Human Resource Management Practices at British Airways: A Case Study

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Human Resource Management for British Airways
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 (L01)....................................................................................................................................3
AC1.1. Analysis of purpose and role of HRM in British Airways..............................................3
AC1.2. Creation of HR plan with demand and supply, with staff roles, number of staffs and
hour to work in delivering new flight to Madeira........................................................................5
Task 2 (L02)....................................................................................................................................6
AC2.1. Current state of employment relations in Airline industry..............................................6
AC2.2. Employment laws affect management of HR with British Airways...............................7
Task 3 (L03)....................................................................................................................................8
AC3.1. Discussion of job description for the Cabin Crew, BA...................................................8
AC3.2. Selection process of British Airways and the Transport of London...............................9
Task 4 (L04)..................................................................................................................................10
AC4.1. Guidance notes to trainee manager to assess contribution of development and training
activities for British Airways.....................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
For being appointed as a Trainee HR officer at British Airways (BA), it is asked to review the
HR plan with supply and demand and the role of staffs for delivering new flight to Madeira. BA
has successfully gained agreement for its major flights to Madeira from Heathrow. It needs to
review effect of employment law and employment relations on the service industry in relation to
the airline industry. Further, it is identifiable to analyse the selection and recruitment process of
BA, which will ensure that industry standards and legal requirements are met easily. In that case,
a small description and personal specification for the Cabin Crew position will be made. Further,
the diverse training activities, and their effectiveness will be carried out to analyse development
operation of BA (Britishairways.com, 2019). It is advised that BA on their Cabin Crew position
will try to find a destined career path, so that they could be rewarded as an outstanding position.
For being a big carrier in UK, BA has merged with Iberia to create International Airlines group.
Moreover, its prominence has found a wide reach in UK, to set up many destination regions
under the British Empire.
Main Body
Task 1 (L01)
AC1.1. Analysis of purpose and role of HRM in British Airways
In BA, the line manager of the HR department plays a crucial role, so that they can find greater
influence on the business procedures. By considering business of BA, it could be found that the
business process needs effective knowledge and staffs where the tasks need to be performed in
an effective manner. Some of the key roles persuaded by HR department of BA are as follows:
Employee engagement
According to Harvey et al. (2013), the line manager of BA is vital, as it is witnessed that the help
to develop the organisational culture. While focusing on the key strength of the employees, or
encourage in communication, they would probably engage with the team in a better way.

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Possibly, the HRM area could also result in measuring employee engagement but it can also lead
in the reduction of engagement done by line managers.
Performance Appraisal
The line managers associated with the HR department plays a key role in performance appraisal,
which they tend to provide feedback to the HR managers. In BA, the engagement level for the
HR department is decided with effective communication, so that the discussion results can prove
to be effective towards performance (Lange et al. 2015).
Impart Discipline
Komasawa and Berg (2016) commented that the expectation set by line manager of BA try to
monitor results regularly, which can work to impart the discipline. Here, the enforcement and
commitment of the rules devised by the line manager would certainly be a one-step forward to
influence the performance of employees in BA.
BA have realised that the purpose and role of HRM by keeping focus on the management area
while managing people. Due to this, the line manager of BA has chosen a traditional role to work
for the resource management area in the HR department. The purpose of HRM in BA includes
the key phases like Recruitment, Safety, Compensation, Compliance, Development and Training
and Employee relations (Lindkaer Jensen et al. 2016). It is imperative that the HR department of
BA has to maintain good relation, so that they can find support wherever it is required. While the
line manager assisted has to look on the employee welfare, so that they can safeguard the interest
of employees. Moreover, training is required for employees in BA, as it is required that everyone
should know, on which department they are posted, and what should be the role offered to them.

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Figure 1: Purpose of HRM
(Source: Learner)
AC1.2. Creation of HR plan with demand and supply, with staff roles, number of staffs and
hour to work in delivering new flight to Madeira
For developing a HR plan of BA, it is important to know on which destination the flight will
deliver.
Demand and Supply:
As their new flight will deliver to Madeira, it is crucial to look if BA has demand in excess of
supply. If the demand is more than supply, BA will use a premium pricing strategy where it will
charge little on the flight distance to Madeira (Britishairways.com, 2019). Where demand is
higher, BA could charge bit premium from the customers to earn revenues, and increase flight
numbers to cater on demand increase. Now, if the demand and supply would coincide for the
employees in BA, they may use a differential pricing strategy to offer the initial tickets to
Madeira, may be at a lower price.
Staff roles, number of staffs and hours:
Since hiring is a key phase of BA, it always tends to seek a strict selection procedure. To deliver
the flight service to Madeira, BA needs about 10,000 applications in order to join the Cabin
Crew position. Out of these, 1000 will be hired, as a possible instance. Because of the
competitive nature of BA, the hiring process will last for 100 hours in a month. Training is a
Purpose of
HRM
Training and
development Safety Compensation Recruitment Employee
Relations Compliance

