Human Resource Management For British Airways

TASK 1

P 1. Explaining purpose and functions of HRM regarding workforce planning and resourcing 

Purpose of HRM

Employees Management: The purpose of HRM is to increase productivity with quality of employees in the organization. HRM is determining and implementing processes and policies for attracting, recruiting and retaining a quality of workforce. The HR manager is to maintain relationship between employees and customers (Arulrajah,  2015).

Implementing Laws and Regulations: HR manager of British Airways has to be concerned about the legal issues according to employment and labour laws. HR manager hires and terminates employees by federal and state laws. If the employer is hire union labour, HRM is to maintain relation of labour in the workplace. The purpose of HRM is to ensure that keeping safe workplace concern by HR manager of company.

Metrics: The purpose of HRM is to interact with all levels of employees in British Airways. The HR manager is to evaluate and offer solution of hiring and retaining employees while organization suffers employee’s turnover (Arulrajah, Opatha and Nawaratne, 2015). Therefore, manager is to use different methods of metrics to analyse costs and creates more efficiency at every level.

Cultures Sensitivity: HR manager of British Airways has to maintain awareness of cultures at the workplace. The employers to plan of resources and workforce by managing cultures differences in the company. The manager is anticipated delay and plans alternate strategies for responding needs of one or multiple divisions (Barbieri, 2016).

Functions of HRM

There are  function such as managerial and operative.

Managerial Function: It is the managerial function of HRM which is used for planning of resources, job description, person specification and determination of sources of recruitment by HR manager of British Airways (Bibbins-Domingo and et.al., 2016). It is necessary to determine goals and objectives of  organization. The HR manager of British Airways has established objectives and developed plans at workplace. The manager divides activity and function according to position, assigns tasks and projects to individuals'.

Operative Function: It is another function of HRM which includes employment, development, compensation, maintenance, motivation and industrial relations. These functions help to increase workforces and planning resources in the British Airways. The objectives of operative functions are determining manpower requirements, developing technical skills, maintaining working conditions and welfare of employees in an organization (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The HR manager maintains records of employees that are working and good industrial relations at workplace.

P 2. Explaining strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection

Recruitment and selection is done internally and externally in British airways. Given below are the strengths and weaknesses of this process:

External process of recruitment and selection

It is the process of recruiting and selecting candidates for vacancies in company from any outsider that has no relations with company.

External process of recruitment in British airways is done through recruitment of fresher from educational institutes, employee reference, and direct recruitment. It has an online selection process that gives preferences to local candidates (Caligiuri, 2014).

Strengths

• Candidates from external sources can provide new ideas and innovation in company and give a different outlook towards their work.
• British Airways provides employment opportunities to a vast group of people with different skills and competencies.
• Recruitment and selection process is done online by British Airways. This is hassle free and consumes less time as well as energy with ensuring smoothness in the process.
• External recruitment and selection boosts motivation among existing employees because of new ideas shared by new candidates (Conway and et.al., 2016).

Weaknesses

• External recruitment and selection process may not be able to select the best candidates for position.
• Because of the online process, candidates can give misleading information about their skills.
• Highly time consuming and long process.
• It is an expensive process (Delery and Roumpi, 2017).

Internal process of recruitment and selection

It is the process of recruiting and selecting candidates for vacancies in company from  existing employees or workforce.

Internal process of recruitment in British Airways is done by promotions, job postings, providing part time jobs for retired employees and succession planning.

Strengths

• Since recruitment is done within company's existing employees, candidates are trustworthy (Farndale, Brewster and Poutsma, 2014).
• Expenses are very less because there are no advertisements required.
• Internal recruitment means choosing candidates from within company. This means that there is re-attainment of the employees that creates less chances for them to leave.
• Employees are already familiar with the workspace and work they have to perform.

Weaknesses

• Employees already exist in the company. There are no new ideas or innovation brought to the table (Freedland  and et.al., 2016).
• Existing employees do not bring any new skills to the company.
• Internal recruitment creates an unhealthy competitive atmosphere because some employees do not get a chance at promotions.
• There are only  limited options to select candidates who might not fit into the job responsibilities of British Airways.

