Human Resource Management Report: BA, HR Planning, and Employment

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within British Airways (BA). It begins with an introduction to HRM, emphasizing its role in achieving strategic objectives, and then delves into the role and purpose of HRM within BA, including planning, recruitment, and employee relations. The report analyzes the current state of employment relations in the airline industry, including the importance of trade unions and employee empowerment. It also examines relevant employment laws and their impact on HRM. Furthermore, the report includes a job description and personal specification for an Airport Operation Manager, and compares selection processes between BA and the hospitality industry. It concludes by highlighting the contribution of training and development activities to effective operations within the service industry. The report covers topics such as HR planning, demand and supply analysis, staff roles, and hours of work, providing a detailed overview of the key aspects of HRM within a major airline.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1........................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Role and purpose of HRM.....................................................................................................4
1.2 HR plan for analysis of supply and demand..........................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Current state of employment relations...................................................................................8
Employee relation........................................................................................................................8
2.2 Employment laws affects management of HR.......................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Job description and personal specification for Airport operation manager.........................10
3.2 Comparison of selection processes for British Airway and Hospitality (hotel) industry....12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Contribution of training and development activities for effective operation.......................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management (HRM) or Human Resource (HR) is strategic approach
for effective management of corporate worker which assist in gaining competitive advantages. It
is made for maximizing performance of employees with respect to employer's strategic
objectives and focusing on systems and policies. As HRM is significant for organisation for
achieving result. It is important function of every firm to have skill and knowledge human
resource. The given assignment is based on British Airway (BA) which is flag carrier and largest
airline in United Kingdom created in 1974. It has 183 destinations along with subsidiaries BA
city flyer. It has two hubs at Gatwick and Heathrow Airport. Here will discuss about role and
purpose of HRM in BA and creative plan of an HR for analysing supply and demand within
organisation. The current state of employment relations in airline industry and laws affecting
management of HRM. The file has also discussed about job description and specification. The
comparison of selection process between British Airway for Airport operation manager and hotel
industry for Customer Service Assistant. For effective operation the contribution of training and
development in service industry is very important (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
TASK 1
1.1 Role and purpose of HRM
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is term describing formal systems for managing people of
organisation. There are three basic responsibilities of HR manager including employee
compensation and benefits, staffing and designing work. Its main purpose is maximizing
productivity by optimizing employees effectiveness. The key areas are:
Planning and forecasting- HRM require proper planning and forecasting of staff
requirement before selecting employees. The HR manager of BA have done planning for worker
and accordingly publish vacancy in newspaper.
Recruitment process- The HR first find requirement of different job profile at
organisation and work accordingly. As recruitment is positive process in which large number of
candidate applies. BA manager have done recruitment for getting right candidate for required
post.
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Contracts of employment- It is an agreement between employees and organisation
regarding job profile, designation, salary leave, which is managed HR. In case of breach of
contact staff have to pay some fine to company. As BA is airline industry so there contract is
compulsory and maintained by authority.
Role of HRM
Recruitment and selection- It is way for captivating, screening and selecting qualified
and potential candidates for job profile. Its goal is attracting large applicant and selecting best out
of which is positive process. Similarly, selection means selecting suitable employees for firm
and negative process. It is important for corporation to reduce cost. The HR manager of BA have
to play significant role in recruiting and selecting to get best staff. Through this suitable staff is
selected.
Orientation- It is the way to guide and give knowledge about job profile, mission, vision,
goal of organisation to new employees or joiner. It assist employees for assigned duties, job
description and clarification of role. BA manager plays an effective role in this so that staff
became aware about work to be performed and act accordingly (Aswathappa, 2013).
Training and development- Training and development are important role of HRM. It
helps in improving current as well as future performance of each employees by increasing
ability, knowledge and behaviour. In context of BA, it conduct training and development on
regular basis for enhancing staff performance and increment of productivity.
Managing employee relations- As employees are the main asset and pillar of
organisation. It is important to have good relations with staff member for increasing output and
motivating them. It provide positive impact for personal and professional development. Thus,
BA has mentioned good relationship with subordinates which is supervised by HR for success
and survival.
