The Research Question
Saudi Airlines formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines is the flagship carrier of Saudi Arabia. Its main operational area is Jeddah whereas it also has secondary base in Riyadh and Dammam. The Saudi Airlines is one of the leading aviation companies in the Middle East placed just behind Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways. It is one of the key members of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation. It is one of the oldest airlines operating in the Middle East however, it is extremely important to note that its gradual development came post 50s when the Middle East saw significant growth and development in terms of infrastructure and aviation. With the consistent rise in financial capital and industrial growth, there was a significant need for development of communication service to and from the Middle East thus, leading to greater focus on the aviation development. Since 1945, Saudi Arabian Airlines has been an integral part of the growth and development of the country to a large extent (Budd and Ison, 2020).
The announcement of covid 19 in the year 2019 changed everything. It cannot be denied that business operations underwent technical and operational change which is likely to have a long-lasting effect on the business operations. The tourism and hospitality industry had to suffer the most due to the arrival of covid 19. In terms of financial statistics, aviation was the third leading industry to suffer the most during the global pandemic thus, it clearly shows the need for the efficient strategy for complete recovery of the industry. It cannot be denied that aviation employees have had to suffer a lot because of lack of jobs and impossibility of flight operations in this complex situation (Yüksek, Çelik and Keser, 2022). Post pandemic the scenario changed a bit however, cognitive and emotional aspects of operations clearly led to bigger issues for the employees to feel disintegrated. Employees of Saudi Airlines have experienced lack of jobs and extreme emotional pressure has affected the mindset of the employees where some of them have also faced severe depression and anxiety. In this scenario it is extremely important to implement strong employee engagement practices which would help to deal with emotional and mental stress of the employees and get best possible result from the employee engagement strategies. The current assignment aims to discuss the key aspects of employee engagement in Saudi Airlines in and after covid 19 comparing it with the Emirates Airlines which is another leading aviation organisation in the Middle East (Bonser, 2019).
The Research Evidence
In the current business environment, employee engagement has become one of the crucial aspects of business because without efficient and well engaged employees no organisation would be able to achieve success in the market. There is a greater requirement for an organisation like Saudi Airlines to deal with the emerging issues like Covid 19 to assess the needs and wants of the employees which would not only help to improve its communication with the employees but, will also help to improve the relationship with the employees in the best possible manner. During the reign of the corona virus, the aviation industry in Saudi Arabia was significantly hit and Saudi Airlines suffered its wrath as more and more employees were downsized and a lot of employees felt disintegrated with the organisation which clearly highlights the lack of effective strategies for efficient employee engagement. Employee engagement is one of the most crucial people management problems in the current environment (Marion, Richardson and Anantatmula, 2021). According to a recent statistic, around 65% of the employees felt aloof and disintegrated from their employer during the covid 19 in the airlines industry. As per the statistics around, 250000n employees of Saudi Airlines lost jobs which naturally affected the mindset of the other existing employees clearly highlighting that employee engagement is a major issue in the organisation. At the same time, it is important to note that its immediate competitor Emirates implemented pay cuts however, focused on retaining the employees thus, showing greater interest to keep its loyal employee base intact (Golfetti, Napoletano and Cichomska, 2021). Considering this information, it becomes fairly easy to understand that covid 19 has affected employee engagement in airlines and it largely helped to frame the current research question which is “What is the effect of covid 19 on the employee engagement of operational staffs in Saudi Airlines as compared to Emirates?”
The global pandemic has shaped up the new market environment and brought in new strategies to deal with effective business operations after a nearly three years of debacle. As per the current statistics, around 400,000 job cuts were showed in the Saudi aviation environment where nearly 250,000 employees were from Saudi Airlines. It is extremely important to note that Saudi Airlines were also the most suffering organisations among the big three in the Saudi aviation market with nearly a loss of USD 5.61bn. It experienced a drop of 39% drop in consumer footfall which is a serious issue for the organisation. As per the information, the labor market in Saudi Arabia has been a major area of concern for most of the business organisations across the UAE. In this scenario there is likely to be a number of problems for the employees as well as employers. Since covid 19 has raised massive unemployment across the UAE, it has affected most of the aviation employees due to high job cuts and lowering of payments thus, it is likely to trigger employee engagement issues in the market (Kondo and Heged?š, 2020).
