The human resources management practices are one of the strongest components of British Airways, i.e. the company that is a leader of the servicing in the airline industry in Europe and the North American continent. The managers of the company also provide one the most intensive training for their employees in customer services. Also, the goal of this paper is to explore the component of manpower and develop strategic links to show the connection between these two concepts. The purpose of the essay also involves developing the modifications towards the improvement of strategies and goals of human resources. The paper describes general information of British Airways, a historical aspect of the employees’ relationship, and an analysis of the company human resources management.
Nowadays, the industry of airlines is well-developed. Therefore it contains high technology of air crafting as well as highly skilled personnel to maintain the quality of providing services. However, the technological sight of the airline industry, such as the engineering and design planning, plays a great role. The importance of the human resources could not be overestimated. This industry deals with customers and their needs when they use services. The component of human resources is very important when airline companies are trying to compete with others on the market of services in this sector of the economy.
Personnel apply to the workforce that is a part of the organization at different levels. Human resources management also can be called personnel management is a big amount of the business and the management of business operations. It refers to the relationship among the staff within the organization.
Human resources are a big part of business operations. It is a main source for the business which is oriented to the customers’ satisfaction. Human resources are different from other material resources. Therefore, they need to be treated, first of all as people. Second, they should be accepted as the resources that bring profit. People are the human resources. That is why their psychological state should be considered when the management is making their business. Only in this case the efficiency of this resource would be on the highest level. People need to understand that their actions are valuable and estimated by the organization they work for. That is why human resources managers need to develop various strategies how to keep their employees motivated and feel them appreciated. Managers need to take into consideration different methods and practices that exist nowadays. These methods are developed by psychologists who study human behavior.
Human resources managers have to act according to the fundamental management principles. The main functions that basic management principles describe include planning the tasks, organizing the conditions of work, directing an employee, and controlling the results of their performance. Also, the human resources management includes operational functions, such as:
- Recruitment of manpower. It means that managers need to look for the personnel to work for their company. The basic rule is the following one: the right person for the right job. Moreover, they have to take care about the new person to find his or her place in the collective.
- Planning the development and learning process of employees. Managers need to determine the needs of workers that will help to perform at the workplace. Their training will bring profits to the company.
- To estimate the work of employees in a financial aspect by salaries wages and possible grants for the excellent performance.
- Analyzing and implementing the employees’ interests to the benefit of the company.
- Sustenance of the workforce. This includes satisfaction of the basic human’s needs and some psychological needs of the employees.
- Security of welfare facilities. Human resources managers to perform successfully should provide their workers with medical support, providing educational trainings, recreation, house renting, and transporting.
This component could bring a terrific competitive advantage to the company. Factors such as corporate social responsibility, philosophy of the organization, and its structure as well as the culture within a company and public activities may make a great contribution to the developing of the industry.
We can observe today that the airlines industry has acquired a lot in general, especially, if to talk about new technologies which are used. Nevertheless, the industry functions according to the traditional model of governance and operation that is becoming inappropriate and outdated. The airline industry is a market, which bases its service on the brand new knowledge. The experts of human resources management are needed today to help the industry to prosper. It is necessary to start focusing on recruitment of employees to develop the strategic where customers would be in the center. Employees should be able to learn and adapt to the changes of goals and challenges the airline industry faces.
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There are some needs that the airlines industry face today and human resources management can help to fill. Here are only some of them. The skills of the workforce to communicate, their ability to respond quickly, and adapt to the extraordinary demands of the industry are among them. The British Airlines Company was founded in 1974. Since that time it has been though the periods of raising and shadowiness. For thirteen years, the British Airways have been under governmental control, but then it became a private property. It has survived after the consolidation that was organized by two large companies the British Overseas Airways Corporation and the British European Airways Corporation. British Airways is still a leader in the industry despite having 42 British airlines as the competitors. It provides servicing to 120 destinations. The biggest competitor of the company is Virgin Atlantic, whose owner is Richard Brason.
The British Airways’ main goal is to maintain its development by expanding the market share while it concerns about an operational aspect of the activities supported by the stable financial health.
The workforce of British Airways is gathered to the union, where they conduct common negotiations periodically. The result of such negotiations had an effect on the operational activities of the company. However, the management top tries to optimize the amount of employees by minimizing of the cost spent on the employment. The main goal of the organization is to create a strategy that will help to become an organization in the airline industry, where employees value and contribute to the relationships. Besides, such concept helps for innovation and improvement of the quality of the services to be provided to their customer, and the only criteria for these concepts is excellence. One of the main components of this strategy is a culture program.
This program includes 5 main aspects:
- Encouraging stuff to show the best performance on their workplace in the company;
- One of the fundamental aspects of a high quality customer service is a consistent customer service.
- The links among an inside and outside stakeholder of the company should drive to create the top level relationships;
- The performance and success should be based on the company culture;
- The main drive of the improvement and efficiency should be based on the corporate philosophy.