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crucial phase for the Cabin Crew department, as it offers a good customer service in building
team spirit in Flight operations, Sales support, and the ground maintenance area. The airline is
also responsible for attending the on-board aircraft in their working environment, so that good
service excellence is provided (Wilkinson and Wood, 2012). Now, each ward of BA includes
about 180-200 members who are being led by the ward leaders, acting as the Counsellor to
develop the other crewmembers to deliver the flight service in Madeira (Britishairways.com,
2019).
Employee retention, flexibility and resourcing:
In BA, the organisation planning for the resources includes activities, which need to select and
attract with the human resources. As opined by Long et al. (2012), the strategy of BA is to offer
employees a low cost strategy, which can provide them with good work environment. Retention
is a crucial phase for BA that helps to decrease their employee cost but other airline carrier could
offer them better compensation. This could be a risk factor for BA. To avoid this, BA should
offer its employees a good opportunity so that they can build a good career. Flexibility also
matters, as people need multiple skills, flexible working hours and subcontracting.
Task 2 (L02)
AC2.1. Current state of employment relations in Airline industry
BA is a leading airline firm in the world that has thousands of employees worldwide. The staffs
that are being employed by BA have representatives associating the trade unions. For instance, a
sample of the trade unions related with BA is the BALPA, which is a representative of pilots,
and BASSA representing Cabin Crew members. From the company’s side, the management
committee is being set up for carrying out employee relation plan developed by BA
(Britishairways.com, 2019). Further, a Consultation plan need to be successful for BA, so that
the practices are being monitored on the launch of future plans. As far, it was been considered
that BA had some incidents back in 2005 affecting the operations in Heathrow Airport. However,
the result of BA launched “Industrial Relations Change Programme” to prevent disruptions
among the ground staffs. According to Briscoe et al. (2012), the specific programme was
launched to develop relations between the trade unions and managers, for having a credible

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objective to decrease the Communication barriers and improve relations. In that state, about 220
Trade Unions and 1800 Managers attended seminars to develop the relation, and reach towards a
Partnership agreement.
While at present, BA’s employee relations are far well. Before, it was seen that disagreements
between management and employees, and other constant strikes lead the company in facing a
deadlock. The relation of BA with “Unite” represents the Cabin Crew members, which was
disrupted already since company had been making changes to the staff contracts, or considerably
cutting the jobs to cope up the crisis against the global market facing (Boxall, 2013). Since the
major strikes being held on Dec 22, 2009, BA did not find any such incidents for a decade, in
just pointing the good relations between managers and employees. Although, the cost cutting
area will help to decrease number of Cabin Crew from 15 to 14 on the long distance flights.
Thus, successful negotiations also took place between the two sides, resulting in an optimistic
outcome that could be both beneficial for employees and BA.
Despite some of the gradual efforts being made, employment relations in BA retain some of the
potential serious disruption. Even before the issues followed from the event of 9/11, BA renewed
the focus on their route rationalisation and cost cutting area to be evident. In some airlines, the
employment relations were quite tense, mainly in Europe. For instance, Air France experienced
particular issues in late 90s, as the management initiative has a highly complex public sector
framework (Sheehan et al. 2014). At present, the wholesale contracting made for the cabin crews
is not really a major option where there could be high levels of in-house training given, for
measuring employee loyalty.
AC2.2. Employment laws affect management of HR with British Airways
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is considered as an independent body that is liable for
safety, airspace, and Consumer protection regulation policy. CAA acts in regulation of aviation
without having any detailed supervision by UK government. According to Long and Perumal
(2014), the employment laws are regarded as labour laws that include regulations and rules in the
concerned workplace. Some agreements are being framed between employee and employer that
would be appropriate for the central and state laws, for providing human rights and security to
the employees of BA. BA is prioritizing their reward and pay will act as a competitive base to

