Role and Purpose of HRM in British Airways

This assignment discusses the role and purpose of HRM in British Airways, including recruitment and selection, orientation, training and development, and managing employee relations.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1........................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Role and purpose of HRM.....................................................................................................1
1.2 HR plan for analysis of supply and demand..........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Current state of employment relations...................................................................................5
Employee relation........................................................................................................................5
2.2 Employment laws affects management of HR......................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew..................................................7
3.2 Comparison of selection processes for British Airway and Hospitality (hotel) industry......9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Contribution of training and development activities for effective operation......................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management (HRM) or Human Resource (HR) is strategic approach
for effective management of corporate worker which assist in gaining competitive advantages. It
is made for maximizing performance of employees with respect to employer's strategic
objectives and focusing on systems and policies. As HRM is significant for organisation for
achieving result. It is important function of every firm to have skill and knowledge human
resource. The given assignment is based on British Airway (BA) which is flag carrier and largest
airline in United Kingdom created in 1974. It has 183 destinations along with subsidiaries BA
city flyer. It has two hubs at Gatwick and Heathrow Airport. Here will discuss about role and
purpose of HRM in BA and creative plan of an HR for analysing supply and demand within
organisation. The current state of employment relations in airline industry and laws affecting
management of HRM. The file has also discussed about job description and specification. The
comparison of selection process between British Airway for Cabin crew and hotel industry for
Customer Service Assistant. For effective operation the contribution of training and development
in service industry is very important (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
TASK 1
1.1 Role and purpose of HRM
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is term describing formal systems for managing people of
organisation. There are three basic responsibilities of HR manager including employee
compensation and benefits, staffing and designing work. Its main purpose is maximizing
productivity by optimizing employees effectiveness. The key areas are:
Planning and forecasting- HRM require proper planning and forecasting of staff
requirement before selecting employees. The HR manager of BA have done planning for worker
and accordingly publish vacancy in newspaper.
Recruitment process- The HR first find requirement of different job profile at
organisation and work accordingly. As recruitment is positive process in which large number of
candidate applies. BA manager have done recruitment for getting right candidate for required
post.
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Contracts of employment- It is an agreement between employees and organisation
regarding job profile, designation, salary leave, which is managed HR. In case of breach of
contact staff have to pay some fine to company. As BA is airline industry so there contract is
compulsory and maintained by authority.
Role of HRM
Recruitment and selection- It is way for captivating, screening and selecting qualified
and potential candidates for job profile. Its goal is attracting large applicant and selecting best out
of which is positive process. Similarly, selection means selecting suitable employees for firm
and negative process. It is important for corporation to reduce cost. The HR manager of BA have
to play significant role in recruiting and selecting to get best staff. Through this suitable staff is
selected.
Orientation- It is the way to guide and give knowledge about job profile, mission, vision,
goal of organisation to new employees or joiner. It assist employees for assigned duties, job
description and clarification of role. BA manager plays an effective role in this so that staff
became aware about work to be performed and act accordingly (Aswathappa, 2013).
Training and development- Training and development are important role of HRM. It
helps in improving current as well as future performance of each employees by increasing
ability, knowledge and behaviour. In context of BA, it conduct training and development on
regular basis for enhancing staff performance and increment of productivity.
Managing employee relations- As employees are the main asset and pillar of
organisation. It is important to have good relations with staff member for increasing output and
motivating them. It provide positive impact for personal and professional development. Thus,
BA has mentioned good relationship with subordinates which is supervised by HR for success
and survival.
Purpose of HRM
The main purpose of HR manager of British Airway is to manage employees of firm and
achieve goal and objectives. It also motivate staff for performing effectively and efficiently. It
focus on providing all the facilities to their working staff with positive environment.
Hard HRM
In this employees are treated as resource of business such as machinery and buildings. It
has good corporate business planning and focus on HRM which is hiring, moving and firing. The
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communication and wage is minimum with little delegation of task. It has autocratic leadership
style.
