Effective HRM Practices: A Case Study of British Airways

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes HRM in the airline industry using British Airways as a case study.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR
SERVICE INDUSTRIES
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
LO1 INSIGHTS ON ELEMENTS OF HRM...........................................................................................4
1.1 DISCUSSION ON ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A
CASE STUDY OF BRITISH AIRWAYS.............................................................................................4
1.2 SUPPLY AND DEMAND ANALYSIS FOR THE JUSTIFICATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANS. 6
LO2 DISCUSSION ON EMPLOYEE LAWS AND RELATIONS WITH THEIR IMPACTS ON AIRLINE
BUSINESSES....................................................................................................................................7
2.1 EVALUATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN CURRENT STATE: AN AIRLINE
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE.............................................................................................................7
2.2 DISCUSSION ON HOW EMPLOYMENT LAWS AFFECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
IN AIRLINE INDUSTRY.................................................................................................................8
LO3 THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS..................................................................................................9
3.1 DISCUSSION ON THE JOB DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATIONS OF CABIN CREW IN BRITISH
AIRWAYS.................................................................................................................................... 9
3.2 SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS FOR A JOB PROFILE AT BRITISH AIRLINES AND
TRANSPORT FOR LONDON: A COMPARATIVE STUDY..............................................................11
LO4 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN SERVICE INDUSTRY.........................................................13
4.1 TYPES OF TRAINING........................................................................................................... 13
4.2 DIFFERENCE IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT.................................................................13
4.3 PURPOSE OF EFFICIENT TRAINING.....................................................................................14
4.4 IMPORTANCE AND CONTRIBUTION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM..........14
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 15
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a foundation building tasks of an organisation which are
intertwined with every aspects, function, process, machinery, operations of it. HR department
brings talented and skilled people in the business environment and people are the building
blocks of any organisation. This report will conduct a similar assessment to frame and recognise
functions and values of HR management from the perspective of the airline industry. The
analysis will be conducted to establish a proper understanding with different functions of
human resource management in an airline industry, particularly British Airways. The points of
discussion will also include employment laws and obligations and how they affect HR
management along with the supply and demand analysis of human resource in the context of
British Airways. A comparative study will be made on how different organisations hire and
select people in their organisations, what are their standards and process of hiring and key
responsibilities of some specific job profile in the same context. This attempt has been made to
find out how human resource management works in the airline industry and what are the
prime factor affecting its operations.
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LO1 INSIGHTS ON ELEMENTS OF HRM
1.1 DISCUSSION ON ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF BRITISH AIRWAYS
Human resource department is the backbone of every service industry. Airline industries earn
their large proportion of revenue from public transportation and this makes their large part of
human resource in direct interaction with customers. Whenever there is direct involvement of
people or customers in the business operations, HR management needs to work with much
more efficiencies than in otherwise cases (Belobaba et al., 2015). In the airline industry such as
British Airlines, there are a number of different functions present and unlike other industrial
sectors, they highly depend on each other to give the best travel experience to their customers.
British Airways established in 1974 by the British government is the biggest airline in the UK in
terms of its fleet size and is the flag carrier of the UK. It went international and started its first
international flight from Heathrow Airport in 2011 (British Airways, 2018). This large statue in
the airline industry also comes with more number and complex operations. The human
resource department of BA works in many different regards and covers large aspects of
function in terms of hiring and managing employees in every segment. Although there is some
basic operation every HR department has in the airline industry which have been discussed
here in order to create a more insightful understanding of HR functions:
SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT OF PERSONNEL
British Airline is a prestigious name in the field of air travel but like another airline, throughout
the world, it has some basic operations where people are needed with high skills and
competencies i.e., operation, sales and marketing, line personnel, ticketing and reservation,
legal staff and maintenance staff (Eaton, 2017). These functions require people with distinct
skills and a separate hiring process is required to ensure their competencies are a match with
the requirements. However, the basic selection and recruitment will have similar structure
involving different assessment tests and writer evaluation process followed by an interview
round and medical checkup.
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PAYMENT AND OTHER BENEFITS
British Airways is known to provide attractive pay and benefits to its employees. The pay and
benefits are decided and structured on the basis of the importance of the task and the skills
required performing it. There could be a number of different factors for an employee to get
higher or lower pay than others such as experience, the uniqueness of their skill, demand of
their skills, importance of their task etc. (Bailey et al., 2018).
ASSESSING AND RECOGNISING PERFORMANCE OF THE EMPLOYEES
This is the most important task of HR management in order to retain the well-functioning staff.
