British Airways HRM: Recruitment, Selection, and Employee Relations

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes HRM practices at British Airways.

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Human resource management
Stefan

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 & M1 Purpose and functions of HRM to fulfill business objectives.....................................4
P2, M2 & D1 Strength and weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection...9
LO2................................................................................................................................................10
Evaluating the success of implementing key elements in human resource management..............10
P4 and D2..................................................................................................................................11
Effectiveness of HRM practices to enhance profit and productivity of British Airways..........11
P3 and M3..................................................................................................................................12
Advantages of various HRM practices to both employer and the employee within British
Airways......................................................................................................................................12
LO3................................................................................................................................................15
Internal and external factors that affect the management team of British Airways in decision
making...........................................................................................................................................15
P5 Significance of employee relations with respect to HRM decision making........................15
D3, P6 & M4 Delineating key aspects of employment legislation and the affect it has on
decision making.........................................................................................................................15
LO4 Human resource practices in work related context...............................................................17
M5 & P7 Application of HRM practices in work related context.............................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Human resource management deals with the process of recruiting candidates followed by hiring
process and once the candidate is selected they set him in for a particular or specific position
within the company. The management is responsible in planning, organizing and controlling the
hiring process and chooses the right candidate who will help the company grow in future (Noe,
R.A et al, 2017). In this report we are going to address the kind of talent and skills a candidate
needs to possess to fulfill business objectives and discuss various types of training processes
given to candidate. Then we will also further discuss the factors that affect the management of
human resource and the kind of practices that can be applied to make the management of human
resource better and profitable.
LO1
P1 & M1 Purpose and functions of HRM to fulfill business objectives
Candidate’s expertise to fulfill business objectives
According to British airways, Human resource management can be defined as the involvement
of management to recruit, hire and position the right candidate who is talented, skilled and
expertise in a particular field that can add value to the organization and increase its creditability
in the market (Becker and Huselid, 2006). The main functions of human resource
management of the British airways are recruitment, selection, employee motivation, good and
optimistic work environment and training and development. The main purpose of this is to find
the right candidate and increase the efficiency of British Airways.
The recruitment process includes searching and screening for the right candidate from a pool of
candidates. The management team needs to screen for the right person testing their potential,
their skill and knowledge in a particular area that fits the job description the candidate has
applied for. Once candidates are chosen they will further go through the selection process where
they are tested for certain skills and talent they need to have to do justice to that position. This
method eliminates unskilled, unmotivated candidate’s right in the first process of selection
(Moehrle, M.G, 2005). Once the candidate is selected he should be easily adjusted to the work
that he is opted for and to maintain the productivity of the employee it is important to motivate

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the employee. To retain the employee for a long period of time in the company and avoid costs
of selection process again it is necessary to make the employee comfortable with the work
environment he is working in. only if the employee is happy and contended with the environment
he is working in he will be able to achieve higher productivity and add value to the organization.
The activities of the management as a human resource manager of British airways include
initiating and maintaining communication between employees for flow of information and also
initiate last minute alterations to avoid any kind of interruption or mistakes in the work
performed by the employees.
The best fit vs. the best approach model
Best fit
 The benefits and incentives of the
company are usually inbuilt within the
strategy of the company
Best approach
 In this case, the approaches are aligned
with HR policies that include the bonus
system to motivate the employees
 Through this the company achieves a
competitive advantage via the
employees
 The primary importance is given to
employee and this reward system helps
to motivate the employee and increase
his commitment to the company.
There are two models under the human resource management with respect to employees. The
hard model of human resource management uses employees as a primary source of trade which
is aligned to the corporate planning of business. The British airways focus on what type of
employee and workforce they need and how much is it going to cost them to hire such candidates
(Purcell and Kinnie, 2007). They also bring about a shift in the employee count and detect and
observe their behavior and appreciate them based on their behavior and also fire them. In the soft
model of HRM, the employees are treated as the primary resource of the British Airways and
also a source of competitive advantage to the company. Here, the employees are given utmost
importance and the company takes care of their needs and provides them with regular motivation
sometimes financially also.