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develop their business plan (Werner, 2014). Besides, they also set up an indicator, which will
lead as the benchmark for their external labour market. Since BA has downsized workforce, most
of their employees are moving to the CareerLink register. CareerLink mainly offer pool of
experience employees that are available for redundancy and redeployment procedure.
Accordingly, BA also found a credible training area that will deliver about 200,000 training days
on the expenditure offered for their airline. Here, BA has also found training programmes, which
will be set by the licensed members for offering sports facilities and leisure to pensioners and
affiliates.
From the Equal Pay Act, it is important to give good preference to people of the upper caste
while the Sex Discrimination Act restricts the working hours for most employees, on the work
time regulations. Further, every airline organisation has a trade union that helps to safeguard the
interest for employees. They find the credible rights, so that they can find access to the personal
employment records (Conway et al. 2016). Another law could be Employment Liability
Insurance Act that states the company has to be obligatory for offering assurance to cover the
employee liability, in case any type of harm occurs in employee workplace. While the licensing
Act of 1964 shows that, the airline offering alcoholic average by the Cabin Crew members has to
hold a license for selling it. Likewise, employee law in UK states that development of workers or
employees is pivotal, as this will help to protect their interest while working in a firm.
Task 3 (L03)
AC3.1. Discussion of job description for the Cabin Crew, BA
It is evident that the recruitment and selection process is important to support any position, like
the Cabin Crew in BA. Since BA is flexible, it helps to recruit resources, mostly through the web
ads. From the Job Description of the Cabin Crew of BA, it offers a good opportunity where they
can line with team members of London, so that a state will be set for offering credible customer
service (McDonald and Thompson, 2016). On leading as a member, an individual will feel quite
passionate for his/her job. Some of the key liabilities will work to maintain operational safety,
and security that will be performed to maintain high standards. This will also deliver a superior
service with the behaviour of the BA Crew members (McBride et al. 2015). While acting as a
Cityflyer role, it is important that the customers have to adhere to those uniform standards. It is

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important to maintain set criteria, which will experience on the customer service preferably
within the hospitality industry.
Now, while working as the Cabin Crew in BA, it is evident that those individual members will
give a good client administration process, so that it will guarantee for the wellbeing of travellers
in flights travelling to Madeira. Next, the workers of BA should check the hardware process to
help the travellers while getting onto the flight. This will be effective to work on the well-being
when applied with proper equipments. As opined by Marginson (2015), there are diverse
obligations that will incorporate the in-flight declarations, which will serve the drinks, and
suppers. It would be crucial to stage work on the finishing reports or some other printed
materials. The Cabin Crews may also procure the wages of $14/hour with likelihood to win
$22/hour within the residency experience. Now, as a new joiner, BA would also a forward step
to welcome art of the training facility given to them. Thus, the attestation would also allow
undertaking duties for European Community aircraft (Lange et al. 2015). For being the new Fleet
Cabin Crew member, it is possible to work on potential areas to earn those reward packages in
between £23,000 and £28,000 per annum.
Person Specifications
While representing as the Cabin Crew member of BA, the individual has to first appreciate on
the safety and security of customers to deliver service. One should also know genuinely about
the key customer interactions, so that there is a process to build relations. According to (), it is
also evident to act in an effective manner so that the individual can act actively to seek solutions,
which are credible. Further, the next criterion is to have 18 years of age, and must speak fluent
English language (McGovern, 2007). Thus, it is justified that the individual should also hold a
passport while he is working for BA in UK. There should not be any kind of previous criminal
records, for about 5 years or more. Now to build a good career, it is crucial that he would work
for 24 hours a day with the rotational shifts, as 7 days a week. However, wearing uniform of BA
will mean standard for the company, as there would not be any kind of visible tattoos or body
piercings. The foremost criterion is also to be fit medically, and must have height in between 5.2
inch and 6.1 inch. The individual should also be credible enough to kneel astride, with the space
restrictions given to them, with about 46cm. Further, the individual also has to lift weights of 9kg
from height of 195cm. This parameter is effective for holding the position of Cabin Crew

