Emirates Cabin Crew Recruitment 2022 returns to Group Exercise and Assessment Days
Now that Covid-19 pandemic is nearly over and with travel rebounding, Emirates have just announced that they will be doing a whirlwind tour of 30 cities in June 2022 to meet candidates face to face and re-introduce assessment days and group exercises followed by one to one final interviews.
We give you tips on how to ace the group exercise at the Emirates Cabin Crew Assessment Day in manageable steps.
During the pre-pandemic, Qatar, Etihad and Emirates used Group Exercises as a popular method for assessing and shortlisting candidates.
Recruiters love the group exercise as group exercises represent one of the fastest and most accurate ways to shortlist a large group of candidates.
At a glance, Emirates recruiters can tell purely by observation if you have the key competencies that they require for you to be team fit at Emirates.
The Emirates cabin crew recruiters will be looking for your team working skills, your body language, communication (verbal and non-verbal), time management, situationally aware, have the ability to remain calm even where there are angry customers, the way you express yourself in English, the tone of your voice, verbal reasoning with your team workers and the overall presentation.
Recruiters will be taking notes of how you interact with fellow members.
All group exercises follow the same format even though they may involve different problems but what you need to resolve if often the same.
You will be split into groups of around 5 to 7 people and the exercise instructions will be read out.
The recruiter will present your group with a problem.
They’ll then give your group a list of items or different problems faced by customers e.g. overbooked hotel rooms.
You are faced with prioritisation of the items and how to manage the items or people.
Within your group, you have to decide how to prioritise.
You all have to agree on the selected items or people through discussion (not voting).
All of this has to be done against a tough time-limit.
Sometimes a ‘surprise’ turn of events will be announced by the recruiter.
You’ll have to make changes to your list within a tight time-frame.
Finally, the group may then be asked to present its decisions.
The result does not matter. Recruiters are observing each group member individually - based on how they interact with one another and how they manage the problem in this challenging situation.
Your communication skills need to show active listening skills and how you use positive words and compliments. Body language e.g. nodding your head to show you agree with your co-worker is also observed.
Team work - Look for opportunities to speak then present your idea and the reason for it. Don’t go on for too long. Make your point and then allow the group to discuss your idea. Listen to what other candidates have to say. Acknowledge any objections as being useful. Be pro-active in the discussions but also know when to step back and show how you help other candidates.
Most groups have a natural leader that emerges during the discussion. If this is you, make sure that you are constantly looking for opportunities to include others in the discussion. If you see someone is being left out or is quiet, encourage them to participate and ask them for their opinion. Acknowledge the views expressed by other candidates. Please remain positive at all times. Please show that you are flexible and go with the group decision – once you’ve made your point, don’t labour it. If the group has discounted your idea just move on and accept the decision being made.
In finding a solution to the Group Exercise you have to make a decision as a group – you can’t simply vote or randomly pick items. However, the recruiter will leave the circumstances of the problem deliberately vague.
Show flexibility and make assumptions and come up with a solution that suits you – there really is no right or wrong answer. So if the group is making decisions that you don’t necessarily agree with, embrace it. Okay, you’re allowed to disagree and present your opinion but don’t get into an argument simply because the group is coming up with a different solution than what you would.
Verbal reasoning - Never say anything negative about another candidate or their suggestion. If you disagree with their idea, back it up with an alternative solution.
You’ll need to have a reason why you’ve chosen a specific item or course of action so be clear on this throughout the task.
Remain calm under pressure - Gently remind other candidates of the time constraints and present a possible solution. Summarise what has been discussed so far and allow other candidates to prioritise items from the list.
OVERALL - Your performance is being assessed individually, so just use the pointers above and let your personality shine through.
If you need help before your Assessment Day, we offer a Zoom session where we could do a role play and simulate a “tough and challenging time” for you. It will be fun and light hearted and you will learn and discover how to present yourself on the day. If you wish to book a Zoom session for this practice role play, click on the button below.