Human Resource Management in the Airline Industry Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) within the airline industry, with a specific focus on British Airways. It begins by exploring the role and purpose of HRM, emphasizing its importance in staffing, employee relations, and customer management. The report then delves into HR planning, outlining the process and factors influencing it, as well as addressing potential challenges. The analysis continues with an examination of employment relations in the airline industry, including unionization and the impact of employment law. The report also compares selection processes between British Airways and Transport For London, and assesses the contribution of training and development within British Airways. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive overview of key HRM practices and their implications in the airline sector.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT IN
SERVICE
INDUSTRY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Analysis of role and purpose of HRM within airline industry........................................3
1.2. Human Resource Plan.....................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
2.1. Current State of Employment Relations in Airline Industry...........................................8
2.2. How employment law affects the management of human resources in British Airways10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
3.1. Discussion of job description and person specification in British Airways..................12
3.2. Comparison of selection processes of British Airways and Transport For London (TFA)
..............................................................................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................15
4.1. Assessment of Contribution of Training and Development within British Airways....15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management refers to a strategic planning and approach which is
related to the management of people within a company. It is essential for the businesses in
service industry to manage their human resources effectively to gain an appropriate work
environment within the company as well as gain a competitive advantage in the market (Baum,
T. ed., 2016). The following assignment is based on British Airways, which is one of the biggest
companies in the service industries. The company is having its headquarters in Harmondsworth,
United Kingdom and covers more than 180 destinations. It covers a detailed understanding of
human resource management and the effect of employee relations as well as employment law in
service industry businesses. The report also covers the recruitment and selection processes of
various businesses in the industry along with discussion of job description and person
specification of British Airways. It also emphasises contribution of training and development
within the organisation.
TASK 1
1.1. Analysis of role and purpose of HRM within airline industry
Human Resource Management is a technique adopted by various organisations within the
service industry to effectively manage the operations within their businesses and achieve
organisational objectives appropriately. Within the airline industry, HRM plays a quite
prominent role as existence of its businesses depend heavily on the HRM practices within the
firm (Deery and Jago, 2015). There are various purposes of HRM that could be reflected
effectively in the airline industry, particularly British Airways which are discussed below:

Illustration 1: Purposes of HRM
(Source: Purposes of HRM, 2019) Staffing: One of the main purposes of HRM is staffing. It is a process under which
companies recruit and select skilled talent to strengthen their human resource
effectiveness and enhance their business performance. For airline industry, effective
HRM would allow its businesses, like British Airways, to select the most effective
personnel for their firm. This would help them gain a keen position in the market and
better customer management. Employee Relations and Legislations: HRM also undertakes creation of a positive and
effective perception of the firm within the eyes of its employees. It would allow British
Airways to develop healthy relations with their employees. It includes setting up their
contracts and manage their issues regarding the firm, its operations or with co-workers. It
also undertakes various employee legislations into account to help firms in Airline
Industry to develop ethical work frame.

 Internal Customer Management: The most prominent purpose of HRM is to establish
effective customer management within the organisation. This requires addressing their
demands, preferences and problems effectively. HRM within the airline industry would
aid this purpose for British Airways by developing effectiveness in the working of
employees to strengthen customer management (Dhar, 2015).
Along with various HRM purpose, there are various roles played by HRM without which
effectiveness could not be achieved within the airline industry. These roles are described below: Planning and Forecasting: The biggest role of HRM within the airline industry
businesses, particularly British Airways is that the firm could effectively plan and
forecast the need of Human Resources based on the analysis of effective demand and
supply provided by various HRM practices. It is the role of HR manager of British
Airways to anticipate manpower needs within firm and recruit the same to fill the vacant
positions. Capacity Building: Human Resource Management effectively aids British Airways to
enhance itself in terms of performance, effectiveness as well as physical capabilities.
HRM allows the firm to effectively monitor its budget and measure performance of its
employees. This aids the company in effective capacity building.
 Training and Development: The most crucial role in HRM within the airline industry is
that it allows companies like British Airways to train its employees as per their job roles
and in order to ensure their personal future growth and effectiveness of the company. The
firm implements effective training and development programs to ensure effective
performance of all of its employees (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
There are various HRM practices that could be adopted by British Airways to effectively
manage people within the company. These practices are mentioned below:
BASIS SOFT HRM HARD HRM
Concept
This approach treats
employees as the most
valuable resource in the
organisation.
Under this approach,
employees are treated simply
as a resource like air-crafts and
machineries.
Focus The main emphasis in this The emphasis of this approach

