Sadly management in many different commercial environments get suckered into thinking the 'bells & whistles' recruitment procedure sold to them by HR consultants is shyte-hot, and they can go away and not have to think about it themselves.. it's taken care of.
Regrettably the highly qualified HR consultant with a string of degrees after their name, which is not a bad thing, only see the value in their commssion.
So you end up with some crap recruitment procedures which are irrelevant to the job..
Not being party to BA's recruitment team I can't put the boot in too hard but didn't they have trouble several years ago with an agency that had them selecting pilots based upon a New York department store manager?
I am told they have a scanning programm that looks at the essay one needs to submit via the web only to pick out and score 'buzz words', grammer & spelling. Never mind what it is you actually have to say, that's irrelevant.
Sounds like the BS factor in the pilot recruitment process is alive and kicking and we are still not looking for aviators to join BA..?