People Management Analysis: A Case Study of Easyjet Airlines

This report provides a detailed analysis of people management within Easyjet, a British multinational low-cost airline. It emphasizes the critical role of a talented and competent workforce and explores key areas such as leadership and management, training and development, and talent management. The report highlights Easyjet's adoption of the behavioral theory model of leadership and its 70:20:10 philosophy for training and development. It also delves into Easyjet's talent management process, from recruitment to performance-based incentives. The report concludes with recommendations for Easyjet to enhance its people management practices, focusing on the importance of clear communication, employee engagement, and proactive leadership, stressing the need for empathy, trust, and a positive work environment. Desklib provides similar solved assignments for students.

Introduction to People
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Leadership and Management......................................................................................................3
Training and Development..........................................................................................................4
Talent Management.....................................................................................................................5
Recommendations for Easyjet.....................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
A talented and competent workforce is the lifeblood of a business organization and with
recent times, human resource management has evolved into various subsets to tackle the various
key challenges that keep getting posed by the ever volatile business environment. Just recruiting
employees is not enough for a company to function properly and be efficient, the company
should focus on caring and providing for their employees and effectively manage them without
losing sight of the organizational vision. This is where the concept of People Management comes
in as it deals with managing the human resource involved in the business and undertaking the
process of optimized recruitment, developing the recruited talent and making sure the talent is
retained for a long time. It also covers how the employees behave and engage in an organization
(Banerjee, 2021). Easyjet is a British multinational low cost airline group which was founded by
Stelios Hajji-loannou in 1995 and is headquartered at London Luton Airport. Operating in the
airline industry in a post pandemic world is a complex task and this report highlights the various
key areas that are related to people management and discusses the importance of people
management in context of Easyjet to help it in achieving better management of it's workforce.
TASK
Leadership and Management
Both these concepts form the basis of organizational performance as leadership facilitates
the positive work culture and environment in a company by setting corporate climate and
motivating the employees in an organization and leading them by example. Management on the
other hand focuses on setting the rules and regulations for the workforce and manages the
administrative teamwork of the business (Berger and Berger, 2018). Both leadership and
management play vital role in the process of people management as both influence the way
employees behave and feel in an organization by developing trust and exercising control.
Management is responsible for establishment of organizational hierarchy while leadership is
required when it comes to developing manager and subordinate relationships.
Effective management of people cannot be done without robust leadership values being
ingrained in the company. Keeping employees motivated, focused and satisfied is a leader's job
and it is what separates a leader from a manager as a manager is just concerned with obtaining

results. Organizational leaders are supposed to display exemplary communication skills, have
compassion and empathy for fellow employees and personnel, develop employee centric plans.
Effective Leadership in a company results in building of rock solid relationships between
superiors and subordinates which is the essence of people management. Leadership is subject to
various theoretical models and styles which is highly customizable based on organizational needs
and structure.
The styles range from autocratic forms of leadership which are majorly focused around
results and power centric individual decision making all the way to democratic styles which
promotes and encourages people participation which is a key element of people management.
Easyjet when it comes to leadership adopts the behavioural theory model of leadership which
states that leadership is a skill which is carefully cultivated through gaining numerous skills and
abilities and people can be moulded into leaders with proper learning (Bratton, 2020). This is
evident as Easyjet has enrolled it's workforce in leadership training and development programs
from third parties such as Performance Consultants with an aim to develop good performers in
their talent pool and gradually turn them into senior leaders.
Easyjet also runs it's own Talented Leaders programme which hires talent and provides
them with all the tools and techniques required to attain leadership specialization and for them to
gradually move towards getting a leadership qualification. Easyjet then uses these leadership
hires to develop their other personnel and establish leadership hierarchy through a coaching style
of leadership.
Training and Development
For a business organization, it's employees are it's biggest asset as the productivity and
operational efficiency of the enterprise is directly affected by the competence and motivation
levels existing in it's workforce (Gryazeva-Dobshinskaya and Dmitrieva, 2018). This makes the
process of Training and Development essential as it helps cultivate richer and more professional
skills among employees boosting their productivity and their efficiency in executing their job
roles.
Training and Development is conducted by almost every business organization because it
provides a stream of benefits both for the employees and employers which are listed herein. Training and Development reduces employee turnover and boosts loyalty towards the
organization and management among workers.

