Strategic HRM Plan for British Airways' New Flight Services

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HRM FOR SERVICE INDUSTRIES
BA

Table of Contents
Task 1................................................................................................................................................3
AC 1.1 Analysing the role and purpose of HRM...............................................................................3
AC 1.2 Creating an HR plan..............................................................................................................4
Task 2................................................................................................................................................6
AC 2.1 Assessing the current state of employment relations in the airline industry..........................6
AC 2.2: Discussing how employment law affects the management of human resources within BA. 7
Task 3.................................................................................................................................................8
Discussion of the job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew, BA (AC 3.1)................8
Comparison of the selection processes of BA (Cabin Crew) and Transport for London (AC 3.2).....10
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................11
Assesses the contribution of T&D activities to the effective operation of BA (AC 4.1)....................11
References.......................................................................................................................................14

Task 1
AC 1.1 Analysing the role and purpose of HRM
According to Noe et al (2017) HRM is the important component of any company. It is useful
in the existence and growth of the company. Therefore, it is essential for companies to have
the department of HRM. As mentioned by Cascio (2015) the HRM plays many important role
such as, recruitment and selection of employees, training of employees, establishing
relationship with employees and direct them to perform well. The HRM includes precise
planning and forecasting for the effective and efficient management of employees.
Undoubtedly, the HRM have important role and purpose for the British Airways. Following
are the roles and purpose of HRM for the British Airways:
Recruitment and Selection – As stated by Bratton and Gold (2017) the main role for HRM is
the recruitment and selection of staffs. It is important for every company to ensure the
recruitment and selection of most appropriate and eligible candidates. The recruitment and
selection of employees is not an easy task and includes lots of steps and strategies. The
department human resource helps in recruiting and selecting the most appropriate employee
for the job in British Airways. The British Airways is the company that provides services
rather than products. As opined by Noe et al (2017) the recruitment and selection of
employees in the service industry is very essential and should be completed cautiously. Thus,
the recruitment and selection of employees in British Airways plays very important role in
the growth of the company. According to Noe et al (2017) the recruitment and selection plays
very important role in the service industry because the employees provide the direct services
rather than any products. Hence, the role of employee gets very important in the service
industry.
Training and Development of employees – In accordance with Jiang Lepak Hu and Baer
(2012) the purpose of the HRM is to ensure proper training and development of employees.
The training and development of employees plays key role in the growth of the company,
particularly in case of service industry. It is known that employees directly represent the
company as they provide the services to the company instead of products that provide the
services (Bratton and Gold 2017). Therefore, it gets very essential that employees perform
very well and training of employees eventually assist in enhancing their performances. Thus,
the proper training and development of employees helps in enhancing the performance and
productivity that eventually helps in the growth of the company. The training and

development gets more important in case of British Airways, as employees have to develop
dynamic personality and improve skills such communicating and decision-making. However,
the training and development plan needs to be developed strategically and keeping various
factors in mind. In this context, the HRM becomes very important for the company.
Rewards and Motivation – The next important purpose of HRM is the rewarding and
motivating employees. As stated by Jiang et al. (2012) the rewards for employees helps in
making them committed and dedicated and this eventually helps in enhancing their high
levels of satisfaction which is turn improves their performance. The company can provide
various types of rewards such as, promotions and monetary rewards. The rewards keep the
employees engaged to perform better. Hence, the motivation of employees is very important
factor for maintaining their performance and productivity (Noe et al 2017).
Employees’ relationship – As opined by Cascio (2015) the HRM plays very important role in
establishing the better employees’ relationship. The employees’ relationship plays very
important role in the company. The role of HRM is to resolve the problems of employees and
resolve the problems as soon as possible to maintain the better employees’ relationship. The
establishment and development of better employees’ relationship helps in ensuring the better
rate of employees’ retention (Noe et al 2017). Therefore, it gets very important to establish
better employees’ relationship with the proper HRM.
AC 1.2 Creating an HR plan
As stated by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) the HR plan includes lots of strategies that helps
in ensuring the proper HRM. The HR plan is continuous process, as HRM have to deal with
sudden changes that affect the management. The HR planning assists in ensuring that the Hr
of BA should be completing all their roles and responsibilities. Following is the HR plan for
the British Airways for delivering the new flight services to Madeira ahs been illustrated
below in table format.
Type of Staffs No. of Staffs Working Hours Role of Staffs
Cabin Crew 10 12 The primary role of
the cabin crew staffs
is to understand the
safety and comfort of
on board passengers
(Armstrong and

