Human Resource Management Activities
Leading people relatively means inspiring, influencing and guiding them at work. According to a study conducted on worldwide executives, it has been observed that leadership directly influences the work atmosphere of organizations, accounting for approximately one-third of the financial outcomes. (Vaccaro, et al. 2012) The behaviour of a leader is accountable for relatively 50% of success or failure employees gain while performing a task. HRM has a significant role to play in organizations because with change in times they have realized the importance of hiring a right person for a right job, at right time for gaining more organizational benefits. Identifying the methods to develop the employees has become a serious concern because of its ability to influence British Airways performance and its strategy to survive in this cut throat market competition. The objective of this report is to discuss how different functions of HRM help managers or leaders to cultivate employee engagement, enhance organizational performance and attain BA’s organizational missions. (Ueno, 2012)
One can describe Human Resource Management as the activities carried out by organizations for the effective management of human resources. The key activities of Human Resource Management revolve around designing Human Resource strategy, staffing, performance appraisal, compensation, employee training and development, change management and employee relations. Human Resource Management significantly contributes to British Airways strategic orientation. There is an interrelation between the organizational mission and strategy, structure and Human Resource Management hence, experts’ state that Human Resource Management plays a key role in the identification of organizational strategy and cannot be overplayed. Despite of its relevance, still Human Resource Management is considered as short-term goal by many organizations often isolating it from long-term human resource management models planning in the business. (Van De, et al. 2012)
Successful organizations do not take their hard working and loyal employees for granted and consistently adopt decisive approaches to retain them, which eventually give rise to mutual commitment amid the employer and employee. From an organizational perspective, employees are indispensible assets who are accountable for creating objectives, innovations and organizational achievements. HRM activities intent to accommodate the changing business environment demands. Organizations cannot deny the importance of HRM as execution of business strategies and methods depends on it. Employees are an essential component of BA’s organizational planning further empowering the airline giant to gain competitive advantage over its competitors. (Marescaux, et al. 2012)
The concept of leadership is complicated and thus, over the years different supporting theories have been derived exploring the different aspects of leadership. These theories help the managers to develop a broader understanding about the leadership process. British Airways is always in search of great leaders for coping with existing situation of trade and attain its business visions in the long run. (Mendels, 2012) It is essential that BA, which is a premium global airline, maintains a resolute and effective approach to develop good leaders. High Performance Leadership program, which is an integrated system, has been introduced at BA. The programme incorporates its business strategies, objectives, performance appraisals, employee development and rewards. Methodical assessment structures are designed in HPL, which initially focuses on senior leaders further assisting in singling out the proficient leaders and providing them right grooming tools for continuous development. (Nixon, et al. 2012) Individual performances at BA are defined, communicated and measured against the basic leadership capabilities such as
- Conveying a common vision
- Compatible accountabilities
- Motivating and encouraging the followers
Leadership Development at British Airways
Specific behaviours have been evolved for each capability further enabling the leaders to understand the management expectations. Various development programmes like executive coaching, networks, forums and external courses have been designed at BA in order to lend support to the leaders apart from using new techniques for performance measurement. (Baldwin, et al. 2012)
Behaviours for Success: the key focus of this programme is to understand and develop personal leadership performance and is especially designed for leadership development for the HPL people.
Leadership Matters: identifying and developing leaders playing key roles within the customer and operational areas of BA is the intent of this initiative.
Leadership Development Portfolio: the aim of this scheme is to lend support to both existing and potential leaders across every business level. (Street, 2012)
At British Airways it is believed that change must begin for topmost position and hence, the management team which comprises of directorate heads who are led by Chief Executive have been divided into two groups namely Management Board and Customer and Operations Executive where the former is accountable for driving the airlines towards its vision and strategic direction whereas managing customer service periodically, execution of operational performances and cultivation of high safety and security measures is the responsibility of the later. The efforts undertaken by the HR department to restructure the system has eventually made BA more competent apart from identifying and attracting new talents. In addition to these, employees are been encouraged to play multiple roles and expand their knowledge through role reversal and job rotation. Employees’ roles and responsibilities as an individual and within team are clarified, supporting higher flexibility. The accountabilities of all top managers are also published on the in-house intranet (Ueno, 2012).
