HRM Issues and Challenges in WSA

Running Head: WSA
HRM Issues and Challenges in
WSA
Essay
System04104
7/10/2019

WSA
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Introduction
Western Sydney Airport (WSA) is the second Sydney airport in Australia. It is also
known as Nancy-Bird Walton Airport (Western Sydney Airport, 2018). WSA is newly
incorporated government business enterprise and looking for hiring large number of people in
the organisation by 2031. This report has been prepared in consideration with the current HR
challenges and issues for WSA to recruit people for the organisation. WSA is facing
problems related to attracting new people in the organisation. This report helps to understand
these problems and provide relevant solutions to WSA to resolve these issues to hire fresh
and talented people for the organisation.
What is the problem?
WSA is looking for recruiting people for the organisation but high competition in the
labour market poses many challenges for WSA for recruiting people. High competition in the
market forces the company to recruit people at high cost. The demand of talent in aviation
industry is rapidly increasing in Australia and it is also the requirement of WSA. Any airline
company requires large number of people for both customers service and ground operations
as well. WSA is planning to recruit 28000 people by 2031 and it is really a challenge for the
company to hire large number of people in the competitive labour market (Department of
Infrastructure, Transport, Cities, and Regional Development, 2019). As a research conducted
by international Air Transport Association (IATA), it has been found that recruiting people in
the aviation industry is a greatest challenge for any country. Availability of people with right
skills and qualification on appropriate salary demand is the biggest challenge for the WSA
and company needs to short out these problems.
What are the major HR issues in WSA?
Recruitment and selection of people in Australian aviation industry is a challenge for
many companies. There are many reasons behind this but some of the key challenges are as
follow:
Attracting new talent and retaining people in the organisation

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Attracting and retaining talent in the organisation is major challenge in the industry
that is face by many HR professionals. Training and development programs also play an
important role in job satisfaction, which should be considered by a HR professional while
recruiting and hiring people in the aviation industry. Another major challenge for a HR
professional in WSA is to find people with digital and IT skills (Australian Aviation, 2019).
While recruiting new people in the organisation is a major challenge for the WSA, retaining
the existing employee is also a great challenge for the company. According to a report
published by Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport, and Regional Economics, in 2018, 10,808
domestic flights were cancelled in Australia because of several reasons and most of them
cancelled due to shortage of pilots and engineers (Department of Infrastructure, Transport,
Cities, and Regional Development, 2019).
Shortage of workforce in the market and high competition
WSA has long-term needs of graduate and qualified employees with great knowledge
and sophisticated skills. The problem for the company is to find out fresh graduate people
who fulfil the company needs and requirements. Even the high competition in the labour
market force the WSA to think about its recruitment plan and use appropriate strategy to hire
people. Shortage of talent in the market is a challenge for the WSA and it should be
overcome with appropriate HR recruitment and selection planning of the company (Freyens,
2010). HR professionals should also try to make the recruitment process easier for job
applicants. For example, there are large number of people are applying for cabin crew job
openings, but they find that screening process in the company is more time consuming.
Therefore, HR professional of the company should look to introduce online test and interview
through video conferencing that save time and helps the organisation to hire more and more
people on low cost (Breaugh, 2008).
Advance technology and change in required set of skills and knowledge
Advancement in technology and productivity changes in the aviation industry also
forces the company think about making right strategy and policies to recruit people. The
advancement in technology requires new set of skills and practical knowledge, which were
previously non-existent in the aviation industry. Change in technology forces almost every
company of every industry to search new talent for the organisational goals and provide them
proper training and development program thus they can help the organisation to achieve its
goals (Hunter, Cushenbery & Friedrich, 2012). The effectiveness of in-house training is also