Human Resource Information Systems at Qantas: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) implemented at Qantas. It delves into the airline's adoption of technology, specifically focusing on Taleo for recruitment and Risk Management and Safety Systems (RMSS) for occupational health and safety. The report outlines the background of Qantas, the current use of technology in HR, and future applications, emphasizing cloud-based solutions and SaaS. It further examines the effects of HRIS on flight engineers, highlighting improvements in the recruitment and selection process and the benefits of the RMSS safety management system. The analysis underscores the positive outcomes of these systems, emphasizing their role in streamlining processes, enhancing transparency, and improving overall human resource management at Qantas. The report references various sources, including Oracle, RMSS, and Qantas publications, to support its findings.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM 1
HRIS at Qantas
Name of Student
Name of Institution

HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM 2
HRIS at Qantas
Human Resource (HR) is an important component of every organization that contributes
to its overall success. In order to continuously improve the processes that are part of HR,
technology is increasingly being embraced. This gives rise to Human Resources Information
Systems (HRIS) that are technologically driven. Qantas is the leading airline in Australia with
more than 28,000 employees as of the year 2015. The airline undertook several HR changes in its
recruitment and selection of staff and in managing its occupational health and safety. Qantas
used a HRIS system from Taleo to manage its recruitment and selection of its flight engineers
and RMSS Suite to manage its occupational health and safety.
Background of Qantas
Qantas was founded in 1920 by three aviation pioneers in Australia: Fergus McMaster,
Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness (Qantas Case Study, 2014). The airline started as a passenger
and mail courier company within Australia and was later nationalized in 1974. The company was
operating globally by 1999 and joined the global airline alliance, Oneworld in the same year. The
company experienced varying operational challenges from 2000 to 2010 and posted fairly weak
earnings during this period. The airline currently offers the most comprehensive international
and domestic coverage in Australia with over 70 international destinations. HR is important
within the company and covers everyone from cleaners to the pilots.
Current Use of Technology in HR
Qantas currently uses Cloud based talent acquisition human resource software provided
by Taleo to manage its recruitment and selection process (Oracle, 2017).This replaced the earlier
approach which was based on paper work. This system makes the recruitment and selection
process smoother as well as directly accessing the labour market. Recruitment times have been

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cut in half while time taken to make the decision to hire has gone down by a third. The Oracle
Taleo Cloud service allows Qantas to manage the recruitment process with software that has rich
data on talent management which is socially engaging. AHB (2012) states that this streamlines
the resource allocation for the process and cuts down costs associated with hiring.
The company engaged Risk Management and Safety Systems (RMSS) to develop an
enterprise safety management system (RMSS, 2014). This system covered the components
covering safety such as occupational health. The new technology based system replaced the
manual paper based system which was cumbersome. The earlier system used Microsoft
spreadsheets databases based on Access. This format was unintuitive and complex, expensive to
track and not easily accounted for. The new system was customized to fit in-house specifications
and reduced identified hazards from 300 to 20. The new technology availed more data once
operational and has reduced the injuries that were occurring at Qantas.
Future Application
Fehling (2014), states that the future application of the current technology systems of
HRIS will be Cloud and App based and Software as a Service Applications (SaaS). This will
result in a hybrid relation in employment that is agile and improve organizational performance
(Sarina & Wright, 2015). The current trend will require greater use of Cloud services in order to
make the system cost effective and easy to manage. Apps will be the main format of targeting
potential employees through mobile devices. This will require leveraging on Social Media sites
in order to post vacancies. SaaS applications such as LinkedIn will provide a rich data base from
which the company can recruit professionals that require technical competencies such as
engineers. Google Docs and Forms will also be increasingly important for the HR department in
collecting and collating feedback from employees.