Purpose of HRM
The main purpose of HR manager of British Airway is to manage employees of firm and
achieve goal and objectives. It also motivate staff for performing effectively and efficiently. It
focus on providing all the facilities to their working staff with positive environment.
Hard HRM
In this employees are treated as resource of business such as machinery and buildings. It
has good corporate business planning and focus on HRM which is hiring, moving and firing. The
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communication and wage is minimum with little delegation of task. It has autocratic leadership
style.
Soft HRM
The employees are treated as most important source of business and competitive
advantage. They are treated as individual and accordingly needs are planned. It focus on roles
and motivation. It has long term strategic and two way communication with good pay structure.
It has democratic leadership style.
1.2 HR plan for analysis of supply and demand
Human resource Plan
(HR) plan is alignment of corporate strategy. It is document built on the basis of mission,
vision goals and values. It provides information to HR function which support strategies and
goal. It helps in finding gap between present and future capabilities. There are step for creative
HR plan are as follows:
Identify future HR needs- The need of HR is identified and ask questions like
 what is nature of work
 what type of culture
 which system and process required
 what are risk
 what are skill required
Consider present HR capabilities- The present HR capabilities can be asked following
questions
 how we doing against set benchmarks
 where do risk lies
 what current system support or hinder progress
Identify gaps between future needs and present capability- In this step gap is identified
which includes policies, procedures, resource allocation and following question is asked
 how can gap be classified
 where gap appear between present and future
Formulate gap strategies- After gap identification, the strategies can be
 job design
 performance management
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 training & development
 safety and health
 selection & staffing
 compensation & rewards
 employees relation
Share and Monitor plan- This is the last stage of HR plan in which all task are monitor.
The understanding of plan helps in achieving goal and objectives. HR manager need to
communicate successes and modification if required.
Demand and Supply Analysis
Demand is desire and ability to purchase goods and services. It is underlying force drives
for expansion and economic growth. It arises from taste, experiences, price, related products and
income. Supply is amount of product available for purchasing at price. It is determined by price,
cost, price of other goods. Demand and supply analysis helps in knowing the requirement of
consumer and availability of supplying power. BA also use this tool for knowing market and
accordingly make plan. For example, during peak time the prices of ticket is high with respect to
supply at BA.
BA Demand and Supply
Staff role- The role of staff as per BA are following:
 They have to responsible for service duties of passengers which includes arrival
and departures, check out.
 To check about passenger comfort and cabin services by crew.
 They are responsible for customers services before, after and between flights.
 Taking reservations
 Issuance of tickets
 The answering question of passengers and assisting their needs
 Verification of passengers identification and printing boarding passes.
 Helping traveller for checking of luggage at ticket counter
 Checking delivery of baggages
 Conducting security for passengers and luggage if required.
 They should have command over English language
 Communication skill should be effective.
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Number of staff- From the scenario mentioned in BA assignment the staff required is
more which can be 10. The duration is four hours and four flight from Heathrow and four
returning per week during peak time. Similarly, during other time three flights from Heathrow
and three returning per week.
Hours of hours- The flying hour and working are different things. The maximum hours
for BA is 60 hours in 7 days, 100 hours in 14 days and 190 hours in 28 days (Bratton and Gold,
2017).
For given organisation, 10 candidates for Airport operation manager and 6 for airport
client service executive so that British Airways made a specific plan which is explained further -
 Source of recruitment – This involves internal recruitment by promotion, transfers &
employee reference whereas external recruitment can be done through campus drives and
walk in method. In case of British Airways, candidates for Airport operation manager and
customers service executive are selected by external process i.e., campus drives & walk
in which facilitate to welcome fresh talents in organisation.
 Selection procedure – The selection procedure to given designations consists three
rounds like screening resume, written examination and then personal interview to analyse
actual capabilities in British Airways.
 Determine remuneration – This compensation of selected candidates for both positions
was decided according to skills, knowledge and experience of working in British
Airways.
 Training – The training session has been conducted for selected candidates for both
designations in order to make them aware for upcoming practical work and provide
information about correct ways to deal with customers properly.
