Human Resource Management Practices in British Airways: An Analysis

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Human Resource Management for Service Industries
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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................................4
An analysis of the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service industry
with reference to British Airways.........................................................................................................4
The creation of an HR plan, based on an analysis of supply and demand, with justification of the
staff roles and numbers of staff and hours of work required to deliver the new flight service to
Madeira..................................................................................................................................................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................................7
Assesses the current state of employment relations for the airline industry.....................................7
Discusses how employment law affects the management of human resources within British
Airways...................................................................................................................................................8
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................................11
A discussion of the job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew, BA......................11
A comparison of the selection processes of British Airways (Cabin Crew) and Transport for
London (e.g. role of Customer Services Assistant in Victoria Coach Station)................................13
TASK 4.....................................................................................................................................................16
Assesses the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of
either British Airways or Transport for London..............................................................................16
Different types of training.................................................................................................................16
Difference between training and development...................................................................................16
Benefits and effectiveness of training................................................................................................17
The role and need of training.............................................................................................................17
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
Human resource management (HRM) could be explained as a term which is widely used by the
organisation in order to fulfil the demand of the resources in the company. In this way, it could
be said that applying the concept of human resource management is very important for the
organisation whether it belongs to product based industry or service based industry. In many
organisations, the advanced level of the human resource management is that also includes the
terms like training and development, performance appraisals etc.
The current assignment explains the different terms of the human resource management in
service industry. Here, company British Airways of aviation industry is selected. The current
assignment includes four parts. The first part describes the role and purpose of human resource
management and also the supply and demand of the resources in British Airways. The second
part includes the employee policies which involves employment laws and employee relation in
British Airways. The third part of the assignment includes selection process of British Airways
and this also describes job specification and personal specification for a pert ocular designation
of British Airways. The fourth part includes the description of training and development.

Task 1
An analysis of the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service
industry with reference to British Airways
British Airways belongs to the aviation industry of UK and in this industry; British Airways is
able to giving the tough competition to the competitors. Due to the introduction of new policies
of the competitors, British Airways needs to focus on the internal policies especially the policies
related to the human resources. As in order to maintain the enough competition in aviation
industry of UK, the company needs skilled and competent work force and this only could be
possible through introduction of human resource policies (Eaton, 2017). Here, it could be said
that for British Airways, HRM plays a very important role. Here, the main purpose and role of
human resource management in British Airways is explained:
Role of the human resource management in British Airways:
Human resource management plays the different roles in British Airways. Here these different
roles of HRM are explained:
- Facilitator: In a role of facilitator, HRM arranges the different policies and programs
such as training and development, recruitment and selection etc. for the employees of
British Airways so that their skills and knowledge could be enhanced and good strategies
could be formulated by them.
- Consultant: As a consultant, HRM defines the different problems and their solutions to
British Airways. With the help of this, the company is able to execute all the processes
without any obstacle (Delaney and Huselid, 2016).
- Organiser: As an organiser, HRM organise the different resources under one roof so that
they could be utilised by the company British Airways on right time and right place.
Purpose of the human resource management in British Airways:
The different purposes are carried by human resource management in British Airways which are
explained below:
- Fulfil staffing needs: Fulfilling the staffing needs in British Airways is the main purpose
of HRM where different processes like recruitment and selection is executed by the

company so that the right candidate for the company could be selected. While conducting
the recruitment and selection, the main focus of HR department is to choose best
candidate so that the effective services could be provided.
- Coordinating employees: Only hiring the best candidate is not enough for the company, a
proper coordination is needed if the company wants to achieve its goals and objectives.
Here, a proper coordination is provided by HRM where the employees are able to know
what too perform, how to perform and with whom to perform.
- Maintain employee satisfaction: As the competition is increasing in the market, the
companies also have started to work for providing the satisfaction to the employees so
that they put their best in achieving the results for the company. In this way, in British
Airways, HRM also works to maintain the employees satisfaction in the company
through introducing various employee welfare policies and programs.
The creation of an HR plan, based on an analysis of supply and demand, with justification
of the staff roles and numbers of staff and hours of work required to deliver the new flight
service to Madeira
As known that British Airways has an agreement of providing the services from Madeira to
Heathrow. Under this agreement, British Airways could arrange four flights from Madeira to
Heathrow and vice versa per week. Here the company British Airways needs to arrange the
human resource of the company so that the effective and good services could be provided to the
passengers from Madeira to Heathrow (Delery, 2018). It would be good for British Airways to
formulate a HR plan with defining roles of staffs, maintaining appropriate demand and supply
etc. A HR plan is created below based on the analysis of demand and supply and roles of the
staffs in British Airways from Madeira to Heathrow.
HR plan for British Airways from Madeira to Heathrow:
1. Setting of well defined objective: British Airways is planning to provide the flights
services from Madeira to Heathrow and vice versa four times in a week in peak summer
season and three times in a week in off season. Here, the company wants to match the
supply of the human resource with its demand so that the effective services could be
provided to the customers on their trip to Madeira to Heathrow and vice versa.