One can describe line manager as somebody influencing BA’s core activities of business. According to Honey and Mumford, line managers are authorized for giving directions to the subordinates. They are also accountable to achieve the goals of an organization by retrieving desirable outcomes from the employees. Over the years, the roles played by line managers have witnessed a significant change (Alfes et al., 2012).
HRM emphasizes on giving more responsibilities of employee management to the line managers thereby, reducing the HR departments control on them. This is mainly because it is the line managers who work closely with the employees, allocates tasks and gives direction whenever and wherever required, giving them the opportunity of wining their trusts by developing a friendly relation with them. (Van De et al. 2012) At British Airways, roles and responsibilities of HR are being decentralized progressively and delegated to the line managers. Their key responsibilities include execution of HR activities like appraisals, employee training and development, and maintaining team motivation. This delegation of responsibility to line managers allows the HR team to concentrate on other strategic and long term aspects of HRM such as planning and industrial relations. Engagement of line managers in HRM has further benefitted BA to customize the HRD decisions to (a) meet the operational demands and situations; (b) improve employer and employee relations and the workplace atmosphere and (c) produce more effective decisions. (Buller, et al. 2012)
Role of Line Managers in HRM
One can describe organizational culture as the arrangement of main assumptions. They usually are created or evolved by a particular group while it gains learning on how to endure external and internal problems involved in transformation and assimilation. This kind of arrangement has worked well in past and hence, is considered to be quite compelling. New employees are educated about this arrangement and are encouraged to adopt it at work. It is done so as it is the most adequate method to relate, think and in relation to the workplace problems. (Roper & Fill, 2012) Organizations irrespective of their size and the industry they are operating into are made of people who are accountable for driving the business goals and objectives. For achieving the predefined objectives, adequate strategies are formulated by people. In order to transform the organizations from being an average company to topmost working place, it is essential that employees are encouraged continuously in learning new things. This will eventually help them in thinking of innovative ideas that can be implemented while executing the given tasks. British Airways firmly believes that employees are capable of either making or breaking an organization. (Balmer, 2012)
Making efforts to determine the reasons behind the poor and ineffective organizational behaviours without bothering to understand the employees is similar to understand the breakdown of an automobile sans the idea of any internal parts. British Airways considers the brand as a social unit devised by people in order to execute different operational activities. It has been observed that working people are more inclined in spending more amount of time in doing their job when compared with any other activity. In eight hours of working people can do a wide range of activities related to work such as producing relevant outcome and even destroying it, taking different decisions revolving around the tasks, learning new things and forgetting it, creating and complying to rules, celebrate the achievements, evaluate failures, come to work early, avoid mishaps at work resulting to accidents etc. Indulging into these different activities at work are the most common constructive and unfavourable behaviours of employees most organizations witness. (Dowling & Moran, 2012) Despite of the important role played by employees, most organizations often are involved in neglecting their needs and are taken for granted. There are times when employees are even being insulted and are been flagrantly ill-treated by the management. However, at British Airways finding out leaders who are responsible for the success of the business is a common sight. Leaders at British Airways refrain from passing on the blame of any failures to the subordinates. Making the subordinates scapegoats for organizational failures is more evident in organizations where the leaders are unaware about the accountability concept. (Street, 2012)
Organizational Culture and its Importance
Keeping the employees morale high is increasingly losing its flame in modern day organizations. This is because organizations are more focused on brining improvements within its business structures rather than making efforts on employee motivation. It eventually restricts them from attaining compelling growth and progress in the overall performances of the business. HR experts are amazed how organizations can completely overplay the importance of keeping the employees motivated that too in is this economy which is highly based on information, knowledge management, and empowered manpower. They further argue that most organizations fail to understand the need of establishing efficient human resource management structure for gaining maximum customer satisfaction. (Warigon, 2017) Lack of employee contributions acknowledgment eventually declines the chances of long-term survival of such organizations in today’s cut throat marketplace. It is important that organizations understand that for delivering satisfaction to customers they must first ensure that their employees are satisfied and immensely motivated. Higher level of motivations will eventually help them to stick their loyalties and commitment towards the work and the organization. There are many global organizations which claim that they consider their employees as invaluable assets and the core strengths of the business. However, these idioms are mostly not incorporated in organizational vision, missions and annual reports. These ideologies are being repeated by the organizational leaders while making interactions with the employees and stakeholders. Despite of repeated assurance there are few employees who fail to place their trust on the leaders’ words because of its repetitive nature and minimum implementation at workplace. To keep the employee motivational levels high leaders continue to repeat these ideologies while organizations, on the other hand, repeatedly refrain from making discriminations, downsizing, and lay-off employees. Even they fail to acknowledge and reward the hard working employees which cultivate a sense of de-motivation in them. (Warigon, 2017)