Taylor 2014). The
other important role
of the cabin crew
welcoming and
guiding passengers
and providing them
all sort of helps they
require.
Ground Staffs 40 14 The role of ground
staff is very difficult
and stressful, they
have to verify their
items and ensure
health and safety of
on board employees
and passengers (Jiang
et al. 2012). The
other important role
of the cabin crew
staffs is to keep the
flights clean.
Line Personnel 30 12 The role of the staffs
is to ensure the
proper scheduling of
the flights. In
addition, it also plays
the key role of
providing training to
flight crews (Cascio
2015).
Flight Dispatchers 15 10 The flight dispatchers
have important role
to play such as
tracking of flights

and supervising the
safety.
Task 2
AC 2.1 Assessing the current state of employment relations in the airline industry
As per the view of Analoui (2017) employment relations is the key factor in the airline
industry. The role of employees is very important in any airline company, as the services are
solely dependent on the performances of the employees. Generally, the current state
employment relation in the airline industry is satisfactory, as company pays good amount of
money to its employees. The growth of the airline industry in the recent years has been
gradual and this has brought certain changes in the employment relations (Analoui 2017).
The growth of the airline sector eventually increases the demand for employees. As a result,
the company have to recruit more employees and use different methods of recruitment. The
mostly used method of recruitment in airline industry particularly for the non-technician jobs
such as cabin crew and ground staffs is the recruitment from consultancies. The growth of
consultancy companies that also provides the training for jobs in airline industry has
gradually increased in recent years (Bratton and Gold 2017). The recruitment from
consultancy companies has the major demerit that is the lack of job security. The employees
recruited from the consultancies are not provided the job security and are recruited on the
temporary basis. The employees are paid good amount for the job but the lack of job security
is the major concern. This factor eventually affects the employment relations in the airline
industry. The employees do not feel confident and motivated because of lack of job security.
It eventually affects their performance and productivity.
The other important factor that affects the employment relation is the diversity. The airline
industry operates and provides services around the world. Therefore, the airline companies
have to recruit employees from different countries, race and religion. It makes the workforce
diverse that have its own advantages and disadvantages. Thus, both advantages and
disadvantages affect the employment relations in different ways. For an example, the major
disadvantages of diverse workforce are the miscommunication and discrimination. The
incidents of miscommunication and discrimination directly affect the relation among
employees. It also affects the relations between employees and management of the company.

AC 2.2: Discussing how employment law affects the management of human resources
within BA
As suggested by Mello (2014) employment law is the very important aspect in the HRM. It is
the prime purpose of the HRM to adhere the employment role in its practices. However, the
employment law is affecting the working or the business operations of BA. The management
has to make certain changes in their decisions and planning or consider the employment law
while making any decisions or planning. The consideration of employment law in planning
and decisions eventually affects the management. The following discussion will help in
assessing and understanding that how employment law affects HR strategies of BA and the
legislations are illustrated below.
Data Protection Act 1988 – The data protection is important employment law in UK (Mello
2014). According the employment law of data protection it is the responsibility of the staffs
to maintain and secure the privacy and personal data of employees. Thus, it becomes the
responsibility of HRM of British Airways to ensure the safety of data of employees. The
management have to select the appropriate data storage system for storing the data and avoid
leaking any personal data of employees.
Working Time – The next important employment law in UK is the working time. The law
bounds the company to limit the working hours of employees to the 48 hours a week and not
exceeding the 8 hours limitation per day (Brewster Chung and Sparrow 2016). As a result, it
becomes the responsibility of HRM to avoid the mistake of forcing employees to work more
than the limited working time. Therefore, management have to make changes in the decisions
and divide the work in different shifts.
Health and Safety Act 1974 – The employment law of UK shows prime concern to the health
and safety of employees. The BA have to ensure that it maintains the proper safety of
employees and develop healthy and safe working environment. The HRM needs to take the
actions to maintain healthy and safety of employees. It is also the responsibility of HRM to
provide better training and development to employees for avoiding or minimizing the risk of
accidents (Renwick Redman and Maguire 2013). Thus, the focus of training and development
of employees should include the training of basic skills of safety apart from the enhancing of
performance and productivity.
Maternal and Parental Rights – The maternal and parental rights provide certain benefits to
employees in order to take care of their children. The British Airways and its HRM have to

