Qantas Airways: Analyzing HR Challenges and Recommending Solutions

This report examines the market pressures faced by Qantas Airways, focusing on three critical HR challenges: adapting to innovation, managing a dynamic workforce, and talent acquisition. It provides an overview of Qantas, its global operations, and the competitive landscape of the aviation industry. The report delves into the challenges related to technology adoption, workforce management across diverse locations, and attracting skilled employees. It analyzes the impact of these issues on Qantas's human resource programs and operations, including the need for employee training, effective communication, and performance tracking. The report also highlights the advantages and disadvantages of adapting to innovation in HR practices, such as video interviews and online resume submissions. The report concludes with recommendations to help Qantas overcome these challenges and maintain a competitive edge in the aviation industry.

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE
MANAGING PEOPLE
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report will be to discuss about the market pressures that are faced by the
organization of Qantas, an Australian airlines organization having its presence globally.
There a series of competitive market pressures which are experienced by the organization.
The business house has realised that the passengers who avail their flights around the world
on daily basis are their greatest assets. Therefore, the organization has given the role to one of
their Human Resource management professional to identify three critical challenges that the
organisation is facing in the current marketing conditions around the world and are posing an
impact on the employees of the company along with the associated human resource related
programs, which are provided as well as planned for future purposes. The three critical
challenges which are chosen to be discussed in this report are adapting to innovation,
managing the dynamic workforce and talent acquisition. Research will be done on the
selected topics and along with critical review of the selected topics on impact that the issues
will have on future implementation of the human resource program on the organization of
Qantas. Recommendations will also be provided on the chosen challenges that will help the
organization to overcome the pressures that are affecting the human resource policies as well
as the business operations of the multinational organization and enjoy the competitive edge
over the rival organizations of Qantas Airways.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Organization.................................................................................................3
Literature Review.....................................................................................................................4
Analysis of the Literature....................................................................................................4
Adapting to Innovation........................................................................................................5
Managing the Dynamic Workforce....................................................................................7
Talent Acquisition................................................................................................................8
Summary of Key Findings.......................................................................................................9
Recommendations and Conclusions.....................................................................................10
References...............................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The main purpose of this report will be to discuss about the market pressures that are
faced by the organization of Qantas, an Australian airlines organization having its presence
globally. There a series of competitive market pressures which are experienced by the
organization. The business house has realised that the passengers who avail their flights
around the world on daily basis are their greatest assets. Therefore, the organization has given
the role to one of their Human Resource management professional to identify three critical
challenges that the organisation is facing in the current marketing conditions around the
world and are posing an impact on the employees of the company along with the associated
human resource related programs, which are provided as well as planned for future purposes.
The three critical challenges which are chosen to be discussed in this report are adapting to
innovation, managing the dynamic workforce and talent acquisition. Research will be done
on the selected topics and along with critical review of the selected topics on impact that the
issues will have on future implementation of the human resource program on the organization
of Qantas. Recommendations will also be provided on the chosen challenges that will help
the organization to overcome the pressures that are affecting the human resource policies as
well as the business operations of the multinational organization and enjoy the competitive
edge over the rival organizations of Qantas Airways.
Overview of the Organization
Qantas Airways Limited is the largest flag carrier business entity of Australia, which
started its journey in the year of 1920, in the month of November. Apart from the size of the
fleet of flights, it is also the largest airlines company in the context of covering the
international destinations and number of international flights that the organization operates
around the world. Qantas is also the third oldest aviation institution after KLM and Avianca