 Performance appraisal – After certain period of working, superior in British Airways
conduct performance appraisals of selected employees through recheck their
performance.
 Role & responsibilities – The duty of Airport operation manager consists to make
passenger comfortable by giving required facilities and safety instructions in context of
emergency landings. Moreover, role of customer service executives involves to solve
every query of people and inform flight timing in appropriate manner.
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The staff roles, numbers of staff and hours of work required to deliver the new flight service to
Madeira described below:
Department Staff roles Numbers of staff Hours of work
required
Maintenance They keep working
order, passenger
comfort, preserving
physical assets of
aircraft.
5 10 hours
Reservations and
Ticketing
The staff check ticket,
check in/ out at entry,
issue of boarding
passes and others.
4 12 hours
Staff Personnel These staff perform
various responsibilities
such as finance,
accounting and work
with line personnel.
10 8 hours
Operations The staff is
responsible for airline
feet of aircraft
efficiently and safely.
5 10 hours
TASK 2
2.1 Current state of employment relations
Employee relation
It refers to a company's efforts to manage relationship between employees and employer.
It assists in communication between employees and supervisees, corrective action and planning,
disciplinary actions, and exploration and clarification of policies and procedures. It offers
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resolution, facilitation and consultation strategies for organisation issuers. The concept of
employee relations is not limited with the equation between employees and employer but it has
also scope to employee to employee and employer to employer. The main aim behind studying
this concept is to develop an understanding about current employment relations in British
Airways. Various current relations along with trends are mentioned below:
British airways is a leading airline in United Kingdom and employment relations of this
company does fluctuate with the time. In the current scenario, airline companies are tending
towards developing their own trade union so that interest of every employee can be protected.
Trade union of this company is planning to get their selves registered under trade union act.
Another aspect of employee relations is employee empowerment. According to the current
scenario, employees are employees working in all organisations has freedom of developing
union and empower themselves by focusing on their own goal rather than only focusing on
whole organisation's goal. Current relations of employees of this company states that there
should no boundaries of good physical appearance, for the employees of Airport operation
manager as it involves sense of partiality on the basis of factors which can not be controlled.
Current state of employee relations in British Airways
 The employment relations are regulated through developing desired plan of action by
organisation with the help of communicating, consulting and negotiating changes. These
modifications are made by managers through directly negotiating with employee
representatives from the different trade unions.
 Company visits and monitor plans introduced by other organisations in order to generate
best strategies to gain success in employment relation issues.
 They have launched an effective as well as efficient program i.e., Industrial Relations
Change Programme to improve relationships between managers and trade unions. It will
facilitate to reduce communication barriers in order to understand concerning problem
that come to the surface in proper manner.
 Due to change in technology, Airline need to create wealthy employment relations with
staff and employees in order to improve productivity and solving problems at workplace.
 Airline has good relationship with their working staff so that they can fulfils their need
and demand of customers along with providing facilities to employees.
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According to the current state of British Airways, it has been ascertained that employees
of this company has established a department of problem and grievance solving in which all the
Employment including labours and workers can come and seek for help against the their issues.
This department has a physical professional existence in which proper meetings are conducted
for problem solving process. Culture is the another aspect from which current state of British
Airways can be ascertained when specifically considering employees relations. The culture and
corporate standards of airlines requires all staff members to dress alike and follow the code of
conduct and behave in a particular way. This culture is still continuously adapted by all the
airline companies.
2.2 Employment laws affects management of HR
Employment Law
It is a broad area encompassing all areas of the employees and employer relation. It also
known as labour law. It consist of thousands of federal and states, administrative regulations and
judicial decision. ACAS are the employment relations experts and a trusted source of advice for
employers and employees, government and others. British airways work on to maintain needs of
employer and employee that helps in maintain a good relationship enables in maximize
productivity and make workplace environment more positive. By providing trade union it works
to improve in employee relationship to resolve their conflicts and manage their work in proper
manner. So all activities give good employment relationship between employees and employers.
