Case Study: Analyzing HRM Challenges and Solutions at Qantas Airways

This case study analyzes the human resource management (HRM) challenges faced by Qantas Airways, Australia's largest airline. The study identifies key issues in job analysis and design, change management, and performance management. The analysis reveals inefficiencies in hiring practices, communication, training, and employee relations. The case study then proposes solutions, including a revised training and communication model, stakeholder engagement for change management, and a new performance management plan incorporating reward practices and feedback mechanisms. The study highlights the importance of addressing these HRM issues to improve employee satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, and overall business performance. The study emphasizes the need for Qantas to prioritize its employees and their needs.

Qantas HRM-CASE study
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussions..............................................................................................................................3
2.1 Current HR Challenges in Qantas..........................................................................................3
2.1.1 Job Analysis and Design.................................................................................................4
2.1.2 Change Management......................................................................................................5
2.1.3 Performance Management..............................................................................................6
2.2 Addressing These Challenges................................................................................................6
2.2.1 Job Analysis and Design- Training And Communication Model..................................6
2.2.2 Change Management- Engage the Stakeholders............................................................7
2.2.3 Performance Management- Reward Practice And Feedback Mechanism.....................8
3.Conclusion....................................................................................................................................9
4. References..............................................................................................................................10
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1. Introduction
Qantas Airways is Australia’s largest airlines. The Qantas Airways Group has been seen to have
an extensive commercial and ownership links having a high number of regional carriers. It has an
alliance arrangements and code-sharing along with international carriers via the One World
Alliance. Qantas is the second largest among the all the five airline alliances which are the
groupings of all the allied airlines underpinning the globalization of the airline industry.
The ‘airlines’ was found in November 1920 and began as international passenger flights in 1935.
The name for the airlines comes from "QANTAS," an abbreviation for its original name,
"Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services," and has been nicknamed as "The Flying
Kangaroo." Qantas Airlines is also a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance. (Qantas,
2016)
A very strong international equity link is present between the British Airways and Qantas.
Additionally, Fiji' Air Pacific has it's 46.2 percent interest with Qantas. A nationwide, full-
service scheduled air services are only being provided by the Qantas Airways. Since the collapse
of Ansett group, the domestic share of Qantas has reached approximately 70 percent of the travel
market from a mere 55 percent. It has a human resource management operating in the four major
areas of the company, namely, business segments, shared services, corporate, development, and
learning. Despite the roles being entrusted on HRM by the organization, grave cases of accidents
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as well as strikes from the dissatisfied workers allegedly for getting meager salaries. Issues
similar to these present an HRM gap in the responsibilities being delivered successfully.
The reports present insights to the challenges being faced by the HR Planning at the Qantas
discussing the HR functions that must be addressed so as to face these challenges. The volatility
of the company is being affected by a large number of variable which has been discussed in the
study. The paper begins with a discussion of the various challenges and then the step towards
addressing the issues have been discussed in the paper.
2. Discussions
2.1 Current HR Challenges in Qantas
The Qantas Airways has a solid history in the business years related with transportation of
passengers and mails. With an expansion of operations in 65 domestic and 27 international
destinations, it serves around 30,000 employees. It has a human resource management operating
in the four major areas of the company, namely, business segments, shared services, corporate,
development, and learning. The HRM in the corporate level is seen to be highly responsible for
remuneration and benefits, the international and industrial relations of the airlines along with its
competitors as well as management. The HR teams are also responsible for collaboration with
the various other business segments for ensuring successful delivering of the strategies helping
the organization to gain competitive advantage. (Emerging Issues in Human Resource
Management)
The major responsibility of the organization lies with the human resource. The major work areas
and responsibility include supporting remuneration, managing the compensation of the
employees, managing workers records, and recruitment processes along with coming up with the
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strategic plans regarding the staff traveling, schemes and schedules. Under the development and
learning level, various training programs are given to the employees for helping them to deliver
all their works effectively.
2.1.1 Job Analysis and Design
Qantas Airways have an inefficient hiring team, and HRM has been making mistakes in
choosing a right candidate. Although the organization has a heavy training and recruiting
program and the company, have been investing in the job analysis as a well-designing process. In
2008, the company was involved in the in-flight incident causing a serious injury to the 129
passengers owing to the spacious commands. Additionally, the training is not seen to be highly
productive since 2006 recruitment. The pilot of the organization was seen not to be
acknowledging towards the issues and decided to overshoot the particular destinations by a range
of 150 miles. It has been alleged that the captains of the organization are not competent in nature
and further lack knowledge regarding shall recovery and use of stick shaker which led to serious
accidents. According to various researches, the organizations like Qantas Airways invest a great
deal of money on training with the belief that this might be helpful in gaining competitive
advantage in the local as well as global (Jackson, Schuler, and Werner, 2011). Although training
is offered to the employees so as to motivate the employees and in 2009, it was seen that around
$10 million staff training centers were opened by the organization so as to build their economies
of the scale. But even with success in the industry, the HRM is highly ineffectual and has
asserted that they need to forge a highly beneficial relationship with their employees and staff.