 Investing in employee training tools and techniques has great financial payoff as the
productivity and talent level increases and business runs more efficiently. Workplace engagement of people gets boosted when they are subject to regular training
as it gets rid of laziness and boredom on the work floor.
 Training and Development empowers the workforce of an enterprise as it fills the
employees with added confidence, autonomy and helps advance their career down more
technical and rewarding job roles.
The above mentioned advantages play a huge role in applying the concepts of People
Management in a company as with Training and Development, employees develop trust in the
organization and their superiors, they feel happy and cared for as they get equipped with better
and more varied skills which results in promotions, appraisals and new job roles (Lin,Li,Lam,
2020). Having a robust system of job role specific training makes the process of managing
people far easier.
Training and Development can be undertaken using a variety of theories such as
Experiential Learning which focuses on employee wants and needs along with personal
involvement, Social Learning which promotes observational development by analysing the work
environment and models like centralized training model, functional model and university training
model (McConnell, 2018).
Easyjet subjects it's large workforce to constant Training and Development as airline
industry requires a lot of skills to operate in and they are UK's largest airline employing more
than 1500 people. It adopts a 70:20:10 philosophy of training and development where 70% of
the learning is on the job training, 20% comes from mentoring and coaching and remaining
10% learning is done from formal learning programmes. Easyjet also provides separate training
to both it's cabin crew and it's pilots in off the job training in their training facilities where cabin
crew and subjected to 3 weeks of expertise training and pilots are given constant training
sessions to become future leaders.
Talent Management
In today's hype change environment where the worker-workplace-management equation
keeps on changing and evolving in a short amount of time, talent management is one of the most
important dimensions of management that an organization uses to source for vacancies, invites
and recruits the best possible talent in the market to match with required job competencies and

training and developing the talent to become an organizational leader for overall achievement of
the vision of the company. Talent management helps an organization in a variety of ways
including supplementing people management which are listed below. Talent Management helps in attracting and recruiting the best talent the industry has to
offer and empowers the workforce of a company. Helps develop motivation among employees and keep them engaged in the workplace. Builds continues flow of talent to fill complex and critical roles in a company.
 High levels of client approval and customer satisfaction is attained from managing
talent.
On a close glance, Talent Management looks close in concept to People Management but the
reality isn't the same as People Management is the result of new age transformation of human
resource practices and is slowly replacing Talent Management. Rarity of talent is no longer a
problem that plagues big businesses as everything in HR is now interconnected and with so
many new avenues of marketing and recruitment agency databases, attracting talent isn't as big
of a deal. Nurturing talent and keeping it satisfied is where People Management comes in.
Easyjet's Talent Management process starts from an exhaustive process of recruitment
which starts from online applications for both pilots and cabin crew positions followed by
multiple technical and non technical tests with continuous screening to filter best candidates for
the job. Easyjet undergoes regular training sessions of both on the job and off the job to enrich
and develop the existing talent crop in their company and they provide multiple incentives and
rewards tied to performance to keep their talent motivated, focused and productive (Singh,
2018). People Management takes a lot of it's concepts and techniques from Talent Management
however it's much broader and complex in scope as it deals with people along than the talent
they possess.
Recommendations for Easyjet
Leadership and management, Training and Development and Talent Management are 3
key areas upon which the People Management in an organization is properly conducted (Son and
et.al., 2020). Recommendations for Easyjet in terms of knowledge required, skills needed and
behaviour in order to strengthen the above mentioned areas to help improve it's talent
management are listed herein.