According to the existing literature by Boy (2019), covid 19 brought everything to a halt. With businesses closing down indefinitely and tourism business falling down to zero,employees have suffered number of issues which companies have to cope up with, order to develop a better relationship with the workforce. One of the primary issues that emerged in this situation was the lack of jobs and pay cuts which eventually reduced the connection of the employees with the organisation. Especially in the aviation industry, employees did not get the opportunity of work from home because airline employees mostly have the job of consumer interaction however, with lack of footfalls in the aviation industry, these employees became redundant therefore, it created a negative impact on the mindset of the employees. As stated by Tisdall and Zhang (2020) the global pandemic has not only affected business but it has also affected the mental stability of the employees because it not only put them out of jobs but somewhere improper people management led to weaker employee connection. Saudi Airlines failed to understand the impact of the pandemic thus, it caught them in dark for that matter of fact, companies like Qantas and British Airways also faced the same issue. Hence, it could be said that covid 19 created an environment where the employees did not feel safe which eventually weakened their connection with the organisation directly affecting the employee engagement.
According to the existing literature by Guillen-Royo, (2022), there are number of issues which clearly raised employee engagement issues in Saudi Airlines and the organisation failed to act on them. For instance, inadequate communication with the employees. It is undoubtedly one of the major issues faced by the organisation. During the pandemic itself the workforce started to fall apart because the organisation was busy dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic and in process it failed to develop greater communication with its employees. This is where it becomes extremely important to mention that Emirates one of the immediate competitors of Saudi Airlines dealt with this situation in the best possible manner. Al?Taweel et al., (2020) stated that communication during the pandemic was important to constantly communicate the stance and status of the company when it came to managing the pandemic, however, Saudi Airlines failed to communicate with the employees specially to support them during the complex period of the pandemic. It merely communicated regarding the job cuts but it did not come up with any sort of reinforcement which would have helped to address the issues for the employees. Effective communication has a number of positive impacts on the employee especially during the covid 19. According to a recent survey, most of the aviation employees in Saudi Arabia failed to deal with emotional stress therefore, it was extremely important to communicate in order to create a balance in their lives in the best possible manner. Post pandemic, communication stands to be of greater importance because it helps to recover from the emerging issues in the market.
As per Hassounah, Raheel andAlhefzi (2020) Saudi Airlines were not able to develop a better relationship with the employees which clearly doesn’t help to improve employee employer relationship. On the contrary it is extremely important to note that Emirates being one of the leading airline companies developed regular communication with its employees which helped the organisation to understand the needs and wants and accordingly aimed to utilise the existing workforce in alternate fields in aviation. Emirate Airline took number of proactive strategies to deal with the emerging issue of covid. The organisation realised that the workforce stands to be a key resource that would help the organisation emerge successful in this uncertain environment, thus it responded with pay cuts however, was effective in dealing with its workforce through effective communication and alternative strategy was created to implement the existing workforce in the best possible manner. Emirates Airline crated an alternative strategy to ensure that each and every employee stays connected. It emphasised on greater media communication through social media, press release as well as allowed its employees to convey their issues through open forums leading to better result for the organisation. Thus, it could be said that the attitude of both the companies has been the biggest difference in the covid 19 environment.
Koppalakrishnan and Muuka (2022) stated that leadership in this case is another key aspect. Leadership is often considered an important tool for business organisations because it helps to create greater results especially in terms of workforce environment. Effective leadership plays an important role to deal with employee engagement. The modern school of thought closely analysing the global aviation industry has criticised the stance of the Saudi Airlines because it failed to display greater leadership efficiency which led to disintegration of the workforce in the organisation. Effective leadership is extremely important to connect with the employees however, the lack of communication or effective management of employee stress was not managed properly by the organisation. On the other hand, Emirate Airlines focused on implementing a participative leadership to communicate with the employees and address their emotional stress and anxiety through better collaboration (Dube, Nhamo and Chikodzi, 2021).
