Reducing Employee Turnover at British Airways: A Corporate Strategy

This report, a case study on British Airways, investigates the airline's high employee turnover rate and explores how effective corporate strategy can mitigate this issue. It begins with an introduction outlining the research aim, objectives, and questions, followed by a background of the company and a review of the problem. The report then presents a literature review, examining the concept of corporate strategy and its significance in reducing employee turnover. Primary and secondary research is undertaken to gather data, which is then critically reviewed to identify key findings. The report concludes with recommendations and an action plan designed to address the challenges of employee turnover within British Airways. The report emphasizes the importance of corporate strategy in creating value, achieving a competitive advantage, and ensuring long-term success. It also touches upon corporate governance principles such as fairness, accountability, and transparency. The report is a comprehensive analysis of British Airways' employee turnover and provides valuable insights into the application of corporate strategy to solve the issue.

Corporate Social
Responsibility

Table of Contents
TITLE: “To analyse the ways by which effective corporate strategy can help to reduce the issue
of high employee turnover.” - A case study on British Airways.....................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Research aim..........................................................................................................................4
Research objectives................................................................................................................4
Research questions.................................................................................................................4
Background of the company...................................................................................................4
Review of problem faced........................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................5
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN..................................................9
CRITICAL REVIEW OF RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH.......................................................12
RECOMMENDATION AND ACTION PLAN............................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23

TITLE: “To analyse the ways by which effective corporate strategy can help to
reduce the issue of high employee turnover.” - A case study on British Airways
INTRODUCTION
Corporate social responsibility is the business model or concept which is directed towards
integrating activities related to social and environmental aspects of the business operations. It is
the directly connected with the stakeholders by striking a balance between economic,
environment and social imperatives by meeting the expectations of various parties who are
connected with the organisation and have the capability to influence the activities of a business.
It is something which encourages business organisations to bring accountability and transparency
within the activities in order to achieve goals and objectives. CSR is the concept which helps an
organisation undertakes activities that are beyond the profit making goal of the business. It is
also known as corporate citizenship, business responsibility and corporate conscience.
The basic assumption behind this concept is to make the company highly acceptable by
the society. When an entity plans to establish a business in a particular area, it uses different
types of resources gathered from the society by is returned in numerous ways such as generation
of employment, developing infrastructure, and many more ((JAIN, 2013)). This concept has
been evolved with the time by expanding the scope of this. Earlier, only the large companies
used to implement this strategy but now organisations at all levels have started to use within their
business activities. It is the responsibility of all the people who are associated with the business,
to act in such a way which is ethical and acceptable by the society and other stakeholder. It offers
number of benefits to that entity which implements this in the organisation. Such advantages can
range from compliance with legal requirements, increase employee loyalty, positive brand image
and public reputation, and many more.
It is a part of corporate governance which helps the business regulate itself by obtaining
competitive advantage. There are different strategies and programs that can be implemented
within the organisation for achieving the goals and objectives in an ethical manner and by being
within the limits that are there from the laws and regulations. Furthermore, there is a listing
platform wherein an organisation can be listed. In this report, background of the company, main
issue going on in the organisation, aims and objectives followed by literature review, critical
analysis of outcome obtained and recommendation for the improvement.
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Research aim
Main intention for doing this research is “To analyse the ways by which effective
corporate strategy can help to reduce the issue of high employee turnover”. A study on British
Airways.
Research objectives
 To develop basic understanding regarding the phenomena of corporate strategy.
 To analysis importance of effective corporate strategy in diminution of high turnover of
employee within British Airways.
 To determine ways through which British Airways can reduce issue of high employee
turnover.
Research questions
 What are the phenomena of corporate strategy.
 What are the significance of effective corporate strategy in diminution of high turnover of
employee within British Airways.
 What are the ways through which British Airways can reduce issue of high employee
turnover.
