Analyzing Human Resource Management in British Airways Services

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) within service industries, focusing on British Airways as a case study. It covers the role and purpose of HRM, justifying human resource plans based on supply and demand analysis, and examining the current state of employment relations, including the impact of employment laws. The report also discusses job descriptions and person specifications, compares selection processes across different service industry businesses, and assesses the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of British Airways. The analysis includes aspects such as collective bargaining, employee participation, and the importance of organizational culture in fostering good employment relations, ultimately aiming to improve productivity and customer satisfaction within the airline industry.

Human Resource
Management for
Service Industries

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ..........................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Role and Purpose of human resource management in British Airways ...............................1
1.2 Justify human resource plan based on analysis of supply and demand of British Airways
.....................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Current state of employment relations in British Airways ...................................................4
2.2 How employment laws affects management of human resource in British Airway. ..........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Discuss job description and person specification for British Airway .................................7
3.2 Compare selection process of different service industries business. ..................................8
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of
a selected service industry business..........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERNCES ................................................................................................................................13
.......................................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management can be defined as the continuous process of recruiting,
selecting and encouraging the workforce in the company. It is the valuable assets of an
organisation which enable them to face new challenges in terms of technology, knowledge and
changing trends in global economy in order to attain pre determined goal in an effective manner.
However, the main purpose of Human resource department is to mange numerous needs of
company employees for maximising the efficiency of an organisation. A service industry is an
industry that produces value is that primarily intangible such as customer service, management,
advice, knowledge, design, data and experience (AlBattat and et. al., 2014). One of the most
important function of Human resource management is to improve the productivity for achieving
the targeted goals and objectives of the service industry. For producing these service in an
effective manner it requires less natural capital and more human capital. In context to British
Airways, second largest airline in UK which is commenced in the year of 1974 and its parent
company is International Airlines Group(IAG). This report covers role and purpose of human
resource in service industry, effect of employee relation an law on service industries. Finally,
recruitment and selection process and training and development in service industries.
TASK 1
1.1 Role and Purpose of human resource management in British Airways
Human Resource Management is a process of bringing people and organisation together
so that the goals are achieved effectively and efficiently. Service industry includes the provision
of services to businesses as well as final consumers (Bernal-Garcia and et. al., 2014). An
organisation cannot build an effective team or workforce without good human resource.
However, the aim of HRM is all about process of managing human resource of an organisation
in such a way, that the optimum or rather maximum utilisation of resource can be ensured in
order to accomplish company long term objectives. International Airlines Group (IAG) one of
the leading airline group with 573 aircraft flying to 268 destination and handles 113 million
passengers each year. It is the parent company of British Airways which is the UK's largest
international scheduled airline and it is flying to over 550 destination at suitable times, to the best
located airports. The world's largest passenger airline, British Airways operates from one of the
busiest airport the Heathrow. However, it is defined as the process of managing manpower or

personnel in an organisation whether it may be service or any other other industry. In a service
industry, human resource management contains three key areas of operation i.e. recruitment and
selection, employee compensation or benefits and specifying the role sand responsibilities of
staff includes all detailed information of work for which employee is going to perform. Some of
the role of human resource management in British Airways are as follows:
 Developing skills: In service sector including hotel industry, travel and tourism business
and its human resource management is fully based upon an arrangement of manpower for
company who are having the potentiality in satisfying customer with effective
communication and service skill. For this, British airway should have productive an
impressive employee who can handle or manage customers easily and provide effective
service which improve the company's brand image (Birasnav, 2014).
 Hiring right candidate: The process of recruitment of staff for British airway is the initial
or foremost step for HRM process and a crucial operation for the expansion of an
organisation. Since the growth and development of service industry is mainly depend on
skills of its human resource therefore recruitment process includes selection of best
suitable candidate who is able and willing to serve customers in an efficient manner
through effective communication skill.
Some of the purpose of Human Resource Management in British Airways are as follows:
 In a airline industry , human resource management plays a vital role and it's main purpose
is to make available highly capable and best suitable human resource for organisation
who is capable and willing to support company in achieving its goals and objectives.
 The main focus is to select and recruit personnel with effective communication skills
since job responsibilities of employee in service industry includes serving customer
through interaction with them in accordance with their needs and demands.
However, the success of airline industry i.e. British Airway largely depends upon its
human resource since they contribute to achievement of goal of customer satisfaction through
establishing good relations and providing best service to them.
Hard and Soft Human Resource Management
Hard HRM refers to as the approach towards employees in which they are treated as
resource for an organisation like assets, land etc. on the other hand Soft HRM approach those
employees who are considered as an important source of competitive advantage. In a service