An organisation cannot run without the effective collaboration of various stakeholders. There are number of key stakeholders including both internal and external. Stakeholders are highly essential for the successful existence of a firm because without their collaboration an organisation would not be able to achieve its business objectives. Thus, it could be said that stakeholders are essential for the overall improvement of a firm’s performance. Saudi Airlines have number of stakeholders who play a key role in the organisation and are directly related to the growth and development of the organisation. Employees are the most crucial stakeholders for Saudi Airlines. It cannot be denied that the organisation must emphasise on improving its communication as well as relations to deal with the issue of employee engagement or else it is likely to affect the growth and development of the organisation (Nhamo, Dube and Chikodzi, 2020). Post Covid, situation has recovered however, it is important to note that poor employee relationship and the fear of job cuts still looms over the employees therefore, it is not likely to affect the performance in a positive manner therefore, it is essential for the organisation to manage the stakeholders as it would be largely affected by the movement of the workforce. The workforce holds the baton for success of Saudi Airlines therefore, the top management is another key stakeholder that would be directly responsible for the improvement of employee strategy in the organisation. It should emphasise on its immediate competitors like Emirates to shape up its people management strategy considering the issue of employee engagement (Alsahi, 2020).
The top management could be largely affected by the movement of employees therefore, they need to act in a proactive manner to get best possible result. If the employee remains unnoticed in an organisation it is likely to affect the overall consumer satisfaction which Saudi Airlines probably don’t want in this highly competitive market environment (Chattopadhyay, 2021). Thus, there is a significant need for implementing a completely revamped leadership strategy in the organisation which would prioritise employees that is not only going to improve the communication with the workforce but it is also likely to improve employee engagement. Saudi Airlines could benchmark Emirate’s strategy of participative leadership framework which largely helps the organisation reach the root problem and accordingly helps to enhance communication participation of employees by showing greater importance towards the employees (Rubeena and Naaz, 2021). On the other hand, implementing people centric business structure could be highly effective for the organisation in the current business environment as it helps to make changes in employee dealings. People centric structure aims to address employee issues considering fundamental sources of problems which helps to improve employee engagement in the best possible manner(Nhamo, Dube and Chikodzi, 2020).
The organisational evidence is extremely important to make sure Saudi Airlines has solid evidence about the current issue which would help to address the problem with a systematic development of intervention plan. In order to make strategic decisions to address the current issue effectively it is important to communicate with the key stakeholders including the employees. Thus, one of the most important pieces of evidence that would be required to operate the process is current trend of employee engagement within the organisation (Sandhya, 2021). This could be done with the help of effective development of secondary information and primary information. The secondary evidence could be gathered with the help of the existing data regarding employee turnover, attrition, communication reports and management reports. These reports would help to identify the key areas of problems which would help to pick out the issues that hinder employee engagement in the company. Apart from that it is also important to make sure the organisation is able to implement strong primary data collection strategy that would help to gather first hand data regarding the current engagement condition in the best possible manner. The leaders would have to play an important role in the overall development of these pieces of evidence which would eventually lead to better decision making (Parveen, 2020).
Employee survey or direct one on one communication could be excellent tools for the organisation to implement because these help to communicate with the employees in a strategic manner and helps to identify the key issues related to people management in a systematic manner (Bhuiyan et al., 2020). It cannot be denied that employees need to be involved in the process of data collection or else the organisation is likely to fail in identifying the key issues that hinder employee communication and engagement within the organisation. There are certain facets of employee engagement which have to be considered in this case to address the need of data. For instance, aviation service is a team-based operations thus, getting teamwork reports would be of paramount importance for the organisation. It cannot be denied that team-based performance would help to shed light on the inclination as well as enthusiasm of employees to work in teams and to address the organisational objectives. Apart from that it is also important to consider the HR feedbacks and grievance reports which would largely help to identify the key areas that needs to be addressed to achieve best possible employee engagement (Anil and Alagha, 2021).