Soft HRM
The employees are treated as most important source of business and competitive
advantage. They are treated as individual and accordingly needs are planned. It focus on roles
and motivation. It has long term strategic and two way communication with good pay structure.
It has democratic leadership style.
1.2 HR plan for analysis of supply and demand
Human resource Plan
(HR) plan is alignment of corporate strategy. It is document built on the basis of mission,
vision goals and values. It provides information to HR function which support strategies and
goal. It helps in finding gap between present and future capabilities. There are step for creative
HR plan are as follows:
Identify future HR needs- The need of HR is identified and ask questions like
 what is nature of work
 what type of culture
 which system and process required
 what are risk
 what are skill required
Consider present HR capabilities- The present HR capabilities can be asked following
questions
 how we doing against set benchmarks
 where do risk lies
 what current system support or hinder progress
Identify gaps between future needs and present capability- In this step gap is identified
which includes policies, procedures, resource allocation and following question is asked
 how can gap be classified
 where gap appear between present and future
Formulate gap strategies- After gap identification, the strategies can be
 job design
 performance management
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 training & development
 safety and health
 selection & staffing
 compensation & rewards
 employees relation
Share and Monitor plan- This is the last stage of HR plan in which all task are monitor.
The understanding of plan helps in achieving goal and objectives. HR manager need to
communicate successes and modification if required.
Demand and Supply Analysis
Demand is desire and ability to purchase goods and services. It is underlying force drives
for expansion and economic growth. It arises from taste, experiences, price, related products and
income. Supply is amount of product available for purchasing at price. It is determined by price,
cost, price of other goods. Demand and supply analysis helps in knowing the requirement of
consumer and availability of supplying power. BA also use this tool for knowing market and
accordingly make plan. For example, during peak time the prices of ticket is high with respect to
supply at BA.
BA Demand and Supply
Staff role- The role of staff as per BA are following:
 They have to responsible for service duties of passengers which includes arrival
and departures, check out.
 To check about passenger comfort and cabin services by crew.
 They are responsible for customers services before, after and between flights.
 Taking reservations
 Issuance of tickets
 The answering question of passengers and assisting their needs
 Verification of passengers identification and printing boarding passes.
 Helping traveller for checking of luggage at ticket counter
 Checking delivery of baggages
 Conducting security for passengers and luggage if required.
 They should have command over English language
 Communication skill should be effective.
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Number of staff- From the scenario mentioned in BA assignment the staff required is
more which can be 10. The duration is four hours and four flight from Heathrow and four
returning per week during peak time. Similarly, during other time three flights from Heathrow
and three returning per week.
Hours of hours- The flying hour and working are different things. The maximum hours
for BA is 60 hours in 7 days, 100 hours in 14 days and 190 hours in 28 days (Bratton and Gold,
2017).
TASK 2
2.1 Current state of employment relations
Employee relation
It refers to a company's efforts to manage relationship between employees and employer.
It assists in communication between employees and supervisees, corrective action and planning,
disciplinary actions, and exploration and clarification of policies and procedures. It offers
resolution, facilitation and consultation strategies for organisation issuers. The concept of
employee relations is not limited with the equation between employees and employer but it has
also scope to employee to employee and employer to employer. The main aim behind studying
this concept is to develop an understanding about current employment relations in British
Airways. Various current relations along with trends are mentioned below:
British airways is a leading airline in United Kingdom and employment relations of this
company does fluctuate with the time. In the current scenario, airline companies are tending
towards developing their own trade union so that interest of every employee can be protected.
Trade union of this company is planning to get their selves registered under trade union act.
Another aspect of employee relations is employee empowerment. According to the current
scenario, employees are employees working in all organisations has freedom of developing
union and empower themselves by focusing on their own goal rather than only focusing on
whole organisation's goal. Current relations of employees of this company states that there
should no boundaries of good physical appearance for the employees of cabin crew as it involves
sense of partiality on the basis of factors which can not be controlled.
