Human Resource Management in the Airline Industry: British Airways

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Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
LO1: Understand human resource management..................................................................................4
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service industry
business with reference to British Airways........................................................................................4
1.2 Create a HR plan based on the analysis of supply and demand, with justification of the staff
roles and hours of work required to deliver new flights to Madeira.................................................6
LO2: Understand the effect of employee relations and employment law on service industries
businesses.............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in the airline industry...................................8
2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human resources within British
Airways..............................................................................................................................................9
LO3: Understand the recruitment and selection process....................................................................11
3.1 A discussion of the job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew, BA...................11
3.2 A comparison of the selection processes of British Airways (Cabin Crew) and Transport for
London.............................................................................................................................................13
LO4: Understand training and development in service industries businesses.....................................15
4.1 Assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of
British airways.................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................17
References:..........................................................................................................................................18
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Introduction:
The process through which the human resources within an organisation are planned
and selected as well as trained and recruited is referred to as the human resource
management. Therefore, the human resource department is responsible for carrying
out all the major functions keeping in mind the present as well as the future needs of
the organisation. The HRM system is responsible for the selection of the candidates
and as well as training and developing them so as to enhance their capabilities. In
addition to this, they are also responsible for providing proper rewards as well as
recognition to the employees and monitoring their performance. The following
assignment is based on the different functions of the effective Human Resource
management system in relation with the leading international airline i.e. British
Airways.
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LO1: Understand human resource management.
Introduction:
For every business organisation, the most productive resource is the human
resource. They are important as well as useful as they are the one responsible for
the productivity of the organisation and therefore they should be managed as well as
nurtured in the proper way. This is being achieved by means of effective human
resource management system (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The following report is
about the effectiveness and the roles performed by the HRM in a well-known
organisation of UK i.e. British Airways.
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in
a selected service industry business with reference to British
Airways.
Personnel is the term used for the organisation’s employees and their management
at workplace is referred to as the human resource management. Human resource
management is that area of the business management which mainly concerns with
human relationships and their management within an organisation belonging to any
industry including service industry (Business Dictionary, 2018). Airline is the part of
the service industry and therefore it needs to have effective human resource
management system that mainly performs majorly three basic operations which
includes recruitment as well as staffing, providing proper compensation to
employees and to specify the roles and responsibilities of the employees.
Role and Purpose of Human Resource Management: For the service industry, the
role as well as the purpose of existence of effective HRM is considered to be crucial.
The main purpose for which the effective HRM system exists within the British
Airways is to provide organisation with the most suitable as well as capable
employees who can willingly provide support to the organisation in the achievement
of its business goals and objectives. The HRM mainly focuses on providing
candidates with effective communication skills as being the part of service industry
for which providing customer satisfaction is the prime responsibility, communication
skills are of great significance in British Airways (British Airways, 2016). Thus, the
success or failure of the organisation depends to a large extent on the human
resource and its management as they contribute significantly in achieving business
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goals of British Airways by providing best possible and efficient services to
customers. The main functions that are performed by the human resource
management system within British Airways are as follows:
Human Resource Planning: It is the duty of the HR department of the British
Airways to forecast the future needs of the human resources and plan the
recruitment as well as selection of employees such as cabin crew, pilots etc.
accordingly (British Airways, 2016). The planning is done based on the number of
employees that are getting retired from the job, the employees that are going on
leave for long term as well as the new requirements for the roles and jobs.
Recruitment and Selection: The HRM at British Airways also carries out the
recruitment and selection process for the employees in the organisation. This
function of HRM is most important for the success of the organisation. BA, being part
of service industry, recruits as well as select the most efficient as well as appropriate
candidate with effective communication (British Airways, 2016).
Employee Compensation and Perks: The human resource department of British
Airways also performs the role of designing as well as implementing attractive
compensation and perks for the staff of the organisation. This helps in motivating the
employees and therefore helps in providing customers with enhanced customer
experience resulting from quality services.
Training and Development: The HRM at BA is also responsible for providing its
employees with proper training so as to enhance their skills as well as increase their
potential so as to make them capable of performing their duties in an effective
manner in accordance with BA goals and objectives. It leads to enhanced customer
satisfaction (British Airways, 2016).
Performance Management: It is the duty of the HR department to develop a proper
system for the performance management. It helps in motivating the employees to put
their best efforts in order to provide customers with quality services.
Overall welfare of employees: At last, the HRM at BA is also responsible for the
overall welfare of the employees. The HR department takes care of the basic
necessities of their employees and provides them safe working environment, health
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services, clean food and drinking water and therefore looks after for their growth and
development (British Airways, 2016).
