Employee Relations and HR Planning in the Airline Industry

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Human Resource Management
In Service Industry
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INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Analysing the role and purpose of human resource management in British Airways.....3
1.2 Justifying human resource plan based on analysis of supply and demand in British
Airways..................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Assessing the current state of employment relation in British Airways..........................7
2.2. Discussing how employment law affects the human resource managements in service
sector......................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3......................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Discussing a job description and person specification for cabin crew job......................9
3.2 Comparing the selection process of different service industries businesses..................10
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................12
4.1 Contribution of training and development activities for effective operation in Business
Airways................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
HRM (Human Resource Management) is an integral part of every organisation which plays a
significance role in order to improve overall performance. The report is aim to reflects
different aspects of HRM in service sector. The report will highlight the purpose and role of
HRM in British Airways (BA) which is second largest airlines in UK. A HR plan would be
presented based on the analysis of the supply and demand. Employee relation and the impact
of employee laws would further be presented in the study. As part of the study, cabin crew
job would be analysed and a job description would be presented along with the person
specification. Different selection processes would further be compared along with the
identification of importance of training and development in organisational development.
TASK 1
1.1 Analysing the role and purpose of human resource management in British Airways
Human resource management: HRM is the practice of managing the employees and
meeting the organisational requirements of the man power (human resource management
(HRM). 2019). It can be said that HR’s department in any organisation plays an essential role
in recruiting, hiring, and managing the employees so that they perform in accordance to the
standard of the business in attaining the goals and objectives.
HRM plays a crucial role in any organisation. This holds true for the Service organisations as
well as human resource are their brand asset. Human resources in British airways are most
important in providing services and contribute in attaining the business goals.
Following are the HRM role in BA:
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Figure 1Human Resource Management
HR strategy: In British airways, HR is responsible to make different strategies related
different organisational activities. HR department has to make plan and forecast the strategies
for recruiting and managing the correct number of employees in organisation as per the need.
Recruitment and selection: It is one of the most important functional activities that HR has
to perform (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). Hr is effective in managing the employees
through effective recruitment and selection process through consulting the management
regarding the job description of the required job role.
Reward management: HR department is important to plan and implement effective strategy
for the reward system in organisation. It is important to boost up the motivation of
employees. Hr plans to give rewards and appreciation to the higher performed employees.
Performance management: It is one of the most essential functions that HR performs in
British Airways. It is the responsibility of Hr to effectively manage and measure the
performance of the employees as per the set standard (Baum, 2016). The HR department
monitors, evaluate and give feedback for improvement and also provides
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Training and development: Through monitoring and analysing the needs for enhancing the
employee skills and performance, HR department organises and conducts various training
and development programmes for the existing employees and for the newly appointed
Overall purpose and role of HRM
The main purpose of HRM in British Airways is to increase the productivity of the
employee’s performance which leads to add value to customers by providing high quality
services that aims to achieve the goals and objectives in more efficient manner. They are
responsible in proper supply of employee as per the demand of employees in British airways.
They are enables to recruit the efficient employees in order to increase the productivity in a
particular job role. In British Airways, the employees are considered as the rand asset and
considered as most essential in the success of organisation. Hence, it can be said that human
resource department are crucial role in coordinating and managing the employees, customer
satisfaction and contributing to achieving the goals and objectives of British airways
efficiently.
Soft HRM: It is an approach where, employees are being treated nicely as an important
resource of organisation. Employees are being involved in decision making process.
Hard HRM: It is an approach to HRM which leads to result in more cost-effective
workforce and quick decision making process (Bratton and Gold, 2017). It treats employees
as a resource in organisation.
1.2 Justifying human resource plan based on analysis of supply and demand in British
Airways
Human resource Planning: It can be defined as the continuous process of analyzing the
right number of people for the right kind of job at a right time, by forecasting the demand of
organisation and supply of human resource department to meet current and future need. The
human resource planning is crucial in order to arrange the right employees for a particular job
through different process (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016). Human resource plan is
effective in British Airways in order to fill the immediate vacancies in order to reduce the
consequences of employee turnover on business. It generally begins with the estimation for
the requirement of man force and fulfilling the requirement in effective manner.
Supply and demand of labour in HR planning: It is an essential part of the organisation
and its human resource planning. It assists in forecasting the currently and future staffing
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needs in order to minimize the shortage of labour in organisation. The analysis of supply and
demand assists in estimating the supply of human resource in such competitive environment.
HR department in British airways has to access the requirement of man force through
forecasting the need. It can be said that, with the four new flights services from Heathrow and
Madeira. It analyse the demand of new staff for the new flights.
