HR Process and Market Analysis: British Airways Case Study

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HR Planning process in British Airways through market study and analysis of sectorial
trends
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Executive summary:
The HR of every organization has a pivotal role in understanding the human resources needs
and requirements. It has to have an accurate assessment on what is the employee count wand
the skills of employees that is required to fill up the various positions. Any situation of
overstaffing and understaffing is detrimental to the employees as well as the organization. It
is cause of a lot of spill over effects. In many cases it is seen that understaffing leads to lack
of proper service delivery for the customer resulting is loss of reputation and market share for
the company. At the same time overstaffing leads to excessive cost burdens to the company
and later on results in mass layoffs which is very harmful to the future of employees. It
causes of lot of ill will between both sides. To avoid all this, it is necessary that HRM
functions take on a more forward looking and analytical role including a deep study of the
sectorial and industry specific trends. The planning for quality human resources and their
eventual training and development has to lead to attainment of organizational goals and
objectives as well. As long as both go together, growth is just a matter of time. It is not just
the duty of the business to ensure that but also of the HR which has to play a pivotal role.
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Contents
Task 1(LO1)...............................................................................................................................4
1.0 Understand Human Resource Management.....................................................................4
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of the Human Resource Management in a selected
service industry with reference to British Airways............................................................4
1.2 Justify a human resource plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for a
selected service industry business......................................................................................6
Task 2(LO2)...............................................................................................................................7
2.0 Understand the effect of employee relations and employment law on............................7
Service industries businesses.................................................................................................7
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in the airline industry.....................7
2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human resources within
airline industry...................................................................................................................9
Task 3(LO3).............................................................................................................................11
3.0 Understand the selection and recruitment process.........................................................11
3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for airline industry (Cabin Crew
Staff )................................................................................................................................12
3.2 Compare the selection process of different service industry businesses....................13
Task 4(LO4).............................................................................................................................15
4.0 Understand training and development in service industries businesses.........................15
4.1 Assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective
operation of British Airways............................................................................................15
Reference list............................................................................................................................18
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Task 1(LO1)
1.0 Understand Human Resource Management
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of the Human Resource Management in a selected
service industry with reference to British Airways
The concept of HRM revolves around management of the human capital and resources in the
particular organization and the alignment of the same to effectively in line with organizations
business goals, objectives vision and missions This includes recruitment, role and
responsibilities assignment, training and development, achievement of the desired output
from organization perspective, performance monitoring, employee record and documentation,
adherence to country specific laws and legislation, upkeep of the organization reputation in
the industry, balancing of employee and organizational growth, smooth separation process("5
Major Functions of Human Resource Management - Keka" 2019). The HRM and the HR
division is industry agnostic, their roles remain the same and it has to be modulated according
to the requirements of the industry. Some of the core functions are:
Planning and Forecasting –The Human Resources (HR) division is responsible for planning
the employee needs and requirements of the organization for the entire year or for the
specified time frame according to the organizational specification. This has to be done in
tandem with discussions with the various divisional heads and the positions that need to be
filled up for the organization to function efficiently. The role of the HR in this regard is not a
passive one and just follows the dictums of the various functional heads. The HR has to
clearly understand the market dynamics of that specific industry and business objectives of
the company. It accordingly has to make its own value inputs and suggestions to the company
management. It has to avoid a situation of over or under staffing at any given point of time
(BelcourtMcBey, 2016).
Recruitment process - This is one of the core activities of the HRM in every organization and
involves selecting the right employee for the right job. These job specifications may vary in
nature according to the skills, years of experience, domain knowledge, geography and
location, hard skills or soft skills. It is now the duty of the HR to analyse the required factors
in a given human resources and assess his or her worthiness for the particular job. With
market being increasingly competitive, the demands have also increased. The HR manager
needs to a sharp analyser in understanding whether theselected human resource will be future
asset or liability. It may so happen that the person may have all the right knowledge but a
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wrong attitude. Again as part of the recruitment process, the HR needs to have tie-up with
sources who will give the right profile candidate. This includes staffing agencies, job portals,
social media sites like LinkedIn, employee referrals and the HR own knowledge of talented
employees specific to that industry. Poaching which is a common practice, should be within
limits and not create a bad name for the particular company in the industry (Hunter
Saunders, Constance 2016)
Contracts of employment – The HRM functionality in every company has to be well
ingrained with the employment and labour laws of the country. It also has to ensure that there
is no infringement or deviation on the same in the policies and practices pursued within the
organization. This needs to be given very high importance because any anomalies can result
in loss of reputation for the company. The employees these days are very conscious of their
working rights within the legal framework of the country and will not hesitate to pursue any
legal action against their employers if they feel that a particular action is unjustified. In the
age of a high connected social and online media, such instances can give a wrong exposure to
the organization and put its reputation at stake. At the same time while starting or expanding
its operations in another country, the organization has to strictly follow the rules and
regulations of that country. All these responsibilities lies with the HR. In UK the employment
act 2002 governs most of the aspects of employment related rules and regulations and is
updated till the current year. There are other acts like Pension act 2008 and Equality act 2010
to bring about a healthy working environment (De CuyperIsaksson, 2017).