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According to the current state of British Airways, it has been ascertained that employees
of this company has established a department of problem and grievance solving in which all the
Employment including labours and workers can come and seek for help against the their issues.
This department has a physical professional existence in which proper meetings are conducted
for problem solving process. Culture is the another aspect from which current state of British
Airways can be ascertained when specifically considering employees relations. The culture and
corporate standards of airlines requires all staff members to dress alike and follow the code of
conduct and behave in a particular way. This culture is still continuously adapted by all the
airline companies.
2.2 Employment laws affects management of HR
Employment Law
It is a broad area encompassing all areas of the employees and employer relation. It also
known as labour law. It consist of thousands of federal and states, administrative regulations and
judicial decision. ACAS are the employment relations experts and a trusted source of advice for
employers and employees, government and others.
Employment legislation- It is used to regulate individual employment relationships and
establish the framework within which workers and employers can determine their own relation
on a collective basis. In Airways Industry it provide protection such as minimum age for
admission to employment work, the protection of young workers, equality of work, hours of
work, payment of wages, occupational safety and health and maternity protection. By complying
with relevant legislation, both employers and their staff members can ensure that their hiring
processes, dismissal processes and their workplace as a whole, are fair for every individual.
Employment Relation Act - It is a legal link that is formed between an employee and
employer when work is completed for monetary reimbursement. It is a right to be accompanied
by a fellow employee or trade union representative during a grievance and disciplinary
procedure. Dismissal or selection for residency automatically unfair if the main reason is
connected to trade union recognition or collective bargaining (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
Employment Rights Act- It defines the employment contract and states that it must be in
writing and provided to the employee. In this Act all employees have basic right in the
workplace including the right of privacy, fair compensation and freedom from discrimination. In
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aviation industry it provide protection against unlawful discrimination such as age, gender,
disability and religion or belief. Protecting the pay scale of the employees and the employers.
Equal opportunities- These laws provide employees and employers in Airline equal
opportunities related to any field by removing gender gap, disability benefits, race including
colour, nationality, ethics or national origin and religion or belief.
Contracts of employment - Employment contracts are most often used by employees to
show the employer's right to fire an employee was limited. In Airline, Employee contracts must
be terminated according to the terms and provision of the employment agreement. Termination
of employees represented by a labour union and covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
An employee or employer can decide to terminate a contract of employment. Employees may
terminate their contract by resigning and an employer may terminate the contract by dismissing
an employees.
Ill health retirements, retirement, dismissal, maternity and paternity rights, parental leave
In airline, Ill health retirement is a retirement scheme which pay the employees in
pension form any age if they are suffering from an illness. Retirement is when a person choose to
leave from the workforce. It is the withdrawal from one's position on occupation or from one'
active life. Paternity is for biological fathers only. They take it after the baby is born. They can
take it a parental leave after their paternity leave. Maternity leave is for biological mothers only.
Employees take it while they are pregnant and after the baby is born. They can take parental
leave after their maternity leave (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016).
TASK 3
3.1 Job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew
Job description:
Job description is a statement which includes all the information about a specific job
profile. This information involves all the valid and significant data such as job role, scope,
designation, responsibilities, reporting, answerability and many more. This description is a
considered as a fundamental technique by which all the conditions and rules of a job profile is
communicated with selected candidates for a specific job designation. It is important to be
familiar with all the aspects involved in a job which can be effectively communicated through
this concept of job description. The main aim of using this concept is to ensure that candidates
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are well aware with their job roles and responsibilities so that no conflicts between employees
and employers can be avoided. This process helps an organisation to increase their effectiveness
and efficiency by evading the chaos which occurs due to lack of job role awareness. By
reviewing the job description for a job profile, a candidate can ascertain their respective duties
and responsibilities. It is important to communicate organisational goals with their employees so
that they can prioritize their work. By using this type of document, candidates can even link their
aims with overall organisational aims. Job description not only involves data about job profile
but also the necessary information about the company such as vision and mission statement of
the company along with main objectives.
