoto retain hype and allow our followers to immerse themselves and experience what the candidates went through.

Q What was the business need for it?

We are very conscious of the fact that the cabin crew recruitment landscape has become very competitive.

In the past, travel was a luxury and being a flight attendant was the only way a young person could see the world. These days, with affordable travel options, youths are no strangers to flying and there is no doubt that it has become a competitive recruitment market.

We felt the need for something truly out of the ordinary to capture their attention, breathe new life into the cabin crew job and boost Scoot’s value proposition as an employer with a difference. This is exceptionally crucial as we intend to double our cabin crew strength in the next 2.5 years to support Scoot’s ambitious growth plans.

Q What challenges were faced during the implementation, and how were they overcome?

The campaign was the first of its kind, and there were no or few prior projects to base our plans on, so our team had to create most of our groundwork from scratch. There was also the challenge of working within a tight timeline and naturally facing a few hiccups along the way.

I believe we overcame those challenges by maintaining an adaptable mindset that sought to find creative solutions to problems, all while having fun at the same time.

Q What results did you observe from this campaign?

One of our main goals was to increase our reach and engagement rates during and after the campaign and build a bigger base of followers for future recruitment campaigns.

During the campaign, we achieved more than ten times the average daily reach of our Got Scootitude? Facebook page than before it started. We also gained over a thousand new likes and followers on our page. This proved to us that combining an out-of-the-ordinary idea and leveraging on social media and word-of-mouth really boosted awareness of our campaign and our brand.

Q Do you find that the people hired are a better fit for Scoot than the ones hired through a ‘normal’ interview?

All of the eligible candidates that underwent the Epic Interview were subsequently offered and accepted a cabin crew position with us. We maintain high standards when recruiting, but we don’t always take ourselves seriously and it is part of the Scoot work culture where we find time to have fun wherever possible.

As a recruitment and employer branding campaign, the Epic Interview was designed to grab attention as well as incorporate unique ways to assess our candidates for qualities such as Scootitude.

However, our normal interviews, while taking place at arguably less “epic” locations, have been just as effective in finding people with the right fit for us.

Scroll through photos from the Epic Interview:

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Photos / Scoot