How British Airways responsibly reduced applications by 60%

The Challenge

British Airways faced a familiar but intensifying challenge:

• Exceptionally high application volumes: 25,000+ early-careers applications annually, and consistently growing year on year.
• Limited early indicators of motivation, leading to large numbers progressing to assessments with no clear signal of seriousness.
• Escalating assessment costs and pressure on internal resource.
• A market demanding fairness, transparency and more human-centred candidate experiences.

The Impact

1. Volume reduced responsibly

The trial delivered a significant reduction in low fit and AI generated application volumes:

• 60% reduction in applications vs the control role
• 83% reduction in incomplete applications - a strong indicator of higher commitment
• 75% reduction in withdrawals, showing stronger conviction post-application

Crucially, no adverse impact across ethnicity, gender or socio-economic groups was found (using the Adverse Impact Ratio to track progression rates) demonstrating that positive friction can be fair, accessible and inclusive.

“The early results are outstanding, we have already seen a 60% reduction in applications, and I’m confident this will be a game-changer for not only increasing candidate quality, but managing our resources and spend on each campaign.”

Mel Richardson, Emerging Talent Manager, British Airways

2. Quality candidates progress

Candidates who completed the journey displayed consistently stronger behavioural signals, including:

• Higher commitment across reflective checkpoints
• More focused exploration of programme-relevant content
• Clearer articulation of role understanding and alignment
• Higher completion and conversion rates downstream

This translated into real hiring impact:

1. Candidates were 1.7x more likely to reach the video interview stage vs the control group
2. 0.8x less likely to be rejected at online testing, showing stronger preparedness and fit

The Solution

Introducing IntentSignals…

BA worked with Connectr to leverage a new pre-application intervention that empowers candidates to screen themselves in or out before reaching the application form. Based on true-intent and not just interest, the psychologically informed experience was designed to reveal candidate motivation through multiple interaction points on the Speedbird-Z candidate platform.

Rather than pushing candidates straight into an application form, they were invited into an intent-building, reflective candidate journey offering:

• Transparent job previews
• Eligibility explainers
• Reality checks
• Moments of pause and self-reflection
• Readiness checkpoints

To embed this even further, BA made use of our IntentCode feature – designed to protect vacancies from low-intent applications by locking access to applications until candidates have demonstrated high intent.

“By exploring candidate ‘intent’, Connectr have introduced something genuinely new at a time when many organisations are struggling to find fair and reliable signals of candidate quality… This is the first innovation that’s enabled us to boost quality without adding a ‘barrier’. Candidates can make a more informed decision before applying — and those who do are already demonstrating their motivation.”

Alex Norman, Business Psychologist & Assessment Manager, British Airways

A better candidate experience

Despite introducing an additional step, sentiment from candidates was overwhelmingly positive, with over a 1000 feedback comments left voluntarily by candidates and 99% of these being positive. Take these examples:

“I like this task as it highlights all aspects of the role, especially the aspects that will have an impact on life outside of work like the shifts during some of the rotations. This is encouragingly thoughtful and fair to us as applicants. This task could feel like an extra task for applicants rather than plunging straight into your standard apprenticeship applications, but the fact it makes me think about the role, and my suitability to it, convinces me l will actually save time in later preparation and research. Or if for whatever reason l felt the role was not for me, it saves me an entire application!”

Overall, amazing work, very innovative way for the application process and let the candidate get familiar with the working culture in advance.

Refreshing to see an informative task based solution to not only informing individuals on the role but also give them some information before accessing the application

I love this new application format because it screens out and makes sure the candidate is a great fit from the very start.

These questions really made me think about what type of leader am I and how suitable this apprenticeship is for me

Why this worked

The pilot shows what happens when you shift from an application-first to an intent-first model:

• You give candidates the tools to self-assess earlier.
• You reduce noise without excluding people unfairly.
• You generate human-led insight long before assessments.
• You elevate recruiter confidence and downstream quality.
• You build trust by being transparent about the experience ahead.

The result is a healthier funnel, higher engagement and a more motivated cohort before the application even begins.