The problems like employee turnover have been noticed in the case British Airways in the news
and the root cause of such problem is a failure in recognising their employee's good
performance and appreciating it with promotion and bonus like benefits etc.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Training and development is a parallel task of HR management to increase and maintain the
value of their current staff and enabling the newly hired people. Such activities are not
complementary but are compulsory to keep the employee in line with change market scenario
and the technological environment (Bailey et al., 2018). For example, when BA introduced
online reservation and ticketing facilities through their own platform the first time, they had to
deliver an intense series of training modules to their currently working employees who were
not that familiar with the system.
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1.2 SUPPLY AND DEMAND ANALYSIS FOR THE JUSTIFICATION OF HUMAN
RESOURCE PLANS
According to the prescribed case scenario, British Airline has planned to start an international
flight from Heathrow Airport to Madeira. Based on this new planned flight, there will be a need
for an increased number of new employees required to work in shifts at different operational
functions at BA. The flight duration from Heathrow to Madeira will be 4 hours and there will be
3 rounds a week in regular times and 6 rounds a week in the peak summer time. In this part, a
strategic HR plan has been discussed which could be utilised by BA to sustain their new flight.
 This new proposed flight plan with 4 hours flight from Heathrow to Madeira 6 times a
week will give 48 fly hours and concluding with ground maintenance tasks, the proposed
flight will need a fully dedicated aircraft and with that a dedicated staff for the aircraft
including aircraft pilot, cabin crew, maintenance staff and other ground staff etc. There
will be an increased workload on reservation and ticketing department will also be
there.
 This expected increase in workload will require the hiring of new employees which may
or may not be specific to the proposed flight pattern. Nonetheless, to save time and
money initially, the HR department may try to conduct an analysis to see if any of the
current employees are having any time slack which could be used to fill in the new flight
(Belobaba et al., 2015).
 In parallel, the HR department will release notice on the company's official website and
other public forums regarding vacancies. The hiring will take place on established rules
and standards and in only those departments where there is an immediate need of
people.
 The employees will receive their training in the concerned department and will be
allowed to work on their respected positions. BA may hire some experienced candidates
for the operations so that they could save some time and start their operations as soon
as possible. The rest of the management will be as usual utilised for the new flight and
in time will be expanded accordingly.
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LO2 DISCUSSION ON EMPLOYEE LAWS AND RELATIONS WITH THEIR
IMPACTS ON AIRLINE BUSINESSES
2.1 EVALUATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN CURRENT STATE: AN
AIRLINE INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Airline businesses are among the biggest businesses in all the different sectors of businesses
and industries at a global level. Air transports are now the most reliable and efficient means of
travel in the world because of their low accident rates and high service quality. Different
functions in an airline work in harmony and an established synchronisation in order to provide
the best travel experience to the customers (Pfeffer, 2014). Employment relations are the root
of this harmony and synchronisation and there are 4 elements of such relations:
OPERATIONS: an airline involves a number of different operations and most of them are
interdepended and intertwined in terms of their functionality so employee relations are first
established with these operations and the link between them. There are three ways of
approaching these operations for strong relations, first the level of operation, the process of
operations and style of operations. These three elements are based on the extent and way of
engagement of employee with them (Saks, 2015).
PARTIES: this element in employee relation account for the people of importance within the
organisation. There are a set of executives and managers who work together and spend most of
their time together, so employees are required to ensure their involvement and make them
recognise your presence and work.
STRUCTURE: The third and most influential link of employee relationship is the organisational
structure. The hierarchy in which people are placed gives every employee the chance to
recognise their position and interact with people they may feel most comfortable with. Every
airline has policies that make their employees bounded in the structure and give them the
freedom to interact and expand their relations within the structure.
SUBSTANCE: These elements represent the formal ways of engagement with airline operations
and involve different obligations and legalities to abide by. These formalities involve the job
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designation, position, communication channel to higher authorities, career growth, cultural
values and ethics etc.
2.2 DISCUSSION ON HOW EMPLOYMENT LAWS AFFECT HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT IN AIRLINE INDUSTRY
Employment laws and obligations are the backbone of operations of every industry and are
necessary to be structured and specific to the kind of operations industry are involved in. these
obligations are often prescribed by the mutual collaboration of market standards, the industry
sector and the government of that country. In this part, similar laws and obligations will be
discussed which are prescribed by and for airline industries in the UK.
 The employment-related laws and policies in airline businesses in the UK are structured
in different segments, such as laws related to health and safety regulations at
workplace, laws related to work hours and pay of employees at civil aviation industry,
laws related to workplace discrimination and employee treatment and enforcement and
prosecution laws in compliance to them (Civil Aviation Authority, 2019).
 All of these laws and regulatory guidelines are needed to be considered and
acknowledged by the HRM of every airline in the UK and according to that the HR
strategies are formed. A mix of the company's own ethics and values is also included
while forming HR policies by HRM for its employees.