P 3. Explaining benefits of different HRM practices for both employer and employees

There are different benefits of HRM practices for both; employers and employees which are as follows:

Benefits for Employers:

Resolution Conflicts: The benefit of HRM practices for employers to help for resolving conflicts and issues in British Airways. Subordinates help by giving creative ideas and opinions for solving the conflicts and issues. The employees should make efforts for taking skills and knowledge for resolution of problems and help their supervisors.

Decision Making: The employees are helped of supervisor for making decision in difficult situation. By training and development, employees are creating ideas and opinions in decision making (Karanges and et.al., 2015). It is beneficial for employers to take easy and quick decisions within company.

Goals and objectives: The employers use different HR policies and procedures, various practices and approaches, which helps for achieving goals and objectives of company. They  give training for development of employees, which helps in giving ideas and opinions in decision making process.

Benefits for Employees:

Developing Skills: It is beneficial to develop skills and knowledge of employees through training and development. It is provided by HR manager of British Airways. Through this practice, employees can help in decision making process as well as in iiving ideas and thoughts.

 Gaining Experiences: Through joining of different programs of training and development, employees are developing their knowledge and skills for working in the organization (Kaufman, 2015).

P 4. Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity

Human resource management practices is the method of creating systems that assists and directs company's management performance. It includes creating opportunities for advancement of employees of the company and motivating them to perform better and accomplish goals of the company.

British airways was founded in 1974 and is one of the leading airways in the world. It operates from one of the busiest airports, Heathrow. Its work environment revolves around a lot of competitiveness and staying successful requires good practice in human resource management (Mula,  2014).

British airways follows a list of HRM practices including leadership development, employee development,training program assessment of employees, payment and rewards.

Leadership development

British airways has an HPL (High Performance Leadership) system for leadership development. It is an integrated system that links business strategy, sets objectives, assesses performance, development and rewards. Its aim is to develop leadership skills amongst senior leaders.

It has helped to create good relations between leaders and employees of the company and communicating with a common vision as well as motivating and inspiring each other. It has also helped skill senior leaders to enhance their performance and gain productivity and an overall increase in profits of the company (Patterson and et.al., 2016).

Employee development and training program

British airways HRM has a development and training program that helps in the improvement of employees so that they can show their potential on customer service as well as learn a variety of skills. They started with two days, then a one week training program. This helped the employees, as productivity increased, organizational behaviour was restructured and goals were achieved.

Assessment of employees

The British airways HRM made assessments and monitored performances of employees and checked if they were working towards accomplishing the company's goal.

Employees were assessed through the customer service (Russell and Brannan,  2016). The response of customer service of British airways was satisfactory and training of  employees was successful. This practice helped in  ensuring that the employees performing effectively.

Payments and Rewards

British airways aimed at assessing employees and giving them payments and rewards accordingly. Basic payment is given to employees on basis of individual performance and rewards with attractive schemes are introduced by company. This increased the employees' productivity. With application of the above practices and achievement of company's objectives, British airways has achieved its organisational goals (Delery and Roumpi, 2017).

TASK 2

P 5. Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making in British Airways

British airways is one of the largest airlines in UK and was established in 1974.It has over thousands of employees. It is a heavy responsibility on HRM team to bind employees together to ensure peace and professionalism within the company (Farndale, Brewster and Poutsma, 2014).

Over the years, the HRM of company has created numerous changes, with regard to  development of the airways.

Creating an ideal and peaceful work environment is necessary in the company. HRM has to maintain a good relationship with employees, in order to maintain that environment. For that, certain activities are organised for employees so that HRM and employees can get to know each other as well. Thus, helping HRM understand grievances and suggestions addressed by  employees (Freedland  and et.al., 2016).

Good employee relations with HRM helps in accomplishing of British airways' goals and successfully carry out services that they offer.

The importance of employee relations, regarding the decisions taken by HRM are as follows.

Employee relations with respect to training and development .

It is important for employees to let HRM know that they are not satisfied with the programs offered by company. They should assist in creating better development programs for them. This will ensure high levels of performance and increase in skills in the employees (Karanges and et.al., 2015).

HRM should continuously monitor and measure results and look out for any sort of distress amongst employees and should share them with employees too.

Employee relations with respect to appraisals and rewards

The employees should voice their opinion on appraisals and rewards offered by  company. If they feel that they are not satisfied with rewards offered or if there are unfair practices in office, they should talk to HRM. It is important to address needs of the employees. This can be done through clear and proper communication (Karanges and et.al., 2015).

