British Airways: Resource Management Analysis for Service Industries

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of resource management within British Airways, focusing on human resource management (HRM) practices in the service industry. It examines the role and purpose of HRM, including planning and forecasting, skill development, and recruitment strategies. The report delves into the development of a human resource plan based on supply and demand, considering objectives, manpower analysis, and action plans to address gaps. Furthermore, it assesses the contribution of training and development activities to improve operational efficiency, including removing employee weaknesses, ensuring consistency in performance, reducing supervision, and improving employee retention. The report provides an overview of the aviation industry, the goals and objectives of British Airways, and the importance of effective resource management for maintaining a competitive edge. The report emphasizes the significance of adapting to market changes and providing quality services to customers.

Resource
Management for
Service Industries

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Introduction........................................................................................................................1
b) Role and purpose of human resource management in selected service industry...............2
c) Human resource plan based on supply and demand of service industry business.............3
d) Contribution of training and development activities for effective operations of service
industry...................................................................................................................................4
e) Conclusion .........................................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
The Goals and Objectives of British Airways. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://bizfluent.com/list-7499971-goals-objectives-british-airways.html>......................19

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is defined as set of activities like recruitment, selection,
training and management of employees within organisation for aligning the efforts of employees
toward accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives (Alfes and et. al., 2013). The
Airlines industry is fastest growing sector as the demand of people regarding travelling is
gradually increasing which further enhance the demand of airlines services. British Airways has
been considered for this project which provides aviation based services. It is headquartered in
Harmondsworth, United Kingdom. This report contains information regarding role and purpose
of HRM along with the justification of human resource plan which relies on analysis of demand
and supply. In addition to this, it also contains detailed description regarding the current state of
employment relations and effect of law over HRM. Despite of this, report also contains
information regarding personal specification and job description along with comparison between
the selection process of two separate organisation working within similar industry. At last, there
is an assessment of training and development along with its contribution toward effective
operations of service industry.
TASK 1
a) Introduction
Human resource management is most essential function of an organisation which support
in aligning the efforts of worker toward the accomplishment of organisational objective while
keeping them motived toward their roles and responsibilities (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). In
context of service industry, British Airways is flag carrier airline and considered as second
largest airlines in terms of fleet size and passengers carried. British Airways belongs to Aviation
industry and ranked among the top players of Aviation industry. The main goal of British
Airways is divided into three main areas such as aviation(adoption of latest products, services or
equipments for better service quality), Premium (ensure high quality service access by
passengers) and Global (Appeal to all passengers either for business or leisure travel for getting
repeat visit) (The Goals and Objectives of British Airways, 2019). British Airways provide its
services throughout the world but to maintain its market position it is crucial for British Airways
to maintain the quality or performance performed by employees. This is because employees act
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as a face of organisation who directly interact with customers and represent themselves on behalf
of company, hence they are responsible for growth and success of company.
b) Role and purpose of human resource management in selected service industry
It is crucial for HR manager of British Airways to keep employees happy so that they
would provide better service experience to customer (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). In order to
manage the employees and work performed by them, HR manager comply with several purpose
and roles within British Airways that are mentioned below:
 Planning and Forecasting:- The HRM mainly focuses on forecasting the requirement of
employees for performing work, so that hiring can be done in timely manner without
hampering the work. The HRM team of British Airways regularly evaluate the workforce
performance and required so that all the resources can be made available on timely
manner.
 Developing skills for future:- Another role of Human Resource Management is to
ensure proper development of employees so that desired performance level can be
obtained along with personal development of employees and their career (Huselid and
Becker, 2011). The HRM team of British Airways mainly focuses on organising training
and development program on regular interval basis for keeping the skills of employees
updated as per the competition arise in market.
 Recruitment:- The role of Human Resource Management is to hire right person for right
place in order to enhance the level of performance by performing adequate recruitment
process. For hiring high skilled person, British Airways mainly involve number of test to
select best possible candidate on the basis of their technical and interpersonal skills.
These are the major role of HR department within British airways which help company in
dealing with the competition present outside. Despite of this, the main purpose of HRM is to
enhance the productivity level by keeping the need and requirement of staff fully satisfied. The
another purpose of Human Resource Management team within British Airways is to ensure that
work performed within organisation must be in ethical manner by considering all the legal
aspects and standards fixed by Government.
c) Human resource plan based on supply and demand of service industry business
Human resources planning support a business in planning and hiring of employees as per
the requirement of organisation in order to accomplish predetermined goals and objectives. As
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the market share of British airways is raising the requirement of proper human resources
management is also get increased (López-Nicolás and Meroño-Cerdán, 2011). For instance, in
order to maintain with this market demand company is required to hire more employees for
marketing department in order to maintain or enhance the market share further. Hence it is
crucial for HR manager of British airways to formulate effective HR plan so that proper
recruitment of employees can be made, as there is not proper supply of aspirants from external
sources for marketing department. Therefore, it requires proper planning for maintain a balance
between demand and supply of employees. The HR plan of British Airways is explained below:
Identification of HR planning objectives:- The first and foremost step involve within a
Human resource plan is to determine the main objectives of conducting HR planning so that
proper allotment and adjustment of resources can be made accordingly. The main objective of
British Airways behind this HR planning is to recruit required number of people for marketing
department. This support in maintaining better relationship with customers which ensure re-visit
from them.
