Taiwo Omolade

INTRODUCTION The previous decade was characterized with turbulent changes in the global environment and events which positioned significant stress on organizations in all industries, the most recent being the novel Corona virus pandemic. WHO (World Health Organization) in January 2020 declared a new coronavirus sickness (COVID-19), which was later declared to be a pandemic, altering the global economy and the world at large and thereby putting the economies of many under substantial stress. The travel industry and most especially the airline arm of the industry, that had simply begun getting better after going through different crises in the last two decades (the global financial crisis and also the 9/11 attack on US soil), is now once again dealing with a sizable challenge of lockdowns and closed borders due to the pandemic. Borders are closed, with very few aircrafts in the air, while the remaining are grounded. This has led to loss of jobs, recession, as well as a new normal in the work culture/environment of firms, which happens to be a major factor when discussing the subject of Human Resource Management (HRM). For a long time, Human Resource Management has been viewed to be a cost center, an overhead that does not make contributions to the growth in revenue or the overall strategy of the organization. However, there have been significant changes in perception in recent times with corporations realizing the significance of Human Resource Management and the role it performs in contributing to the overall growth and competitiveness of the organization. Today, the senior administration of many groups considers HRM to be a predominant element of the overall strategy and mission of the organization. This paper seeks to critically evaluate HRM practices as it relates to the British Airways (BA). British Airways is one of the leading airlines in the world and it offers full services such as credit cards, automobile rentals, accommodation, holidays, travel insurance, foreign currency exchange amongst many others. The organization is dedicated to retaining a competitive edge in the industry. This is done through presenting low-cost fares through the year on all its routes across the world. British Airways flies to and from centrally located airports and offers flights round the globe (BA 2011). In developing and sustaining a successful organization the corporation perceives its human resource as an important asset and as such it strives to keep a tremendously inspired body of workers that helps the enterprise attain its financial as well as corporate goals (BA 2019). TASK A [shrm change] Strategic Human Resource Management can be described as the pattern of planned HR deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals (Wright & McMahan, 1992). SHRM study progressively focuses on the overall performance effects of HR systems as opposed to separate HR practices (Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006). All employees should be handled with respect and maximum professionalism, this is one of the highest priorities in the HR department; BA knows that motivation in the direction of the individual roles of the employees has a massive impact on business – so it ensures excellent workforce morale and that the organization has the right persons with the proper capabilities to assist it accomplish the business goals; therefore, it focuses different issues from recruitment to training, from change management to worker relations and from reward management to diversity. British Airway have strived to preserve its leadership capability and it sees the training of its staff as a significant way to improve growth and maintain its edge in the industry. As such BA introduced High Performance Leadership (HPL), a strategy that creates a link between the firm’s human resource development and business strategy. BA's corporate goal had been developed which was simply to be the top and most successful airline in the globe and to accomplish this objective, the firm invested on its human resources which were regarded to be the suitable link between the workers and firm’s success. British Airways has chosen a noteworthy investment in the training and development which would enhance the company’s image of “Helpfulness”. Based on investigation BA discovered that consumers are satisfied and dissatisfied with caring and uncaring, pleasant and unfriendly behavior of staff. On the outcome of these research findings, BA started facilitating and designing a training program which would allow for a change in standards and behavior throughout the organization, particularly for team of workers that are always in contact with customer contact. BA organizes quite a few trainings and development program for both old and new staff. There were two training programs designed to train up the body of workers and supervisors. 'Putting people first' which was the first training program aided the body of workers to recognize how the picture of helpfulness fulfill the clients and secondly, the 'Managing People First' program induced the managers to breakdown the regimented strategy and strict behavioral boundaries. A huge work culture change was noticed in the firm upon effective execution of these education programs. Furthermore, the firm has gone through usual improvement program such as 'individual employee development', 'individual learning' by means of which it realized a pool of skillful workers. To transform and enhance the method by which the business enterprise manages its human resource, the employer now employs the services of human resource management from a set of human resource experts, which the organization regards as its human resource management partners. These partners deal with employee issues within British Airways. The corporation in many occasions communicate effectively with these partners as it regards its human resource priorities and also encourages them to seek ideas and innovations from different sources in order to improve HRM practices at the company. The organization also consults and negotiate with quite a number of organized labor trade union in order to assist in the improvement as well as development of its human resource management. TASK B [impact of environmental factors] Any corporation in any sector, in particular in the airlines’ area, cannot exist like an ‘island’ without being influenced by way of the external environment. External environment affecting an enterprise can have various influences either directly or indirectly on distinctive components of organizational functioning. These external elements will change or reorient the organization’s operation in a specific way. External conditions that affect the HR planning includes economic conditions, technological elements and union expectations, to point out a few. Economic conditions encompass employment rates, inflation, recession and so on. There is a wide variety of issues