The Emirates Human Resources Policy - Coursework Example

The Emirates HR Policy

Within a framework of this paper, I would like to consider two HR policies of the Emirates Airlines company. The first policy I would like to consider is requirement, and the second one is diversity management since these two aspects of human resource management appear to be most relevant to this particular company.

At the outset, there is a need to briefly describe the company and its business. It is necessary to say that the beginning of the Emirates' story dates back to the year of 1985 when the company launched its operations with only two aircraft. Today, however, this airline company has one of the largest fleets consisted from Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s. Due to this, the company manages to offer its customers the real comfort by inviting them to fly in the most effective wide-body aircraft known by now. Apart from it, The Emirates is considered the biggest airline company of the Middle East since it operates more than 3,300 flights per week to almost 150 cities across six different continents. It also needs to be said that the Emirates is a subsidiary airline of The Emirates Group, and it is fully owned the Investment Corporation of Dubai, which is a part of Dubai's government. The company is famous for its high level of corporate social responsibility since it tries to help with the provision of food supplies in order to help the people in Gampola. Apart from it, the company invests into the improvement of educational opportunities for underprivileged children (The Emirates Group, 2016).

Since it is already clear what kind of company The Emirates is, it is time to get focused on the company’s HR policies, namely the process of recruitment and diversity management. However, it is necessary to explain why exactly these two policies have become the subject of this paper. As for the process of recruitment, it is one of the most important aspects of human resource management for any company. That is why this particular choice is obvious. As for the second policy, which is diversity management, a little explanation appears to be necessary. It is believed that just like gender-related and education-related problems, diversity appears to be one of the biggest challenges for the UAE’s human resource management (Randeree, 2008). That is why managing diversity in the workplace has become one of the priority concerns among companies of the United Arab Emirates mostly due to the fact that the United Arab Emirates is one of the top countries in the world in terms of the biggest net migration rates (Al-Jenaibi, 2011). Proceeding from this, the choice of this particular aspect of HR seems to be completely justified.

As it has already been said, the first HR policy to be considered is recruitment. According to the definition provided by the Cambridge Dictionary, recruitment is ‘the process of finding people to work for a company or become a new member of an organization’ (Cambridge Dictionary, 2016). Each company today tries hard to make the recruitment process really perfect to make sure only the best candidates are provided with job offers. Speaking of the recruitment process in this company, it needs to be pointed out that the Emirates Airlines conduct regular interviews as well as regular assessment in different countries around the world. Apart from it, there are on-going sessions in the two cities – Dubai and London. There are two ways to apply for a position in The Emirates. The first option is to complete an online application on the company’s official website. As for the second option, it is about completing an application in person during one of the Open Days scheduled by the company. Only those candidates who are shortlisted are invited for a participation in the next stage of the recruitment process, which is a Screening and Assessment stage. The Screening and Assessment stage of the recruitment process in The Emirates consists of four different parts. The first part is an initial assessment, the second part is an English Test, the third part is a Psychometric Assessment, and the last part is an Individual Competency Based Interview (The Emirates Group, 2016).

While the procedure seems to be quite well structured, there are some problems associated with the recruitment process in this company. According to the data provided by the candidates, the initial stage of the recruitment process usually covers approximately 200 people, and only 15 of them made it right to the final personal interview. As it can be seen from the applicants’ comments regarding the recruitment process, during the second stage, applicants are usually asked to participate in some activities unrelated to the cabin crew’s profession. These activities are meant to evaluate applicants’ ability to interact with each other. As for the questions applicants are asked during the personal interview, the most of them are very general and non-specific at all. The questions range between something as general as ‘Tell me about your previous job’ to something more specific like ‘In what way you respect other cultures’. One of the interesting stages of the recruitment process in The Emirates is the video presentation designed to familiarize all the candidates with the values of the company and the special features of working for The Emirates.