It can be said that drafting an HR planning in order to balance the supply and demand is a
complex process. Based on the present scenario, the duration of the flight is four hours off
each of the 6 flights. The proper plan of HR is needed in order to satisfying the demand of
new staffs with proper supply of new effective staffs. The HR management of British
Airways can hire the aviation students as a part time job as the flights are fore seasonal basis
only (Wilton, 2016). HR could also adopt the strategy through recruiting the workers to come
and work like students, it effective solution as it is less time consuming. In order to supply
the staff as per the demand, best strategy that HR could adopt is to eliminate the non-
profitable flights and recruit their staff for the new flights and fulfil the demand.
Table 1 HR planning of supply and demand
Basis Peak summer season Rest of the year
Flight details Heathrow<> Madeira Heathrow<> Madeira
Number of staffs 70 staff is required. 15 for each flight 35 staff is required. 10 for each flight
Working hours Total of 8 working hour for each day Total working hour is 8 for each day.
Staff roles Their job role is to manage the flight
services which includes food, safety,
instruction to the customers
The cabin crew and other staff job
role are to provide flight services
related to customers demand of food,
safety and instruction.
Justifying the HR plan for new flights
In the above table, British Airways HR plan for new flights services has been prepared. It can
be said that HR planning is dome though analysing the needs of the staff and their working
hour for peak season and rest of the year. In addition to this, number of staff has been also
analysed based in the working hour for each flight. It can be said that, there are many factors
which can impact the HR planning process which includes environmental and organisational
needs, strategies and objectives and analysis of in internal inventory of Hr capabilities. The
HR management needs to consider the factors in order to ensure achievement of goals and
objectives effectively.
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TASK 2
2.1 Assessing the current state of employment relation in British Airways
Employment relation (ER): ER is the Industrial relation that is concerned with contractual,
emotional, formal and informal association between the employee and the employer. It can be
referred as the efforts that are made by employer and human department to manage the
healthy relationship between employee and managers.
Importance of employment legislation: Employee relation is crucial to every organisation
as positive relationship between employee and employers leads to increase employee
engagement, productivity, motivation and high morals which assist in achieving the
company’s objectives. It can be said that there are four main components in employee
relation, employees the one who provides the labour to employers and expects proper
remuneration. Employers are the one who aims to cut down the expenses in order to increase
the profit which leads to hamper the working condition (Leischnig and Kasper-Brauer, 2015).
It leads to raise the situation of conflicts. The government establishes s frameworks for set of
rules for both employee and employee that require working together in agreement with
government.
Current state of ER in Airline industry
Trade union platys an essential role in the employee relation in airline industry. Trade union
main purpose is to transform work environment into better place for the employees in an
organisation. Trade union also plays an effective role in ensuring the right of the members are
expected at work. They ensure that there is no discrimination to any employee within
organisation. It can be said that within airline industry in UK, trade union managed to resolve
the domestic measures such as conflicts, strikes and members of the government. It can be
said that from past many years, national and international regulation has leads to affect the
collaborating bargaining abilities to trade unions. The key trade union in airline industry in
UK are BALPA that is the British Airline Pilot Association which assist in defending the
rights and interest of pilots within UK. It can be said that the states of ER in British airways is
stable and concentrated n restructuring the collaborative bargaining.
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2.2. Discussing how employment law affects the human resource managements in service
sector
Laws pertaining to employment have great significance in an organisation and especially to
the HR department of an organisation (Tracey, 2016). It can be said that the laws that are
formed in order to guard the right of employees and leads to affect the decisions, policies and
procedures of HR department. British Airway’s HR department needs to imply all the leads
and legislation so that they can achieve the goals in disciplinary manner. Some of the laws
and legislations are as follows:
Employment relation act, 2004: As per this act, employees of an organisation have legal
protection if the employers ask them not to be or be a part of a trade union. As per the act,
employees are being protected from any prejudice to them from taking any trade union
services.
Work and family act, 2016: This act is related to the maternity period payments for the
female employees from 26 to 52 week. This act also initiates programmes under which an
employee can take leave in order to take care of their children and will be paid for this period
vas well. British airways HR needs to make policies in regards to provide such facilities to its
employees.
General data Protection Regulation 2018: It leads to guide the organisation of the way their
employee’s information is managed and manipulated. The laws lead to safe the personal data
of an employee. The act also gives right to employees to take over control over their
information (Helms, 2016). The law has been implied to whole Europe. The law covers the
concerns of the individual and responsibilities of organisation in order to maintain the
information accordingly.
Equality Act, 2010: This act leads to secure the right of the employee in organisation. As per
the law, there cannot be any discrimination to any employee based on age, gender, caste,
nationality etc. It is a straightforward legislative framework that aims with dealing with
discrimination at workplace.