that affected the overall business and HR planning of BA. For instance, uncertainty in the capital markets, rising unemployment and the erosion of household budgets creates a situation whereby clients are in all likelihood to reduce its spending on vacation and airline tickets which implies a decrease earnings for the business, which leads to drastic actions being taken by way of the HR department of the firm. Also, the recession caused by the Covid 19 pandemic caused massive job cuts by the HR of the British airways. As every different organization nowadays, BA is also impacted by technological changes. Maintaining a company website which handles consumer inquiries and bookings is a new necessity for the airline businesses. In making customers experience more simpler and quicker British Airways also makes use of online self-check in machines at the airports which makes the process a lot less difficult for its customers. Technology also permits for a work from home alternative all through the global lockdown due to the growing spread of Covid 19. Also, technological factors provide an avenue for BA to reach talents/job seekers all over the world to select from for its recruitment process. The presence or organized labor unions hinders the flexibility in designing HR Programs. The staffs of British Airways belong to different organized labor union with which the organization conduct frequent negotiations intermittently. The end result of such discussions has an impact on the business and human resource management activities of the company. TASK C [hr model used] David Ulrich’s model was ground-breaking when introduced to the world of Human Resource Management due to the fact that it placed people and roles first. HR departments are vital in establishments due to how it focuses on the people in an establishment—including managers, employees, board members, and more. David Ulrich’s HR Model doesn’t build a Human Resources department around function first, but instead around roles. Ulrich suggested that in large organizations, the HR function ought to be divided into three segments: HR Business Partner: The business partner is concerned with interacting with the so-called “internal clients” or “internal customers.” These refer to individuals or group of persons directly linked with an organization, and consist of shareholders, employees, creditors, stakeholders and more. The HR business partner serves as the HR point-of-contact and, therefore, the channel through which internal participants of a corporation will communicate or interact with the HR department. The HR business partners offer feedback to internal clients regarding the top skills inside the organization, quality of their experience; they also help share HR goals with employees in order to ensure proper implementation across the organization, fill job vacancies and also encourage overall efficiency and productivity in the organization. HR experts in British Airways work properly with the management teams. This is due to the fact the relationship between the two is necessary as it enables the organization to attain its goals. Change Agent: When an organization is expected to expand, develop, or modify its mission or goals, the change agent is the HR role that communicates these changes within the organization. This arm of the HR would organize training platforms so employees can learn the new skills fundamental for altering job roles or organizational goals, or changes job descriptions to replicate those reformed roles. In essence, the change agent helps the employer through its period of evolution, boom or change. In the past years, the HR department in British Airways has helped the organization through all the period of changes they have faced by providing workers with the proper and adequate training required for these times. Shared services: shared service activities refer a call-center with supporting intranet to supply administrative and basic help functions to the remainder of the business. BA hires skilled personnel both in the air and on the floor (BA, 2019), the floor personnel providing support for the air personnel and also the consumers as well as the remainder of the business. TASK D [Storey 27 points] The Storey 27-point model was developed by John Storey in 1989. He saw Human Resource Management as a more humane strategy to employee management. His emphasis was on dedication as opposed to compliance and he viewed human competence as what distinguishes organizations. John Storey identified twenty-seven differences between HRM and PM. However, these 27 points are grouped into 4 categories: strategic aspects, beliefs and assumptions, key levers and line management. Considering the differences given by Storey based on the role of a line manager in PM and HRM, British Airways practices HRM and not PM. It is quite apparent from Human Resource Management viewpoint that people management is too essential to be left only to personnel expert and this is evident by the firm linkage that exists between line managers and employees. Line managers are the conscientious persons who essentially lead number of employees or team toward the set goal. The line managers in BA are given the managerial obligations to lead a specific group of employees within the firm (Gould-Williams, 2016). Line mangers play a sizeable function in the coming up with strategic approach and facilitate the employees in the crucial situations. It has been discovered that the line managers in BA are responsible for the appraisal of the strategies that has been developed by the higher management and also communicate these strategies appropriately to their subordinates. In line with this the line manager participates in the execution of the strategies being established by the higher management and also is involved in the bringing solution to the issues facing the organization. The manager finds out the faults in the strategies and then convey this information to the higher management directly. Also, it has been seen that the line managers are responsible for supervising the activities of the workforce and make them capable to increase their efforts and meet the stated objectives of the organization. The manager therefore coordinates training session, if essential for the workers in order to improve their performance and productivity. Developing a strategic approach for Human Resource Management involves having effective planning, coordination and communication. Therefore, the line manager leads the workers to communicate interact amongst themselves with the ultimate aim of reaching the desired objective (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). TASK E [job design strategy] Job design is the system of creating a job that allows the corporation to attain its aims and objectives whilst rewarding and motivating the members of staff. This implies that a well-designed job leads to greater productiveness and exceptional