industry approach of HRM is not appropriate since manpower are more than a resource for
company. Without the support and contribution of human resource , the airline industry will not
be able to survive in competitive market.
1.2 Justify human resource plan based on analysis of supply and demand of British Airways
Human Resource planning is defined as a process which relates to the identification or
determining present and future needs of human resource in company for accomplishing its goals
and objectives by developing a link between HRM process and overall strategic plan of
organisation (Godard, 2014). Along with this, it includes estimation of number of person
required to perform specific activities and determining how these manpower can be recruited.
However, Human Resource Planning is an essential element as it helps in coping with changes
by estimating future personnel needs (4 Steps to Strategic Human Resources Planning, 2019). It
lays a foundation for manpower functions and development of human resource management plan
by connecting business strategy with operational strategy of an British Airway. The analysis of
demand and supply of human resource is an essential component of HRP process since it enable
in identifying the availability and cost procurement of human resource in an company. British
Airways is the most successful organisation in airline business and carrying more than 33 million
passengers worldwide. In order to improve strategic alignment of staff and other resources, it is
essential to understand how a strategic planning process works. For an effective human resource
planning, several steps should be followed by manager of British Airway which is described
below:
 Identifying organisational objectives: It is an important component for human resource
manager of British Airway to analyse goal of firms which involves production, finance,
marketing etc. which provide overall guidance of work to be done. One of the main
objective of British Airway is to provide effective customer service and improve margin
of revenue by expansing their airline services.
 Availability of existing human resource: British Airway's human resource manager first
identify the potentiality and capability of existing manpower within an organisation
which help them in fulfilling distinct job requirements. This analysis can be done through
internal and external sources. British Airway currently ha approximately 45,000
employees, including 16,500 cabin crew and 3900 pilots who put their full effort towards
the attainment of high productivity.

 Forecasting demand and supply: As per the requirements of personnel, need for human
resource is calculated by HR manager of British Airways. Along with this, the available
internal and external sources are also measured to carry out job requirements. After the
calculation, they came to know that they have a requirement of more manpower as they
are expanding their new flight service to Madeira. So, British Airways has an
requirements of around 150 employees and they will be working for 9 hours for
delivering the flight service to Madeira. In this new flight service, their main aim should
be to improve their current flight service in order to reduce the workload of employees
and provide smooth functioning of company.
 Estimating personnel gap: It is one of the main responsibility of British Airway's human
resource manger to calculate manpower gap by comparing demand and supply of
workforce (Kochan and Riordan, 2016). As British Airway is one of the busiest airport
where almost millions of customer arrives in a week which create problems to existing
staff i.e. 45,000 employees in managing them. Insufficiency signifies the requirements of
new staff and surplus represent the terminations.
 Develop human resource action plan: Finally, human resource manger of British Airways
design suitable actin plan and based on that plan they recruit, transfer and train new
manpower within an organisation. It enable them to adapt business opportunities in order
to enhance their productivity with effective manpower. By acquiring the enough number
of personnel in British Airway, it enable employees to gain high customer satisfaction as
well as to improve their new fight service to Madeira.
TASK 2
2.1 Current state of employment relations in British Airways
Employment relation plays a vital role in human resource management. It signifies the
relationship between employer and employee who come together to accomplish organisational
goal in an effective and efficient manner. Therefore, employment relation is an integral
component for manager of company in order to maintain or build healthy relationship between
management and manpower as it encourage or motivate employees and enhance their morale
and productivity. In airline industry, the current state of employment relations is satisfactory
(Kramar, 2014). Along with this, in British Airways healthy relations between management and

