UAE’s Etihad Airways joined airline HR and talent acquisition executives from around the world to discuss best practice in sourcing and attracting aviation professionals at the Global Aviation Talent Summit in Abu Dhabi last week.

Hosted by cut-e, in partnership with Etihad Airways, the summit gathered more than a 100 airline human resources, recruitment and security executives from more than 20 airlines to discuss issues and innovation in the area of aviation recruitment and retention.

Professionals discussed best practices in assessments for screening, talent selection and development methodologies, the latest online recruitment systems and assessment tools, benchmarking, and improvements in the quality of recruitment practices.

Mona Walid, Etihad Airways' vice president of talent acquisition, said: “The aviation industry is unique as it requires a great variety of talent to operate – cabin crew, pilots, engineers, marketeers, lawyers, caterers, load controllers, network planners, revenue managers, social media managers and more. This diverse range of roles, coupled with the fact that Etihad Airways receives more than 250,000 applications each year, means that we need modern, transparent, time-efficient and simple recruitment solutions.

“I look forward to making this an annual event, providing a platform to continue to address our common challenges in sourcing talent from across the globe,” she said.

Executives also attended sessions on risk management in hiring, succession planning, and talent pipelining.

Mohamed Hegab, Etihad Airways’ senior manager of talent acquisition, spoke at the summit about the airline’s journey to best-in-class recruitment through a combination of leading technology from SAP’s SuccessFactors, which is integrated with cut-e’s psychometric assessment solutions, and simplified processes.

Airline representatives in attendance included those from British Airways, Virgin America, Scandinavian Airlines, Aer Lingus, Finnair, flydubai, Royal Jet, Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Etihad Airways’ equity partner Air Serbia. – TradeArabia News Service