Human Resource Management for Service Industries

This document provides an overview of human resource management in service industries, focusing on recruitment, selection, training, and development. It includes a case analysis of British Airways and Transport for London, as well as an evaluation of employment legislation and employee relations.

Human Resource
Management for Service
Industries

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1.................................................................................................................................................3
1.2 HR Plan .................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Current state of employment relationship in the airline industry................................................6
Ways in which employment law affects the management of human resources within British
Airways........................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Personal specification and job description for Cabin Crew, BA ...........................................8
3.2 Comparing selection procedure of British Airways and Transport for London (TFL)..........9
TASK 4...........................................................................................................................................11
Training and development .........................................................................................................11
Effectiveness and benefits of training .......................................................................................11
Role and significance of training ..............................................................................................12
Various types of training ...........................................................................................................12
Contribution of training and development to effective organisational operations ....................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource (HR) management is defined as the practice to manage the employees or
human resources of the organisation. The practices related to HRM are highly essential in terms
of improving the performance of organisation as all functional and operational activities depends
upon efficiency of employees. HR department of organisation is responsible for various activities
such as recruitment, selection, training and development (Rowley and Ramasamy, 2016). It
assures that talent and skill requirements of organisation are always fulfilled.
The report will consider the case analysis of British airways (BA) and Transport for
London (TFL) for discussion of HR purpose and role. It will also provide an evaluation of
employment legislation and employee relations on the performance of organisation. The report
will also provide a critical evaluation of recruitment and selection process chosen by BA and the
impact of training and development programs in the service quality of organisation.
Task 1
1.1
Human resource management is the systematic approach of proper management of
individuals in a company and institution to get business goals by bringing the optimum efforts of
the employee.
British airways -
A British airway is a flag career airline of UK. It was established in 1974 by merger of
two airlines British Overseas Corporation & British European. The company named international
airline group own BA. It’s the second largest airline of UK.
Functional activity of HRM -
Different types of functional activities are as follow:-
 Rewards
When the job performance of the employee is excellent the benefits and achievements provided
to the individual is reward system. It is motivational activity done by a British airway to
encourage the employees. The performance of the personal can be noticed by only when the
rewards or any kind of promotional options are provided to the individual. So that the

management system to get stronger candidate for the growth of British airway (Skuza,
McDonnell and Scullion, 2015).
 Recruitment and selection-
It’s very important activity in HRM, the systematic and effective maximized strength of
employee to meet its goal as soon as possible. The route of allocating source, screening, listing
and picking up the best candidate for the required place for the job. Contribution of every
employee plays a vital role in growth of business, so the selection of right employee is very
essential. To fill the vacant post by the qualified candidate from the various applicants.
Overall purpose of HR as functions of the business-
Human resource department looks over various functions of an organization like hiring &
recruiting, training, development, compensation benefits, employee relations and legal
responsibilities. All the control for staffing is given to the HR department of the British airway so
that to can extract the best from there executives. Its main objective is to increase employee
performance in a great ratio to respective role in the British airway (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016).
1.2 HR Plan
HR plan is the written documents details of all the employees who are working for the
organization and which are included in overall strategic business plan. It can take many forms,
depends on size and complexity of the company. It is helpful for a company to identify future
targets and gaps and thus efforts are to be made according to fulfill that gaps(Schermerhorn and
et.al., 2019).

