British Airways: Maximizing the Workforce Through Human Resources Essay Example
British Airways: Maximizing the Workforce Through Human Resources Essay Example

British Airways: Maximizing the Workforce Through Human Resources Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (3006 words)
  • Published: August 19, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Introduction: The heart is the most essential organ in the human body, responsible for ensuring its proper functioning.

In any organization, the most important asset is its employees. To optimize their value, management should always handle their working conditions smartly and efficiently. When employees are well managed, organizations tend to perform exceptionally well. Thus, it is imperative to focus on the development, building, motivation, enhancement, and enrichment of the employees.

In general, every organization believes that Human Resource (HR) provides them with a competitive advantage. These advantages can include a quality workforce and a choice culture, among other things. According to Bratton and Gold (2001, p39), strategic management is defined as "that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-term performance of a corporation". Strategic HR ensures that the employees or human capital of an organization contribute to its su

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ccess through their skills and performance. Traditional HR focuses on implementing policies and techniques such as recruitment, staffing, reward, and appraisal. However, when HRM is integrated into an organization's strategy, the HR department has a broader scope to enhance the abilities of their workforce and align with the organization's vision and mission. This connection aims to improve organizational performance and develop an organizational culture that promotes innovation and flexibility. Ultimately, the central principle of Strategic HRM is to achieve the organization's vision and mission.

In this globalized and changing world, organizations need to show the significance of effective human resource management (HRM). HRM includes a set of policies that aim to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility, and work quality to achieve organizational goals. As an illustrative example for this course, I have chosen British Airways.

British Airways

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An Overview

British Airways is the biggest airline in the United Kingdom and the third largest in Europe.

British Airways, along with airlines such as USAir, Qantas, and TAT European airlines, operates a global flight network. Together with its partners, British Airways serves 95 million passengers each year across 86 countries using over 1,000 planes and 441 airports. The airline's primary focus is to provide scheduled and charter air services for domestic and international passengers, cargo, and mail alongside other additional services.

At London's Heathrow Airport - the busiest international airport in the world - strategic human resource management (SHRM) plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of an organization of this magnitude. There are various approaches and models available for implementing SHRM; however, the widely accepted model is Kane and Palmer's basic strategic HRM model proposed in 1995.

The HR department at British Airways considers the external and internal environment, as well as organizational systems, when recruiting employees. Their tasks involve advertising job openings and selecting qualified candidates who can help achieve the company's mission and goals. Hiring individuals with the right skills and abilities is essential for BA's success. Thus, it is crucial to follow a fair, structured, and professional selection process to ensure the hiring of the most suitable individuals.

Recruitment and Choice

"The Company only authorizes recruitment if the demand is critically important. Therefore, British Airways (BA) maintains efficiency and cost-effectiveness through careful employee engagement and development, while also prioritizing worker satisfaction and benefits with a humanistic approach. According to BA's FactBook 2007, the company places significant emphasis on investing in its people. This investment is deemed essential due to its effectiveness and the negative

consequences of neglecting it. BA's focus on effective recruitment and selection methods, as well as employee training and development, is evident by the 5% increase in employee costs. Townley (1991) suggests that organizations increasingly emphasize general properties and values rather than narrow task-based criteria. Barclay (1999) explains that suitability for an organization is based on personality, attributes, flexibility, commitment, and goals rather than just specific job skills."

Torrington and Hall (5th Edition: P 142) referred to these important attributes as organizational standards. The specific requirements for administration depend on their nature. For British Airways, their large and expanding organization necessitates candidates with flexibility, adaptability, and "utmost professionalism." Additionally, as stated in the Fact Book 2007, BA emphasizes the importance of employee motivation and commitment to the success of the company.


Classification of sections

To be more specific, the hiring process for employees is functionally divided into six sections.

Customer service

The first section is Customer Contact, which is responsible for providing onboard services for clients. Employees in this section are further divided into Cabin Services and Passenger Services. BA is seeking candidates with customer service experience and who are above 18 years old. Candidates for this section should possess composure and a warm personality, effective communication skills with people from diverse cultures, the ability to work under stress, and a team-oriented attitude.