Background of the company
In this report, British Airways has been chosen which is the flag carrier airline of United
Kingdom, which has its headquarter in Harmondsworth, London, United Kingdom. It is one of
the largest airlines which has bee ranked second among all the entities in this sector in United
Kingdom (Cheng, Ioannou, and Serafeim, 2014). It has formed a merger with International
Airlines Groups (IAG), a holding company situated in Madrid, Spain. It is also listed on London
Stock Exchange and a constituent of FTSE 100 index. It is focused on providing the services
according to the requirements of customers in order to increase their satisfaction. It has helped it
achieve high profit and sales which ultimately led to increased revenue. It has generated more
than $1 billion on a single air route in a year which began from 1st April 2017 to 31 March,
2018.
It got incorporated by the British government by forming two nationalised airline
corporation viz. British Airways Corporation and British European Airways and some other
regional airlines. It is the company which is an outcome of a merger that helped UK economy
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accelerating the growth and achieve the targets for the benefit of individuals living in the
country. It has grown with the time and touched the heights of success by focusing on those areas
by which benefits can be obtained by the company.
Review of problem faced
A business organisation face number of issues due to which smooth running of business
can be hampered. The issues in the entity can range from increase in employee conflicts, lower
profit, decrease in sales or revenue and many similar issues can arise within the organisation.
This report covers the issue of employee turnover in British Airways which has been discussed
in here to determine the details of the problem faced within the organisation. Employee turnover
refers to the situation in the entity which is where the workers exit or move out of the entity and
the vacant positions are filled by new candidates who can exercise their skills and capabilities to
achieve the goals and objectives.
British Airways has been facing the problem of high employee turnover because of
number of the transformations taking place within the business environment. There are many
competitors who are offering effective and competitive packages to the candidates out there who
have the skills and capabilities to help organisation achieve its goals and objectives. This issue
can be resolved by implementing corporate strategy which can be prepared on the basis of
outcomes obtained through various analysis. It is important for entities to get the solution for
accelerating the growth and profit.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Phenomena of corporate strategy
Strategy is a term derived from Greek word “stratcgos” which comprises two words viz.
Stratus which means army and ago which refers to the leading or moving. It can be used in for
general activities and not just limited to organisational activities or goals (Purce, 2014).
However, when it is done for an organisation or to achieve the goals and objectives of a
corporate, then it becomes corporate strategy. Corporate strategy refers to the number of strategic
actions based on strategic plan which help in providing directions in order to achieve the goals
and objectives strategically. It is beneficial for long term which comprises of vision of the
company. Furthermore, corporate strategy is formulated by the management of an organisation in
order to increase the value of the business. It utilises human resources, processes and governance
in a way which creates maximum benefits for the entity. The main reason behind formulating a
corporate strategy is to achieve competitive advantage among all the competitors. It is likely to
help the business survive for a long time and sustain in the changing business environment.
It is prepared for overall organisation which comprises different strategies for each
department. For example, marketing department can have its own strategy for advertising the
products or services. Similarly, sales department can prepare its own strategy. These are all the
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part of Corporate strategy which are implemented altogether within the organisation. One of the
important aspects of Corporate strategy is to provide leadership to the Employees for motivating
them to achieve the goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner. It is a continuous
process in which adjustments are made to make it suitable for the entity in order to respond to the
changes taking place in the business environment (Brewster, 2017). There are various analysis
like PESTEL, SWOT etc. Which are conducted before reaching to a decision to introduce
corporate strategy which can benefit the organisation. It helps in utilising the resources of the
corporate optimally by focusing on the targets to achieve. Apart from this, it includes strategic
planning and transforming of product portfolio to increase the satisfaction of the customer.
As specified above, it is a continuous process which diversification as it is useful in
maintaining the same position in the industry. It is also done to add more value to the business
which can be done through increasing the number of subsidiaries. Any business planning to
formulate corporate strategy should consider various advantages as well as disadvantages in
order to avoid any negative or adverse outcomes. It works as a foundation on which various
opportunities can be grabbed by the organisation in order to get desired results.
Apart from this there are number of principles of corporate governance among which the
first being fairness should be there in an organisation. This is not just limited to the employees
but also the shareholders and other parties. This can be achieved by maintaining equality.