(Qantas aims for better customer service with $10m training center, 2009).
Various changes to outsourcing working rules and regulations, cutting of costs have been
administered in the organization, yet the situation is seen to be worsening. These issues are seen
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to be intensified despite the job design and analysis strategy of the organization. ("Qantas' HR
policy crashes to earth," 2011)
2.1.2 Change Management
The Qantas Airline was first owned by the government which did not perceive profits and
efficiency as their primary goal. In 1995, the privatization of company, various management
policies were adopted for overcoming the external and internal influences of the company. The
organization is going through diverse external and internal factors, demanding on the changes in
the HR management in order to increase their profits. The organization has been maintaining the
authoritarian hierarchical structure with the autocratic form of leadership with strict rules and
procedures. This had led to major disputes especially among the employees (mostly pilots and
engineers) demanding improvements in the wages as well as working conditions (Paton, R. A., &
McCalman, J., 2008). The issues have been irritating various employees, and Qantas Airways
has been administering various strikes leading to the grounding of the entire fleet of the airlines.
Qantas Airways has seen to be highly participative in the mergers and acquisitions of the firms in
the recent years so as to gain global competitiveness. This has led to either elimination of layers
of the managers, merging with other organizations, outplacing the workers and even to closing
facilities. The issue has been prevalent in the organization leading to the human consequence of
the change. Qantas is facing consequences like loss of loyalty, unfulfilled cost savings estimates
and related issues. Additionally, the major change company went through was its training which
was facilitated by their HRM in the apprenticeship program.This has forced the organization to
cut jobs by reducing the number of employees. A change management was adopted by the
organization in order to face similar issues, but the employees were not ensured successful
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remuneration. It was highly embarrassing on the part of a reputable brand where change
management failed to take care of the employees (Janda, M., 2013).
2.1.3 Performance Management
The Qantas Airways has been making profits but lacks a meaningful performance management
so as to provide recognition and rewards to its employees on the basis of their performance. The
employees are unaware of what their organization gives in return for their exceptional work. The
Qantas Airways has been considered as an important lynchpin in order to define a proper
aviation job owing to the fact that it is a market leader. The organization has been seen to sack
5,000 full-time employees and has replaced these employees with around 9,000 part-time
workers. These part-time workers do not work for Qantas. The organizations have been seen to
give statements that it might not hire the new full-time employee, and no full-time employees
have been hired since 2011. However, the Qantas-owned subsidiaries like Qantas Ground
Services (QGS) like Aerocare have been hiring new employees. The working conditions and pay
off the QGS employees have been crippling. The organization has failed to recognize the
personal accomplishments of the employees thereby failing to work accordingly in the upper
management. The organization, consequently, might face the lack of eagerness, joy, and
enthusiasm in the working environment. (Sheldon, T. & Sheldon, T., 2015).
2.2 Addressing These Challenges
2.2.1 Job Analysis and Design- Training And Communication Model.
In their official website, Qantas Airways has asserted that “Qantas is committed to providing
meaningful jobs with competitive salaries and superior benefits." Furthermore, the organization
alleges that the organization "provide targeted, quality training to the Qantas group and assists in
the development of skills". (Qantas, 2016)
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But the organization has failed in providing both the claims and the HRM needs to revisit their
training and communication model. The organization should move from the marketing approach
of making profits and should rather focus on their employees and their needs. A new and well-
defined hiring and recruitment procedure must be established in the organization along with a
need training model. This new training model will include focus group sessions and workshops
where the employees must be asked to present their grievances and to give their ideas towards
providing a solution. Additionally, this communication must be asked to focus on the learning,
teamwork, safety, innovation as well as productivity. A right training must be provided to the
pilot, and HRM should invest the most in this department. Therefore, the HRM needs to come up
with HR strategic oriented communication model which can help in guaranteeing all the needs
and requirements of the employees. This way the paramount issues affecting the company would
be discussed easily.