2. Determining human resource needs from Madeira to Heathrow and vice versa: At this
stage, the company British Airways needs to identify the exact needs of the human
resources to provide the services from Madeira to Heathrow and vice versa in peak and
off season. In order to provide the effective services, British Airways needs to arrange
different employees like pilots, cabin crew, radio engineer, service staff, managers, co-
pilot etc.
3. Keeping man power inventory: Before examining the external environment, British
Airways needs to examines the internal environment of the company to know whether the
supply of the man power or the human resource could be done by the company or not. As
British Airways is a big organisation that has huge numbers of pilots, cabin crew, radio
engineers etc, but still as the company planning to provide the services to the route
Madeira to Heathrow then the company could hire new employees.
4. Adjusting demand and supply: There is no doubt in fact that British Airways is big
organisation and the company has huge numbers of the employees. Here, in order to
provide the services from Madeira to Heathrow, the company needs to conduct the
recruitment and selection process so that new employees could be hired and the burden
on the existing one could be released (Colling, 2015). In the other words, it could be said
that the demand of the human resource could be fulfilled through hiring of new
employees such as pilots, cabin crew etc.
5. Creating proper work environment: This is the final stage where once the staffs and
employees are hired then he training and development must be given to them so that they
could understand the working condition and environment of British Airways. Strategies
and vision of British Airways must be communicated with the employees here to make
them feel connected with British Airways.

Task 2
Assesses the current state of employment relations for the airline industry
The term employee relation defines the relationship between employee and employer. In an
organisation, the employee performs the duties and responsibilities given to them and the
employer pays the salary to the employees on the basis of his performance. Sometimes this
relationship between the employees and employer get affected as employee demands higher
salaries or the benefits from the employees for their performance and on the other hand,
employer is reluctant to provide higher salaries to the employees. In this case, dispute is created.
British Airways also has faced many disputes and these disputes have created trade union in
British Airways. Trade union is a group of few people that represents the opinion of the
employees on behalf of them to the management of the company. On looking at the history of
trade union, it could be said that there has always been a dispute between management of British
Airways and trade union (Becker and Gerhart, 2016). Here a case of September 2017 is
discussed. In September 2017, there was a conflict in between of trade union and management of
British Airways where the trade union wants British Airways to hike the pay of the employees
and also provide the pension benefits to them. But the management was not in the mood of
providing these facilities to the employees. In this dispute, the unite members who was working
for British Airways Mixed Fleet operation at Heathrow were also involved. In this way, the
flights of approx 50 routes (Miami, Las Vegas, and Manchester, Singapore etc.) got affected.
This conflict in between of employees and management has affected the stakeholders of the
company British Airways very much especially the customers as they were very much concerned
about their safety and security in flights. In results the demand for British Airways went down.
On looking at the low demand of British Airways, the management issued a statement where
they assured the customers and passengers about their safety and security in flights. Later, the
management of British Airways had to hike the salaries of employees (Delery and Doty, 2016).
Dealing with the trade union brings huge loss for the company especially in the brand image of
the company. In this way, the different processes have been introduced so that the
communication could be existed in between of management and trade union of the company.
The processes in the terms of British Airways are explained below:

- Collective bargaining: Here a trade union is created (as mentioned in above case) which
represent the employees of the company. the main issues over the bargaining are done
through this trade union in front of management are salary hike, introducing more
employee welfare policies such as reduced working hour, flexible timing, health and
safety issues etc. Here, the main motive of trade union is to keep all the issues that
employees facing in the front of the management so that the necessary steps could be
taken to resolve the issues. The collective bargaining could be very powerful and could
lead the loss for the company like British Airways if this is not handled properly.
- Employee participation and empowerment: As per the studies conducted in this field,
through the participation of the employees in the decision making and strategy
formulation process of the company could reduce the chances of conflicts (Keenoy and
Schwan, 2018). In this way, while making the decision of the company and also in
formulating the strategies and policies, British Airways always makes sure that the
employees of the company are involved through any way. In this way, while hiring the
employees, British Airways always shares their roles and responsibilities and also their
reporting managers so that they could be involved in decision making process directly
and indirectly.
- Grievance and disciplinary procedures: This method is very popular these days as in this
the formal and informal meeting are conducted with the representative of trade union to
known the issues and also to find the solutions of the issues. With this, the effective
environment could be maintained by the company even if the conflict occurs.
- Culture of company: the working environment and culture of the company must be
friendly and effective. Normally, the behaviour of the organisation represents the culture
of the company. Suppose if it is strict as the freedom is not given to the employees and
the organisation does not have any reward system flexible timing etc. then the employees
would not be eager to work with the company. In this way, British Airways always tries
to maintain the good and effective environment in the organisation so that the employees
could feel free to work here.
Discusses how employment law affects the management of human resources within British
Airways