Commercial section

Secondly, there is the Commercial Department, which recruits individuals for Sales, Alliance, Marketing, and Strategy.

The administration is seeking skilled campaigners for this sector who can thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and have excellent communication, organizational, and planning skills. Additionally, the selectors prefer candidates with experience in Customer Service.

Technical section

The administration's Technical

and Operations section, as well as the E-Business and IT section, focus on e-Commerce, e-Procurement, IT, and e-Working. The employees in these departments work to meet the organization's technological needs and ensure its success. They are expected to possess advanced and creative thinking abilities and be able to think beyond technology. Strong negotiation skills, problem-solving abilities, and relevant work experience are essential in the field of technology.


Corporate Services

Corporate Services includes HR, Finance, Health Services, and Legal services, PR & A ; Communication, Safety, Security Community and Environment. This section aims to motivate and engage employees who share the same goals as the company's administration. Relevant experience and qualifications are typically required.


Graduate Opportunities

The Graduate Opportunities and Training Schemes sector hires graduates and students for various roles such as industrial placements, trainee pilots, and technology programs. The airline industry offers excitement, challenges, diverse company structures, and the opportunity to advance a career by gaining valuable skills and experience. BA is a top choice for young graduates.


Applicant Selection Methods

Organizations have different methods for selecting candidates based on factors such as time, cost, administrative ease, and selection criteria for the specific position.

A list of selected methods as described by Torrington and Hall (2006) includes Application Forms, Self-Assessment, Peer Assessment, Telephone Interviewing, Testing, Group Selection Methods and Assessment Centres, Work Sampling/Portfolios, References etc. British Airways (http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/) employs CV and Application forms, Interviews, Assessment Processes, Criminal Record Check. Applications Forms are the written documents which typically reflect personal, educational and employment information of the candidate. Application form has been expanded by some

organizations to inquire much more and much detailed information from the candidates like about their skills abilities and also some situational questions are made to assess thinking approach of candidate.

British Airways places a greater emphasis on the CV and urges candidates to create a well-organized, logical, and easily understandable CV. It is important to provide a brief overview of relevant accomplishments with no spelling or grammar mistakes. The primary purpose of Application Forms is to shortlist potential candidates. These forms can be used to obtain the candidate's signature to confirm the accuracy of the information provided. Application Forms are somewhat superior as they have a standardized format, making it easier and less prone to error when comparing information during filtering and shortlisting.

Assessment Procedure

The Assessment Process consists of various techniques, including multiple-choice methods, leaderless group activities, command or executive exercises, group problem-solving tasks, psychological tests, in-basket tasks, as well as several interviews and presentations. The IRS (2002d) recognized these multiple steps as the most effective means of selecting candidates.

At the end of the steps, assessors must come to a cumulative evaluation for each person regarding occupation demands. This method of choice is expensive and time-consuming but offers the opportunity to assess the candidate through thorough observation. The Assessment Process followed by British Airways (hypertext transfer protocol: //www.britishairwaysjobs.com) includes Group Exercises, Interviews, Psychometric tests, Presentations, investigative and role plays.

Group exercises:
Group exercises will assess the teamwork abilities and communication skills of candidates.


Interviews

Interviews consist of challenging questions and critical situations to aid in decision-making.

Psychometric Tests

According to BA, the tests primarily evaluate verbal and numerical abilities. Additionally, a personality assessment

may be included to further understand the candidate.

Interpersonal Skills

Fact-finding activities assess interpersonal skills to gather relevant information, while presentations demonstrate a candidate's communication proficiency with a group.

Role Plays

Role Plays involve one assessor acting as a client, with the candidate having to handle the situation accordingly.