2.2.2 Change Management- Engage the Stakeholders
There is a need for the organization to come up with an urgent action plan. All the stakeholders
and the board of directors must discuss the methods on the recent crisis. The HRM must be asked
to carry out process that can engage all the stakeholders and important people to give them an
insight towards the salary and training issues being handled. They must be told about the change
in communication as well as training model so as to keep the changes employees-oriented. The
employees must be interviewed so as to inquire about the area that requires change. Whole
organization must be provided the information regarding the change. (Cameron, E., & Green, M.,
2015).
Once the HRM finds a perfect fit between the training and communication model, the
organization needs to come up with a tactical plan on managing the HR roles so as to avoid more
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scandals. Once employing the change management plan, it is imperative for the HR to be
involved in the day to day operations in order to align them with the needs and requirements of
the employees. These changes must be highly transparent in their strategy, and the operational
and strategic agenda must be communicated effectively. This will ensure that the needs of the
employees are being met, and their issues are heard in the organization without being posed to
operational challenges. The mission and goals of the change management plan must be shared
with the shareholders in order to make them believe that the changes are taking place for
correcting the company's reputation.
2.2.3 Performance Management- Reward Practice And Feedback Mechanism
There is a great need to come up with a performance management plan so as to follow up with
the performance of all the staff members. The performance management facility will help in
improving the relationship quality among all the staff members. Furthermore, sharing of
expectations as well as building an environment of mutuality and openness is required in Qantas.
Qantas should focus on talent management so as to maintain its leadership in the competitive
market and further to perform outstandingly.
The HR must motivate their employees so as to make sure that the high quality of work is being
delivered. This will result in the lower number of accidents and remuneration issues in the
organization. Furthermore, the attitude of the changing staff members must be noticed, and a
proper training must be given on how to have a positive mindset and attitude. These steps will
help in enhancing the working spirit of the workers and will motivate them. HR of the Qantas
Airways must adopt a well-defined reward practice and feedback mechanism in their culture. In
order to adopt talent management strategies, the communication of objectives and goals along
with performance expectations must be improved in all the levels of the organization. The
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following strategies must be adopted for employing a well efficient talent management (Bititci, U.
S., Carrie, A. S., & McDevitt, L., 1997)
 Developing the existing talent pool
 Attracting talent visibility
 Maximizing employee satisfaction
 In Advanced planning for succession
 Acting immediately upon the reviewed performance
3.Conclusion
The report discussed the dominant challenge being faced by the HRM of the Qantas Airways.
Therefore there is a need for the HR of the organization to develop a sound organizational as
well as cultural structure with the help of strong interpersonal skills towards their employees and
staff. A proper training must be provided to the employees in order to familiarize them with
ideas related to globalization of the HRM so as to gain competitive advantage. All the challenges
being faced by the organization can be managed by the HRM by adopting to HR practice
directed towards encouraging a rigid recruitment as well as selection policy, empowerment to the
employees, training and development to the entire workforce, managing the knowledge, efficient
talent management and foster innovation. If the organization follows all the above aspects of the
HR practices efficiently, the efficiency of the organization can improve, and all the issues can be
eliminated.
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4. References
1. Sheldon, T. & Sheldon, T. (2015). Qantas Might Be Profiting, But Its Staff Are Barely
Getting By - New Matilda. New Matilda. Retrieved 16 September 2016, from
https://newmatilda.com/2015/10/23/qantas-might-be-profiting-but-its-staff-are-barely-
getting-by/
2. Qantas | Book airfares on Australia Pacific's Best Airline. (2016). Qantas.com. Retrieved
16 September 2016, from https://www.qantas.com/
3. Janda, M. (2013). Qantas critics says management failures damaging airline. ABC News.
Retrieved 16 September 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-06/qantas-
critics-says-management-failures-damaging-airline/5139050
4. Jackson, S., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing human resources. Cengage
Learning.
5. Qantas aims for better customer service with $10m training centre. (2009). NewsComAu.
Retrieved 16 September 2016, from http://www.news.com.au/national/back-to-school-
for-battered-qantas-staff/story-e6frfkp9-1111118695362
6. Emerging issues in Human Resource Management: Pramod Vernia publishes and IBH
publish (p) Ltd.,
7. Bititci, U. S., Carrie, A. S., & McDevitt, L. (1997). Integrated performance measurement
systems: a development guide. International journal of operations & production
management, 17(5), 522-534.
8. Paton, R. A., & McCalman, J. (2008). Change management: A guide to effective
implementation. Sage.
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9. Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: a complete
guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page
Publishers.
10. Qantas' HR policy crashes to earth. (2011). Theaustralian.com.au. Retrieved 16
September 2016, from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/qantas-hr-policy-crashes-to-
earth/news-story/350a60a3aa2d0beec22600d07a4ccead
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