Human Resource Management and its Impact on British Airways' Success

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 ANALYSING THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF HRM IN BRITISH AIRWAYS.................................4
1.2: JUSTIFICATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLAN BASED ON SUPPLY AND DEMAND CURVE FOR
BRITISH AIRWAYS...........................................................................................................................7
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 ASSESSING THE CURRENT STATE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN BRITISH AIRWAYS..........10
2.2 IMPACT OF EMPLOYEES LAWS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN BRITISH
AIRWAYS...................................................................................................................................... 12
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................... 14
3.1 JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS...............................14
3.2: COMPARISON OF SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS AND TRANSPORT FOR
LONDON...................................................................................................................................... 16
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................... 18
4.1 ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS................................................................................................................. 18
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................22
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List of Tables
Table 1: Estimation of Staff and their Hours..................................................................................8
Table 2: BA Job Description..........................................................................................................14
Table 3: Skills and Qualifications of candidates in BA..................................................................15
Table 4: Physical Skills of Candidates in BA..................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management (HRM) plays an important role in achieving success for an
organization. It helps the management of an organization to provide all necessary resources so
that it could achieve its objectives in a significant manner. In the given assignment, the role of
HRM in the service industry of the UK would be clearly discussed such as the role and
responsibilities, supply and demand, employee relation, employment laws and training and
development.
The report would take the British Airways (BA) into the consideration which is one of the
leading aviation industry founded in 1974. It has been able to maintain a good reputation
among its customers which has resulted in its enhanced market share.
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TASK 1
Introduction
As a trainee HR officer at British Airways, the researcher would analyze the reasons behind the
success of BA at the Heathrow and Madeira flights by understanding the purpose and role
played by HRM in BA and would also evaluate its HR plan.
1.1 ANALYSING THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF HRM IN BRITISH AIRWAYS
HRM is the planned and strategic tool which helps the management of the BA to properly
assess the roles and responsibilities of the employees so that it would accelerate the business
of the organisation and provide it with a competitive edge. The major purpose of the HRM
department is to go for performance maximization of the employees as per the strategic
objectives of the given organisation. In BA, more than 40,000 employees work for the
organisation and it is the responsibility of HRM to delegate their task so that they could
perform their job for accomplishing the corporate objectives of the BA (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014).
Figure 1: Harvard Framework for HRM
Source: [Onnis, 2019]
In order to effectively understand the HRM in BA, Harvard framework has been utilized. This
framework helps the BA to develop a strategic plan for managing employees via HRM
department. This model helps the management to understand the views of their stakeholders
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so as to properly develop the human resource of the BA. It includes enhancement in the human
resource of the company and maintains a striking balance between the management and
employees of the given organization.
Role and Responsibilities of HRM at British Airways
Culture
The culture of the BA is vibrant as its HRM department ensures a proper cultural development
by performing knowledge sharing drills and awareness programs.
Security
The HRM of British Airways provides the necessary information to maintain the safety of the
employees of the company and also provide training to prevent them from any unnecessary
mishap. Furthermore, HRM also plans legislative laws which could be enforced for the safety
and security of the employees especially women or physically-disabled employees (Santana, et
al. 2018).
Employee Motivation and development
It is the responsibility of the HRM department of BA to provide great motivation to the
employees so that they would be able to perform well. Moreover, they should also ensure the
proper professional development of the employees so that there would be an effective
improvement in the efficiency and productivity of the given organisation (Maxwell and Grant,
2018).
FUNCTIONS HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AT BRITISH AIRWAYS
Resourcing
The internal and external recruitment in the BA is the prime responsibility of the HRM
department. The main function of the HRM is to fill all the vacant positions with capable
employees so as to ensure proper development of the given organisation.
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Training and development
It is an important function of the HRM of the British Airways as it ensures that the proper
training is accomplished to its employees at all the levels so that they become accustomed to
the working environment of the company.
Employee relationship
Another important function of the HRM is to maintain a healthy relationship between the
management and employees of British Airways. Besides this, they also provide a good
communication medium to collect feedback from the employees and transmit to the
management and vice versa so as to effectively solve any grievances and issues arising out in
the organisation (Cooke, 2018).
Performance Management
Performance management is utilized by the HRM of the BA so as to decide the performance
benchmark for all the employees for making their significant contribution in the development
of the company. Moreover, it is also the responsibility of the HRM to recognize the
performance of the employees and support their intentions with rewards and recognitions
whole over the organisation (Maxwell and Grant, 2018).