Accountability is another principle which focuses on the responsibility of the company for its
actions towards the success as well as failures. Transparency is another principle which
emphasizes on bringing disclosure about the activities to the stakeholder. These principles
increases the good corporate governance which help it achieving higher market share and
enhanced goodwill.
Significance of effective corporate strategy in reduction of high employee turnover
Effective corporate strategy is something which has been prepared by taking into account
all the aspects and areas of a business. It helps in reducing the risk and increasing the profit or
positive results which can help business grow. It is beneficial in accelerating growth, enhance
profits, reduce cost, eradicate counterproductive resources or personnel, distribute valuable
resources effectively and many more. There are number of ways by which the effectiveness of a
corporate strategy can be measured with a view to make a decision (Kleinbaum, and Stuart,
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2014). Such a decision can be tu to continue with the existing strategy or make changes in the
current one.
One of the most important significance of Corporate strategy is to create enhanced value
for the business. It helps in in making choices about the portfolio in order to allocate the
resources. It is a way through which different kinds of barriers obstacles can be removed which
enhance the utilisation of resources. Other benefit being higher competitive advantage by
learning from the strategies being used by other competitors and to manage business activities in
such a manner which goes with the overall objective of the organisation. Furthermore, it helps in
increasing the value of investor by creating the sum for physical as well as intellectual assets.
Shareholder is important for an entity to continue its business. Therefore, corporate strategy
helps in in adding more value for the shareholder which ultimately leads to higher profit,
competitive advantage and increase in company's values.
Effective corporate strategy is prepared for long term benefit and success. there are
various plants and techniques which are included in corporate strategy so as to achieve the goals
and objectives (Terrell, 2012). The strategies applied for long term success help the organisation
sustain in the business environment without being affected to a major extent. In this way, the
business activities do not get disturbed and changes can be carried easily within the organisation.
It is also important for focusing on the objectives which are to be achieved in future. It
contributes in continuous monitoring of performance which can provide the areas that need to be
focused upon in order to make changes.
Corporate governance is significant in retaining the employees in the entity for a long
time. It is the general thinking of a candidate that by following the corporate governance
practices, an organisation becomes ethical. There is high demand of the individuals to work in an
ethical company. This ultimately leads to lower employee turnover because when the actions of
an entity are right and ethical, the chances of it becoming corrupt or getting engaged in any other
wrongful activity lowers down. This enhances the preference of the organisation among the
employees. This also helps in attracting new people by creating positive image in the eyes of
people.
In nutshell, the importance of Corporate strategy includes right direction which can be
followed by organisation to ensure the entire entity is working towards the same goals. It creates
a standard for measuring the performance and growth against the desired goals. It enhances
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adaptability by making the organisation and employees make changes according to the changes
taking place in the business. It helps in making transformation according to the demand of the
current market which helps in fulfilling the expectations of customers as well as the stakeholders.
It helps in decision making by making the organisation identify its strengths and weaknesses so
that we Carriers can be focused upon for surviving in the future. An effective strategy helps
deciding share the efforts and resources should be put in order to create the desired results.
Ways through which British Airways can reduce issues of high employee turnover
Corporate strategy is formulated for achieving various goals and objectives which can
make current position of the organisation better. One of the major issues that every organisation
face is high employee turnover. Employee turnover refers to the number of percentage of
workers who live in organisation and are replaced by new employees. It involves huge costs
which may increase the overall cost estimation of an organisation. Therefore it is important to
reduce the high employee turnover in order to continue the business operations without any
hurdles or obstacles. There are number of ways through which organisation can lower down the
issues of high employee turnover. Employees look for competitive salaries and packages
together with recognition. Entities should provide salary which is competitive enough to attract
and retain along with this number of benefits should be offered to them. It should focus on
enticing workers benefit packages. Fairness in workplace is again a way through which
employee turnover can be reduced. The employees should make efforts to implement fairness
within the organisation. This means that no employee should be discriminated and growth
opportunities should be provided equally to every individual irrespective of age, gender, religion
and many more. The changes in the work environment can be carried by obtaining the opinion
through feedback on the basis of which plans can be formulated with a view to implement them
in order to improve overall productivity.