workforce regarding as unionisation like employee involvement, collective bargaining, culture,
structure, grievances and disciplinary procedure, engagement and conflict management etc. is
needful. The current state of employment relation in airline industry are as follows:
 Collective bargaining: It is refers to as the process by which members of trade union
and employer negotiate upon scope of employment relationship in airline industry. In
airline company, staff always bargains with employer on employment terms and
condition and they are mainly determined by trade union in which manager represent
themselves before an organisation on behalf of employee and put their demand
regarding wages, working hours and other grievances. Along with this, it's trade union
bargain with their manager on behalf of employees in order to improve their morale.
Along with this, company implement corrective course of action in establishing trade
union agreement which ensure the good employment relation.
 Employee participation: This factor enable the company to encourage employees to
contribute their best effort toward the attainment of high productivity and profitability.
In offering effective services to customers, airline industry has huge workforce. In
order to retain them for longer period of time company has impressive working
condition (Lawson and Lips, 2014). Thus, employee participation is an essential
element in airline industry which is enabling them to reduce conflict or dispute and
obtain high maximisation of profit. However, airline company HR manager conduct
training and development programmes , various activities, provide fair incentives,
promotion and job satisfaction in order to gain the more involvement of employees
tow-heads the attainment of pre determined goal.
 Culture: It is an important factor in building a god employment relation. Each and every
company has their own purpose and values which shows their behaviour towards
employees. If procedure and guidelines are strict and effective in airline industry then it
create dissatisfaction among employees and generate a fear of punishment among them.
On the other hand, if culture is effective and good then it enhance staff morale which
enable the firm to accomplish high profit and productivity. However, airline industry
maintain impressive working culture as they keep balance in both the situation. Even
though its being strict to employees at the same time it always seeks to fulfil their needs
and wants which is helping them to attain high productivity.

 Structure: This is an important factor in industry or company which helps them in
directing or guiding their employees towards the achievement of organisational goal.
However , airline industry they follows hierarchy structure, where employer involve
their employees in decision making and problem solving which improve the overall
performance of firm. Due to this effective structure, its staff put their full effort towards
the organisational goal which enrich their productivity and profitability.
 Grievances and disciplinary procedure: This procedure is mainly addressed through
formal and informal meetings of managers with employees and trade union where
grievances of staff are discussed and provide suitable mechanism to solve them. In
every industry, they require a effective team who is capable of resolving employees
issues without harming their moral values and morale. In context to airline industry,
they provide the facility of compliant box in which staff convey their issues they are
facing which increase their satisfaction level. At the same time, the disciplinary
procedure is concerned with dealing manpower misconduct in formal and informal
manner.
2.2 How employment laws affects management of human resource in British Airway.
Employment regulations are put in place to protect both British Airway and its employees
and these laws also makes a basis for making decision in airline industry. Th laws are put in
practice by HR department in accordance with the day to day and to detail the terms and
condition of employment. It also increases the liabilities of service industry towards employees.
Some of the laws which are considered by British Airway in determining terms and condition are
as follows:
 Employment Relation Act, 1999: Under this legislation it monitor or governs
employment relation. It administrate and manage a structure or behaviour of employer
and trade union to negotiate and get into collective decision making or agreements
(Murphy, 2016). In order to build good working condition it provide an effective
structure to employer and employees to negotiate or bargain and get into individual
agreements. In case of British Airways, implication of this act enable them to gain more
trust from employees towards management which enrich high productivity and provide
job security to employees.