Impact of legislation of HRM of British airways
This laws needs to be considered by the HR department of British Airways as this could leads
to affect the smooth operational and business activities of organisation. In addition to this,
there are others laws as well which needs to considered by HR departments. HR department
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is responsible to create an organisational culture in a way that treat every employee equal and
no biasness ion any ground. The contract between the employees and employers are required
to strictly adhere by the organisation (Brunstein, 2016). HT department needs to draft the
employment agreement wile considering such acts, as not complying can leads to pay
penalties or strict action from government.
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TASK 3
3.1 Discussing a job description and person specification for cabin crew job
Recruitment and Selection process: The major function of British Airways HR department
is to create a pool of employees for a specific job role within organisation. On the other hand,
selection can be termed as a process through managers and other executives used different
methods in order to choose the best candidates from the pool created from the recruitment
process. The process of recuritment is crucial in determining the business performance in
order to stay competitive in business world.
Job Analysis: It is detailed analysis of particular job in order to ascertain the role and
responsibilities. Job analysis is systematic process which assist is determining the roles and
responsibility that an employee has to perform in that particular job. It is important process
which assists in analysing all the skills and qualification that are essential to have in a person
n to perform the job role effectively (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). It is a process
where the HR and management drat a job description regarding the specific job role and
statement of person specification which determine the skills and capabilities required in a
candidate for job.
From the analysis of demand of employees, British airways have a vacancy for a Cabin Crew
for its new flights. Person specification and job description is presented below:
Job Description
It can be said that cabin crew staff is very essential to attend the staff and fulfil their entire
requirement within flight. The cabin crew is responsible for comfort, safety and welfare of
the travellers.
The following are the main responsibilities of Cabin Crew:
 Greeting the passengers during on-board and exiting the flights.
 Guiding the travellers towards their seats and resolve other in flight issues.
 To serve the meals and refreshments to the passengers.
 Ensuring that the safety procedures are implemented
The roles and responsibilities of cabin crew are demanding which requires high degree of
responsibilities. Cabin crew are expecting to deal with all passengers and feel them comfort
and safety during flights.
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Qualification and experience required: Cabin crew must have the degree in travel, tourism,
hospitality management or in nursing degree can also be relevant. Experience can involve in
public in customer service role in order to show the necessary skills (Hollenbeck and
Jamieson, 2015). The candidate within nursing, catering or the tourism is also relevant.
Person specification for Cabin Crew: The cabin crew employees required certain skills,
attitude, knowledge and behaviour in order to work effectively. Such as:
Skills:
 Passionate to deliver superior services to customers.
 Have good communications skills and done excellent interaction with customers on-
board.
 Confident enough to deal with any problem and queries of customers.
 Able to build relationship with all the customers effectively.
 Good leadership skills and team building ability.
Essential and desirable qualification:
 Should be above 18 age
 Fluent in English
 willing to work in long shifts
 Hold a valid passport
 Professionalism and discipline to be in proper British Airways uniform.
Behaviour required:
 Should be fast in delivering services
 Smarter to innovate and improve the services
 Have togetherness and motivation to attain the organisational vision and mission
statement.
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3.2 Comparing the selection process of different service industries businesses
Selection process for Cabin Crew:
The selection process for Cabin crew frost starts with submitting the online application form
at British airlines career websites. The second step will include assessment of the online
application form through screening of three elements. The three elements are:
 Reading and comprehension exercise
 Behavioural personality test
 Numeracy test
The next step involves the judgment of the candidates on the basis of the online assessment.
It has been conducted at British Airways’ headquarter (British Airways Cabin Crew
Recruitment – Step by Step Process , 2019). Assessment day is the popular method of
recruitment where a lot numbers of candidates are being assessed for cabin crew job. In the
next step, a final interview has been conducted for the short-listed candidates from
assessment day. The interview will be said in the competency and behavioural based
questions through managers and HR executives. After interview all the document of
candidates will be verified and after a medical approval the candidate will be finalised for the
cabin crew job.
Recruitment process of Transport fort London: The recruitment process of TFL includes a
number of processes. At first the availability of vacancy has been advertised through various
methods. The application form then will be submitted by interested candidates. The
management will contact to the applicant and will take situational judgement test (Analoui,
2018). The selected candidates will be called for online ability test. The selected candidates
will have to give telephone or video interview by HR executives. The shortlisted candidates
will called at assessment centre and has to face the group exercises, written exercises,
presentation and role play. The few selected candidates will be called to give final interview
to management executives and HR associate.
Comparison between both organisations’ process: It can be said that both the organisation
has different recruitment and selection process based on their operational nature (Dubin,
2017). The airline industry uses technical aspects and numeric test for selecting candidates,
whereas selection in TFL is based on written assessment. The process for inviting is same in
both organisations. However, TFL includes other sources as well.
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