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throughout the whole world. The organization is based in Queensland, and it can be noted
that Qantas is the acronym of the real name of the business entity, which stands at
Queensland and Northern territory Aerial Services Ltd. The first flight flew from Brisbane,
whose destination was Singapore. The slogan of the organization is Spirit of Australia, which
resembles that the organization is focused to deliver the best quality to its passengers who are
availing their flights with the presence of the essence of the region of Australia. The cities
which are focused by the management of the organization are Darwin International Airport,
Singapore International; Airport, Cairns International Airport and Los Angeles International
Airport. The organization is going to celebrate its centenary year next year, and due to all
these, the higher management is trying to utilize the each and every resources that are
available with the organization to overcome the barriers of the departments they are
operating, like the above discussed human resource challenges of innovation, managing the
dynamic workforce and talent acquisition in the department of human resource department
(Qantas.com, 2019).
Literature Review
Analysis of the Literature
As discussed earlier, the human resource department of Qantas is facing the
challenges from the field of innovation, managing the dynamic workforce of the organization
who is working for the organization in the areas where Qantas Airways are operating their
business, and talent acquisition, which is one of the toughest jobs in this highly competitive
market place. The management of the organization are fully focused on providing the best
quality services to the passengers who are availing their flights, and in this context, they have
identified four forces which can be implemented and followed in the work system of Qantas
Airways. They are digitalisation and big data system, proper planning according to alterations
in the climate and resource constraints, the geopolitical shifts and the rise of the nations of

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Asia and shifting the preferences of the workforce and customer (Tafti, Mahmoudsalehi &
Amiri, 2017). The group delivered a positive as well as strong performance in the financial
year of 2019, but they are facing three critical challenges in the form of dynamic workforce,
innovation and acquisition of talents which these organizations are currently having for
themselves. Due to the advancement in the modern technology, every organization in their
respective business sector is fighting for gaining the competitive edge over their rival
organizations (Gregson et al., 2015). And it can be noted that aviation industry is one of the
toughest industry among all other industries and the business houses who are operating in this
sector needs to update their products and services according to the change in the tastes and
preferences of the customers along with the ever-changing of the technology which affects
the aviation industry in both positive and negative ways. Aviation organizations like Qantas
Airways need to update themselves according to the requirements of the people who are
availing their flights or who can be attracted to avail them in near future. But, there are
challenges which are faced by the organizations like Qantas Airways, who operates
throughout the world and have to deal with thousands of people on daily bass, whether they
are passengers or the employees of their own organization (Rubinstein et al., 2016).
Adapting to Innovation
Innovation in the human resource world involves the implementation of fresh
methods and ideologies along with the technology which will help the business entity of
Qantas Airways to meet the basic requirements of the organization and their global workforce
along with the needs and demands of the passengers who are present globally and avail their
system. The innovation of the human resource department involves the anticipation of the
future needs of the employees as well as the passengers of the organization (Wagner &
Walton, 2016). Innovative ways will help Qantas Airways to gain the competitive edge over
the rival organizations. It has been found in the studies that aviation sector is one of the

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toughest sectors in the world and one mistake will lead to losing the passenger to the
competitors of a particular organization. The human resource department needs to provide
proper training to the employees of the organization regarding the changes in technology, so
that they will be able to meet and satisfy the requirements of their passengers and maintain
the revenue generation for the company. Apart from these, the alterations in the field of
innovation changes the mode of conduct between the employees of the organization of
Qantas Airways, storage of the files in the computers or laptops used in the business house
and analyzing the performances of the employees. It has been found in various researches
that advancement in the technology makes the practices followed in the human resource
department more effective as well as efficient. Proper follow of these human resource
practices help in maximising the benefits for Qantas Airways and minimizing the issues or
problems within the organization (Baker, Merkert & Kamruzzaman, 2015).
To maintain the people around the work there is always a requirement of workforce in
an aviation company. And it is always not possible to hold face-to-face interview mainly in
the cases where the human resource department could not meet and take face-to-face
interviews and everything is done by the help of internet. Video call through Skype is an
example of the advancement of the technology and is utilized by the human resource
department of Qantas Airways while conducting an interview in other parts of the world apart
from Australia. Job seekers in the aviation industry can submit their resumes in a
standardized format which are given in the official website of the organization, so that it will
help the human resource department of Qantas Airways to track the number of applicants at a
given time and paperless work can be followed which will save the time of screening along
with saving the space of keeping those papers in the office spaces (Schiemann, 2014).
Communication process has also become more effective, by the help of emails and messages,
which are sent to the job seekers according to the requirements of the number of employees