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Workforce planning includes a set of procedures that the management lists down to maintain a
good and efficient employee within the British Airways to maximize profits and make sure that
the company will reach heights with success (Iles et al, 2010). The labor market consists of a
market where the candidate is exchanging his skills or talent in return of incentives, salary or
wages. There are 3 types of labor market namely, unskilled labour, semi-skilled labour and
skilled labour. The unskilled labour sector involves tasks that can be done by the employee
without much supervision of the management. The semi-skilled worker includes the labour
sector where the work and tasks can be done by the employees with very little supervision
whereas the skilled worker sector needs a lot of supervision to perform a task and also requires a
set of skills, talent and training to ace that job field. The trends seen in labor market in the year
2016 was, as seen in the developed markets sector the unemployment rates will fall to its least
level since 2008. Mechanization is going to take over the world in 2016 where the use of
machinery will be more prominent in all sectors.
The PESTLE analysis includes the political, economic, social, technological, legal and
ecological factors that help to describe the macro environment factors that have an impact on the
company. The political aspects of British Airways need to be considered otherwise it might
affect the organization. For example, by the fear of being attacked British airways had stopped
flight in Middle East. In 2008, the economy of British Airway had suffered a lot due to decrease
in growth due to which it incurred huge loss. The social demands of airline industries should be
kept in check for people to opt in to British airways. To gain a competitive advantage the British
Airways have to invest in R&D technology. British airways are supposed to use environment
friendly resources to maintain ecological balance in the industry. The legal factor affecting the
British airways is the trade unions.

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Fig: PESTLE analysis. (Source: www.business-to-you.com)
The internal labour market is a sector within the company that is responsible in deciding the
pricing and deciding the designation of the labour that is governed by a set of rules and
procedures set down by the British Airways (Poelmans et al, 2003). Retention of an employee
within the company is defined as the number of employees who have stayed back in the
company throughout the calculation period from the beginning. For instance, if the company had
100 employees at the beginning and has retained 90 of them and lost 10 then the retention rate is
90%. Examining the turnover of British Airways is done by calculating the number of
employees who have terminated during the calculation period. Stability is calculated as how long
an employee has been stable in the company and worked and improved the productivity of the
organization.
The influence of legit and regulatory frameworks on the British Airways includes duties like
protecting the employee from unjust discrimination that exists in the company, shielding them
from unjust practices that are involved in investment in pension plans (Esteban- et al, 2018).
Each and every employee should be provided with a safer, clean and indiscriminate environment
which is in favor of every employee and helps them to work with more motivation and add value
to the company. The influence that the technology has in enhancing in dealing with HR
practices are it is become a lot more easier to post jobs online which is a part of the recruitment
process plus it becomes easier for candidates also to apply online to many places and pass the
first round of interview many times only through telephonic conversation. Training also has
become a lot easier due to advanced technology it is easier to give in power point presentation
and make the employees give a practical look at data and trends in the market which will help

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them understand and take in data better. With the use of electronic machines storing employee
data is also become easier that includes no more paperwork.
There are two types of recruitment that can be done to hire a candidate that is through an
internal source of recruitment is where in the British Airways looks for referrals from within
the company that are a lot more trustworthy and talented whereas the other way of recruiting is
external source of recruitment is where you set out a vacancy for a particular job opening and
the candidates apply and the company hires the right fit for their job post.
A job inspection is wherein a candidate gets information about a particular job opening and it
provides data and skills that are required to be qualified for that job posting (Boswell et al,
2003). Elucidation of job helps to give a clear and a detailed idea of what the employee’s duties
are in the company if he gets hired and person specification relates to gender, qualifications,
skills etc. required to be validated to that particular job. The competency framework gives
structured and detailed information about the roles of HR and how it can help them achieve long
term goals. There are many methods of selection every company follows but the British Airways
gives importance to methods like reliability and validity as their key criteria in selection process.
Reliability helps us understand to get consistent results by trying various methods of approach to
test the candidate whereas validity is to what extent it can test the candidate and if the company
is successful in measuring the quality that it needs. The pros of reliability are it can test the
individual and his future performance within the company whereas the validity will help to
measure the exact skills and qualification of the candidate that abides by the description provided
by the British airways. The cons of reliability are there are various procedures to check reliability
of a candidate if there is no consistency of the employer to check and access it tehn the right
candidate might be lost.
There are many issues that might affect an employee once he or she is hired in British Airways
and welcomed in. If the employee has not had a successful welcome and is not comfortable with
the employees within he company her way of working and productivity might descend and she
or he might not be able to approach any other co-worker for help because the environment is
become quite awkward for him or her in this case if the productivity of the employee lowers
down it might cost the company.