It is very difficult to produce 100% accurate HR plan as the data can be inefficient from
the information system of company, ambiguity and rapid change in company that can be
absenteeism, employees turnover, technological changes, seasonal employment, resistance of
employee all effect the planning of the HR.
Demand and supply of labor are to be determined in labor market. Firms and workers are
participants of labor market. Labor is supplied to companies for the sake of wages whereas labor
is demanded by company in exchange to wages.
HR Plan:
A flight is going to be taking off from UK to Madeira. The HR Plan will include
following staffing requirements which are as follows –
Peak season
• Identification of group of staff which is involved - There will be many people involved
in staff for the flight services of British airways from UK to Madeira. In the staff main role is of
the Pilot who is responsible for flying, controlling and monitoring of flight from UK to Madeira.
Another staff is Cabin crew who assures the safety and comfort to the passengers and greeting
the passengers. Engineers are there for tackling any technical issues which can arise in the flight.
Admin staff plays many roles in British airways while traveling from UK to Madeira.
• Number of employees – There will be three Pilots available in the peak season when
flight will be take off from UK to Madeira. Pilot has four hours of working. There are six cabin
crews which are present in flight and there hours of working will be four and thus there will be
two engineers and admin staff present in the flight. The preparation time will be four hours
before flight will be taking off. Staff will be on holiday for three days whereas the sickness level
will be recommended as per the situation.
• Staff Turnover – The Airline industry has gained highest revenue over employees. The
revenue has been increased by 0.32% in third quarter of 2019 and thus yearly revenue which has
been grew is 531,744$ and above Airline industry average. Thus this affected the number of staff
which are to be recruited has also been raised and thus there will be more opportunities for
individuals.
Off peak season

• Identification of group of staff which is involved Number of employees – There is many
staff which is involved in the British airlines for the flight service from UK to Madeira. The
Cabin crews attend and greet the passengers in the flight service. The Pilot flies the plan from
UK to Madeira. Engineer manages and controls the mechanism of Plan. The admin staff attends
call, manage the ground services effectively.
• Number of employees – There will be two pilots present in the flight and so there working
hours will be three hours. One engineer will be present in the flight. Thus four cabin crew will be
present in the flight while taking off from UK to Madeira. The admin staff will be two which will
be responsible for handling other things in flight. The preparation time of the flight will be two
hours and there will be four days of holiday provided to the staff. Sickness leaves will be granted
as per the situation.
• Staff Turnover – There is highest staff turnover in the airline industry in the year 2019. This
has been increased by 0.32% in quarter time. Hence, the overall staff turnover has been increased
so the more of the staff can be recruited for the year.
These HR plan is helpful for British airlines to recruit and retain their staff. By evaluating
this HR plan they can gain huge staff and retention of staff for long term with effective strategies
and management of the employees.
TASK 2
Current state of employment relationship in the airline industry
Employee relation can be defined as efforts of an organization to manage relationship
between employees and employers. An organization that has good employee relation program
most of the time provides consistent and fair treatment to all of their employees such that all the
employees remain loyal and committed and loyal towards their job and organization (Karatepe,
2016). Employee relation within an organization is directly/indirectly influenced by working
condition and employee relationship. Even in airline industry employment relationship helps in
maintaining positive working environment. This relationship is built when employees sign a
contract within their employer when they join their job. All kinds of organizational activities are
present in this contract. In order to build a positive employment relationship Organizations in
airline industry mainly focus on their selection and recruitment process as most of the job
positions in airline industry requires special skills and training like job position of a pilot,

airhostess etc. So, it is important for organizations in this industry to focus on recruitment and
selection process where employees are recruited on the basis of their current skills, past
experience, knowledge etc. After selection employment contract is signed between employer and
employees. Other than this in order to maintain good employment relationship organization in
this industry need to include and explain of their activates in the employment contract. Accurate
fulfilment of this contract helps in building and maintaining healthy employment relationship
among workers and employer in airline industry.
At the time of contract both employee and employer are free to bargain terms and
conditions that can influence working environment positively. After bargaining negotiation
between employer and employee is done in order to reach to a final point on the basis of which
employment contract is made. Positive and healthy employment relationship is also affected by
organization’s rules, regulations and policies (Karch and Peters, 2017). In airline industry it is
quite important for organizations to maintain good employment relationship because it helps
them in resolving any kind of conflict situations or conflict between employees or employee and
employers. Other than this it also helps the organizations to maintain discipline as discipline
within the airline industry helps in maintaining customer relationship and their loyalty towards
the organization. In this industry time and working speed of employees matters the most. This
positive employment relationship can help in maintaining employee satisfaction, work pressure,
speed of employees in working progress, employee efficiency as well as their quality of work. In
airline industry it becomes important for organizations to maintain employment relationship
because their employees are the one’s who maintain organization’s relationship with their
customers as they represent complete organization. But because of increasing global competition
and growth og low cost airline facilities, airline industry organizations are changing their focus
from employment relationship towards building their relationship with their customers which is
adversely affecting relationship between employees and employers and other than this nature of
jobs is also changing in this industry.
Today each and every industry have trade unions where all the employees participate and
represents a trade union independent of employer. These trade unions help in building strong
relationship with within employees. Many times, because of these trade union relationship
between employees and employer get affected. Recently because of this trade union an industrial
action occurred in airline industry which affected British airways as most of the pilots of BA