Deployment and monitoring of employees - Once the employee selection process is over,
they have to be inducted within the working cultures of the organization. The roles and
responsibilities have to be detailed along with measurement criteria, inter-departmental
relationship, working rules and regulations and the expectation from the employee. The HR
has to ensure that assimilation into the organization is done so that productivity is at its best.
It has also to create opportunities for career development at specified stages of employee life
cycle (Noe et al 2017)
Record Management – While all the above mentioned activities goes on, parallel the HRM
owes the duty of creating and maintaining each and every employee record and from
recruitment to separation. Evert details like payroll management, feedbacks, trainings,
appraisals, employee legal issues, payment of PF, pension or gratuity as the case maybe
should be taken care.
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1.2 Justify a human resource plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for a
selected service industry business
The HR requirements in service industry is more focused on constitution of human resources
with sift skills who are experienced in handling issues and problems faced by customers and
enabling them to have a good experience with the company. This also depends on the type of
service being provided and the term usage is vast in its own sense. A pharmaceutical
machinery company providing fault maintenance on capsule manufacturing machines
requires engineer specialist with technical knowledge in the specific field while an insurance
sales company needs good in house and customer sales representatives (Shamim et. al.,
2016). In the case of airlines industry and British airways, the role of a HR executive or
manager has to ensure that the desired roles and profiles are adequately staffed or provision
for same is being done. This includes flight crew including pilots and flight passenger service
team, ground crew team of airport boarding staff, administrative employees at airport and
office for the specific route, technicians and engineers. Something like Pilot selection need to
be taken up at the senior most level in HR while normal roles can be handles by middle and
junior level trainees.
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Task 2(LO2)
2.0 Understand the effect of employee relations and employment law on
Service industries businesses
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in the airline industry
The Madeira region is what is known as an Archipelago or group of islands. It is an
autonomous region owned by Portugal. The place is located to the South West of Portugal
and north of the Atlantic Ocean. The popularity of Madeira is due to its fame as a world-wide
tourist destination on account of its Flora and Fauna, locales, cuisines, wine, historical and
cultural locales, and gastronomy fame by specialist, The islands is a UN declared World
Heritage Site and part of European region outermost union (YuniartiLukiswanto 2017)
Almost one and a half million tourists visit the place every year mostly from Europe and from
other continents as well. It has a total land area of about 285 square miles with the capital
being Funchal. The region has its international airport located within 12 miles of the main
capital city known as Madeira International Airport or Christian Ronaldo Airport (after the
famous football player of Juventus and Portuguese celebrity sportsperson). Most of the
major European capitals are connected with this airport. It is also the main cargo loading and
outward bound airport of the region.
The flight distance from London’s Heathrow airport to Madeira takes about 4 to 5 hours
depending on the number of stoppages. This is the average flight time and sometimes more if
there are more stoppages. The peak tourist season is during summer time which has the
maximum inflow and outflow of flight passengers while the rest of the year the visitor influx
is on a normal level (Baum 2016). The British Airways being the national carrier of the
country and having the largest fleet size of almost 276 aircraft carriers is best suited to serve
the large tourist crowd t from London to Madeira. It has been decided by British Airways for
have four flights from and four flights to every week between Heathrow London and Madeira
International Airport during the peak season. During the normal season there will be three
weekly flights from London to Madeira. The speciality of Madeira is that it has tourist
throughout the year. So accordingly the airlines have to plan out its flight and staff schedule
requirements.
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The British airways have mostly middle haul flights to the Madeira. This is as per standard
definition of Euro control – The European Organization for Safety of Air Navigation which
has defined anything above 1500 miles as above short haul and falling into the category of
middle haul flights. The overall flying standards followed by Brutish Airways is a
combination of UK and EU European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) civil aviation
standards (Mail Online 2019)
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2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human resources within
airline industry
As junior executive of British airliner, the first duty will be to list down the requirements of
flight staff for the yearlong flights. This includes
The Pilot – The senior most member inside the aircraft to whom everybody reports. The pilot
is also known as captain and has the basic duty of steering the flight from the source to the
destination airport. The job of the pilot or the captain is very demanding apart from the
technical skills of plane flying needs to have good team leader and management skills and
also a calm composure. He or she should be able to handle any crisis situations in calm frame
of mind and have an inherent reasonability of the safety of passengers and other crew
members (Garg, 2016).
The first officer – Also known as the co-pilot, they are responsible for assisting the main pilot
in flying during the flight duration. He or she has to perform the selected duties given to them
by the main pilot in all technical aspects of the flight. In British Airways, the first officer also
doubles up as the flight engineer.