Testing Method is an alternative to using interviews alone when selecting candidates. However, there are concerns that testing lacks objectivity and can be challenging to integrate with the overall evaluation process. Business Analysts (BA) utilize psychometric testing, role plays, and investigations to assess candidate suitability for a job. Additional types of tests consist of Aptitude tests, General Intelligence tests, Special aptitude tests, Trainability tests, Achievement tests, and Personality Tests (according to Torrington and Hall, 6th edition).

Testing as a selection technique has its drawbacks, such as being time-consuming, lacking sufficient criteria to effectively assess job performance, and having the potential for bias based on gender, race, or social background.

Criminal Record Checks

Criminal Record Checks are also an integral part of BA's selection process. In the realm of international travel, nothing is more crucial than ensuring safety and security. BA is the leading safety-critical business in the UK (http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/) with a well-established safety record. Hence, conducting criminal record checks for employees working with children and/or vulnerable adults is a legal requirement.

Motivation

After the publication of the Hawthorne Study results, several researchers focused on understanding employee motivation and how to motivate them (Terpstra, 1979).

The text discusses five theories related to employee motivation: Maslow's need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory, Vroom's anticipation theory, Adams' equity theory, and Skinner's support theory. Maslow identifies five levels of needs: physiological, safety,

social, ego, and self-actualizing (Maslow, 1943). According to Maslow, lower-level needs must be met before higher-level needs can motivate employees. Herzberg categorizes motivation into two factors: incentives and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959).

Occupational satisfaction is affected by intrinsic factors, including accomplishment and acknowledgment, as well as extrinsic factors like wage and occupation security. According to Vroom's theory (Vroom, 1964), employee effort results in performance which then leads to rewards. These rewards can be positive or negative.

The employee's motivation is likely to be higher when their wages are higher, and lower when their wages are lower. Adams' theory states that employees seek fairness by comparing their outcomes and inputs with those of other employees (Adams, 1965). Conversely, Skinner's theory suggests that positive behaviors will be repeated by employees if they lead to positive results, while negative behaviors will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953).

Directors should use positive reinforcement to encourage employee behaviors that lead to positive results and negative reinforcement to discourage employee behavior that leads to negative results.


Consequence of Motivation

  • Interesting work,
  • Good rewards,
  • Full grasp of work done,
  • Occupation security,
  • Good working conditions,
  • Publicities and growing in the organization,
  • Feeling of being in on things,
  • Personal loyalty to employees,
  • Tactful discipline, and
  • Sympathetic help with personal problems.

A comparison of these consequences with Maslow's need-hierarchy theory provides interesting insights into employee motivation. The top-ranked incentive, interesting work, aligns with a self-actualizing factor.

The second ranked incentive, which is good rewards, is a physiological factor. The third ranked incentive, which is having a full grasp of the work done, is an esteem factor. The fourth ranked incentive, which is occupation security, is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow (1943), if directors want to address the most

important motivational factor for Centers' employees, they must first satisfy interesting work, physiological, safety, social, and esteem factors. If directors want to address the second most important motivational factor for centers' employees, increasing their wage would suffice.

Contrary to Maslow's theory, this survey found that the different motivational factors are diverse. The survey did not confirm Maslow's belief that lower level motivational factors must be fulfilled before moving on to higher levels. In June 1997, Ayling introduced a new visual identity, which was supposedly based on market research but caused a lot of emotional controversy. The change was radical, completely discarding old symbols and introducing a new design, colors, slogan, and denying any psychological attachment to the nation.

The immediate work stoppages demonstrated that BA's culture still resembled that of a public sector company. Instead of attempting to negotiate, Ayling harshly criticized strikers without considering the background of the company as a publicly-owned entity. Despite Ayling's desire to remove the "British-ness" from BA, employees and the general public (clients, the press, Margaret Thatcher) were not willing to accept this. The strikes also resulted from employee confusion: were the new salary strategy (part of efforts to reduce costs) and the 60 million identity change logical? Could employees remain motivated and engaged in BA under these conditions? Additionally, in 1999, 160 planes still displayed the Union flag instead of the new design because BA did not have enough time to repaint them. The identity change was poorly accepted and implemented as a result.

