Human Resource Management Report: British Airways HRM Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within British Airways. It begins by examining the motives and roles of HRM, specifically in workforce planning and resourcing, highlighting its significance within the organization. The report then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection approaches employed by British Airways. Furthermore, it explores the advantages of various HRM practices, considering both employer and employee perspectives, using Aldi as a comparative example. The analysis extends to assessing the success of HRM practices in raising organizational profit and productivity. The second part of the report focuses on the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making, followed by a discussion of key employment legislation and their impact. The report concludes by considering the practical applications of HRM practices in a work-related context, emphasizing the importance of a positive work environment, employee motivation, and the alignment of HRM strategies with organizational goals to achieve maximum profitability and operational efficiency. The report is a valuable resource for students studying HRM, offering insights into real-world applications and strategic considerations in the aviation industry.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Motives and roles of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing by referring
British Airways. .....................................................................................................................1
P2. Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection in British
Airways...................................................................................................................................2
P3. Advantages of different HRM practices in Aldi for both the employer and employee.. .3
P4. Success of various HRM practices in context to raising organisational profit and
productivity. ...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making.......5
P6. Important key employment legislation and their impact on HRM decision making.......6
P7. Applications of HRM practices in work related context..................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Human resource is all about managing the resources and taking care of the organisation.
Proper functioning of a company is only possible if they are their HR department undertakes all
the activities successfully. Its work starts from recruiting the employees and further giving them
training, so that they can gain skills (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The techniques which they
have learned in the training session will be useful in their work. Functions of HRM is not
restricted to hiring but they also make sure that all things are going well in the company. This all
assignment will be briefing about the importance and functions of HR in British airways. It is
the largest airlines in Britian in terms of fleet size. Through this we can get a glimpse that how
big the firm is and how its HR should work to gain competitive advantage in aviation sector.
TASK 1
P1. Motives and roles of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing by referring
British Airways.
Human resource is a wing in an organisation which line up all the operations and
resources in a manner that would give long term benefits. It might have various roles in British
airways depending upon the different situations. But there are some which are very crucial in
deciding the growth of it. Workforce planning is a process which is used by the HR managers to
set priorities in different surroundings (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). To meet the legislative,
regulatory, service, production requirements and companies objectives. This gives a proper
insight about people, skills, places and time which will be required for achieving different goals.
It is a crucial function of the HR department which involves arranging the needs of the British
Airways. As this airline is one of the biggest company and operates different various activities,
so for that they need a workforce which they carry out their work. Different departments are
made and people are set in them according to their skills. All those staff are given the
responsibility of handling various important work. Newly appointed people are tested on various
grounds and recruiters identifies the right person for that particular job. Talent management is
the aim of the HR department and they link business objectives with the people working their. A
strategy should be prepared in which a plan should be made describing the needs of company.
Workforce planning is the main function of human resource management and is related to the
systematic identification and analysis of what a company require in terms of size, type,
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experience, knowledge and skills of its workforce to reach its goals. Through this a company
can produce business intelligence to make British Airways aware about their current and
upcoming impact of the external environment on the firm. Workforce planning is done on
periodic interval because it is not possible that all the time situation will be same. It depends
upon the trends and business environment that how things will be arranged.
Resourcing involves arranging of the materials which are required for carrying out the
different operations in British Airways. It is the job of human resource department to take care
the requirements of the staff by considering future scope (Bratton and Gold, 2012). Employee
resourcing refers to proper managing of the workers so that they can yield better results and work
in more efficient manner. HR department will evaluate the performance of the employees of
British. They can analyse them on different measures and this will make them sure that all things
are aligned in proper manner. The main aim of this is to maintain the quality in the organisation
and get maximum out of them.
P2. Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection in British
Airways.
Every company who is willing to recruit new people for their services can adopt two
ways i.e., internal and external approaches. Both the hiring process have their own significance
because its depends on situations, that which method will be appropriate. In internal approach
HR admit people from British Airways and those people who are working for them will be given
references.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment.
Through this process staff will feel motivated and employees will work more effectively.
Giving opportunities to the current staff means that they rely on them and this will build a
stronger relationship between them. They will be benefited from this because they are
approaching experienced people who are versed with the organisation. As they very well know
how the company works and what are their goals. Various costs can be cut from this and it also
don't need much time.