went on strike due to which as a result, they had to cancel many of their flights. Other than this
today many small low-cost airlines have come into picture and are rapidly expanding. Because of
their lower prices many customers are getting attracted towards them which is impacting British
Airways in many ways. Overall revenue of BA is also getting affected as a result in order to
remain in the competition they had to lower their prices as well. There are many other ways in
which BA is getting affected for example a low-cost airline Norwegian has recently beaten BA
record of being a fastest flight.
Ways in which employment law affects the management of human resources within British
Airways
Employment laws are extremely important in any industry as these laws helps the
organization in protecting employees from wrong done by their employees. All the industries
have their own set of employment laws (Taskinsoy and Uyar, 2017). Even British Airways needs
to follow employment laws. These laws not only protect employees of British Airways but also
helps in protecting British Airways. These laws also help British Airways to take appropriate
decisions that are favourable for them as well as for their employees. All of these laws are
implemented by HR department of British Airways according to the terms and conditions of
employment. Other than this these employment law increases responsibility of Human resource
department of British Airways towards their employees. Few of the employment laws that are
considered by British Airways are:
Equality Act 2010: this act focuses on reducing socio-economic inequalities and also focuses on
eliminating discrimination related to either some personal or socio-economic characteristics.
According to this act British Airways cannot discriminate their employees on the basis of
gender, age, disability, religion, age, sex etc. they need to treat all of their employees equally
with same rights, rules and regulations.
Data Protection Act 1998: This act focuses on protection of data of customers of an
organization. British Airways cannot disclose or use personal data of their customers. They
are not even allowed to disclose their customer’s data or any other kind of information of
their customers who have chosen to fly with their airlines are want to do any other business
with their organization like courier service etc.
National Minimum Wedges Act 1998: this act sets a basic legal framework of minimum wedges
for employees of any organization. According to this Act British Airways need to abide by

this act. If there are any kind of employees in British Airways who are between 21 to 24
years then they can be paid minimum wage of £7.70 approximately but they need to pay
approximately £8.21 to their employees who are 25 or above (Minimum wage UK, 2019).
Working time regulations Act 1998: this act focuses on set work time directives for the
organizations by setting maximum working hours for their employees. According to this law
British Airways cannot make their employees work more than 40 hours per week. They need
to honor this act and if they make their employees work more than that then they need to pay
overtime compensation to their employees.
TASK 3
3.1 Personal specification and job description for Cabin Crew, BA
The given job description of Cabin crew provides clear description of the job purpose
and the principle accountabilities which the employee will have. The job purpose also explain
and consist of details regarding the aim and priorities of British Airways along with the
opportunities for candidates. The work culture of British Airways has strict regulations and
safety considerations along with quality are kept at priority. This is clearly reflected in
accountabilities of cabin crew. It also satisfy the safety and essential quality standards which are
required by the service providers of airline industries.
The job description also have details regarding EASA compliances and flyer
requirements of British Airways so that individual candidate can get detailed description of
legislative aspect of airline industry. The personal specifications provided are completely in
alignment with the EASA regulations and common trends of airline industry (Sultan and et.al.,
2019). The specification provides a detailed description of skills such as passion, customer
preference, relationship building which reflects the job purpose and associated needs.
It is mandatory for British Airways to assure that candidate must be eligible from the
standards of EASA and thus it also enclose a detailed description of requirement. Along with the
essentials such as body weight, height, vision and other parameters it also covers necessary
information which can affect selection procedure. For example British Airways has clearly
mentioned about working condition such as tight work schedule and related consequences of
duties at airport base.
The personal specification also assure that individuals who will consider the job
description also meet some particular requirements of British Airways such as criminal record