Still the British Airways is competing with the world-class company of the region and across the Globe. It has been trying to provide the customer services of the best quality has ever existed.
A team of human resources management provides the connections within the company to maximize the quality of the work. The organization tries to stand by the balanced scorecard theory which has been developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. This theory includes 4 main perspectives:
- Financial perspectives, which requires the financial stability and profitability of the company to maintain the interest of shareholders in terms of value.
- Customer perspective, where it is absolutely necessary to satisfy the customers’ needs to keep the marketplace niche.
- An internal process perspective that provides a quick responsiveness of the administrative, operational, and technological process to the goals and objectives of the company.
- Growth and learning which implies that human resources component should enable the organization to fill the proficiency and competency needs of the workforce. It will help to keep employees motivated and to show the highest performance to decrease the potential to learn and develop themselves and the organization as a result (Kaplan & Norton, 2004).
In the airlines industry, the importance of the human resources strategy could not be overestimated. It is also crucial for British Airways as they provide highly cost customer service to continue their performance in the industry and this niche of the market. The quality of the work of employees enables the company to maintain the position of being number one in this industry for many years. Meanwhile it is having a tough competition among other companies that provide same services. The high cost of the training the company provides to their employee is paid off by the number of people using their services. They bring an enormous profit to the company and make it a leader of the industry in the region.
The connections between human resources management and the organization performance are obvious. The governance and wise leading of the stuff is fundamental to any industry. Especially it is perceptible in the industry which is highly sensitive to the customers demand and is being service oriented.
In the balance scored theory, which is advocated by Kaplan and Norton (2004), the growth and learning process of the employee is strongly connected with the performance of the company. Thus, the development of employees and attention paid to the human resources management influence on the profitability of the company, internal business processes, and the satisfaction of the customers’ needs. The human resources management is a fundamental point of the prosperity of the organization in the airlines industry.
To prove this point of view, it should be mentioned that the component of the ineffective human resources management entails different kinds of risk. The biggest effectiveness of the company could be achieved with the development of the culture that would cultivate the excellence of the customer service. It should be the main goal of the most airlines companies. Lots of companies have reached success in a short-term period, but only few of them could hold their position in a long-term perspective.
There are lots of other factors that have a great influence on the performance of the company. Among them there are constantly changing business practices, expanding complexity in operations, and the demographic situation. As British Airways operates in the airlines industry, which is highly technology nowadays, it should rely on a technological aspect to reach the highest efficiency and safety of the operations.
From the demographic position, the prospective in a long-term period of decreasing the cost of human resources component, British Airways should strengthen its position by diversifying set of manpower that works for the company. To maintain its performance on the world arena, it should strengthen connections with the counties that have reciprocity in this sphere.
There is a key difference between functions of human resources in the airline company which includes multinational workers as it does British Airways. The company gives opportunities and prospective of growth if to compare with the airlines companies. The process of employment here is complex and complicated, but, nonetheless, the company provides a great opportunity of promoting and developing to its workers. Their workers are one the most remunerated group in the industry.
The practice of the developing of the company culture, which takes place in British Airways, and motivates their employees to do their best on the workplace they received. Also, the companies’ philosophy drives them to invest in their personal growing and learning process, showing them it will help them to be the best and promoted on the career ladder. It will improve their own performance that would be valued in the company and estimated by the company management. However, it also contributes to the performing and maintaining success of the organization, in general.
From the gathered information, the conclusion that British Airways are the leader in the industry in the initiatives of developing of the human resources among others airlines companies such as Emirates Airlines, Southwest United, and Cathay Pacific. British Airways tries to keep its focus on the high customer service, company’s philosophy, and ethical practices. This organization tries to continue to keep its focus on the main goal despite the number of problems and challenges the company faces nowadays in the industry. The human resources managers continuously try to maintain a drive of its employees to provide the best quality service reacting to the customers’ demand, to satisfy them, and respond to needs as quickly as possible. They try not to lose the quality of the provided services. At the same time, it helps to keep its market niche.
The managers develop business plans and marketing strategies to overcome the challenges and prevent the risks that could be faced while developing in the airline industry. The shareholders have an interest in the company’s development. Thus, the Board of Directors states the goals to the human resources management which help to the quality of the services, profitability to the company, and prosperity in a long-term period in the airlines industry.
The human resources management of British Airways explains and reacts to providing the best quality services. It is the fundament and critical to the company to stay afloat in the airlines industry. The human resources management in this organization explains the importance of providing the high quality services while maximizing the profitability. It shows relations between the quality of the work of employees and the level of their performance. Moreover, this management helps them to be driven and invest their inner resources to the company’s performance.
Thus, the importance of the human resources of British Airways is crucial to its success that has been achieved during last few decades. It is absolutely important to its performing in the long-term future perspective.