ensure that it provides all benefits to its employees under the maternal and parental rights
(Eaton 2017). The providing of benefits such as paid leave for employees eventually
increases the burden for HRM. The HRM have to be prepared for the replacement of
employees those or on the paid leave under the maternal and parental rights.
Equal Pay Act 1970 – The other important employment law of UK is the equal pay. The
British Airways have to ensure that it makes no discrimination in the payment and provides
equal pay to the employees (Analoui 2017). Since, it is the responsibility of the HR to make
proper payments to the staffs and make recruitment and selection of employees. Therefore,
HRM of British Airways has to ensure that it makes equal payment to its employees. In
addition, it is also important to ensure that the recruitment and selection of the staffs include
the equal pay scale for the new staffs.
Discrimination Act 1994 – In the employment law of UK, the most important thing is
discrimination. It is important to ensure avoiding any types of discrimination in the company.
Hence, British Airways have to avoid discrimination in the workplace. The HRM have the
purpose of maintaining the employment relationship (Budhwar 2016). Therefore, the
management communicates with employees. The management lists and register the problems
of employees, and take all necessary steps for resolving the problems. The HRM have to take
feedbacks from employees and check that no discrimination is done against any employees
based on religion, race, age or gender. In case, any discrimination is identified in the
workplace then it gets important for the HRM to take quick and effective steps.
Task 3
Discussion of the job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew,
BA (AC 3.1)
The task of reviewing of the recruitment and the selection processes could be carried out in
BA with the help of the identification and evaluation of the job description and the person
specification for the post of Cabin crew in BA (Holloway 2017). This is done for meeting the
legal requirements and the industry standards. So the discussion of the job description and
personal specifications for the designation of Cabin Crew in BA has been illustrated below
Job Description for Cabin Crew

 The Cabin Crew is ensuring the operational safety which is indicating that if there is
any lack in the safety of the operations of the flights onboard should be looked after
by the cabin crew.
 The cabin crew should be having the responsibility of looking after the security of the
passengers on board as well the health and safety should be performed at the highest
standards and compliant with the EASA and other legislations.
 They have been maintaining the safety compliance all the time with the recency
training to be given to them.
 The cabin crew should be delivering world class service excellence as per the industry
norms.
 The cabin crew has been ensuring compliance with the different professional policies
and the process in accordance with the legislation of the industry standards.
 The cabin crew in BA have been welcoming and greeting the customers on board.
 They have been serving the meals and refreshments for the passengers onboard.
 They have been attending a flight briefing at that time they have been assigned their
working positions for their flight where they are in (Salas et al. 2012).
 They have also been selling the duty free products and services and makes important
suggestions to the passengers for having any allowance to be restricted at their point
of destination.
 They have been also providing the first aid help to the passengers if it is required by
the passengers on board.
Person Specifications
Skills Qualifications (Essential or Desirable)
 Passionate about delivering the
services to the passengers.
 The individual should be having the
age of more than 18 and must be the
citizen of UK (Budhwar 2016).
 Enjoying customer interactions and
placing the customers at their hearts.
 The individual is very much fluent in
speaking and writing English
language.