check, uniform and appearance related regulations. The behavioural criteria such as faster,
smarter, together and leaner provided in personal specification also reflect the work culture and
behavioural requirements of job description. The work conditions and expected behavioural set
described in personal specification also suggest the nature of work involved in cabin crew job. It
helps individuals to take proper and clear assessment of themselves and to assess their suitability
for the job role (Tahsildari and Shahnaei, 2015).
Apart from the personal traits an effective job description must also provide details of
professional skills. However the given cabin crew description does not entail much detail
regarding professional aspects of the job. Though on job experience is mentioned to indicate the
individuals regarding professional expertise as apart from the personal skills professional
expertise is mandatory for British Airways to ensure safe and quality operations.
3.2 Comparing selection procedure of British Airways and Transport for London (TFL)
The selection procedure can vary from one organisation to other depending upon their
needs and organisational procedure. The cabin crew recruitment of BA and customer service
assistant recruitment for Victoria coach station of TFL follows different procedure for selection.
Though basic procedure remain same including stages like job posting, initial screening,
assessment test and then final selection. However these stages are executed differently by both
the organisations. These differences are as follows:
Stages British Airways TFL
Job
description
and posting
British Airways post the detail of
recruitment for cabin crew on it
website. The recruitment details
contain various online questions
regarding recruitment terms and job
description. If an individual provide
confirmation for them only then they
are provided log in details for
applying.
As compare to the British Airways,
the initial stage of TFL is quite
simple. Along with the job
description and recruitment
information organisation provides a
log in option so that interested
candidate can registered themselves
and can proceed further.
Screening or
selection
For the log in password also British
Airways use initial screening on the
On the other hand after making log in
into TFL recruitment section

criteria basis of online questions asked on
website. After successful log in
candidates are required to give an
online psychometric test needed for
cabin crew job.
candidate has to first select desired
vacancy for which they want to
apply. After this stage a screening is
done if candidate satisfy all basic
requirement such as qualification or
physical dimensions. Then only
screened candidates are allowed to
perform a situational judgement test
so that customer handling skills can
be evaluated.
Ending
process
The candidates who clear online
screening test are then required to
perform assessment test including
group discussion, interview and role
play.
The same procedure is followed by
TFL as that followed by British
Airways in this stage.
Selection
terms
In the last stage British Airways
checks background and medical
records of candidates who clear
assessment test. However after this
suitable candidates are provided
training for few weeks and only on
successful completion of training they
are given offer letter for positioning.
Similar to British Airways, TFL also
performs background check along
with reference check for candidates
who excel in assessment test.
However after this appropriate
candidates are directly given offer
letter for customer service assistance.
Thus organisation provides on the
job training to positioned candidate.
TASK 4
Training and development
Training is defined as the program which aims at strengthening and improving the skills
of each employee as per their needs and organisational requirements (Manzoor and et.al., 2019).
On the other hand development is defined as the organisational approach and procedure to bring

all employees at higher level so that they have same level of skills and knowledge (Hashim,
Ismail and Hassan, 2016). The difference between training and development is as follows:
Training Development
The purpose of training programs is to
improve the professional excellency of an
individual so that their contribution in
organisation can be elevated
Development programs aims at reducing
basic operational interdependency among
employees so that they does not rely on
others for performing routine tasks
(Brewster, 2016).
It requires instructions and guidances and is
usually related to non- leadership activities
and specific job role or task (Boselie, 2016).
It includes theoretical and philosophical
concepts for improving leadership and
generalised skills.
Training programs are short term and targets
capabilities and performance of individual.
These are long term programs emphasising
on preparing individuals for the future
challenges or goals.
Effectiveness and benefits of training
Through effective training programs British Airways can impart essential professional
knowledge and skills set so that ability of each employee can be improved. Since training
programs are job oriented they are highly beneficial in terms of enhancing work and service
quality (Subramaniam, Selvanayagam and Yogarajah, 2016). It is helpful in terms of improving
customer experience as well as in meeting quality and safety standards expected by British
Airways. The organisation also have training programs for the new recruits so that they can make
themselves aware of the organisational policies, work culture and procedures. It also helps
individuals to direct their attitude and behaviour in alignment with the needs of organisation
(Sanders, 2016). The training programs can be made more effective by designing them as per the
existing abilities and understanding of the trainees. British Airways emphasis on guiding
employees through best trainers so that employees can make themselves efficient in terms of task
accomplishment.