 Employment Rights Act, 1996: This act is concerned with rights of employees and give
them the privilege to have their rights like meals breaks, holidays, minimum wages etc.
The effect of application of this act in British Airways provide the facility of leave
provision, wages and working hours. HR manager of company require to convey all the
information in clear and proper way tom employees regarding their wages, working
hours etc. which give them protection during leave.
 Equal Opportunities, 2010: In this act, it prohibits the discrimination among employees
on the basis of age, caste, creed, religion, value, norms etc. In relation to British Airway,
this act should be implement in order to reduce or eliminate discrimination within
workplace. It guided them to treat all employees equally so that they will have positive
attitude towards company and they feel motivated to contribute their best towards
accomplishment of pre determined goal or objectives.
Contracts for employment and their termination
It is the contract which involve terms and condition regarding resignation, retirement
regarding health issues, redundancy procedure, retirement, maternity and paternity rights,
dismissal, parental leave, conciliation and arbitrary services etc. There is a systematic procedure
of termination which every company should follow and it should be done by employer and
employee for valid reason. British Airways HR manager should carefully evaluate or examine
the terms and condition and define the same to candidate before offering job letter. By this both
the parties i.e. employer and employee can fulfil their task or organisational goal in an effective
manner.
TASK 3
3.1 Discuss job description and person specification for British Airway
As a company, one of the main priority or focus is to satisfy the customer by providing
them effective and productive service for attaining high productivity and profitability as well as
improve the morale of customers and employees. Job description is an internal document that
clearly defines essential job requirements, job duties, job responsibilities and skills to perform
specific role. On the other hand, person specification describes the personal attitudes, desired in
potential employee. Therefore, the analyse of recruitment and selection process within British

Airways to ensure that candidates are meeting legal requirements and industry standard are as
follows:
 Safety and security of customers: As the applicant knows that in British Airway safety is
their first priority and they very dedicated towards to provide them secure and enjoyable
travelling. Therefore, maintaining safety and security of customers and people enable
them to increase satisfaction level as well as improve the overall performance of
company in an effective and efficient manner.
 Application of Criminal Record Check (CRC): This is a kind of verification from court as
it includes criminal conviction, court orders, charges, warrants etc. which enable the
company to provide safe working environment to its employees. Therefore, applicant was
aware about this process of British Airway. For this, they completed with CRC
verification and cleared all the judicial matters.
 Salary, bonus and benefit: As the applicant is highly dedicated and passionate towards the
organisational objectives and rules. As they knows that British Airway is one of the
busiest airport among airline industry. So, they ready to stay away from their home in
order to enhance the company's service and its image among industry.
3.2 Compare selection process of different service industries business.
Selection process is the crucial part in every organisation which enable them to hire
suitable candidate for the right job profile in order to improve their productivity and profitability.
However, selection process is nothing but picking or choosing right candidate for the right place
for accomplishing the organisational goal effectively and efficiently. Comparison of selection
process of British Airway and Transport London are as follows:
Basis British Airway
(Role : Cabin Crew)
Transport of London
(Role : Customer Service)
Application Form In British Airway, applicants
should submit application form
along with their resume on
official British Airway careers
website.
Candidate should submit their
application form and CV on
company's official website or
through recruitment agency.

Assessment Test After submitting the CV and
application form, candidate
has to go through the
psychological test which is in
the form of questionnaire.
In Transport of London, they
conduct a situational
judgement test which analyse
the potentiality and capability
of candidate to handle complex
situation.
Assessment Day In British Airway, assessment
day considered as an important
day in which recruitment
department screen a large of
candidates at once and they
will test candidates physical
strength by wearing all the
safety elements (helmet,
uniform etc.s) Based on their
presentation company shortlist
them for final interview.
On this assessment day,
Transport of London conduct
group exercise, written test,
presentation in order to check
their potentiality in interacting
with customers. However,
according to their performance
company select them for an
interview.
Interview In this stage, shortlisted
candidates go though with face
to face interview in which
interviewer ask competence
and behavioural based
questions.
In Transport of London, they
conduct interview through
various means i.e. video,
telephonic or face to face
interview. In the process of
interview they will more focus
on competency based question
which help interviewer to
evaluate candidate information
regarding job profile.

