Pre-employment Screening

At Virgin Atlantic, it’s important we have fun, work hard and enjoy life, but our number one priority is the safety and security of our staff and customers. The nature of the airline industry means we need to be very thorough, so the referencing standards that we follow meet and in a number of areas, exceed the standards laid down by the UK Department for Transport.

Once we’ve offered someone a job, we start our pre-employment referencing process, which a specialist external agency helps us manage. If you’ve been successful in getting a position, full details of what we require for referencing will be provided in your offer letter, but here’s a quick overview of what you can expect.

Referencing

You’ll be sent an email inviting you to go to a website where you’ll be asked to provide your career history, education details and everything you have been doing over the last five years. You will also be asked to account for any gaps in employment during this time. We encourage people to provide this information as soon as they receive the link following an offer of employment and to stay in touch with us throughout the process as we require all new employees to be fully referenced in order to start in the business. Should your referencing not be completed in time then this will result in your start date being pushed back in order for the referencing to be fully completed.

Basic Disclosure

All new staff are required to get a Basic Disclosure Certificate, also known as a Criminal Record Check. For more details on Basic Disclosures, please click here for the government DBS website. When you’re registering on-line for your pre-employment screening, you’ll be asked to pay a fee of £25 by debit or credit card to cover the cost of your Basic Disclosure. When invited for interview you will be given details of the documentation you will need to bring along and we ask that you read this carefully to ensure that you have the appropriate documents. Suitable documentation for proof of address is a bank statement, utility bill or credit card statement dated within the last 3 months. Mobile phone bills are not considered as an appropriate proof of address. Failure to provide the required documentation at interview stage may result in a delay to any offer so we ask that you please have a think about the documentation you are able to provide should you be invited to interview.

Security interview

(for Airside Pass Holders only i.e. Cabin Crew, Pilots, Engineering & Airport staff)

The UK airport authorities (BAA, MAG and GIP) require that all staff who need an airside ID go through a security interview. Virgin Atlantic will conduct the interview, which will take place as one of the final stages of your recruitment process.

It’s really important that everything above is satisfactory to both Virgin Atlantic and the relevant airport authorities. If you have any concerns about anything that you’ve read, please discuss it with your interviewers.

Disclaimer

Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to withdraw any new offer of employment if the references received aren’t considered satisfactory to either the Company and the relevant UK airport authority.