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in the areas where Qantas Airways are operating. Performances of the employees are also
tracked and measured efficiently and effectively with the advancement of the technology and
its implementation on the system and processes followed within the organization. The
presence and absence of a particular employee can be perfectly measured along with the
amount of working hours worked by that employee. On the other hand, passengers could be
connected with the help of social media regarding the offers and discounts which are
provided by Qantas Airways, along with the journey details of a particular passenger are
shared and any delay or cancellation of flights can be shared with that respective passenger
(Khilji, Tarique & Schuler, 2015).
But adaptation to innovation has some disadvantages also. It has been found in a
number of times that there is a loss of network connection when an interview is performed
between the candidate and the human resource department of organizations like Qantas
Airways. It disrupts the interview process system as a whole and hampers the time of both the
persons. In case of emergency situations of recruitment process, this hampers the work flow
of the organization and increases the work pressure in the existing employees of the
organization. Apart from this, measuring the performances of the employees also gets
hampered, as it has been seen that the number of presence of an employee or the amount of
working hours are not properly updated due to technical faults in the devices used to track the
presence of that employee. This hampers the overall calculation of the performance
measurement of that employee and results in de-motivating of that employee, which may lead
to losing that talent to other companies. Storage of files may also get deleted or maybe get
hacked, as advancement of technology makes the systems more vulnerable and may lead to
system hacking. Proper recommendations will be discussed later in this paper (Srisaeng,
Baxter & Wild, 2014).

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Managing the Dynamic Workforce
This is another issue which is faced by the organization of Qantas Airways. As
already discussed, Qantas Airways is a multinational organization and operates their fleet of
flights in number of locations around the world. So, the human resource department has to
deal with the dynamic workforce of the organization. It is not possible to have a separate
human resource department in each and every position where the organization runs their
business. It seems difficult sometimes to follow the objective of keeping all the employees of
Qantas Airways connected at the same time. In case of emergency situations, the workflow
gets disrupted and mismanagement occurs within the organizational culture of the
organization. Many employees have any issues regarding their professional as well as
personal life, which disrupts the workflow within the organization. Sharing of information to
the employees who are working in remote places often gets hampered due to network
connectivity issues and important notices seems to get difficult to share among the employees
of the organization. The updates get hard to share, as alteration in the updates of the
organization is very common in the aviation industry, and emergency situations may happen
at any point of time, due to changes in the weather or any other emergency cases (Rabbi et
al., 2015).
Digital transformation of the overall system has proved to be effective with the human
resource department of Qantas Airways, but only relying on digitalization will not solve the
issues, as too much dependency on technology also hampers the work flow of the
organization and miscommunication arises due to this. Keeping track of thousands of
employees around the world of the organization of Qantas Airways seems to be difficult, the
advancement of technology proved to be efficient in some parts of the organizational culture.
In aviation industry, disruption in the workflow will possess an adverse effect on the minds of
the passengers along with the quality of the services that are given to them. Proper providing