TASK 4
4.1 Assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of a
selected service industry business
Service industry
In service industry, the company provide a set of services to their customer. This is the
intangible products that satisfy the need and want of customer. Such as accounting, tourism etc.
So service sector is a industry where their no formation of goods. The main aim of service sector
or companies is that they decide their goal as per customer service. In this study British airways
is the core service provider which provide flight service to their clients.
Difference between training and development and types of training.
Types of Training
Training can be provide by two ways. First is on the job training which refer employee
are trained with performance of job. As on the job training is flexible and cost effective.
Example- internship, classroom and instruction etc. Other is off the job training which mean that
employees are trained with case study, incidents etc. As this is used by manager when the
expensive machinery included in a project or company.
Training and development
Most of the people assume that training and development as a same service. But actually
these are two different concept which have different roles and responsibilities. Training and
development both work in a co-ordinate way. So the companies can increase the productivity of
their employee in the organisation. Training is a process by which company increase the skill of
their worker (Rajasekar, 2014). Mostly training is done for the lower department and for those
employee who have skilled jobs. By training worker will become more confident. As they have
to go from a similar process in a repetitive nature.
Development is used by companies for increase the performance of top level management
or employee. In this the overall growth of the employee's can be increased by the process of
development. With the process of development the attitude, behaviour and communication of an
employee can be increased. The aim to provide development is to develop the overall
personality of the employee. Development is a continue process. As the employee who had gone
through development stage is able to achieve individual goal as well as company goal also.

British airways is the second largest airline in the United Kingdom. The British airline is
established in the year 1974. Huge number of British clients are served by British airways. The
company is operating their business activities for carry passenger and cargo in national as well as
for international business. The British airways lost its share of market when their rival easy jet
carried more passenger as compare to them. So it is more beneficial for British airways that they
provide training and development to their staff, team and employee's. As the lost in share of
market is because employees are not able to satisfy their clients. With training and development
British airways improve productivity of their employee's. This result that company is again able
to satisfy its customer and improve share of market. By these the British airway can increase
more profits. As in service industry the company can increase their goodwill with the support of
their employee's or human resource only. The British airways is a service provider so it is
essential for training and development of employee's.
Benefit and need of training and development for British airways.
British airways have a large number of employee's that are staffed with them and help
company to retain their business for a longer term. In a service sector an individual join a
company from a low level. After that their work decide the way of their success. Employ who
perform good can get high level of position. As for a airways company costly machine are used
to provide services to customer. So British airways use the Off the job training as it increase the
cost but customer sastisfication also be improved because skilled employees easily handle the
situation. So company is able to reduce the loss which mat happen by mis-incident of new
employee.
 So at the time of training company can easily know that which employ can retain with
them for a longer period. This is because superior can easily find which employ is a quick
learner and have skill for the purposed job. In a international business employee's came from different background. So it is essential
for the company to provide training because it can help employee to learn team work.
This diversity training help them to work together. Because in service sector employee's
have to interact with different guest.
Summary include company culture and carrer of employee's of British airways.
Culture of company- In every company there is a different culture that is followed by
their employees. It is the unique way to provide service to their guest and clients. Every small

activity or appearance can impact on the mind of consumer. This culture or value is developed
by the employee's of the company.
 In the British airways, the orientation program is done for all new joining on a similar
platform. As group of employee's are from different background and work together. So
the company can provide similar training to all of employees on a common platform.
 British airways has more turnover of human resource which is also a reason as new
employees are not able to fulfil needs of customer. So British airway spend some amount
on training and development of employee as confident employ can satisfy need of
customer easily.
Career planning development
In the traditional period there are not so much career for employment. But in present
scenario there are large number of option available to built a career. Most of the people don't
have major reason to left their job. So now airline are focused that they create a job by which an
employee cannot leave job profile by building competitive forces around their job profile. British
airline is focusing with HR department that right candidates are selected. So it help to reduce
turnover and cost of training and development for the new employee's. For this company
mention some way to select the right candidate which is as follow:
 British airways choose those employee's that are extrovert. An employ who is extrovert
can easily interact with guest and understand need or want of the customer. Example-
passenger who is less travelled in flights will feel uncomfortable. So an extrovert employ
start to interact with passenger and tell about policy for a safe travel.
 Second step begin by British airway is that they try to explore those employee's which are
already or experience from a flight job. British airway ensure that new employees should
feel that they have choose safe career for their future with a regular growth.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that human resources management plays a
vital role within an organisation which lead them to success and expansion in an effective
manner. It contains several roles and responsibilities such as training and development,
recruitment and selection, performance appraisal etc. Along with this, it is very important for
managers to build healthy relation between employee and employer as it enable the company to

improve their overall performance effectively and efficiently. Different employment legislation
needs to be applied by the company as it helps them in satisfying and encouraging employees
which leads them to gain high productivity and competitive advantage.

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Online
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