Those who are not promoted will feel discouraged and will not able to work proper. A
person who is giving its services in British Airways from years and if he is not given preferences
than he feel that his work is not valued (Guest, 2011). There can be disputes and conflicts on
different matters among management and the existing people.
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Advantages and Disadvantages of External Hiring.
External admission brings pool of creative and talented people from outside the
organisation. British Airways wants to bring unique innovations in their business operation for
that hiring external people is important. As the new candidates have to go through rigorous
interview process, the best people are selected.
Although there might be lots of benefits of external process but there are some
disadvantages also attached to it. British Airways only have to rely on what candidates are
reflecting or showing to them. They have no idea about their past experience nor they know
whether they will perform according to their demands. It is an expensive approach because new
people have to be trained fro new environment.
Before going for any recruitment they have to see which area should need new people. A
job analysis will be done and on the basis of this a job description will be created. This highlights
what kind of vacancy is available in British Airways (Jiang and et. al., 2012). After designing
this a personal specification will be made to know what kind of person will be appropriate for
this post. They can select candidates through different techniques of selection like screening,
telephonic
& personal interview and cultural fit selection.
P3. Advantages of different HRM practices in Aldi for both the employer and employee.
The management of people in the organisation and other resources are handled by Human
resource management, and therefore it is a very essential part of a business. HRM operates to
organise and coordinate the functions of the company by handling the staff and keep them
satisfied. Every employee wishes that their employer provide them a positive working
environment so that they could do their duties in full energy. If the employees are not given with
proper facilities and amenities to meet their demands at their workplace, it would lead to
dissatisfaction and demotivation of employees. This will be a reason for less productivity. HRM
is present in British Airways for the same reason. They work to keep their employees happy and
satisfied.
British Airways is to be expected to introduce a reward system for the employees who
deserve it. This can create a positive effecting the minds of employees and other stakeholders.
Training and development of the employees are also one of the major responsibility of HRM.
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Training provided to the employees are useful to increase the knowledge and skills of them. The
HRM has its own advantages for the company as it helps in motivating the employees and gain
more profitability for the organisation. They create tactics where the employees performance are
assessed and they are rewarded with incentives and 'Employee of the Month', etc. by which the
confidence of employees gets a boost to work hard towards achieving the organisational
objectives along with their personal goals.
Human Resource Management makes sure that their employees are given a positive
working environment and checks whether their skills and abilities are worthy for their
organisation's goals to be achieved. The activities that are performed by HRM also helps in
making their employees loyal and to retain them within the organisation (Meredith Belbin,
2011). They also help in maintaining the employees' healthy lifestyle. They work to improve the
abilities of the employees and to motivate them to contribute in the organisational operations
more hard so that the organisation achieves their goals effectively and efficiently.
P4. Success of various HRM practices in context to raising organisational profit and
productivity.
To increase the profitability and gain competitive advantage, British Airways is trying
their best to modify their HR practices. They have to take care that people working there are
constantly engaged in functions of the organisation. This thing can be achieved by giving them
training, compensation & rewards and these will empower them in different areas. HR practises
have to be prepared according to the performance of the British Airways and their functions.
Designing job, training, staff skills and their attitudes involves HR practices. If they have
to increase productivity they should focus on these attributes because they directly impact them.
HR has a role of managing different resources which include the people who are working there.
If a proper control is made on those then they can easily reach to the targets, which they have
desired for (Wright and McMahan, 2011). Whatever they carry out directly affects productivity,
quality, turnover, market value and profit margins. A right sequences has to be arranged in which
priorities of different resources are set. They have to introduce relevant ideas which can yields
better and positive results.
The main aim of the British Airways HR team is to constantly perform well so that they
can grow financially. To get more productivity and profitability HR policies plays a crucial role
because they make sure that all is going well in the organisation. To avoid any future conflicts
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and crisis, they try to solve small issues as quick as possible (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011). To
ensure that passengers who are travelling in the flights of British airways are satisfied or not, HR
department can introduce a feedback system. They should be flexible and dynamic in handling
any situation on the spot. A continuous evaluation of different sections of the company gives
them an advantage. Are the people working in those sector are continuously performing well or
not because there is no compromise with the quality and services. If they are not doing good,
training can be conducted to improve their knowledge.
TASK 2
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making.
For smooth functioning of the British Airways, employee relation have to be maintained.