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of services to the passengers will help the organization of Qantas Airways to sustain in this
highly competitive market place.
Talent Acquisition
It has been already discussed that a huge workforce is required to maintain the
workflow and business operations of a multinational aviation organization like Qantas
Airways. So, talent acquisition forms to be an integral part of the human resource
management, as a number of employees are required to run effectively the departments of the
organization. There is always a requirement of employees in the aviation organizations like
Qantas Airways, so it provides a huge task to the human resource department of the business
entity to find the right candidates and acquire them into the system of the organizational
culture (Alam, 2016). Talent acquisition refers to focus on the long-term issues of the
organization, related to planning of the human resources department on various aspects along
with finding the right candidate for the right positions available within the system of Qantas
Airways. All these require some particular set of skills in finding and acquiring those talents.
The modern or present talent acquisition involves the strategic function of the business
enterprises, along with forecasting of the requirement of the talents, pipelining of the talents
and strategic assessment and development of those talents apart from acquisition process
(Sabatini, 2017).
But, due to gain the competitive edge over others, it seems to be very difficult for the
organization of Qantas Airways to search and retain those talents within their organization.
Requirements within the aviation industry are almost similar to each other, but they
approaches seems to be different for different organizations. Employee retention can be
handled by the organization with providing proper career prospect to the employees of that
organization. Poor recruitment of talent can be avoided and the risks can be reduced, along
with the saving the overall costs of the organization and the time, which will help to improve

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the productivity of the organization, and help to enjoy the competitive edge over its
competitors (Mensah, 2015).
Summary of Key Findings
As discussed earlier, the modern technology is changing on daily basis and it is
becoming tough to match the pace with the changing speed of the technology in almost every
aspect of the aviation industry along with other industries as well. Due to this ever-changing
nature, the requirements of the people or the passengers of Qantas Airways are also changing
and the management of the organization is facing challenges to cope up with their demands.
Employees of the organization need to keep themselves updated with the changes or
alterations in the field of innovation, so that the basic requirements of the passengers can be
fulfilled. As the competition is increasing on daily basis it is getting together to adopt the
innovative ways into the system of human resource policies, plans and programs that need to
be followed in order to acquire the talents available in the market places along with
maintaining the dynamic workforce of the organization. It is a huge task to manage a
dynamic workforce for the organizations like Qantas Airways, and to cope p with all these
challenges, proper recommendations need to be designed and implemented within the system
of the business entity (Sabatini, 2015).
Recommendations and Conclusions
The Human Resource Department of Qantas Airways has developed some strategic
workforce planning functions for maintaining a dynamic workforce throughout the globe.
They have planned to create two pilot academies in Mackay and Toowoomba due to the
increased demand of pilots around the world. It includes the aim of an intake of 40 percent
more female pilots in the next few years. These academies will provide training to almost 500
pilots each year and assure a talent pipeline for Qantas Group of airways and the whole

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industry as well. The HR department of Qantas has developed a formal linkage with six
universities in Australia through their Future Pilot program. This will help them to attract the
best and brightest students to take up a job in the airways. Apart from these, a separate
designation is found to be required for acquiring the talents identified by the human resource
department of the organization of Qantas Airways. It will help to acquire those talents within
Qantas Airways and will help them to enjoy the competitive edge over its rival organizations.
The talented people with the help of their knowledge and experiences will help to make better
the organizational culture and a better place to work in. These will automatically improve the
services provided to the passengers in and around the world. Customer service will help to
attract the new people to avail the flights of the organizations along with retaining the old
passengers. Qantas Airways need to update themselves according to the requirements of the
people who are availing their flights or who can be attracted to avail them in near future,
along with maintaining the revenue generation for the organization (Kivits & Charles,. 2015).
Innovative ways may also be implemented within the organization system by the
human resource department. Allocation of budgets needs to be there to adopt those innovative
ways and to cope up with the ever-changing and never-ending needs of the passengers,
because they are the main reasons for generation of profit for Qantas Airways (Sahay, 2014).
Apart from these, a senior human resource official needs to be appointed on the regions
where they are operating their services, which will help to keep a track on the employees of
that place and will help the head office to know about the talent resource requirements
according to the size of the business operations and amount of revenue generation from that
particular area. Too much usage of the technology will help as well as provide challenges to
the organization like Qantas Airways, where involvement of modern technology is very much
required to make the services available to the passengers around the world. So, it can be
concluded that proper plans and procedures need to be designed and followed by Qantas