Role and significance of training
British Airways must design training programs for its employees so that skills and
knowledge of employees can be improved according to particular job requirements. The
professional culture of British Airways or airline services is different from retail or other
industries. Thus appropriate training programs is vital to change the employee conduct towards
subordinates, colleagues and superior (Chang and Chin, 2018). Along with the prospective jobs
training programs are also necessary to groom the professionalism among individuals. Thus
training is not only helpful for the British Airways but it also gave an opportunity to individual
employee to groom skills and capabilities.
Training programs play a significant role in the growth of British Airways as it enhances
employee productivity so that their performance can be improved. This improved productivity
minimises the risk or related vulnerabilities which are found in services of British Airways. For
instance improved productivity of employees will assure that no accidents or damages are caused
to passengers or resources of British Airways due to negligence or lack of expertise of its
employees.
Various types of training
British Airways can provide two types of training namely on the job and off the job. The
former type of training is known as training which is given at work place while performing the
actual operational tasks. On the other hand off the job training refers to the approach in which
training is provided on location other than actual work place.
On the job training: This type of training includes work shadowing and apprenticeship which
train an individual each and every minor aspect related to task or job. It is provided at work place
and thus allow learner to learn by performing (Anwar, Tufail and Mujahid, 2017). Since with this
training participants are allowed to perform tasks it does not disrupt the operations of British
Airways and is usually carried out by experienced employees only. When any new employee join
the organisation, British airways provide them on the job training regarding safety equipment
and procedures so that they can assure the safe working practices at work.
Off the job training: British Airways also provides off the job training which are quite
expensive and is conducted by professions. These trainings are theoretical and along with the
task knowledge they also teaches other corporate or professional skills such as mentorship, team
work and cooperation. British Airways provide this training away from its workplace so that

learners can learn by acquiring knowledge (Sultan and et.al., 2019). Through this type of
training organisation assure that prior to performing the task in actual employee has strong
knowledge and theoretical foundation of concepts and tasks. For example British airways has
training centres named British global learning academy at Heathrow airport. This type of training
programs gives an opportunity to aspirants who seek to get job in BA to learn the various
technical skills. Similarly after candidate is recruited for the job role of cabin crew then also
British Airways provide them training and only after successful completion of training they are
confirmed for the job.
Contribution of training and development to effective organisational operations
Training and development programs are vital and integral part of the organisation.
Training programs are essential for making individual expertise in each operational activities
while development programs play significant role in addressing long term goals and challenges
of British Airways (Shah, 2016). Efficient leaders and employees are necessary and important
assets for making the individuals highly productive. This is not possible without training and
development program which transform the individual knowledge, skills and capabilities into
solution for organisational requirements (Subramaniam, Selvanayagam and Yogarajah, 2016).
The regular implementation and up-gradation of these programs also assist British Airways to
gain competitive advantage by making its human resources excellent in terms of productivity and
market trends.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that human resources are vital part of the
organisation and their management is essential for operational efficiency. The HR Plan can affect
the long term strategies and operational expenses of the company. Thus it must be prepared with
due care. It has been also analysed that recruitment and selection process is very critical and thus
suitable job description and procedure must be followed in this practice. For assuring long term
operational efficiency and better employee retention it is also recommended that organisations
must emphasis on building good employee relationships.
The employment legislations must also be considered in every aspect of HRM. In order
to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the organisation it is recommended that appropriate
training and development programs must be formulated. It can be concluded that training and

effective recruitment strategies can help organisations to gain competitive advantage as well as
improved quality of services.

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Online
Minimum wage UK. 2019. [online]. Available through: <http://www.minimum-wage.co.uk/>