1.2 Create a HR plan based on the analysis of supply and demand,
with justification of the staff roles and hours of work required to
deliver new flights to Madeira.
HR planning is the process through which the organisation forecasts its present as
well as future needs of the human resources so as to achieve its business
objectives. HR planning involves estimating the required number of personnel in
order to perform organisational activities and to plan their recruitment. HR plan is of
great significance for the organisations like British Airways as it helps the
organisation in carrying out the business functions and coping up with the changes
by estimating the number of personnel required for the future business operations
(British Airways, 2016).
Need for analysing demand as well as supply: Analysing supply as well as
demand serves as crucial function that is performed by the human resource
management of the British Airways as it helps in analysing the number of the
workforce available in the organisation and the future cost for the recruitment of the
candidates required. It also helps in analysing the availability of the workforce in the
competitive market by carefully analysing the demand as well as the supply of the
workforce (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
HR plan based on the analysis of demand and supply for British Airways:
In order to remain competitive, British Airways plans the organisational needs for the
effective workforce in the future based on the analysis of the supply as well as
demand of the human personnel within the organisation. This is being done by
analysing the current availability of workforce and comparing it with the coming
needs of the human resources. In the given situation, British Airways has achieved
the new agreement to deliver flight services from Heathrow to Madeira per week and
hence there is a requirement of personnel to serve different roles and responsibilities
(British Airways, 2016). Therefore BA needs to plan the recruitment of the workforce
so as to carry out different roles such as for the role of the pilot, cabin crew members
etc. The HR department is therefore required to forecast the organisational demand
for the workforce. In accordance with the demand forecast, the organisation needs to
fulfil the supply forecast which involves the estimation of the availability of the
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personnel from within or outside the organisation. The organisation then carefully
needs to analyse the different sources from where the organisation can recruit the
appropriate and the skilled candidates. In addition to this, the organisation at the
same time also needs to have the estimation of the cost as well as time for the
recruitment of employees. For delivering the services required as per the situation,
British Airways will require approximately 10 new pilots and around 15 cabin crew
members who will be required to work for 10 hours a day 5 days a week. Also, the
company will require 5 aircraft bodies as well as 30 new employees for other
services such as ground staff. British Airways can either recruit employees internally
from its other branches or can hire employees externally.
The above HR plan can be justified as it offers the following advantages to the
organisation:
 It helps the British Airways in recruiting the suitable and appropriate staff.
 Cost effective as well as time effective
 Organisation can make effective use of various resources
 Carefully provides the estimation of the present and the future needs of the
organisation (British Airways, 2016)
Conclusion:
Thus, the above report focuses on the process of human resource management as
well as the various functions performed by it which makes the HRM system
extremely important for organisations in the service industry.
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LO2: Understand the effect of employee relations and
employment law on service industries businesses.
Introduction:
Airline industry is based on the labour for the delivery of the effective services and
therefore in order to perform well and deliver high quality services to its customers, it
is must for the airlines to maintain strong employee-employer relationships. In order
to achieve this, the airline industry follows various employment laws that have a
significant impact upon their operations that will be discussed in the following report.
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in the airline
industry.
Employee Relations may be defined as the aspect of the human resource
management that deals with the industrial relations management between the
organisation’s personnel (Boxall and Purcell, 2015). In other words, it may be
referred to as the body of work that mainly focuses on maintaining strong working
relationships between the employer and the employees which leads to high
productivity, increased morale and motivation and therefore contributes towards the
prevention of conflicts between the employees at the workplace. The current state of
employee relations as in the airline industry of UK is considered to be satisfactory. In
the airline industry, the employee relationships are given much importance as being
a part of the service industry, the nature of the airline industry is considered to be
service intensive and therefore the costs of the labour as compared to airline’s total
operational costs are high in the airline industry (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The
industry also faces high level of union representation due to which it becomes
important for the companies in the airline industry to maintain strong employee
relations at workplace in order to ensure smooth functioning. Being the leading
international airline of the world, British Airways employs large number of employees
from across the globe for their operations all around the world. The employees of the
British Airways have representatives in the form of trade unions. Like for example,
the representatives for the pilots of BA in the form of trade unions is BALPA, for the
cabin crew members it is BASSA, and for the rest of the staff, trade union
representative is Unite (British Airways, 2016). The employee relations in British
Airways especially with its trade union representative i.e. BASSA have been poor in
the recent times due to the continuous changes being made by the airlines in the
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contracts of the cabin crew members and cutting down the number of their jobs
resulting from the global crisis that the airline industry is facing all across the world.