 Employment laws are not just limited to government enforced laws and company’s own
rules and code of conduct but there are a number of international laws also in place to
ensure that employees and labour are not being treated inhumanly or beyond their
physical capabilities (Civil Aviation Authority, 2019). So human resource management, at
the end of the day, remain with a set of complex and intertwined laws and regulations
which they must include in their policies and strategies.
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LO3 THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
3.1 DISCUSSION ON THE JOB DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATIONS OF CABIN
CREW IN BRITISH AIRWAYS
A Cabin Crew position at BA CityFlyer is quite an important position as cabin crew employees
are in direct contact with the customers and they represent the company's values and
dedication to customer service. The selection of a candidate for cabin crew profile has been
discussed here as referred from the guidelines provided and with the help of official
recruitment portal of British Airways.
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:
The most basic responsibilities of a BA CityFlyer cabin crew employee are to ensure safety and
security of passengers and provide health, food and comfort services to the best standards
which should be in line with EASA and BA CityFlyer necessities. The key responsibilities also
include ensuring that all the safety-related equipment are inactive and working conditions and
service and comfort is being delivered at best of the class standards and behaviour. The
employee should be well-mannered and with impeccable communication skills, understanding
and caring for passenger's requirements while following the code of conduct and policies of the
BA CityFlyer (British Airways, 2018).
PERSONAL CAPABILITIES REQUIREMENT
A Cabin Crew position at BA CityFlyer requires some key skills which are not only expected but
are necessary in order to keep work to the standards and requirements of the employer. Some
of these key skills are, understanding with safety and security terms and processes, knowledge
of working of different safety equipment, passionate about the responsibilities and understand
the importance of task given, have a good way of interacting with customers and
communication skills at its best, respect for different cultures and values and understanding of
their needs, strong relationship building ethics and amiable behaviour with other crew
members.
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NECESSARY QUALIFICATION
The candidate applying for cabin crew position at BA CityFlyer should be up to and above 18
years of age at the time of application and should be fluent in written and verbal English with
an understanding of different accents. The candidate must hold a valid passport for a minimum
of 12 months before the expiry date and should not be restricted to go in many countries of
available services by BA CityFlyer. Candidate must not have any criminal record in any country
and should be able to work in rotational shifts of 24*7, all 365 days of the year (British Airways,
2018).
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
A Cabin Crew profile in any airline has some specific physical requirements and so does BA
CityFlyer. They need their cabin crew employees to be medically fit and must have passed the
Safety Equipment and Procedure Training so that at the time of recruitment and training they
could perform and demonstrate their ability to perform the basic safety tasks and operations.
BA wants their employees for cabin crew position to be of height between 5’2’’ to 6’1’’ with
proportionate weight. The candidate should be able to lift the weight of 9kg from the height of
195cm. There are similar physical tasks which need to be performed by a cabin crew at the time
of the operation so the candidate must also be able to perform all such tasks, such as operating
lifejacket and parachute at the time of emergency, able to pull weight at least up to 86kg to 3
degrees inclination and ability to use and work with medical kit (British Airways, 2018).
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3.2 SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS FOR A JOB PROFILE AT BRITISH
AIRLINES AND TRANSPORT FOR LONDON: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
The selection and recruitment process of cabin crew at BA CityFlyer and at a similar position in
Transport for London has been discussed in this part to understand how human resource and
management perspective works and differs in both the cases. This comparative study is made
to analyse the difference in the HRM policies and selection procedure at Airline business and a
normal transport industry like TfL.
The selection process at British Airlines: the selection process of cabin crew employee at the
BA CityFlyer has been discussed in the above part and in compliance with that, it can be said
that the selection procedure especially the criteria for the job position at BA CityFlyer in pretty
intense than that of the job at TfL. It is totally justifiable since the operation standards and
processes are quite complex and a higher standard than those at the Transport for London, say
Victoria Coach Station. The selection process at BA CityFlyer has a specific skill and personal
capabilities requirements which are needed to be obtained and practised at some professional
institute. There are respective physical requirements which make a large number of potential
candidate non-eligible for the job. The customer handling skills required at BA CityFlyer cabin
crew are of quite higher standards and are mentioned in EASA. Since the air travel services are
used by people of relatively high social and economic stature, the service and comfort criteria
are kept at a significantly higher level than any other transport services.
The selection process at Transport for London (Victoria Coach Station): The comparative
discussion is made in reference to the position of customer service executive at Victoria Coach
Station operated under TfL. The initial process will begin with posting the job advertisement by
TfL at some public platform like a newspaper, some recruitment agency along with their official
website. The applicant will go through the job requirements and responsibilities and if found
eligible for the aspects, will start by creating a registration account on the official website of TfL.
After successful registration, the applicant will get his account login and password for
proceeding further to the application. The application process will begin with filling out the
basic details online and submitting required documents and proofs for qualification and skills.
After filling the application for their respective job position, applicants will go through an online
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