Analysing current manpower:- The next step in HR planning is to evaluate current
manpower that organisation have by evaluating the stored information of employees in context
of their experience (Marchington and et. al., 2016). The HR manager of British Airways is
required to evaluate internal factors like current manpower, resources of marketing department
so that by comparing it with requirement of work, proper estimation of required candidate can be
made. As per above mentioned examples, it is analysed by HR manager that there is requirement
of 10 individuals with appropriate skills such as IT skills, inter- personal skills, etc. through
which they are productive for British Airways and provide satisfactory services to consumers.
Forecasting demand and supply of human resource:- At next level, HR manager is
required to identify the actual demand and supply of employees in order to identify the actual
manpower gap. While determining the manpower demand, HR manager of British Airways must
also consider the internal factor like Company policy which aid in formulating effective action
plan. As per the above mentioned scenario there is a demand of 10 employees in marketing
department for Public relation practices that help in ensure effective performance of marketing
activities for maintain better relationship with customer and ensure their regular visit.
Analysing the manpower gaps:- Once the demand and supply get determined the next
step taken by HR manager is to analyse the actual gap between the existing manpower. By
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evaluating employees it has been found that there is a demand of 10 employees for PR executive
position (Messersmith and et. al., 2011). Hence, in order to fulfil this demand candidates are
being called by the external recruitment agency that are around 8 and after performing whole
recruitment procedure only 3 get selected. Hence it is a gap between the manpower which is
increasing the recruitment cost of British Airways which is required to be detected.
Action plan:- In order to fulfil the demand of 10 PR executives, British Airways is
required to adopt an effective recruitment and selection process so that high skilled employees
can be hired without expanding much cost and time. But before moving to recruitment process,
HR manager of British Airways must consider external factors like current economical state of
company and globalisation factors in order to hire candidates accordingly that have the
capability of working at global level. For this, the HR manager of British airways is required to
contact with more recruitment agencies for getting more and more people for recruitment
process. In addition to this, candidates may also be called through campus placement which help
in getting larger number of people to select best possible people. It helps in inviting fresh talent
with the company so that by providing them proper training it become easier to mould their skills
and working pattern as per the requirement of company.
d) Contribution of training and development activities for effective operations of service industry
Training and development is most essential function of a Human Resource management
as it help in improving the skills as well as capabilities of employees. This is so because the
training programs are mainly organised to make staff members gain knowledge regarding
particular area over which they have to work or enhancing their capability of performing work
by sharpening up their skills. The competition within the travel and tourism industry is gradually
increasing as the demand of purchasing travelling related services has been increased within
marketplace (Rubery and Urwin, 2011). Hence, in order to remain competitive it is crucial for
British Airways for ensuring adequate supply of services to customer on timely manner. This
become possible when employees get regular knowledge regarding new changes anticipated in
market along with the ways to be adopted for maintaining long term relationship with customers.
These knowledge and skills can be developed within employees of British Airways with the help
of regular arrangement of training and development programs for employees as it delivers
number of benefits by improving the operational efficiency. The contribution of training and
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development practices toward operational efficiency improvement for British airways is
mentioned below:-
Removing employees weakness:- By providing regular training program to its
employees, the HR manager of British Airways become able to remove the weaknesses that
employees have, which may also affect the performance level of company. This is because by
conduction training programs on regular interval it become easier to regularly develop the skills
and capability of employees by making them learn with new tricks of performing work
(Schermerhorn and et. al., 2014). It will ensure improvement in operational efficiency as with
regular training arrangements HR manager of British airways become able to maintain a high
skilled workforce.
Consistency in performance:- The regular conduction of training program for
employees support British Airways in bringing consistence within their performance. Because by
organising training and development session it become easier to make employees aware and
prepare about the changes that are taking place within external environment. With the help of
this employees easily get adapted with the changes when they get regular guidance (Sheehan,
2014). This support in enhancing the operational efficiency as it will become much easier for
British Airways to get adapted with the changes that get anticipated within external environment.