British Airways is a leading airline operating in United Kingdom which deals in aviation
industry. Employees which are appointed by this company and recruited after full examination of
candidates as this type of companies consider their employees as their main resource and provide
them all necessary information which is required by them. The service industry job which is
selected to develop an understanding about the concept of job description is Cabin Crew.
Cabin crew members are the employees which are trained by professionals in order to
attend and communicate with the passengers of the airline. These type of employees has a job
profile of providing excellent costumer service to passengers in to ensure their comfortable and
safe journey. These employees are appropriately trained so that they can deal with security and
emergency kind of situations. Job description of a cabin crew member will include following
details in their job description which are mentioned below:
 Cabin crew of British Airways is responsible for every medium level management
operations such as operational activities and supervisory activities. Job description of this
profile will also contain responsibilities and duties which has to be fulfilled by the
employee.
 Job description of cabin crew of British Airways will have all rules and regulations which
are required to followed. There is a specific code of conduct which employees working in
airlines has to follow which should be described in this description.
 Job profile of cabin crew is usually considered as a risky job as employees has to operate
in ongoing flight due to which all declarations and risks involved in job are adequately
discussed in job description.
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 Job description often includes qualifications, skills and knowledge which candidate
should possess to operate effectively.
Person specification:
Person specification is a narrow concept and includes less information when compared to
job description. These specifications are a part of description itself. This document includes
qualifications, knowledge, attributes, skills and experience which should be possessed by an
individual to be considered for a specific job. Person specification is a summary which states the
features which should be possessed by an individual. These specifications are used as a base
while recruiting and selecting an employee. Personal specifications for the job of cabin crew of
British Airways is mentioned below:
 Cabin crew members should have good communication and interpersonal skills.
 These type of employees should be confident and has a good problem solving skills.
 There is no such formal qualification or some sort of degree for cabin crew member but
candidates which are already trained as a cabin crew are high prioritized.
 As a cabin crew member it is important to be physically fit and attractive.
 Good literacy skills and numeracy skills are also a part of personal specifications of cabin
crew (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012).
3.2 Comparison of selection processes for British Airway and Hospitality (hotel) industry
Selection process:
Selection is a process of appointing right person for right position. This is a procedure of
matching the requirements of job profile with the candidates which are screened according to
their skills, knowledge and experience. The process of selection is a responsibility of human
resource manager which has the duty to recruit appropriate and suitable employees for a job
designation. There are various steps involved in the process of employee selection which are
preliminary interview, in which a short interview is conducted of all the employees. In the
second step of this process which is receiving applicants is a stage where human resource
manager gathers all the job applications. After this step, all the applications are screened for
intermediate selection. Next stage in the process of selection is Employment test in which a
written or online examination is conducted which has questions of general proficiency. In the
next step, few candidates are selected are proceed for personal interview which is taken by the
employer itself. In order to ensure the background of the employees, references are checked.
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Preceding to this method, a physical examination is conducted in which health status of the
employees are ascertained. After completion of this process, final selection of the employees is
conducted (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014).
Selection process of British Airways:
British Airways is the largest airline of United Kingdom which has their main aim to
satisfy their clients and increase their profitability. Selection process of this company is quite
complex as they includes various stages before the final selection. It is important to give prime
importance to selection process by this company as in the service industry it is important to
appoint employees which can attain the satisfaction of consumers. At British Airways, cabin
crew members are invited to provide their application through online platform. Once all the
applications are received they are reviewed by the human resource manager to identify which of
the applicants has required skills, knowledge and experience. Few candidates are shortlisted by
the human resource manager which are further invited for personal interview. This stage takes
two days as along with personal interview, few tests are also conducted which includes verbal,
reasoning and general questions. Candidates who qualify all these stages are further examined
through references and health check up then finally appointed.