Interaction between the employees and employer can make things easy. There should be e
sufficient number of meetings whether formal or informal so that the queries and ideas of
individuals can be obtained (O'Brien, and Saldanha, 2014). It encourages the workforce to stay
in the organisation by providing an environment of openness and planning something which can
reduce the workplace dissatisfaction. Along with this, personality test can be conducted for
knowing the employees in a better way. It helps in getting information related to their personal
life. An environment should be created where in the employees feel respected and trusted. They
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should be equal responsibility among them which helps in building trust. It is also beneficial in
sharing the opinion which can create positive work environment and bring transparency within
the employees. This gives a feeling of belongingness to the organisation which helps in lowering
employee turnover. An organisation holds different positions and roles for the candidates. The
HR department should choose the right employees for the right position. This is about giving the
right job to the right individual on the basis of their skills and competencies. In this way
employees can be highly satisfied with the job. Being flexible can also be one of the ways
through which employee turnover can be reduced. The management of the organisation should
avoid widget for greater control on the work time and give some flexibility to the workforce. It
helps in accelerating the efficiency among them. For this purpose, various strategies such as
allotting work from home allowing employees to have flexitime and many more strategies can be
adopted.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN
Research onion- It was developed by Saunders and other authors in the year 2007 which
comprises of various layers that a researcher has to follow while conducting a research. There are
different stages in this model which should be followed in obtaining the results. All the steps
which are there in research onion have been discussed below:
Research philosophy- It refers to number of beliefs and values which define the nature of
the investigation (Mayer, 2015). It is about the nature of the knowledge and provides the basis
on which the whole justification can be provided about the research that is to be undertaken. It
defines the assumptions which may help achieving the goals and objectives.
Research approaches- There are two kinds of approaches which can be used in a
researcher which are as follows:
Deductive approach- It is based on hypotheses which is formed on pre-existing theory. In
other words, the research is done by undertaking activities done in the past or previously. This
approach is used with the intention that no new data or information is planned to be extracted. It
is conducting the research which may take long time.
Inductive approach- This approach is about the structure or procedure which includes in-
depth knowledge about the subject matter of the research. It helps in enhancing the skills and
knowledge on the topic chosen for the research. If the investigator considered the whole activity
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to be based on qualitative type, it is included in this. It is useful in gathering authentic
information which is absolutely original and first hand.
Quantitative approach- This research approach includes number or statistics which form
the standards to be used for the validity of data. In this approach, various types of respondents
are included for ascertaining the outcomes which involve social phenomena, feelings and
viewpoints. The number of participants are huge to whom questions are asked with a view to
obtained answers.
Qualitative approach- This approach is based on the experiences and considers on the
logics which can support the data extracted from various sources. It can be challenging because
of the difficulties that are there in expressing the results. It involves open-ended communication
with the respondents in order to find out the underlying the facts or reasons about the thoughts of
individuals who are involved in the survey. It shows the4 behaviour of the participants which
help in determining the results that can help an investigator in obtaining a final outcome.
Research strategy- It refers to deciding the ways or directions in which the whole
research is to be carried (Gog, 2015). There can be number of ways such as experimental
research, action research, case study research etc. which can help with the timely proceeding of
the whole research.
Choices- It means a researcher can use one or more method in a research. It can be mono-
method, mixed or multi-method (Daugherty, Hoffman, and Kennedy, 2016). The first choice is
about using single approach, second is about using using various approaches to gather single
outcome. And, the multi-method is when research is segregated in different segments.
Time horizons- It is the structure or framework which is followed for implementing the
activities in order to complete the project. It is divided into two categories such as cross sectional
and longitudinal depending on the need of the research.
Data collection methods- A research is carried for extracting information or data from
various sources. These are gathered for making decisions which can be implemented within the
organisation. The decision to find out appropriate data which are relevant can be done from the
types which have been explained below:
Primary research- This research is the methodology is based on the data extracted from
original sources which are authentic. It is considered as fundamental research on the basis of
which the outcomes are obtained which have not been used elsewhere. Primary research includes
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