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(Godard, 2014). Some of the other areas are that the individual should be fit to perform exercises
like, doing aircraft jumps, lift weight of 25 kg and swim for 55 yards. Hence, all these criteria
will hold for leading as a Cabin Crew member in BA.
AC3.2. Selection process of British Airways and the Transport of London
Towards the selection process of Cabin Crew position in BA, it is found that the vacancies are
being placed on Career webpage. It is the stage where most applicants need to follow the online
questions. Now, if the applicants answer yes to the questions asked, they would be required to
complete the interest form. Next is to complete the online application form where applicants has
to meet the basic needs when they are being asked to give the Psychometric tests like Numeracy,
Verbal reasoning and Spatial reasoning (Britishairways.com, 2019). In that case, the ideal area
may be found from online test stages who are being invited in Assessment day, including group
exercises and multiple-choice questions. The other stage could be the Medical and Background
check, which will offer a week long lasting on the provided safety course. It will be followed by
the Cabin Crew course, in a period of about 6 weeks. Finally, the Cabin Crew position will
receive success from the training programme being offered.
The application process of Transport of London will start with an online application process. It
will get to know about the chosen role easily. The second step is the online test, which will test
the abilities and strengths. Candidates will receive two mails for completing the online tests, first
will be the TfL Situational Strength, and next is the Combined General ability test. It will take
for an hour, and has to be completed in 7 days. Next will be a Video Interview where revealing
passion will be done. The individual will film, according to the question asked. The last step is
the assessment centre, which will display the strengths. In case, the individual is successful,
he/she would be invited for the assessment day (Lindkaer Jensen et al. 2016). Further, the
process will go on with 3 activities, with a group exercise, presentation and one-to-one interview.
Task 4 (L04)
AC4.1. Guidance notes to trainee manager to assess contribution of development and
training activities for British Airways
Different types of training

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Training comprise of On-job and Off-job training. For BA, it will generally offer training to the
employees, so that they can build a career, and in turn perform duties accordingly. Training can
include, as Induction training where introduction of a new employee for the organisation day-to-
day functioning on certain products and services will be done. In case of Job training, the
employee tends to perform the job on given the safety measures and other production methods.
Soft skill training is offered to the employees to witness the growth essentiality with the soft
attributes, enabling people in workplace (Wilkinson and Wood, 2012). Lastly, service/product
training is given to the new comers on a certain service or product that the organisation mainly
offers. Moreover, onboard training has the orientation that includes with a checklist agenda when
delivered to the company. It includes series of specific sessions, which takes place for a longer
time interval.
Difference on development and training
The key difference between development and training is that training is short-term that is focused
on employees receiving an opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge, according to the job
needs. Development whereas is considered as an educational process to find overall growth for
the employees. As opined by Long et al. (2012), training is job-oriented while development is
career-oriented. The ideal objective of training is to develop the work performance while
development prepares the future challenges of employee.
Benefits of training
The key benefit of training is to work on the increased morale and job satisfaction for employees.
It also works in increased motivation, so that it can result in financial gain with its increased
capacity to develop the new technologies (Boxall, 2013). Due to reduced employee turnover, it
shows a good reason for ethics so that there is equal diversity.
Role and need for training
According to Briscoe et al. (2012), training in any organisation presents a good opportunity so
that expanding the knowledge base will find expensive opportunities. The employees who are
attending some of the major training sessions might miss out the work time, and this result in
delay for completing the projects. Now, the need of training is important because it finds

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improved employee performance since understanding the liabilities will build confidence for
them. Employees that are confident enough will try to work on the standards, so that they can
come out as a strong competitor in the industry (Sheehan et al. 2014). Most employees have
some weaknesses, where development of some programmes will allow for strengthening the
employee needs possibly.
Overall contribution of development and training to the effective operations
For BA, the overall contribution of training is considered as a parameter, which helps to work
towards increase in productivity. Employees, mostly the ground staffs and Cabin Crew members
remain up-to-date with the existing technology, or the system they are given the position. The
key area is the talent pool, which is the most vital part to bridge the gap when someone leaves
the firm (Werner, 2014). Employees here could be trained, as per the additional skills or
fostering them with new tasks given in a fixed deadline.
Conclusion
It is concluded from the report that BA, being a leading carrier in UK has a formidable position
for any individual wanting to seek Cabin Crew position. The report shows good purpose where
the role and function of HRM of BA is analysed by giving good evidence with Staff functions
and working hours. Further, the employment laws and the current employment relations affecting
the airline industry are also prioritised. Moreover, a detailed description of the Cabin Crew job of
British Airways is also identified by showing specifications with the delivery service and other
customer interactions.