Reduction in supervision:- When the employees get regular training about the job role
they have to perform their chances of error get reduced. This support British Airways in slowing
down the burden of managers as by getting regular chances of enhancing skill, work become
more manageable for employees. In addition to this they also require less guidance from their
superiors to perform particular work. It will support supervisor to assign its subordinated with
right task as per their capability which doesn't required much guidance and then the supervisor
be able to divert his/her guidance in the area where it is required so that less possible chances for
error or lower productivity can be seen.
Employees retention:- Training and development programs provides right direction to
employees by guiding them and increasing their skills and knowledge. Hence by ensuring this,
British Airways become able to sharpen up their skills and capabilities which ensure the personal
development of employees along with their professional capabilities (Sparrow, Brewster and
Chung, 2016). This ensure ease execution of work in more efficient manner which in turn help in
enhancing the operational efficiency and by getting such benefits employees want to remain with
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the company for longer period of time. Hence Training and development program support British
Airways in retaining high skilled workforce that help in achieving competitive edge.
Comparison between two organisations in context of training and development program
The training pattern adopted by British Airways is different from Apex Hotels Ltd as
both the companies work in travel and tourism but maintain different pattern of interacting with
customers which can be better understood using below given table:
British Airways Apex Hotels Ltd
 British airways provide apprenticeship
programs for its employees in segments
like engineering, head office roles and
customer support services which
provide them an opportunity to improve
their core skills (Storey, 2014).
 It also maintains a Global learning
Academy for the people who want to
develop their career in airlines industry.
It provides several training sessions for
specialist airline learnings to enhance
their skills and also provide them
professional qualification that give a
kick start to employees' career.
 Apex Hotels Ltd provide opportunity to
the skilled local craft workers to gain
more profit by providing them training
regarding the ways through which they
can sell their unique products to
customer.
 Apex Hotels Ltd organise induction
program for each new employee enter
into the group for providing them
training. It also maintain a group of
leaders who share their experience to
provide training to employees.
Evaluation of organisational training and development for HR plan
Training and development help in boosting up the performance level of British Airways
that will contribute toward enhancing the operational efficiency of employees as with the proper
arrangement of training programs, company become able to accomplish their task in effective
manner (Unger and et. al., 2011). In addition to this, the activities performed by British airways
for providing training to its employees also support them in accomplishing the objective behind
human resource plan and this can be better understood using following,
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 By providing apprenticeship program to freshly graduate people, British Airways become
able to attract more and more people to start their career with company. This will ensure
regular flow or supply of deserving candidate as per the demand of new hiring.
 The training and development programs organised by British Airways within their Global
learning Academy support it in getting candidates as per their requirement which get
easily get adjusted to the culture of company when they get training from the existing
employees of the company. This will also save recruitment cost and training cost of
candidates called from external agencies.
But despite of all these benefits, the training and development activities adopted by
British airways also required to improve in order to get more positive outcome in term of
performance from employees. Hence it is recommended to British Airways i.e. though e-learning
is a quick and cost saving method of training, still it sometimes lead delivering of unclear
training knowledge among employees (Welch and et. al., 2011). Hence to improve them
company must ensure providing face to face training program so that employees get more
understanding.
e) Conclusion
From the above mentioned information, it has been summarised that human resource
management plays a crucial role within the growth and sustainability of an organisation in
marketplace. This is because employees are responsible for the performance of an organisation
and by managing as well as directing them in right direction it become easier for an organisation
to achieve desire organisation goals. But for getting a required level of performance, training
function of HR manager plays a crucial role as it helps in sharpening up skills and making
employees eligible to accept changes and improving the level of performance.
TASK 2
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Employee relations are regarded as the efforts undertaken by the human resource
department as well as the top management of company with a view to retain the staff for a long
period of time in future. This aids in development of healthy relations between workforce and
employer. In airlines sector, this results in boosting the morale of employees, thereby
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encouraging them to put their best foot forward for achievement of corporate goals. Thus, this
sector witnesses interaction between employer and employees through following practices:-
Collective Bargaining Procedures: Hereby, practices such as stipulation of incentives
and benefits, compliance with safety standards, adherence to healthy and hygiene guidelines etc.
are taken into account by airline companies. British Airways focus upon the utilisation of these
practices in order to develop healthy employee relations and encourage them to work effectively.
Employee Empowerment: This instils a sense of empowerment among employees and
they tend to undertake efforts which can help in development of healthy relations with employer.
This strategy is applied within British Airways with a view to inflate the productivity level of
staff and thereby ensure timely accomplishment of corporate goals.
Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures: In case they encounter any grievance, the
sector has stipulated effective disciplinary and grievance procedures to address and resolve these
challenges in a timely manner. This helps in generating healthy relations between employer and
employees in the confines of British Airways. With this, the staff gets motivated to work with the
effective utilisation of their potential to accomplish the corporate goals as well as objectives
within due course of time.
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