Therefore, the performance of the airline can get affected by its employees due to
the high representation of the union level. These affects can be both positive as well
as negative depending on the state of employee relations. The employees can
achieve high wages and salary as well as employment security but the costs for this
might increase the operational costs for British Airways. However, strong employee
relations at workplace can also motivate the employees and therefore the employees
can contribute significantly towards lowing the unit costs for British Airways through
their hard and sincere efforts and their productivity enhancing ideas and hence can
play a significant role in delivering high quality services to their customers so as to
provide them enhanced service experience with the airlines (British Airways, 2016).
2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human
resources within British Airways.
The employment laws ensures the regulation of the activities at the workplace and
therefore makes sure that the relationship between employees and management at
the workplace are strong. The employment laws are also referred as the labour laws
which consists of several laws that govern the rights of the employees at the
workplace and therefore protects them from any kind of discrimination or illegal
activity at the workplace (Barnard, 2012). Being the leading airline of UK and
possessing the high reputation all over the world, British Airways also enforces all
the laws that are defined under the employment laws for the safety and protection of
its employees and hence motivates them to perform their duties with great will and
efforts. The HR department of the British Airways have put the laws in the practice
and this results in the increased liability of the organisation towards its employees.
All these laws that are enforced by the British Airways at the workplace directly and
indirectly impact the management of the human resource at the workplace. The two
most important laws that are put into practice are the Employment Relations Act and
the Employment Right Act. The main focus of the employment relations act remains
on the promotion of the democratic rights of the employees, their protection, their
contract of employment and various rules and regulations in relation with it, the rules
of termination etc. British Airways abide by all these laws and this leads to the
promotion of the performance of their employees and the overall performance of the
organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2012). In addition to this, British Airways also
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enforces Employment Rights Act under which the rights of the employees such as
their working hours, their leaves, holidays, their salary etc. are protected from
employer. As defined by government of UK, it is essential for the British Airways to
abide by these laws in order to function smoothly and to avoid any illegal action or
activity at the workplace.
Conclusion:
Airline is considered to the most important sectors in the service industry at present
and therefore it is important for the airline industry to maintain strong employee
relations for the future development of the industry and for the companies’ future
wealth that depends largely on the employees. The report has discussed the
importance of the employee relations and the employment laws for the success of
the airline organisations.
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LO3: Understand the recruitment and selection process.
Introduction:
Recruitment as well as selection is one of the crucial functions of the human
resource management system. It deals with providing organisation with the required
number of candidates with appropriate skills as per the industry standards. The
following report is going to discuss the job description as well as the person
specification for the role of the Cabin Crew at British Airways. In addition to this,
report will also discuss the selection process that is followed by British Airways as
well as Transport for London.
3.1 A discussion of the job description and personal specification for
Cabin Crew, BA.
The recruitment process is important for the organisation and plays a significant role
in determining the organisational performance and to gain competitive advantage in
the market. The main aim of the process is to attract the suitable candidates with
required skills and to retain the high performance employees in the organisation who
have the ability to enhance the organisational performance and reduce operational
costs for the business at the same time. The main function of recruitment and
selection within British Airways is to identify the needs for the human resources and
accordingly recruit as well as select the candidates for the organisation’s operations
by conducting job analysis (British Airways, 2018).. British Airways then selects the
most appropriate candidate from among the pool of variety of candidates in
accordance with its needs and the goals and objectives of the organisation.
Job analysis refers to the process of analysing the job requirements within the
organisation in order to fulfil the future demands of the organisation (Brotherton,
2012). It consists of job description and person specification which includes the
detailed information of the job.
Job Description: Job Description is the name given to the written document in
which all the duties as well as responsibilities of the job are mentioned in detail. The
job description of the cabin crew British Airways is as follows:
Company: British Airways
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Job Title: Cabin Crew Heathrow
Division: Customer Service Department
Job Purpose:The cabin crew at British Airways is mainly responsible for assisting
customers and providing with effective services so as to make them feel satisfied
and happy.
Responsibilities:
 To make sure that the customers are satisfied with the services provided.
 To take the responsibility for the customer’s safety and comfort.
 To take care of the elderly and the disabled passengers.
 To deal with the emergency situations and help customers.
 To provide passengers with instructions regarding the use of the safety
equipment (British Airways, 2018)
Salary:The candidate will be provided with the best remuneration as per the industry
standards.
Job Specification: Job specification is again a document in written in which all the
qualifications, experience as well as abilities that are needed in the candidate to
perform a particular job are mentioned(Ekwoaba, et.al, 2015). The job specification
of British Airways Cabin Crew is as follows:
Qualifications:
 The minimum age requirement is 18 years or above
 The candidate should have a valid passport
 Communication skills are important
 Long working hours are required.
Required Skills:
 Pleasing personality with effective verbal skills.
 Punctual
 Confident
 Flexible so as to work in rotational shifts.
Experience:
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