Heathrow Airport: Delivering Over 1,000 New Security Officers in Just 6 Months

Situation

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport and its biggest single-site employer. More than 84 million travelers passed through in 2025, making it Europe’s busiest hub, and hundreds of staff are needed to keep operations running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Security officers play a crucial role at the airport, screening baggage, engaging with passengers, and patrolling the runways and terminals.

PeopleScout has partnered with Heathrow since 2019. What began as an recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) brief for 400 security officers over six months quickly grew to 1,000 vacancies in the same period as passenger demand returned. The partnership has since expanded into early careers hiring, community employment, and workforce planning.

Due to the nature of the role, all offers for the security officer role at Heathrow were contingent on the candidate passing a thorough background screening and counter terrorism check, which can take up to 16 weeks. This stage requires the candidate to complete a lot of paperwork which can’t be cut back, so Heathrow needed PeopleScout to create a recruitment process that was fast and easy. Plus, we needed to find a way to keep candidates engaged during the long security check period to minimize drop-off.

In the previous process, candidates completed a telephone interview after applying, then attended an in-person assessment center event at a hotel near the airport. That approach had two problems. Candidate quality reaching the phone interview stage was inconsistent, so pass rates at the assessment events were low, and the hotel venue carried a cost Heathrow needed to justify. The events also ran infrequently, and two four-hour sessions per event capped capacity at 30 candidates a day, 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.

Solution

PeopleScout re-engineered Heathrow’s security officer recruitment process to move candidates through screening, interview, and assessment in a matter of days, all delivered virtually.

We introduced a completely bespoke virtual testing platform called One Experience Assessment (1XP). The candidates completed the assessment after applying, which allowed us to screen for essential skills. Tests were engaging and video-based, creating an immersive experience showcasing what it would be like to work in the airport. Scenarios evaluated candidates’ spatial awareness, as well as their ability to identify potential hazards such as hidden weapons or unattended suitcases. This virtual assessment tool allowed Heathrow to evaluate 52 candidates per day (up from the previous 30) and eliminated venue rental costs.

Candidates who passed the virtual assessment center were immediately prompted to either schedule a telephone interview with one of our recruiters or to submit an audio recording of themselves answering pre-determined questions which were then screened. Successful candidates participated in a live virtual interview facilitated by our team, which we were able to expand to accommodate their high-volume recruiting.

To support offer holders during the background screening process, PeopleScout created a video that explained what to expect, which Heathrow sent out to candidates. Our recruiters checked in with these candidates to ensure they were completing the required paperwork in a timely manner. We continued these pre-start check-in calls after the background check process was underway in order to keep candidates engaged and ensure they were still keen to start onboarding once cleared.

Results

We didn’t just fill the 1,000 security officer positions in the six months allotted. We exceeded the target, and the brief has kept growing since.

• 1,000+ roles filled in six months, against a brief that started at 400
• 1,600+ security officers hired to date, from a pipeline of more than 90,000 applications
• 73% more candidates assessed, by moving assessment earlier in the journey to improve candidate quality
• 52 candidates assessed per day, up from 30 at the previous in-person events
• NPS of 70+ for the immersive virtual assessment experience
• 94% of candidates rated the experience positively, whether or not they were hired
• 48% of hires were women, improving diversity across the security officer population
• Venue costs eliminated, with fewer unsuitable candidates reaching late-stage assessment

PeopleScout was named Supplier of the Year at Heathrow Airport’s Supplier Awards, the first recruitment partner ever to win it, competing against hundreds of suppliers from every industry Heathrow works with. We were also the winner of the Candidate Experience Award at the 2023 Personnel Today Awards for our work in partnership with Heathrow.

“PeopleScout have been a critical partner in building our security capability, through an innovative approach to our recruitment processes and exemplary collaborative behaviors. PeopleScout have driven successful recruitment in line with Heathrow’s strategic aims and have demonstrated agility and tenacity to meet business requirements and protect our operations.”

Jack Andrews, Head of Resourcing, Heathrow Airport