approach is to satisfy the needs
of the firm's human resource in
terms of motivation, job roles,
rewards and so forth.
is on the workforce demand of
the company and management
of human resources
accordingly.
Goals
It emphasises on long-term
planning of workforce within
the firm (Lăzăroiu, 2015).
Short-term workforce planning
is the goal of this approach.
British Airways could adopt both the practices as per the needs of the business. For
instance, Hard HRM would enable the company in quicker decision-making and cost-effective
management, whereas Soft HRM would aid the firm in developing healthier employee relations
which would serve them well in the long run.
1.2. Human Resource Plan
HRM planning is a process through which British Airways could plan and hire effective
employees that serve the agenda of accomplishment of organisational goals for the company. As
per the scenario, there would be four flights from Heathrow Airport and four flights returning
from Madeira per week in the peak summer season, where as the number is reduced to three
during rest of the year. The HR plan for the same is mentioned below:
HR PLAN of BRITISH AIRWAYS
Analysis of
organisational
objectives
The first step of the plan is the analysis of the overall business
objectives of British Airways. For the Madeira trip, the objectives
must be to provide utmost safety and comfort to the passengers
travelling with the company both to and from Madeira.
Existing Human
Resource Availability
Before execution of a plan, it is essential for British Airways to
determine the availability of existing employees. This analysis of the
availability would allow the company to provide accurate number of
human resources to four flights to and from Madeira in the peak
season and three flights for the remaining time of the year (Du Preez
and Bendixen, 2015).
Demand and Supply This step requires British Airways to forecast the HR demand and

Forecast
Supply for the Madeira Trip. This requires the company to
effectively evaluate their job profiles and establish the workforce
need by effective estimation. For the trip to Madeira, the required
employees to effectively carry out the trip would be ground staff,
engineers, air traffic controllers, cabin crew members and pilots.
Since the duration of 4 hours, each flight would require at least 2
pilots. For cabin crew members, since Airbuses of British Airways
have a capacity of more than 100 passengers, each flight would
require two 4 cabin crew members and 3 additional attendants to
serve passengers within the 4 hour flight. In addition to this, each
flight would require 4 on-board engineers and a team of ground staff
to regulate the flight effectively and maximise the safety of the
Airbus (Raddats, Burton and Ashman, 2015). Furthermore, at least
10-15 ground staff members are required at both the Madeira as well
as Heathrow Airport. These members would be carrying out the
ground duties like baggage management, fuelers, ticket sales etc.
This staff would be working 6 hours a day both before and after
flight.
Estimation of manpower
gap
After the forecasting, the manpower gap is measured and thus, it is
determined whether there have to be any modifications in the
existing workforce or does British Airways require to hire new
employees. As per this estimation, since the location is new and there
are various other locations served by the company. The firm requires
additional ground staff and crew members to maintain the balance
between these new scheduled flights as well as the existing ones.
Action Plan
British Airways must hire new employees through effective
recruitment and selection processes (Bailey and et. al., 2018). In
addition, the firm also must provide training to cabin crew members
and pilots to ensure the comfort and safety of passengers travelling
with the firm on the Madeira trip.