Employee relations with respect to the organisational structure

Employees are vital in a company. They can be most productive when their organisation structure is in right form. If they are not comfortable with the current structure, they can ask  HRM to make changes. Every employee has employment rights and HRM should listen to them, so that they can take the right decisions in the company. An organisational social capital is created,so that employees can share knowledge and coordinate their work.

Employee relations is important as it helps in betterment of communication between  employees and HRM, taking up the right course of actions and creating plans, implementing proper disciplinary actions and to clarify the company's policies and procedures (Kaufman, 2015).

Employees understand their work and the needs of their company. They keep learning and developing new skills as they work. Their aim is to improve their as well as the company's performance. With the right decisions taken by the HRM, employees feel motivated which creates a healthy environment to work in.

P 6 Identifying key elements of employment legislation and its impacts upon HRM decision making

Employment legislation refers whole set of regulation that facilities of protection, hires and fire workers in the workplaces. Therefore, HR manger should adopt and follow all employment and labour laws which impacts upon HRM practices in the British Airways.

Health and Safety: The impact of legislation on decision making regarding measurement of safety for employees. For health and safety, government has to regulate particular laws that is Health and Safety Act 1974 (Mula,  2014). So that, company should make efforts for decision making regarding safety measures in the workplace. The employers must protect health, safety and welfare at work of their employees as well as clients, customers etc.

Anti-Discrimination: It means making distinction based on race, sex, religion and age of employees in the organization. Therefore, company should adopt Anti Discrimination Act 1977 which covers disability, sex, race and age of employees at workplace (Discrimination., 2018). This act has applies in five areas employment, goods and services for example from shops, banks, and local councils etc. state education, accommodation, registered clubs. The employers can not refuse to hire employees and dismiss from employment for one of these reasons like race, religion etc (Patterson and et.al., 2016).

Compensation: The government regulates policies regarding payroll and other benefits plans for working and times planning. So that HR make correct and fairness decision for employees in the British Airways. Therefore, HR manager has to adopt a particular act that is Compensation Act 1897 for welfare and security of employees.  This act has to implement regarding employees injuries which happen on the job. The medical costs of injuries paid by insurance.

P 7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context

HR is mainly concerned with the management of people within the geographical boundaries of the organizations. HR department is responsible for the recruitment of new candidates in the company and look after their development, growth, training, employees benefits, etc (Patterson and et.al., 2016). HRM is the approach for the effective management of employees so that they can help company to gain competitive advantage. Following practices are performed by the Human resource Management team of British Airways, UK's largest airline company:-

Business Function:- The four basic functions performed by the team of HRM in British Airways  are: staffing, training, development of employees, motivation and maintenance. Staffing is selection and recruitment of the most suitable candidate for the company, HRM team of British Airways recruit and select the best out many candidates who apply for the same job. After the recruitment and selection of employee, proper training and development seminars are given to employees to enhance their knowledge and to sharpen their key skills (Kaufman, 2015). So that he or she can contribute towards the growth of company highest of their ability. British Airways human resource team is highly motivated and is able to motive their employees also highly productive work. Motivation is the key to success of British Airways through their employees contribution (Discrimination, 2018).

E-Recruiting: In this technological world E-Recruiting is something that had influenced from information technology. This had made the work of HR professionals in British Airways more easy, simpler and fast (Russell and Brannan,  2016). Earlier it was done through publications and print media or word of mouth  from which information about the job vacancies was not able to reach from one locality to another. Now the HR professionals of British Airways can easily reach any candidates across the world.

Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS): HRM professionals need to handle lot of paper work on daily basis. HRIS made it easier for the British Airways employees and HRM team to retrieve their files when needed and store their files in an electronic format (Kaufman, 2015).

ALSO READ: Unit 26 Issues In Human Resource Management UKBC

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that purpose and function of HRM which applicable to workforce planning and resourcing, different approaches of recruitment and selection, its strengths and weakness in the company. It can be also concluded that benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, effectiveness in terms of raising profits and productivity in the organization. It can be also concluded that importance of employees relation to influencing HRM decision making, different key elements of employment legislation and its impacts upon decision making, application of HRM practices in a work related context in the organization.

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