The employment law have been introduced by the government so that the employment of the
employee in the organisation could be kept fair. In many cases, the government have found that
the companies hire the employees through unfair practises that could affect the morale of the
candidate down negatively. In this way, the different employment laws have been introduced.
With the help of these employment laws, the government is also able to create the awareness
among the employees about the fair and unfair practises. While executing any processes, British
Airways always makes sure that any unfair activity is not being executed in the organisation.
Here, the employment law and the impacts of these laws on the management of human resource
in British Airways are explained:
- Employment relation Act (ERA): This act gives the permission to the employees and
employer to go under the agreement where they could bargain with each other over many
issues. For this, there must be an employee relation authority in the organisation so that
each and every situation between the employer and employee must be examined later in
case of conflict (Ichniowski, Shaw and Prennushi, 2015). British Airways always follows
this act as with the help of this, the company is able to create a trust factor between
employee and employer. Due to this trust factor, the company British Airways could
convince the employees to provide the good services to the customers.
- Employees rights Act: This act presents the rights of the employees in the company such
as working condition and hours, maternity leaves, minimum wages etc. The main motive
of the introduction of this is to make the employee aware of their rights. A great impact
of this has been seen on the human resource department of British Airways as the
company had to change all the policies of the company as per this act.
- Equal opportunity Act: This act provides the equal opportunities to each and every
employee who is working in British Airways. This law states that execution of any
process like recruitment and selection etc on the basis of age, gender, religion etc is
unlawful. In this way, while executing such processes in the organisation, British
Airways always has to make sure that any such activity is not being executed by the
company.
- Contracts of employments and their termination: This is designed to keep the
employment fair for the company and the employee. This stats that in the contract of the
employment, it is mandatory for the employer to mention all the terms clearly like casual

leaves, emergency leaves, way of termination, compensation, duration of notice period
etc. British Airways is very well aware of this law and execute all the procedures as per
this. The human resource department of the company had to change various things in its
policies in order to adopt this act.

Task 3
A discussion of the job description and personal specification for Cabin Crew, BA
Job description could be described as the document where the responsibilities and the
qualification for a particular designation of the organisation are written. This is basically used by
the company in communicating the expectations of the company from the prospective candidate
and employee of the company (Huselid, 2015). Here, the job description for cabin crew of
British Airways is explained below:
JOB DESCRIPTION FOR CABIN CREW
Job title: Cabin crew
Location: London, United Kingdom
Purpose of the designation:
British Airways is providing the opportunities to serve the customers as a cabin crew member
with the premier airline. Here, you would be able to enhance the skills that can develop your
personality in the Aviation sector through serving customers and provide them comfort.
Major Responsibilities:
- Welcome the passengers and helping them in the boarding process
- Provide the direction to the passengers towards their seats and also provide special care to
the older ones and children.
- Regular check of the security equipment in flights and also share the major information
with the customers like emergency door etc
- Serving meals and refreshments in flights as per the demand and need of the customers.
- Communicate the safety procedures to the passengers
- Solve the queries raised from the side of passengers.
- Prepare the final flight report and submit that to the management.
Skills and Qualification:
- Must be graduate or hold a diploma from a certified institute

- Must have experience of 3-4 years.
- Good communication and leadership skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Pleasant nature with patience
Working Hours: As per flight schedules
Salary: As per the industry scale
Person specification
Through the person specification, the company would be able to know the desired and essential
skills set for the particular designation of the company (Guest, 2017). Here, the person
specification for cabin crew of British airways is explained:
PERSON SPECIFICATION FOR CABIN CREW
S. No. Criteria Skills and knowledge included Desirable/
Essentials
(D/E)
1. Education and study Degree in aviation sector
Diploma in aviation sector
E
2. Skills Good Communication skills
Good Interpersonal skills
Good leadership skills
Enough Industry knowledge
D
3. Experience required 3-4 year of experience E
4. Personal
Characteristics
Patience
Good and Pleasing personality
Good and polite behaviour
Energetic and enthusiastic
D
5. Competencies Effective Strategy formulation
Effective Decision making
E