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Effect of HRIS on flight engineers. The recruitment and selection process has been
shortened and made easier for flight engineers as most of the requirements are posted online
(Qantas, 2017). The application is done using the company website and this eliminates the paper
work of attaching certificates and testimonials and posting them through the mail. Essential
requirements of citizenship and age are posted through the company portal. Criminal checks and
pre-employment medical check requirements are also shown and this concisely and
unambiguously spell out the requirements. Interlinking the website with different social media
and professional websites makes the application process much easier.
Screening on behavior and technical competency is done online and is followed by a
telephone interview for shortlisted candidates. This reduces the time taken for the potential
employee to know whether they are successful or not. The system on the portal is able to grade
the results of the candidate doing the online technical competency test without bias. This helps to
make the recruitment process fair without human input that is biased. This improves the chances
of successful application by minority group applicants. This has the effect of making the
recruitment process meritorious and transparent. Organizational loyalty is therefore enhanced by
the process that is open and fair using technology.
Selection is done after a one-on-one interview at the 4hr Assessment Center and is then
followed by the training process. The interview process follows on the core requirements of
technical and behavioral competencies. The web based process simplifies the whole format of
interviewing and gives real time results and feedback to the potential employee. The flight
engineer benefits by knowing beforehand the full job description required in terms of technical
competency and certifications needed. The detailed requirement helps the flight engineer to

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pinpoint the daily tasks they are expected to undertake and this prepares them in advance to fit in
within the department they will eventually join.
The flight engineers have benefited from the RMSS safety management system in several
ways. Preflight audits can be done by the engineers and logged into the system. The data that has
been input into the Crew Resource Management system helps to reduce human error before
flight (MacLeod, 2016). The safety department can then track the logs for purposes of
accountability in cases corrective action is not taken. The personnel responsible for taking action
can then be held accountable for not undertaking the appropriate actions as recommended in the
log. This reduces incidences likely to result in catastrophe due to individual errors (Hampson,
Junor & Gregson, 2012). This reduces the probability of the flight engineer missing to perform
important preflight checks.
Human Resource is a component that plays an important role in the management process
of most organizations. New technology in the form of software is important in improving this
process through appropriate information systems. Qantas has embraced technologies that have
improved and changed its recruitment, selection and safety management processes. The
recruitment and selection process enables the company to directly access the labour market and
provide the procedure that is transparent. Then safety management system has helped in reducing
injury at the workplace and providing accountability that is easily tracked. These sets of
information system usage have had an overall positive outcome in managing human resources at
Qantas.

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References
AHB. (2012). Airline Crew Resource Management Systems. Airline Buzz Hub. Retrieved from
http://www.airlinehubbuzz.com/airline-cabin-crew-resource-management-systems/
Fehling, C. (2014). Cloud computing patterns: Fundamentals to design, build, and manage cloud
applications. Wien: Springer.
Hampson, I., Junor, A., & Gregson, S. (2012). Missing in action: aircraft maintenance and the
recent ‘HRM in the airlines’ literature. International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 23(12), 2561-2575. doi:10.1080/09585192.2011.633278
Howarth, B. (2010). AHRI: Send in the Cloud. People Management. Retrieved from
http://www2.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/29/ahri-send-
in-the-cloud-2010-08.aspx
MacLeod, N. (2016). Building Safe Systems in Aviation : A CRM Developer's Handbook.
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Oracle. (2017). Oracle Taleo Cloud Service. Retrieved from
https://www.oracle.com/applications/taleo.html
Qantas Case Sudy. (2014). Qantas. Business Studies Resources. Retrieved from
http://www.acehsc.net/wp-content/uploads/Business_Studies_Resources_-_Case_Study_-
_Qantas_Operations.PDF
Qantas. (2017). Qantas Careers. Retrieved from
https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/careers/global/en
RMSS. (2011). Qantas. Retrieved from http://www.rmss.com.au/upload/RMSS%20Case
%20Study%20-%20Qantas.pdf

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Sarina, T., & Wright, C. F. (2015). Mutual gains or mutual losses? Organizational fragmentation
and employment relations outcomes at Qantas Group. Journal of Industrial Relations,
57(5), 686. doi:10.1177/0022185615590905