 The cabin crew is highly self
confident in dealing with the
challenging situations at their
workplace.
 The individual should be holding a
passport with no restrictions to live
and work in the UK.
 The cabin crew should be respecting
and evaluate the different cultures so
that they can behave properly with
them.
 The cabin crew should be undergoing
a criminal record check for all the
countries of residence for 6 months in
the previous 5 years.
 The cabin crew must have excellent
verbal communication skills in order
to greet and welcome the passengers
onboard.
 They must have the ability of
retaining an airside pass.
 The cabin crew should have the skill
of developing collaborative
relationships with the customers as
well the team with whom the cabin
crew is working.
 The cabin crew should be willing to
employ all day and nights as per the
duty demands for them.
 The cabin crew has the skill of
learning quickly and easily so that
they can apply the information at
workplace.
 The cabin crew should be wearing the
uniforms of BA with no visible
tattoos and there should not be usage
of any plasters and bandages.
Comparison of the selection processes of BA (Cabin Crew) and Transport
for London (AC 3.2)
The comparison of the recruitment and the selection process of BA and TFL have been
illustrated below
Recruitment and Selection Process of BA
Stage 1: In this stage the vacancies are found on the careers webpage of the official website
of BA.
Stage 2: In this stage the applicants who are willing to apply for the position of cabin crew
should be applying online only from the official website of the firm.

Stage 3: In this stage the applicants provides the answers to each of the questions which are
there in the interest form.
Stage 4: In this stage the online application form is completed by the candidates.
Stage 5: In this stage the applicants who have met the basic requirements should be given a
log-in ID for the completion of the psychometric tests which is including the verbal
reasoning, spatial reasoning, numeracy skill test and situational judgement test.
Stage 6: In this stage after the completion and success of the online tests they are called for
the Assessment day where they have to provide the MCQ, group exercise and role play and
face an interview.
Stage 7: In this stage the background and the medical checking is done by the company.
Stage 8: This is the last stage where cabin crew position is started after the successful
completion of the training program.
Recruitment and Selection Process of TFL
Stage 1: In this first stage the candidate will be searching for the desired position by looking
after the official website of TFL.
Stage 2: The candidate will be applying online by the careers page of the official website of
TFL.
Stage 3: In this stage the candidate if interested should be filling up an interest form and send
it to the company via mail.
Stage 4: In this stage after success the candidate will be called for the Assessment day where
the testing of the numeracy, literacy and the ICT at level 3 will be done.
Stage 5: In this stage after the success of the Assessment Day for the candidate the candidate
need to go for an interview.
Stage 6: This is the last stage when the interview is successful the candidate is selected for
the training programme.

Task 4
Assesses the contribution of T&D activities to the effective operation of BA
(AC 4.1)
Different types of training
The illustration of the different types of training has been given below
Orientation Training: This is the most common and one time training for the new candidates
who have just newly recruited where there has been the formal welcoming and greeting of the
customers to be taken place (Masadeh 2012). This is type of training which is provided to the
employees of the firm to understand the profile and overview of the organization. It will be
depicting the mission and the vision along with the clear understandi9ng of the goals and
objectives of the firm. It will also make a clear evaluation of the policies and legislations
which are to be followed for working in the organization they are in.
Onboard Training: The onboard training starts on the first day of employment and it carry in
the first year as it is needed. It has been developed by the departmental leaders for achieving
the goals of the departments and connected with the overall company objectives (Arneson
Rothwell and Naughton 2013). It is focusing much more on the technical aspects of the job. It
is also offering the education on the ways for staying engaged and highly productive at
workplace.
Technical Training: This is the training of the hard skills of the employees who will be
working in BA. It will help in making the employees to become technically sound. In this
study the technical training is required for the cabin crew members to know how they will be
providing safety and security for the passengers onboard and how to deal with them if they
found any kind of issue (Fawad Latif 2012).
Difference between training and development
According to Arneson Rothwell and Naughton (2013) the training and development has some
differences between them. The main difference between training and development is that
training is the short term process where the development is the long term approach of
learning and development. The training is always focusing on the improvement of the
technical skills and knowledge of the employees. The training only provides an overview of
the reason of how the objectives of the company will be defined and implemented. On the
other hand the development is the learning process where the individuals can be able to