The recommendation email would be sent to the HR head of the organisation. The email containing the key recommendations are given below:
Subject: Recommendations to improve employee engagement in Post Covid Scenario
Dear Sir,
With due respect I would like to inform you that after a thorough analysis of the people management problem related with the organisation, I have been able to zero in on the following suggestions:
- There is an immediate need to develop a strong interactive communication model for the establishment of efficient communication with the employees. Amidst the pandemic, the organisation clearly failed to convey their further business idea to its employees which clearly created a significant rift in terms of relationship thus, it is important for the organisation to develop a strong communication with the employees. In order to develop the communication, interactive result-oriented communication model should be implemented which would help to reach each and every employee and understand their grievances regarding the operations (Havrlant, Darandary and Muhsen, 2021).
- The operation staffs stand to be a core pillar for the growth and success of the organisation therefore, it is important to develop a solid people centric culture in the company which might be a tough change to implement but is likely to address the employee engagement issue in the best possible manner. The people centric structure would help the organisation to keep its people at the heart of operations which is likely to improve the overall employee connection because it is likely to consider employees for each and every decision making which would definitely enhance the sense of ownership capital among the employees. It has been seen that Emirates Airlines, one of the leading competitors have emphasised on developing a people profile in the organisation which helps each and every employee to drop in their issues and they are acted upon as soon as possible. This kind of a model for employee satisfaction could be an effective choice for the organisation (Hassan and Saleem, 2021).
- Constant motivation has lacked in the organisational operations which is one of the major reasons for the declining employee engagement in the company therefore, it is extremely important for the organisation to deal with motivation aspect in the best possible manner. Motivation aspect could be improved with the help of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Therefore, it is important for the organisation to revamp its motivational strategy to deal with employees in the best possible manner. It should emphasise on recognising the worthy work of its employees and provide greater platforms for overall growth and development which naturally increases the connection with the employees and enhances employee engagement substantially (Bashir et al., 2021).
- Finally, leadership plays an important role in the internal environment of Saudi Airlines. During the covid pandemic it was the lack of leadership capabilities that affected employee communication thus, it should emphasise more on developing its leadership capabilities which not only improves employee communication but also improves knowledge management which eventually is a great strategy to keep employees connected with the organisation (Roy, 2020).
The current assignment has been a great tool for me to get exposed to industry information key practical problems that an organisation could face. When a company like Saudi Airlines could face such issues with reference to people management it clearly indicates that the role of HR within an organisation stands to be of paramount importance. Thus, the very first lesson that I get from the current assessment is an effective and elaborate understanding of the role of HR in an organisation (Kumar and Rout, 2020). Through this analysis I have not only gathered core concept knowledge regarding people management but right from the beginning this assignment has tested my presence of mind and analytical abilities. Initially I had to develop the research question from a practical people management problem which means I have had to invest significant research and analytical skills. Research is an important part of education as well as professional career therefore, through this assignment I have been able to enhance my research skills in the best possible manner. On the other hand. Analytical skills are always important for individuals aspiring to work in fields involving human resource.
As an aspiring candidate in the field of human resource I have had to analyse the key aspects related to employee engagement following an effective synthesis of information related to the topic. Since the current study demanded evidence-based analysis it was important to get effective information related to the case study company which clearly shows that my analytical skills have also improved during the course of this assignment. Finally, Considering the current problem, I have realised that there are various aspects which influence or hinder employee engagement especially in unforeseen or critical situation like covid 19 (Han et al., 2021). I have realised that to be able to become a successful employee in HR domain it is important to improve communication as an employability skill. Through this assignment, I have been able to acquire effective analytical and time management skills. I have also been able to improve my research skills and gained significant knowledge regarding the importance of communication which are extremely important for my future employability. I would like to be a strong point for my employer which is why I should be able to deal with emerging situations and make decisions effectively hence, I would need to implement effective research and analytical skills. Hence, it could be said that the current study has helped me to improve future possibility of employability to a large extent.
Finally, to conclude it is important to mention that the information received from the current study would also help me to decide on my leadership style in the best possible manner. I have realised that leadership is extremely important to improve decision making and execution therefore, being able to improve myself as a leader would be extremely effective for me. Considering the current information, I feel effective transformational leadership qualities could help me controlling different kinds of situation in the best possible manner. It would also help me to change my leadership style from participative to autocratic and to democratic in the best possible manner.
References
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