However, there are various internal and external factors that influence HR planning. The
internal factors are mentioned below:
 The organisational structure of British Airways.
 The budget decided by the firm to successfully handle the HR planning for the Madeira
trip.
 The skills and competence required by the new hired employees to carry out these trips
effectively.
The external factors influencing HR planning are: Competition of British Airways with other airline companies in the UK and beyond. Legislations that are required to be complied by the firm (Marchington and et. al., 2016).
 Political Scenario and policies set out by the UK government for recruitment and
selection of Human resources.
There are various challenges that could arise while developing the HR plan, these challenges are
as follows:
 Lack of monetary resources to support the need of HR plan. This would make it harder
for British Airways to fulfil the manpower gap that might be required for the trip. Another challenge that might induce more struggles and roadblocks for the plan is the
changing employment legislations and the compulsory compliance with those.
 Training and Development for the new route to Madeira for pilots in terms of skills and
cabin crew members in case of their work culture might also be challenging for the
company.
Human resource planning has a quite definite and effective role to play in managing the staffing
needs and overcoming these challenges. The importance for the same is mentioned below:
 Effective HR planning would allow the company to hire more skilled and talented
personnels which would mitigate the training and development needs for the trip.
 With skilled human resources and effective planning as per the legislations, British
Airways could comply with these laws in a more structured and appropriate way.
 HR planning would allow the firm to estimate the budget and acquire necessary funds
that would support the monetary requirement of the staffing needs for the trip to Madeira.

TASK 2
2.1. Current State of Employment Relations in Airline Industry
Employee Relations is a term which is widely used in Human Resource Management to
effectively manage relations between an organisational employees and employers. Within the
Airline industry, it is imperative that healthy employment relations are established to retain the
existing skilled staff and acquire new ones to satisfy the workforce demand of the company. The
current state in the employment relations in the Airline Industry is mentioned below:
Unionisation:
Union is term used for a group of individuals within a company which play a significant
role in collective functioning of employers as well as the employees. The role of unions within
the airline industry is that it acts as the liaison between the employers and the workforce.
Employment Act plays a crucial role in maintaining the harmony between both the entities. The
laws governed by this protect each and every right of the employee and its effective compliance
also helps in building a strong and long-term relationship between the firm and its workforce.
This act is quite important as it enables the firm to manage each aspect related to the employees
in a healthy manner and in a way which is beneficial for both the firm and the staff.. However, in
present scenario the role of unions is limited, but it could be an effective strategy that could be
used by Airline Industry businesses in ways which are described below: Structure: Unionisation could help the airline firms like British Airways to develop
effective organisational structure by ensuring better management of human resources
through appropriate management. Culture: It could help British Airways to develop effective values that are required to be
followed by the employees of the company to ensure ethical working within the firm. Collective Bargaining: The most appropriate strategy that could strengthen employment
relations within Airline industry is by collective bargaining. It undertakes aspects like
working hours, benefits, fair wages and other standards that are within the rights of the
employees (Shin and et. al., 2015). Negotiations: Through effective negotiations, unionisation in Airline industry could
reduce the employee turnover rate which would enable businesses like British Airways to
effectively retain their existing employees.

All of the above mentioned elements could be effective for British Airways to effectively
manage their employee relations. For instance, in 2017, the cabin crew members of BA went out
on a strike regarding the dispute related to their pay. There were multiple instances for the same
during that year when employees demanded an increase in their standard pay scale from the firm.
Almost 2,000 members of British Airways' “Mixed Fleet” consisting of recent and younger
recruits that had been hired on inferior terms and conditions called it a strike in hopes for a
renewed action to be taken. Members of Unite Union of the UK rejected a deal and they were
bound to take legal action against British Airways (BA cabin crew call two-week strike in July
over pay dispute, 2019). Employers and managers at British Airways could effectively resolve
such issues regarding their workforce by implementing these strategies. The structure and culture
could be developed in ways which would be beneficial for employees, which in turn could help
the firm in effectively increasing the involvement of employees. The above strategies could also
manage the unions and employees regarding their fair wages and could bargain an effective deal
from employees for the same.
Employee Participation:
One of the major problems of any industry is that employees don't feel themselves
involved in decision-making of the firm which reduces their interest and trust from the company
and its practices (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016). There is extreme pressure on the staff
members throughout their duties in the airline industry which requires them to work efficiently
regardless of the time and their comfort. Thus, it is essential for its businesses like British
Airways to ensure proper employee participation. The firms could achieve this by effectively
providing them various work incentives for effective work and rewards associated with
challenging tasks. In addition, employee participation would also allow them to gain a
competitive edge in the market which would enhance their position globally.
Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures:
The current scenario of Airline industry is focusing more on a soothing, ethical and
contributing work environment for the employees to perform at their maximum capabilities. One
of the strategies that could aid the businesses within the industry like British Airways to develop
better employment relations is through implementing effective grievance and disciplinary
procedures. This means, that there would be a code of conduct on which employees would act