If there will be coordination between the management and workers, then automatically there will
be rise in the business. Maintaining a good relation with the staff, encourages them to work for
effectively. A strong relationship bond will give short and long term profits to the company. All
the decision of HR should focus on this and able to bring satisfaction among employees and
employers. Whatever issues are coming in the way of progress can be resolved to quickly, if
there is proper relation between them (Huselid and Becker, 2011). An environment has to be
developed where employees feel satisfied and involves positivity. Through motivation, staff can
be made satisfied and they can be given incentives & increment in the salary. Other than this
rewards and other fun activities can be organised. If any one is doing better work he should be
given appreciation in different ways. If there will be no smooth coordination, the HR decision
making will be affected by it. Staff wants that they their demands should be met and whatever
they do should be valued by British Airways. There should be a feedback system, where workers
can put their grievances in front of the management. When the relevant demands are ignored by
the management, staff feels that they are sidelined. This creates a tension and brings disputes
between employees and employers. Whatever policies and strategies they are coming out, its
primary target should be satisfaction of employees. If a problem arises they should first identify
the situation and gather information about it. After that their alternatives should be find out and
how much importance those evidence have which will be used for solving problem. After that
decision has to be made by taking any decision.
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P6. Important key employment legislation and their impact on HRM decision making.
There are some laws made by the parliament to ensure that employees working in the
organisations feel secure. These help in building a healthy relation and an understanding between
employees and employers. HR department of British Airways need to make sure that they follow
all the guidelines of those laws. Following are the some of them:-
Salary and Working Time:- People work for an organisation and in exchange they get
salary in back. But the big question arises here is that what is the basic limit of these. They have
set some standards and guidelines which ensures they an employees are entitled for a minimum
salary according to their work. If a person works more then 40 hours then he will be entitled for
overtime.
Leave Provisions: Employees can take up to 12 weeks of holidays in a full year. It can
vary depending upon the health condition of the company (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, and Lengnick-
Hall, 2011). HR manager should clearly define these provisions.
Medical Disability: This law states that no staff should be terminated or deprived of
employment, if he is suffering from any kind of illness or disability. HR in British Airways
should monitor activities of each person to know if they are treated properly or not.
Anti- Discrimination: 7 clause of civil rights act of 1964 briefs that there should be no
discrimination in the organisation. No one should be discriminated on basis of colour, religion,
gender and nationality. HRM duty is to ensure that these things does not comes in the way of
company.
P7. Applications of HRM practices in work related context.
HRM practices related to work focuses on reward system, development process and
appraisal procedure. For achieving good results they can perform soft and hard HRM. Both have
different approaches like in hard they only treat workers as a resource like machinery and
buildings. This gives an insight that what all things are important for carrying out different
operation in British Airways. A analysis is done that how they will be managed and what all cost
will be required to manage them (Purce, 2014). By adopting review system they can gain
competitive advantage because through this employees can report to the management team that
what all areas needs improvement. They can know what are the strengths and weaknesses of
their business.
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CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned assignment it can be concluded that no company can gain
success without their HR department. They are responsible in handling some tasks which will
decide growth of British Airways. In the hiring process they have to make sure that a suitable
approach is adopted and equal importance is given to internal members. Different laws should be
followed, so that a safe working environment can be made. For maintaining employee
relationship they can adopt different systems like motivation and reward system.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bloom, N and Van Reenen, J., 2011. Human resource management and productivity. Handbook
of labor economics. 4. pp.1697-1767.
Boxall, P and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bratton, J and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Brewster, C and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and Practice in European Human Resource
Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor & Francis.
Guest, D.E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal. 21(1). pp.3-13.
Huselid, M.A and Becker, B.E., 2011. Bridging micro and macro domains: Workforce
differentiation and strategic human resource management.
Jiang, K and et. al., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational
outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of
management Journal. 55(6). pp.1264-1294.
Lengnick-Hall, C.A., Beck, T.E and Lengnick-Hall, M.L., 2011. Developing a capacity for
organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human
Resource Management Review. 21(3). pp.243-255.
Meredith Belbin, R., 2011. Management teams: Why they succeed or fail. Human Resource
Management International Digest. 19(3).
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). 67.
Wright, P.M and McMahan, G.C., 2011. Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’back into
strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal. 21(2).
pp.93-104.
Online
Steps Involved in Effective Decision Making Process. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.businessstudynotes.com/hrm/steps-involved-in-decision-making-process/
>. [Accessed on 28th May 2017]
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