However, Ayling realized the importance of human resources as part of the cultural background in a customer-facing business after experiencing work stoppages. In October 1997, he initiated

a campaign to boost staff morale and started to focus on the front-line employees through interviews and speeches that emphasized effective communication between management and staff. He constructed a hotel and developed a new concept for BA's headquarters (with no permanent desk-space). In 1999, an opinion survey was sent to all employees, revealing disappointing results, which led Ayling to introduce training and motivational programs. Cost-cutting is an unpopular practice that managers typically only resort to in emergencies.

Bob Ayling had a different perspective. He had a forward-thinking approach and remained firm in implementing the BEP measures, even while announcing record profits for the year. He sold off reasonable activities and relocated the accounting department. Finally, he made the decision to focus BA's strategy on high-margin activities and implemented a rationalization plan to reduce unprofitable routes and excess capacity. This proactive approach gained the appreciation of financial analysts but did not have equally positive effects within the company.

Many of the jobs in an organization are caused by people not passing on information. Career direction and development at BA is focused on keeping employees engaged and feeling valued. Managers are responsible for developing their teams, but there is concern that this process is not happening quickly enough due to the rapid growth of the company. BA offers many courses for staff development and opportunities for learning outside of the company.

The text emphasizes British Airways' commitment to unleashing and maximizing the potential of its employees. It acknowledges the difficulty in describing every development initiative due to the wide range of jobs within the company. However, British Airways provides an impressive array of training resources that employees can utilize as

needed. These resources include computer-based interactive learning centers, libraries, reference materials, audiotapes, and video-based learning materials. The company offers programs aimed at developing various skills, including leadership, team-building, presentation, and negotiation.

Support is provided for proficient and professional training in certain situations. In these countries, individuals are responsible for communicating their needs to their director. Career advancement for all staff members in the BA department follows a creative approach, taking into consideration individuals' aspirations and providing necessary cross-training. Internal job vacancies are advertised and internal promotions are prioritized whenever possible.

Rue, 2003) A reliable and effective pay and rewards system is crucial for employers in both the public and private sectors. Many organizations have created methods for determining wages that are linked to individual or team performance. Pay can also be influenced by factors such as personal development, responsibility, risk-taking, loyalty, and experience. Some important considerations at the local level include pay as a reflection of values like equity, equality, teamwork, flexibility, and collaboration with external partners. Pay can also serve as an incentive for individual and team performance, as well as personal development. Additionally, it can be seen as a factor in the cost and effectiveness of resourcing an organization. According to Byars and Rue (2003), an organization's pay and rewards system reflects its attitudes, intentions, and overall culture. A well-designed rewards and recognition system is a valuable tool for motivating employees. Management should understand what employees truly value as rewards, keeping in mind that pay is just one aspect. Other factors like the working environment, office equipment, and informal recognition should also be considered.Rue, 2003)

  • Payment is an important part of the wages system,

directly linked to staff performance and motivation.

However, in an international environment with different economic systems, development levels, political and institutional contexts, traditions, and cultures, it is difficult to find a uniform method for comparison (Logger, Vinke, Kluytmans, 1995). Decision and Recommendation: This paper aims to investigate the human resource management strategies of British Airlines.

Comparing the human resource management strategies of British Airlines with the input of experts in the field, it has been determined that British Airways has created a favorable environment. This includes increased employee engagement, career succession planning, relevant training opportunities, greater potential for advancement, job satisfaction, trust, and commitment to enhance employee loyalty and satisfaction. Overall, British Airways has implemented a balanced recruitment and selection strategy that makes it a pleasant workplace for employees without significantly impacting costs. It is suggested that British Airways should prioritize the use of application forms over CVs to gather accurate, relevant, and necessary information about candidates. The assessment procedures employed by British Airways can be regarded as an effective means of selecting candidates and the company is efficiently adhering to these methods. If these findings are properly implemented by British Airways, numerous benefits can be achieved. This includes the development of shared values, reduced costs once the relationship ends, and increased profitability through the retention of a larger number of end-user clients.

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