upon. In addition to this, businesses must effectively develop systems where employees could
directly contact the company in case of a a complaint or personal issues.
2.2. How employment law affects the management of human resources in British Airways
Employment Legislation refer to the laws that effectively govern the interests of
employees in an organisational context. These laws are subjected to protect employees from any
kind of harm or unethical behaviour and contribute in their professional growth effectively. The
employment laws affect management of human resources in the airline industry. Some of these
laws affecting British Airways are mentioned below: Employment Rights Act, 1996: This act was implemented in 1996 by the UK
government and it covers all the aspect related to employment of a personnel within an
organisation. These aspects are protection of payments and wages, standard working
hours, standard leaves, training schedules as well as factors governing termination (The
Employment Rights Act, 2019). Such laws affect the working of British Airways as the
firm is required to make employees familiar with their rights and act in accordance with
the rights stated in this act. The advantages of this act is that it governs the rights and the
roles of both employee and employer and gives a detailed insight of how the HR
practices within the firm could shape up. For British Airways, it would allow to structure
the overall management of employees, i.e., it would help them set the wages according to
work, provide effective working hours to bring out maximum capabilities. This act would
also guide the company on how best to train their staff. Management of staff would
become easy if the firm goes by the stated laws under this act. Equality Act, 2010: This act effectively protects the employees from discrimination of
any sort within the company as well as in the society. It ensures equal practices and
treatment given to the employees regardless of their sex, race, beliefs, etc. (Equality Act
2010: guidance, 2015). British Airways must operate in an ethical way to comply with
this law. It requires the company to effectively protect the employees from any sort of
discrimination and itself provide effective work standards for each employee in terms of
equal wages, equal working conditions, equal reward schemes, etc. The HR practices that
would be managed in BA through this act would be the treatment as well as the
opportunities provided by the company to its staff. This act would be beneficial for the

company in terms of monitoring equality as there are generally more female staff than
male in the aviation industry of UK.
 Maternity and Paternity Rights: These are the rights exercised by the employees at the
time of their maternity or paternity period. For female employees in British Airways, the
leave would be scheduled for 52 weeks where the employee could take a leave as per her
convenience. As per standards, they are also subjected to pay during this period. As for
male employees, they are also paid during their paternity period and could take a leave of
a week or two during this period. The effect it has on the HR management of the firm is
that the firm is required to support its employees as per these rights and it also would
increase the morale and loyalty of the workforce towards the firm. The management
would become fairly easy after employees realises that support would be given from the
company at the time of need. These rights would induce flexible working arrangements
made by employees of BA to the employers like job-sharing, compressed hours, etc. BA
in compliance with these rights could also formulate policies such as a definite pay or
minimum working hours, etc.
TASK 3
3.1. Discussion of job description and person specification in British Airways
Job Description:
The British Airways has completed is recruitment process in various steps such as by
accepting online application form from the candidates, online assessments, assessment day, final
interviews and some more steps. Also, a 5 year pre employment check is also done by the
company so as to check the employment background of the candidate. Job Description is a
written statement which defines the responsibilities of an employee. Job Description is important
because it provides and makes easy the duties and responsibilities of the job which the applying
candidate has to perform. Creating a job description is also important as it helps determine how
critical the job is, how this particular job relates to others and identify the characteristics needed
by a new employee filling the role. It informs the potential employees as the required skills are
mentioned in it so it easy to know whether the candidate can apply or not. The recruitment
process is also done taking into consideration the labour market conditions. Labour Markets is
external tool for getting employees in a company (Eaton, 2017).