To retain employees for a longer period and reduce the turnover ratio it is highly recommended that organizations re-evaluate the measures taken for managing people. This will further enable them in effectively meeting the frequently changing business environment of the existing economy. Neglecting or paying insufficient attention to employees will eventually decline the success factors and profitability of an organization. Every employee wants to be associated with a brand which values his/her professional aspirations and encourages them to grow by offering challenging opportunities to learn new skills. Employees also crave to treated fairly at workplace and given their due credits for hard work and contributions in organizational success. At British Airways, leaders and managers are committed to bring improvements in their skills revolving around people management. The leaders and managers at British Airways are always at the forefront to work together with their team members, heedless of their position in the hierarchy. They firmly believe in involving with the employees at work instead of working in isolation. Moreover, the knowledge leader or managers gain through involvement behoves them in invariably applying the very basic rule with dealing with people in the same way they would prefer of being treated at workplace. (Warigon, 2017)
Employee Behaviour in Organizations
The HR department of British Airways understands how dissatisfaction amongst the employees can lead to immediate breakdown of the organizations. They have realized that customer satisfaction is directly linked with employee satisfaction. For delivering value to customers and improving organizational profitability, BA ensures that every employee is satisfied from their respective job roles and workplace environment. (Pillai, 2012) BA has gained success in attaining employee satisfaction through the cultivation and preservation of motivation at work. HRM at BA emphasizes that the concept of motivation is intrinsic in nature, which means that it originates within an employee. Emergence of internet has helped the employees to be well informed and easily understand the devious techniques that are adopted by traditional managers. With the change in job market, employees today are always in search of seeking maximum satisfaction from their job profiles and seldom get motivated just with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Implementation of HRM has helped British Airways in sustaining motivation by identifying the factors of de-motivation. (Pillai, 2012)
Findings and Conclusions
At British Airways, the key focus of HRM is on building a workplace that promotes diversity, challenges and rewards despite of aiming to consolidate the business. The attrition rate is 7 % in 2015 with over 42,000 employees. Redundancy programme designed by the HR team has contributed significantly to lower the turnover rate. Different reward scheme have also been designed such as employee pension schemes to seek their satisfaction. They are also entitled of British Airways Retirement Plan. Over 90% of eligible employees of BA are benefiting from its SmartPension arrangements, empowering them in getting tax redemptions. (Hampson, et al. 2012) Through Employee Reward Plan employees at non-executive levels are distributed a part of annual business profits. For improving employee performances, the HR team has designed bonus schemes based on a mixture of financial and non-financial metrics. Under its Bravo recognition scheme employee contributions are recognized across all departments. Diversity initiatives have been designed for promoting healthy relations amid employees. (Hampson, et al. 2012)
British Airways through effective use of different HRM tools must work towards eradicating workplace discrimination, harassment and bullying. A special task force must be formed which should include one member from different departments. This task force must be accountable for addressing employee grievances and workplace conflicts by maintaining confidentially. Being a global premium airline, BA must vigorously address the disability concerns by giving adequate trainings to all cabin crew members. This will enhance their knowledge on how to deal with disabled customers. Employee training, communications and workshops must be endorsed by all managers. BA must also focus on improving its relations with trade unions. This will cut down the number of strikes within the airlines thereby, improving organizational performance and productiveness. Relationships with trade unions and employees can be improved by keeping well-informed about any change within the organizational structure and culture. This can be done through the use of broader in-house communications. The line managers must be supported in conveying important information and announcements either by conducting workshops or on company intranet. This eventually will raise the scope of broader communication. British Airways can deliver employee satisfaction by arranging different learning programs.
References
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Warigon, D, S., (2017). Managing people for organisational success. Retrieved on 10th June, 2017. https://www.itmpi.org/Portals/10/PDF/WarigonPeople.pdf
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