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P2, M2 & D1 Strength and weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment
and selection
Strength of internal source approach is the British Airways can find the right candidate only
through referrals and does not have to go through a detailed recruitment process. They can also
cut down the cost of recruitment process whereas if the external approach is practiced we can get
exclusive candidates with new and improved skills and British airways gets to choose from a
large pool of candidates. The weakness of internal source approach is the British airways gets to
choose only from limited candidates and may be missing out on good candidates whereas for
external approach it requires high cost and time to recruit a person through this approach.

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LO2
Evaluating the success of implementing key elements in human resource
management
Differentiating training and development is a very significant part of human resource
management because both the activities aim in improving the performance of the employee and
add value to British Airways. Training is done to make the employee good enough in skills that
are required for a particular job specification whereas development is brought about in an
employee regarded to which designation he or she belongs (Nikandrou and Papalexandris, 2007).
It is done to increase the manpower and productivity of the British Airways. For the development
of British Airways it is essential for the management team to identify the training needs of
every employee and work on it to fix the training gap to the employee to be productive at his
work. Firstly to identify that the management team needs to inspect the employee and identify
what skills he is lacking so that they can concentrate on that and train him for that particular
skill. Training needs can be identified through various assessment methods and once identified
the management of British Airways can fix the training gap. After the training needs are
identified they are various different types of training given to an employee according to his or
her job role. The different types of training are:
 Induction training
 Vestibule training
 Job training
 Refresher training
 Promotional training
Evaluation of training is done to check if the employee has benefited from the type of training
provided to him. There are various methods of evaluating the training like providing the
employee with a questionnaire, observing improvement in employee’s skills post training,
interviewing the employee for particular skills etc.
There are various rewards that are provided to the employee that is in favor of both the
employee and the employer. There are two types of rewards provided to the employee by the

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employer namely intrinsic reward where in the employee is rewarded with non-physical
rewards like motivational letters, appreciation letters etc. The extrinsic rewards are physical in
nature that includes providing the employee with bonuses, incentives, pay rises etc.
P4 and D2
Effectiveness of HRM practices to enhance profit and productivity of British
Airways.
The link between motivational theory and reward according to theories of content and
process are motivation that is provided to an employee in British Airways helps the employee to
get influenced and change his thinking process to achieve the goal of British Airways and work
to increase the productivity of British Airways. The motivation provided to the employee can be
both financial and non-financial. According to Maslow, the manager’s side tracks their attention
to offer a fair relationship with the workforce of British Airways but another author called
Herzberg says that there are few expectations of every employee that they need to stay motivated
and hygienic to add to the productivity of British Airways. For instance, British Airways
considers the theory of Maslow and Herzberg motivation is the primary source for the employees
to make them concentrate on their work and add to the productivity of the company.
Job design and job-extension techniques involves a series of steps namely rotation,
simplification, enlargement and enrichment of jobs (Nicolescu, 2009). Job design includes
analysis of job related data and the skills and knowledge that are required to fulfill the job
perspective. Job design describes the roles, responsibilities, procedures that are required to be
qualified to that job posting. There are various types of flexibility that exists within British
Airways that helps the employee to be more productive. The types of flexibility are numerical
flexibility that helps British Airways to maintain labour demand whenever fluctuations occur in
the company. Structural flexibility uses a capability pattern that helps to generate indices that
will help to quantify the system. Functional flexibility includes introducing quick employees in
British Airways to take up new activities and tasks whenever required.

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Handy’s model of flexible organization.
P3 and M3
Advantages of various HRM practices to both employer and the employee
within British Airways
The models of flexible organization include models of Handy and Atkinson. According to
Handy Shamrock’s model the first leaf of the model consists of a multi-skilled team that consists
of managers, professionals, technicians etc. the second leaf of the model is represented as
contractual fringe because non-central activities like effective communication would get
contracted to British Airways (Kalleberg, 2001). The third leaf represents the flexible workforce
that consists of part-time workers, temporary and seasonal workers. The Atkinson model
describes that there should be flexibility provided to the employees of British Airways which
was divided into two. One is the core group that consists of full time primary and internal
workers who are a permanent part of British Airways. Other group is known as the peripheral
group who are the secondary labour British Airways. They are often less skilled and less
experienced. The model also talks about varied kinds of flexibility that exists within British
Airways.