British Airways: HRM Strategies, Job Design, and Environmental Impact

This report examines the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices of British Airways. It begins by analyzing the company's strategic HRM changes, emphasizing the importance of adapting HR strategies to achieve business objectives. The report then explores the impact of environmental factors on British Airways' culture and HRM plans, highlighting the need to consider both internal and external influences. The report further discusses the HR model utilized by the firm, specifically the HR value chain, and how it creates value through HRM activities, outcomes, and organizational objectives. It also provides a comparison between HRM and personnel management using Storey's 27 points of difference. The report then delves into British Airways' job design strategies, including job rotation, enlargement, and enrichment, and their influence on employee motivation and productivity. Additionally, the report briefly touches upon the hiring and firing strategies employed by the company. Finally, the report offers recommendations for improving HR practices at British Airways, supporting the analysis with corporate examples and relevant literature.

Human Resource
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
TASK....................................................................................................................................................3
A) HR strategies were changed by the firm. Use of concept of strategic HRM should be evident....3
B) The impact of environmental factors on culture and HRM plan...................................................4
C) HR model and state how the value was created by the firm..........................................................5
D) Using Storey’s 27 points of difference between HRM and Personnel Management as a
benchmark, state what is being practised by the firm........................................................................6
E) Analyse the job design strategies of the chosen firm....................................................................7
F) State the hiring and firing strategies of the chosen firm during this period...................................8
G) Use corporate examples of firms using good HR practices and literature to justify your stand.
200.....................................................................................................................................................9
H) Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
HRM is the process of finding, recruiting, distributing, and managing employees in a
business. HRM is frequently abbreviated as "human resources" (HR). The human resources
manager of a company or an association is normally in charge of developing, analysing and
managing policies that regulate personnel and the organization's interaction with its
personnel. Thus, it is significant for manager to manage their employees’ activities so that
they can easily perform their task and attain their targets in stipulated time frame (Anwar and
et. Al., 2020). Basically, human resources are assets for business and its main goal of
effective management is to make effective use of workers, minimising risk and at the same
time also maximizing return on investment. Current project is based on British Airways Ltd,
is a popular airline company that operate in Europe with the purpose of attaining competitive
edge. Organisation is also focus on managing their human resource as it helps in maximising
overall productivity level at market place. Report is going to discussed about how HR
strategies changed by the company and the impact of environmental factors over the HR plan
and culture. In addition to this, difference between HRM and personnel management is also
mentioned here. Apart from this, different job design strategy is also discussed in this report.
At last, recommendations are also including that make to employees more productive.
TASK
A) HR strategies were changed by the firm. Use of concept of strategic HRM should be
evident
Strategies of human resource is something which determines the future oriented
process in terms of development. It helps in solving problems which are majorly related to
businesses and can have a direct impact on the long-term business objectives. For example,
strategy of Human Resource department of British Airways regarding the process of
recruitment and selection process. If the company’s strategy is providing ethical and cultural
leadership then it is good but if the company is getting negative consequences, then there is a
need of examining the HR strategies. However, changing strategies by a company requires a
lot of planning, so as to promote a positive behaviour, culture and competencies. In other
context, look after what the competitors of the company is doing becomes a crucial part as it
will further assist the company in recruiting the right talents (Zhang and et. Al., 2021). All
these factors as a whole will provide the company a competitive edge in gaining the positive
outcome.