The second officer – This is the position of a relief officer who will assist the pilot and the
co-pilot whenever they need a break or a rest period for a certain scheduled time. The duty is
gain assisting in flying. This role is not mandatory and only select flights allow the same. In
the case of British airlines, only long haul flights have this position assigned as per the
company policy and UK civil aviation standards. However since one weekly flight is long
haul i.e. continues from Madeira onwards to Spain, this position is required.
The Flight Attendant – This flight is responsible for assisting the passengers in all safety
issues and all other roles like food and beverage services to the passengers and co-ordinating
on the seating arrangements. Also known as airhostess minimum three are required per short
haul flight and four for long haul flight.
Loadmaster – Responsible for cargo loading into the flight as the Madeira is a destination
which sees a lot of cargo despatch. This is required only for two weekly flights during peak
season and for one flight in off season.
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Ground staffs at Heathrow and Madeira – Includes counters service staff, boarding pass
issue and navigation sensors at both airports. Minimum 6 to 7 required at each airport making
it around 14 to 15 combined.
Additional administrative staff if any from support from the corporate office of British
Airways for this route
The HR trainee has to requisition for total of 6 cabin crew members for two middle haul
flights and 5for one middle haul flight and 6 for one long haul flight during peak season.
During off-peak season one of the team will have to be rotated into some other route as
flights get reduced.
The ground staff requirement needs to be 30 for both the airports since fifteen is the
requirement for one shift and airports work 24*7. If there are less number of flights during
night timing then ground staff cost can be reduced for that particular shit from 14 to about 8
i.e. 4 per location.
Another place where cost can be reduced is the administrative staff at head office. This is a
back –up function and can be done through training given to ground staff.
The HR needs to study the historical data of last three years before freezing in on any
requirement (Rao 2017). They also have to closely analyse the trends in UK economy, EU to
come to a conclusion on the travel spend tendencies of tourist. It may be that after the first 2
months of peak season, trips may suddenly drop down making the recruitment redundant and
additional cost to British Airways. The possible fall out of Brexit should also be examined.
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Task 3(LO3)
3.0 Understand the selection and recruitment process
Selection and recruitment process for British Airways includes criteria to select any staff for
its airways. In task 3, the assignment is related with the understanding of selection and
recruitment process British Airways for cabin crew. It could be noted that British Airways is
one of the oldest air carrier situated in the United Kingdom. The mentioned organization
operated among 183 destinations all around the world. It could also note that for recruiting
any staff some legal grounds need to fulfill by the candidate. On the other hands, it could also
notice that every organization should furnish its own criteria to select a candidate. However,
research was conducted to evaluate the process of recruitment for the concerned company.
On the other hands, it became clear that the mentioned organization is a multinational
corporate entity that operates its business globally (Cascioet al. 2015).
As per the resources, firstly an online application needs to submit by the candidate. As per
authority's instructions, a candidate requires to apply under one fleet out of three mentioned
fleets. At the time of filling the application, a candidate requires to fill all the necessary
information asked by the concerned company. A good presentable CV could be very
important to get the selection. This first step is very important to secure a place in the
selection process. After registration, the second step is related to the process of assessment of
CV. This online assessment included three dimensions for the selection process. Those three
dimensions are numeracy test, comprehension and reading exercise, and personality test. The
third step is the assessment date. In this assessment date, all the selected candidates go for the
interview. Fourth step related to the final interview of selected candidates in step three. This
fourth step is basically related to the competency test. The next step is step five that deals
with security assessment and the sixth step are related to the medical checkup selected
candidates in the fourth step (Noeet al. 2017).
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3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for airline industry (Cabin Crew
Staff )
Cabin Crew Staff is the job role for the current job description. As per the information
furnished in task 3, British Airways needs to explain the selection process for cabin crew
staffs for its airlines. According to the data collected from the research, it could observe that
British Airways is one of the airlines in the world whose selection process might among the
toughest. However, it could observe that the job role of cabin crew plays an important role in
the growth of the concerned organization. For an airlines industry, cabin crew could act as a
representative of the concerned company who represents its company to its customers.
However, the job role of a cabin crew is to ascertain the level of comfort of all customers of
British Airways. On the other hands, it could notice that different airlines operate their
operation under the supervision of British Airways. The most important and notable thing is
that in the year 2018, the number of applications received by British Airways for the post of
cabin crew is approximately 31000. However, the number of candidates selected was only in
2000.
From this data, we can analyze the strictness of the selection process of B.A. and its
requirements for selecting cabin crew staffs. A cabin crew could be the person or individual
who responsible for the safety, welfare, and comfort of all the passengers who travel in their
flight. A cabin crew could also treat as an agent of customer service who provides excellent
service to its customers throughout their journey.
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