Selection process of Hospitality (hotel) industry:
Hotel is a subsector of hospitality industry which deals in number of services such as
accommodations, food and beverage and entertainment services. Hotel subsector is also a part of
service industry but it's selection process is way different from airline industry. Customer care
assistant is a job profile which also requires technical knowledge so that applicant can
communicate with prospect clients. Along with these hard skills, soft skills of applicants has also
been considered. In the process of selection, various applications are received through online and
office methods. Next stage in the process of selection is to invite applicants for aptitude test in
which technical knowledge of candidates is judged on the basis of set benchmarks. Applicants
which are selected for the next round are interviewed by human resource manager. There is no
reference or medical check up for this profile. After all these test, final candidates are selected
and appointed.
Comparison in the selection process of both of these industries:
Service industry is not involved in producing anything, they operate to provide services
to their client so that their maximum satisfaction can be attained. Selection processes of different
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sectors working in same industry can have varied selection process as this procedure is
customised according to the job profile and situations. In the selection process of cabin crew
member for British Airways, employment test are based to general proficiency whereas
employment test for customer care assistant is based in technical aspects. Personal interview for
the candidates of cabin crew members are taken by their direct employer whereas in the process
of customer care assistant, personal interview is taken by human resource manager. Cabin crew
member has job profile to travel due to which their detailed health check up is done which is not
performed in the selection process of customer care assistant (Marchington, Wilkinson and
Kynighou, 2016).
TASK 4
4.1 Contribution of training and development activities for effective operation
Training and Development
It is a process that help employees to learn skills and knowledge which helps to improve
their performance. Development means to focus on employees growth and performance. This
helps to organize and quickness learning and development process which is required to create
effectiveness in job performance (Storey, 2014). British airways is the largest airline in united
kingdom. For effective operations British airlines need to understand some major points that are
mentioned below:
Link between induction programmes and training
Induction is a process used by businesses organisation to welcome their new employee
into workplace. It helps British airlines to establishing good flow of communication and
relationship among employee. There is a link between induction and training programme as
training generally means to ensure new workers to adopt new work environment with comfort.
Role and need for training
Training helps in increasing job satisfaction which results in increase of employee
motivation. British airways by implementing this method can able to increase their financial gain
which help them to innovate new strategies.
Types of training and development activities: There are some techniques which British airways
can implement to gain profitability that are quality training, skills training, professional and legal
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training, team training and managerial training by the help of these company can posses smooth
working environment.
Training need analysis
It is a process in which there is understanding of training requirements at various level of
training programmes. British airlines must have knowledge for needs of their employees to
generate more productivity through them.
Benefits of training and Development
It will help British airways to increase motivation level of their employees which results
increase in performance level. That will automatically result increase in financial growth and
process.
Barriers and attitudes of training
There are some barriers in training which British airlines must to take care that are budget
related barriers, lack of vision and time barriers and social and cultural barriers by overcoming
this company can able to tackle adverse situations.
Evolution of training against overall organisational objective
British airways firstly need to do analysation of overall training method and make sure
that training procedures are as per according to their organisation objectives. They have to
measure training programmes to their organisation goals and if those programmes are not
according to their company objectives then they need to implement and make new training
strategies. This will help them to generate efficiency in their employees performance (Renwick,
Redman and Maguire, 2013).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that human resource management is
a process of controlling and monitoring all the aspects related to human resources that is
employees. Role and purpose of this concept is analysed in this report from which it has been
observed that this process is the backbone of the management of a business organisation.
Recruitment and selection process of two different sectors operating in service industry is
analysed from which it is concluded that despite of the same industry, selection process can vary
from each other as it is related with situation and job profile. Importance of training and
development is also been discussed in this report from which it has been seen that before
recruiting any candidate it is important to provide them reliable training.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Aswathappa, K. E. M. A. L., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata
McGraw-Hill Education.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in European human resource
management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Briscoe, D., Tarique, I. and Schuler, R., 2012. International human resource management:
Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
Buller, P. F. and McEvoy, G. M., 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance:
Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review. 22(1). pp.43-56.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2017. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic
human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals. 8(1). pp.1-56.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource management at
work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Renwick, D. W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A
review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15(1).
pp.1-14.
Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
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