Significantly, in relation to the company, British Airways, as the company
majorly focusses on developing a better relation between organisation and employees so,
while changing their HR strategies they primarily focused on six dimensions. HRM
strategies; For instance, implementing HR strategies related to results-oriented goal. In
accordance to this, first, the HR department will have to assess the skills, needs and
knowledge of staff. It will help the department in keeping all its employees up-to-dated.
Practices; making strategies is one part of HR department, but implementing it properly is
the main function. For doing this, British Airways uses the Guest’s model, and this helps the
managers in defining various operational activities so that proper roles and responsibilities
can be assigned to employees. Outcome; whether the strategy is successful or not can be
determined by the outcome. If the company has obtained a positive growth in the overall
performance of business that means the strategy is successful or vice-versa (Raut and et. Al.,
2020). The same result goes with the other three dimensions as well which are behavioural,
performance and financial outcome. Therefore, according to the Guest’s model, considering
the manager’s analyses of different dimensions, British Airways will develop a plan related to
activities of HR department such as selecting, recruiting and providing appropriate training.
However, along with this, managers should seek for feedbacks is employees are facing any
kind of difficulties with regards to any of the strategies so that redefining the same can be
possible.
B) The impact of environmental factors on culture and HRM plan
Environmental variables are recognizable components inside an organisational
cultural, economic, demographic, physical, technical, or political atmosphere that have an
impact on its growth, activities, and existence. For a firm, environmental factors can be both
internally and externally. Every firm, large or little, is influenced not just by organizational
structure issues, but also by a variety of existing forces. The company has no influence over
the physical conditions. Environmental factors should be considered when developing
marketing plans in order to offer a complete representation of market dynamics and the
surroundings and to comprehend where even the government stands. In this context, British
Airways also analyse the environmental factors in order to maintain their performance level.
As a structure, human resource planning is considered as a component of an enterprise. When
a subsystem is subjected to analysis, it is described as a system since it possesses system-like
characteristics. Human resource managers may still not work in a steady and sustainable
environment (Iqbal, 2020). As a result, the HR manager must carefully plan for recruitment,

selection, training, and so forth. Advancement, retirement, layoff, and retrenchment are all
methods of managing workforce. This is the reason that manager of British Airways to rarely
do really have the luxury of working in a stable and predictable workplace. All organizations
are affected by political, social, and economic developments. Staff and human resource
strategists focus on environmental uncertainties by working to enhance policies and programs
for employment, selection, retraining, and promotion (Mahadevan, 2020). By talent
management, advancement routes, layoff, leisure activities, work sharing, retirement, and
other manpower issues, balancing procedures are included into the people management
strategy. Because the environment is a crucial component of the HRM model, it is necessary
to understand what it does and how it effects HR operations in a business. The term
"environment" refers to all of the aspects that influence how the Human resources department
operates. With the assistance of this, British Airways can improve their performance and at
the same time also retain their workers for longer period of time. This will contribute in
attaining competitive success at market place. It will possible by analysing all the uncertainty
present in environment which may help in maximising positive impact by reducing negative
impact over the HRM planning.
C) HR model and state how the value was created by the firm
The HRM model (HR framework) is a word that refers to an organization's strategy
plan for managing and coordinating human capital-related business tasks. The purpose of
developing HRM models is to help businesses in managing their employees in the most
appropriate and productive way possible in order to attain all the particular goals. Human
resource management is frequently stated as a concept with two possible techniques or forms.
A harsh approach to HRM is distinguished by a strong importance on organizational
performance and a concentration on the involved approach to employee management. As
British Airways also use effective HR model to manage organizational activities that
positively contributes in improvising organizational performance. The HR Strategy
determines current Management of Human resources. The strategy is owned by the
leadership team, and HR is in charge of carrying it out. The Strategy establishes the Human
Resources Department's stated objectives. It defines the organization's Hr Department
processes, methods, people management techniques, and job position in the market. As
British Airways follow various HR model but one of the effective models that company is
implementing within the company is:
The HR value chain:

The HR value chain is considered as an important tool that demonstrates how HR
contributes to organizational goals and how it helps workers in improvising their performance
at workplace. There are favourable correlations between HRM practices, HRM outcomes,
and organizational outcomes. HR stimulates employees to achieve at the highest level of
competition and to possess a steady corporate culture. HR contributes value to a firm
primarily through influencing company executives to develop and improve personnel and to
improve performance with improved salary and recognition programs. Basically, it is
classified into three stages including:
HRM activities and processes: This type stage is related with efficiency as it includes
cost of hire, learning and development budget, Training time in days, time since last
promotion and many more (Yu and et. Al., 2020). The main purpose of this matrix is to
analyse how efficient the HR function is and also focus on cost saving. As, it directly
contributes in enhancing productivity level of British Airways at market place.
HRM outcomes: Under this secondary stage, organization focus on HRM outcome as
it based on employee engagement, workers performance, team building quality of hiring and
so on. Basically, this matrix provides information about how employees give their best efforts
and how they perform well at working area. With the help of this, British airways can retain
their top talent and also attain success at market place.
Organizational objectives: It is also playing a crucial role in business organization in
which company focus on all the strategic goals that they try to attain in upcoming period of
time. It consists various aspects such as market share, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty
and so on. These types of outcomes can assist or also add value to the business in attaining
long term success.
D) Using Storey’s 27 points of difference between HRM and Personnel Management as a
benchmark, state what is being practised by the firm
Basis Personnel Management HRM
Role In this, the main role of personnel
management is to keep records
and regulations to manage
employees.
Manager focus on providing
training and resolve all the
solution faced by employees at
working area.
Client Under this, management is the
client.
Management and employees are
the major client of company that

help in attaining all targets.
Organize Each and every individual has
different approach for performing
their task activities at workplace.
In this, HR manager use
collaborative approach to attain
all the HRM objectives in
stipulated time frame.
Orientation The main focus of HR manager is
to analyse all the situation and
make appropriate decisions.
Other side, HR Manager forecast
entire condition and after than
make decision effectively.
E) Analyse the job design strategies of the chosen firm
Job design can be described as the process of creating job which assist company to
successfully accomplish desired goals and objectives. It has been determined that a proper job
design is able to provide accurate information about the job role as well as assist employees
to carry out required set of practices in effective and efficient manner (NGUYEN, HA and
DANG, 2020). There are different kinds of job design strategies such as job rotation, job
enlargement, job enrichment and job simplification. Job design strategy for British Airways is
mention below –
 Job rotation – Job rotation is an act of moving workers between jobs in an association.
This builds the expertise assortment, assists representatives with orientating in
possible new jobs, and learn through various encounters. This is significant for
increasing motivation as well as creating flexibility in business.
 Job enlargement – Job enlargement includes adding extra exercises inside a similar
progressive level to a current job. A model is an originator had some expertise in
lodging plan, presently likewise engaging in eatery plan. The work requires
comparative abilities however the work's substance varies.
 Job enrichment – Where job enlargement is pointed toward adding undertakings, job
enrichment is portrayed by adding inspirational measurements. This implies that job
enlargement could be a type of job enrichment (Amrutha and Geetha, 2020). Job
enrichment is very effective and efficient job design strategy in order to motive
employees for successfully conducting required set of practices. For British Airways
organisation job enrichment is accurate job design strategy as this will help in adding
more motivators to current job role of employees.

 Job simplification – Job simplification can be describe as the opposite of job
enlargement and a touch of the oddball. Job simplification is the way toward
eliminating assignments from existing jobs to make them more engaged. Job
simplification is tied in with stripping ability assortment to make a more engaged
undertaking. This can be utilized if there should be an occurrence of job creep when a
job has been expanded after some time and has gotten unmanageable.
F) State the hiring and firing strategies of the chosen firm during this period
Having the appropriate person in each role is critical to having a profitable
organization. It is critical for a company owner to implement the best personnel recruiting
and terminating strategies. When an organization recruits’ individuals on a short-term basis
with both the knowledge that there really is no job satisfaction in such employment, which
means that the people so engaged can be fired at any time, the activity can be considered as a
‘hire and fire' policy in general usage (Opatha, 2020). In relation to this, British Airways use
different hiring and firing strategies during Covid-19 are as follows:
Hiring strategy used by British Airways
 Check for legal compliance: It is an effective method of hiring employees in which
manager of British Airways ask all questions from employees including applicant’s
marital status, religious affiliation, birth date and many more.
 Clearly explain the position: At the time hiring candidate, it is significant for hiring
team to give all the necessary information to candidates so that they can easily
perform their job roles and responsibilities (Shaw, 2021).
 Conduct effective interviews: While undertaking hiring process, manager focus on
different factors including coachability, temperament and various aspects that ask
about specific job-related skills. With the assistance of this, manager can easily hire
skilled talent to fill vacant job roles.
Firing strategy used by British Airways
 Keep extensive documentation: It is crucial that every interaction including that
worker is well documented. If, manager have adequate reasons for firing workers as
they need to be documentation to prove the reason of firing.
 Follow workplace policies: While firing employees, manager of British Airways
needs to be carried out explicit procedures. As treating workers differently will open
up with business organization to potential lawsuits.