Employment legislation- It is used to regulate individual employment relationships and
establish the framework within which workers and employers can determine their own relation
on a collective basis. In Airways Industry it provide protection such as minimum age for
admission to employment work, the protection of young workers, equality of work, hours of
work, payment of wages, occupational safety and health and maternity protection. By complying
with relevant legislation, both employers and their staff members can ensure that their hiring
processes, dismissal processes and their workplace as a whole, are fair for every individual.
Employment Relation Act - It is a legal link that is formed between an employee and
employer when work is completed for monetary reimbursement. It is a right to be accompanied
by a fellow employee or trade union representative during a grievance and disciplinary
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procedure. Dismissal or selection for residency automatically unfair if the main reason is
connected to trade union recognition or collective bargaining (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
Employment Rights Act- It defines the employment contract and states that it must be in
writing and provided to the employee. In this Act all employees have basic right in the
workplace including the right of privacy, fair compensation and freedom from discrimination. In
aviation industry it provide protection against unlawful discrimination such as age, gender,
disability and religion or belief. Protecting the pay scale of the employees and the employers.
Equal opportunities- These laws provide employees and employers in Airline equal
opportunities related to any field by removing gender gap, disability benefits, race including
colour, nationality, ethics or national origin and religion or belief.
Contracts of employment - Employment contracts are most often used by employees to
show the employer's right to fire an employee was limited. In Airline, Employee contracts must
be terminated according to the terms and provision of the employment agreement. Termination
of employees represented by a labour union and covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
An employee or employer can decide to terminate a contract of employment. Employees may
terminate their contract by resigning and an employer may terminate the contract by dismissing
an employees.
Ill health retirements, retirement, dismissal, maternity and paternity rights, parental leave
In airline, Ill health retirement is a retirement scheme which pay the employees in
pension form any age if they are suffering from an illness. Retirement is when a person choose to
leave from the workforce. It is the withdrawal from one's position on occupation or from one'
active life. Paternity is for biological fathers only. They take it after the baby is born. They can
take it a parental leave after their paternity leave. Maternity leave is for biological mothers only.
Employees take it while they are pregnant and after the baby is born. They can take parental
leave after their maternity leave (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016).
TASK 3
3.1 Job description and personal specification for Airport operation manager
Job description:
Job description is a statement which includes all the information about a specific job
profile. This information involves all the valid and significant data such as job role, scope,
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designation, responsibilities, reporting, answerability and many more. This description is a
considered as a fundamental technique by which all the conditions and rules of a job profile is
communicated with selected candidates for a specific job designation. It is important to be
familiar with all the aspects involved in a job which can be effectively communicated through
this concept of job description. The main aim of using this concept is to ensure that candidates
are well aware with their job roles and responsibilities so that no conflicts between employees
and employers can be avoided. This process helps an organisation to increase their effectiveness
and efficiency by evading the chaos which occurs due to lack of job role awareness. By
reviewing the job description for a job profile, a candidate can ascertain their respective duties
and responsibilities. It is important to communicate organisational goals with their employees so
that they can prioritize their work. By using this type of document, candidates can even link their
aims with overall organisational aims. Job description not only involves data about job profile
but also the necessary information about the company such as vision and mission statement of
the company along with main objectives.
British Airways is a leading airline operating in United Kingdom which deals in aviation
industry. Employees which are appointed by this company and recruited after full examination of
candidates as this type of companies consider their employees as their main resource and provide
them all necessary information which is required by them. The service industry job which is
selected to develop an understanding about the concept of job description is Airport operation
manager.
Airport operation manager members are the employees which are trained by
professionals in order to attend and communicate with the passengers of the airline. These type
of employees has a job profile of providing excellent costumer service to passengers in to ensure
their comfortable and safe journey. These employees are appropriately trained so that they can
deal with security and emergency kind of situations. Job description of a Airport operation
manager member will include following details in their job description which are mentioned
below:
 Airport operation manager of British Airways is responsible for every medium level
management operations such as operational activities and supervisory activities. Job
description of this profile will also contain responsibilities and duties which has to be
fulfilled by the employee.
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