work quality, while at the same time leading to lower employee turnover intentions, greater job satisfaction and decrease absence. In order to boost the practicable of a job, there are four common job design strategies usually employed. These strategies are job enlargement, job rotation, job simplification and job enrichment. British Airways have employed the job rotation strategy which is a practice of shifting staffs between jobs/roles in a firm. This helps workers to learn through different experiences, increase the skill variety and also helps employees get an idea of the inner workings of a potential new role. Job rotation programs creates flexibility in deployment of workers to different functions resulting in accessible replacement in case of absence and also increased motivation. The model of job rotation has proved to be really helpful to the administration of BA to the great length as it has helped in imparting the workers with the great motivation and job satisfaction towards the work. The higher management of BA grant its staffs with a favorable flexibility at the place of work which enables them to provide the organization with their best outputs and also keep their performance levels high. TASK F [hiring and firing strategies] British airways focus attention on establishing effective recruitment and selection strategies and more importantly on education and improvement of personnel. In step with British airways (2011), the enterprise always attempts to recruit incredibly qualified workers; so, the business enterprise welcomes diversity and as such recruits persons from different races and also esteems to protect that diversity through respect for distinct cultural ideals. Diversity also encompasses giving disabled workers an opportunity and the important support to make contributions to the fulfillment of the organization’s goal. British airways offer extraordinarily striking rewards packages; it intently monitors salaries and wages throughout the different industries in which it recruits, and undertakes regular reviews to ensure that its salaries are competitive so as to draw and retain the quality of workers it desires. Testing is a source of selecting candidates in the British Airways. It serves as an alternative for the unreliability of interview as a gauge of the ability and performance of the candidate. In the form of psychometric testing, fact-finding and role plays, BA makes use of this method to assess the suitability of the applicant with the requirements of the job. Background checks are also a completely vital a part of British Airways’ selection process as within the world of intercontinental travel; nothing is more crucial than security and safety. British Airways is United Kingdom’s leading safety sensitive business with a well-established security and safety record so as to satisfy legal requirement to check the criminal records of the employee being employed to work. In an environment in which expertise is few and external opportunities are plenteous, BA believes that the personnel will work in the corporation as long as contribution is valued. They will work with the enterprise as long as they may be able to carry out and do the useful work within the stimulating and challenging environment. TASK G [companies with good hr practices] The term "HR best practices" refers to a series of HR practices that are confirmed to attain advantageous outcomes in the place of work. To determine the best HR practices, we consider a study conducted by Workforce 2018. In this study, organizations are scored on eight areas: diversity and inclusion, workplace culture, employee development, employee benefits, talent management, human resources innovation, leadership development, talent acquisition. Some examples of company with good HR practices are mentioned below: One company that adopts good HR practices Is FedEx. FedEx uphold the philosophy that its success depends on how efficient and effective its workers perform. The corporation discovered that well-treated workers are top performers, resulting in exponential growth of the company. In 1973, FedEx developed, and till now still practices, its "People-Service-Profit" philosophy symbolizing exceptional care of its staffs (K. Prashanth 2003). The firm gauges workers satisfaction with its annual SFA program (Survey-Feedback-Action) where employees and management meet to deliberate on the survey results, tackle issues and work out how to resolve these issues (Rao, Veerapaneni and Singh, Sharda 2017). Another association with suitable HR practices is The Integer Group. The Integer Group's center of attention is marketing and advertising and, as such, the organization requires high creativity levels of from its team of workers. According to Integer's HR, "Happy employees keep clients happy." The enterprise tries its possible best to keep its staffs calm and focused by providing them with sufficient time off, sports activities, enjoyable resort outings and awards. Workers inputs are cherished and opportunities for sharing ideas are supported through regular team discussions and meetings. TASK H [conclusion and recommendations] The intent of this paper is to examine and evaluate the HRM strategies of British Airways. At British airways organization has created a conducive environment, with greater opportunities for higher roles, greater employees’ participation, job satisfaction, career relevant training, career succession planning, trust and dedication to enhance worker commitment. HRM is no longer simply about the problems that affects the workers in a particular establishment. It is involved with how workers’ involvements are in line with the overall organizational strategies and how they help achieve the organizations set goals. In conclusion, a proper human resource management strategy is essential for the success and survival of an organization. Having a good HR is a blessing for any corporation and its workers. For improvement in organization’s overall performance, employers should take into consideration the following pointers on their HRM practices: Employer need to create a work environment with: • inclusive and people-centered workers, • friendly and innovative culture, where decision-making is definitely communicated and shared all through the firm. • Investment in workers via training, flexible working, inclusiveness and loyalty. • Significant performance results such as goal setting and benchmarking, and also innovation in procedures and quality practices. REFERENCES Armstrong, M. (2017) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. 14th ed. London, England: Kogan Page. Baska, M. (2020) Strong HR practices will help businesses survive after Covid, Peoplemanagement.co.uk. Available at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/research/strong-hr-practices-help-businessessurvive-after-covid (Accessed: June 29, 2021). 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