These tips will assist company in hiring and firing people more successfully.
Following procedures systematically can make the whole process run more efficiently and
prevent any significant risks. By hiring a right person and firing the unwanted people is assist
company in improving performance (Ogbeibu and et. Al., 2020). This can be beneficial in
retaining talented workers within the company and at the same time also make them more
productive towards their job roles and responsibilities.
G) Use corporate examples of firms using good HR practices and literature to justify your
stand. 200
Managing human resource is play a crucial role in business organization as it may
assist in improving the possibilities of managing positive and healthy workstation wherein all
employees give their best efforts for accomplishing their targets. Human resources
management enables business owners to meet present and future talent requirements by
having allowed hr managers to try to predict and build new skills most highly valued to an
institution, as well as giving the organization with the positive relation of personnel in terms
of the available competence and human resources number system (Agarwal, 2021). HR
practices are concerned with the operational improvement of HR. They serve as the
foundation and guide for controlling the business's personnel, and that they should work in
tandem with the corporate business strategy.
For example, British Airways, maintains organisational culture which clearly put an
impact on each and every individual of the company. HR department make sure that the
culture of the company is suiting every employee. As a result, with this approach, company
has obtaining a good reputation which significantly increased the productivity level of the
company, and that too the quality as well.
H) Recommendations
One of the most important assets for an organisation is their human workforce even in
this era of technological advancements. Although, technologies have taken certain aspects of
businesses like automation processes, replacement of workforce from intense activities and so
on, but human resources have work as a building block of progression for an organisation. As
a recommendation it is suggested that company should find about the factors which is
affecting HR development. These factors can be both internal as well as external depending
upon the situations. For example, low amount of return-on-investment cost, one of the
internal factors can limit the Human resource in regulating their activities. therefore, as a

solution the HR can provide appropriate training and development programmes to employees
for enhancing their skills and knowledge. To be more precise in terms of giving
recommendations below are certain points which company can consider.
 Make a proper alignment of business strategies whether internal or external. For
instance, analysing the alignment of economic changes (external factors) with the
proper investment in training and development programmes (internal factors).
 Company should have a proper check the compatibility between talent strategy and
the overall plan of the company. Along with this, company should be proactive as
compared to their competitors so that a tough competition can be given to their rival
companies.
 Moreover, it is also recommended that, company should evaluate the current scenario
of the business. It will help the company in evaluating what kind of training needs to
be given to its employees so as to level up with the market. As a result, the use of
appropriate tools will help the organisation in improving the capabilities of
employees, and significantly it will be increasing the competencies if workforce.
However, the best possible results can only be gained if the culture of the company is
good which means employee centric, then only the recommendations will be applied
appropriately.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that, a planned strategy of HR plays an
important role in performing different kinds of work. Primarily, it helps in managing
workforce by providing necessary required materials for operating business such as
recruitment and selection process. Nowadays, the nature of business has changed completely
so as the HR strategies, companies are making proper use of analytics for developing a proper
understanding of the changing trends. Mostly, it helps in analysing change which are beyond
intuitive predictions, and generalities. Therefore, having proper HR practices is very
important for having a growth in ongoing development & operations of businesses.

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