 Knowledge Required-Easyjet's management should focus on opening and regulating
clear communication lines in the organization and build an extensive relationship
network in the company between subordinates and superiors. The management should
have keen knowledge of the factors that makes an employee feel loved and cared for by
the company and there should be a robust system in place for employee grievance
resolution, employee performance appraisal and a slew of incentives to reward genuinely
good performance (Sreenivas,Prabhakar,and Koneru, 2020). There should be positive and
proactive leadership in the company where employees should feel weight behind their
actions and their opinions and participated is not only encouraged but appreciated.
Knowledge about employee problem solving and gaining an employee's trust are major
parameters for effective people management.
 Skills and behaviour needed-In order to strengthen the people management process in a
company, a variety of skills are needed by top management including managers and
leaders. Good communication skills are paramount to get to know the employees,
appreciate them and get to know their problems and provide solutions to them. The
management should treat it's employees with patience and develop an approach towards
them that's built on empathy and trust rather than complete control and results. Proper
leadership skills should be developed in the employees via training and specialized
exposures to tough business and people oriented problems and leaders should make sure
that the vision of employees should meet the vision of the company even at a distance.
The behaviour displayed towards people should be focused on hearing them patiently and
encouraging them to participate in business operations. The leadership styles running in
the company and the rules enforced by top management should not overburden any
employee and should not inculcate workaholic tendencies in the company. People
involved with the company should feel welcomed and needed by the organization and
this can only be possible if the culture and environment inside the business is positive
(Stewart,and Brown, 2019). Easyjet should strive to be as approachable as possible by
even the most lowest of workers in the hierarchy and the leaders and managers should
take full accountability for the actions and results of the employees under them.

CONCLUSION
The above concluded report went into detail regarding the definition, onset, need and
importance of People Management in modern day business and established the fact that people
management is one of the most critical roles performed by current top management of an
organization. It went on to discuss the 3 key areas of people management upon which the human
resource of a company is properly managed which were Leadership and Management, Training
and Development and Talent Management. The report explained the various theories and models
of Leadership and employee training and development and shed light on the model and theories
that are used by Easyjet in it's operational framework. The process of talent management used by
Easyjet all the way from recruitment to appraisal was also addressed. Knowledge, skill and
behaviour related suggestions to Easyjet were also given related to above discussed 3 areas to
help it better the process of People Management performed in the company. It was found that
effective leadership, proper and regular employee training sessions and effective talent
recruitment and development are key to sound People Management.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Banerjee, S., 2021. A descriptive study on employees' perception on training and development
practices carried by Bank of Baroda. Asian Journal of Management, 12(1), pp.67-72.
Berger, L.A. and Berger, D.R. eds., 2018. The talent management handbook: Making culture a
competitive advantage by acquiring, identifying, developing, and promoting the best
people. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Bratton, J. ed., 2020. Organizational leadership. Sage.
Gryazeva-Dobshinskaya, V.G. and Dmitrieva, Y.A., 2018, October. Leadership and management
styles: typological approach to personal resources of change management. In The
International Science and Technology Conference" FarEastСon" (pp. 202-212).
Springer, Cham.
Lin, C., Li, X. and Lam, L.W., 2020. Development or maintenance? Dual‐oriented human
resource system, employee achievement motivation, and work well‐being. Human
Resource Management, 59(4), pp.311-325.
McConnell, C.R., 2018. Interpersonal competence in the management of people. The health care
manager, 37(4), pp.358-367.
Singh, S.K., 2018. Sustainable people, process and organization management in emerging
markets. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Son and et.al., 2020. Double-edged effect of talent management on organizational performance:
the moderating role of HRM investments. The international journal of human resource
management, 31(17), pp.2188-2216.
Sreenivas, J.N.G., Prabhakar, G. and Koneru, K., 2020. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IMPACT ON
EMPLOYEES’PERFORMANCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT
WITH REFERENCE TO SELECTED HEALTHCARE UNITS. Journal of Critical
Reviews, 7(10), pp.390-394.
Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.