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1.2: JUSTIFICATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLAN BASED ON SUPPLY AND
DEMAND CURVE FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS
Human resource planning involves the scrutiny of the organizational goals, forecasting the
demand and supply of the existing workforce identify the working of the present workforce,
estimation of the gaps and its final formulation for the British Airways (Pavlović and Babić,
2018). In addition to this, the process of monitoring and the control of the plan are also done
for getting overwhelming success.
Figure 2: Process of human resource planning
Source: [Chaneta, 2014]
Objectives
The goals of the human resource planning for BA are as follows:
 An assurance of availability of the workforce for the launch of the new flight service to
the Madeira from Heathrow
 Operating of the four flights in four hours during peak season
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 During the rest of the year, three flights will be directed for each weak for the Madeira
from Heathrow.
Roles of the staff
For the given new services, the role of the staff would be to manage the overall administration,
proper arrangement of the pilots for operating the flight and Cabin Crew for the customer
service in the flights (Baron, 2016). Another flight relates services which would be managed by
the staff include ground crew and air traffic controllers and safety managers for the ground
operation management safety during the flights respectively.
Number of the Staff and Estimation of Staff Hours
The vacancy analysis method would be utilized for identifying new talented staff which would
fit in their respective role in BA. The estimation of the different job roles are the presented in
the following table:
Table 1: Estimation of Staff and their Hours
Job role Present
staff
members
Estimated
turnover
Net
present
staff left at
the end of
year
New
vacancies
(demand)
for
delivering
service for a
new flight
to Madeira
Projected
hires
Working
hours
Duri
ng
the
sum
mer
seas
on
Dur
ing
the
res
t of
yea
r
The
business
8 2 5 4 4 90 75
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manager
of In-
flight
Manager
of the
customer
service
2 0 2 6 5 75 50
Cabin
crew
16 1 15 14 13 550 350
Pilot 6 2 4 6 5 100 65
Air
hostess
8 2 6 5 5 150 80
Based upon the vacancy analysis, the total requirement of the workforce for the new flights
could be estimated. The total man-hours that will be required for the different jobs are
estimated during the peak season when one extra flight will operate whole of the year.
Conclusion
The report helps to understand the roles and responsibility of the human resource
management in the British Airways and the method of workforce planning for the company.
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TASK 2
2.1 ASSESSING THE CURRENT STATE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN BRITISH
AIRWAYS
When compared with other industries, the airline industry is one of the largest industries which
provide services to a large number of people daily. There have been continuous changes in the
business environment of the given industry which happens due to environmental and
technological factors which have resulted in its current evolving nature. However, it is the
competitive factor with other airlines which might affect the business and growth of the British
Airways (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). Although there has been a significant reduction in
workforce due to technological advancement, yet it is the human resource of the BA which is
still relevant for its growth and success. So, the given airline industry could prosper and would
proceed to its future development only if it is able to maintain good employee relations. This, in
turn, would enhance the productivity of the company and decrease the employees-
management conflict at the premises of the given company.
One of the largest airline companies which have flying services in over 550 destinations in the
world is British Airways. The airline company is in a continuous process of developing and has
significantly enhanced its market share in the airline industry across the world. It provides its
services whole over the world due to its capable and efficient employees which numbers over
40,000. In order to effectively manage these large numbers of customers and reduce the
conflicts, it has become necessary for the management of BA to use effective HRM practices to
have good employee relations with its employees (Reiche, et al. 2016). A positive work
environment is created with the help of the healthy employee-employer relationship which can
be seen from increased productivity and overall efficiency of the organization.
British Airways has recruited over thousands of employees in the bases of the company which
are spread globally. There are various representatives of BA in numerous trade unions which
take care of the services and facilities provided to the employees of the given organization. The
trade union that is associated with the British Airways are; BALPA which is representative of
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pilots, BASSA which represents cabin crew members and Unite the Union which represents the
employees of the company. In order to maintain a perfect relationship with the employees, an
employee relation plan has been carried out by British Airways (Moon, et al. 2018).
The plan also includes communicating, negotiating and consulting the variation that has been
executed by the managers of the company. The negotiation is done by the managers of the
airline directly with the employee's representatives and trade union. Moreover, there has been
continuous monitoring of the performance of the employees on a regular basis and the highly
performed employees are rewarded. Besides, the company also keeps a vigil on its competitors
so that they do not drive away their employees (Reiche, et al. 2016).
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