In my opinion, the recruitment process of The Emirates is rather good, but still there are some drawbacks that should be addressed in order to improve the company’s recruitment. The first and foremost change that needs to be done is to make video presentation a part of the online application process so not time would be wasted on this during the following stages of the process. This change will ensure that everyone showing up for the second stage of the recruitment process is already familiar with the company’s policy and knows what to expect from working for The Emirates as a part of a cabin crew. Second of all, The Emirates’ HR department needs to reconsider the list of questions asked during the personal interview. Since the company wants only the best candidates to be selected, it is extremely important to go beyond the standard questions about the reasons for living a previous job or career plans for the upcoming five years. Instead, the company needs to focus on more industry-related questions and ask more questions in the form of case scenarios when a candidate is required to provide a solution for a described problematic situation typical for the airline industry. This change will not only help to better assess the level of suitability of a candidate but also make the chances of all candidates equal, which is not like that at this moment when each candidate is asked completely different questions ranging from very simple to rather difficult ones. One more modification that needs to be applied to the company’s recruitment process is a shift from focusing on the candidate’s history to focusing on his or her skills and perspective and professional potential. This change is necessary in order to avoid scandals similar to the one that happened to the company in 2014 when the application of a successful candidate from the Great Britain was rejected due to the medical record mentioning a case of depression in the past (Collington, 2014). In my opinion, the changes mentioned above will help to improve the recruitment process of The Emirates and change the company’s performance and reputation in a positive way.

The second HR policy I would like to consider within a framework of this paper is diversity management. According to the definition provided by the Business Dictionary, the term ‘diversity management’ stands for ‘the practice of addressing and supporting multiple lifestyles and personal characteristics within a defined group’ (The Business Dictionary, 2016). It needs to be pointed out that the list of activities associated with diversity management usually includes educating and providing support for respect ad acceptance of various cultural, economic, racial, geographic, and political backgrounds. Speaking of the diversity management as one of the most important HR policies, it is necessary to point out that this topic is associated with a lot of attention and heated discussions due to the high level of cross-border mobility in the country. It is necessary to understand that although diversity is associated with a number of advantages such as employee competence and creativity, still in actual practice it appears to be rather difficult to manage teams consisting of employees of different cultural, religious, and economic environments. Hence, the process of managing diversity can be quite challenging (Al-Jenaibi, 2011). According to the official data, at this moment, The Emirates have a staff of employees representing more than 160 nationalities, and the company associates such a high level of diversity with its unique strength. Since more than 85 percent of the population of Dubai, where the headquarters of the company is located, are expatriates, it is safe to say that The Emirates does compliment the multiculturalism of the city’s population (The Emirates Group, 2016).

According to the official statement of The Emirates, the company tries hard to recruit and endorse people without any kind of discrimination as well as treat each applicant and employee with a necessary level of respect and transparency. Speaking of the tools used by the company to manage diversity, it is necessary to mention communication tools and equal opportunity tool. Since representatives of many nationalities work for the same company, some problems associated with misunderstanding may occur. In order to avoid or, at least, minimize them, The Emirates use English as their official corporate language and require from each and every individual working for the company to possess a necessary level of this language. Speaking of this, it needs to be pointed out that all the managing policies, as well as the recruitment process itself, are all done in English. In order to avoid any kinds of discrimination, The Emirates hire both men and women and do not give their preferences to representatives of particular nationalities.

Speaking of the possible ways of how the diversity management of the company can be improved, the following pieces of advise are to be followed. First of all, it is necessary to make sure that the talent pool is formed on the basis of employees’ skills and prospects and not on the idea of making it as diverse as possible. For example, it two applicants from China perform better than one applicant from Australia and only two positions are open, it is necessary to hire the best regardless of their nationality. Second of all, all cases of discrimination should always be punished in order to make honest diversity management a part of the corporate culture. Third of all, it is necessary to encourage work and interaction with employees of other nationalities and cultures to make sure communication on the international level is established properly.

To make a conclusion of all written above, I would like to say that although The Emirates still has a lot of room for improvement, this company can be considered a good example of how HR management should be arranged. There are reasonable grounds to assume that to a large extent, the company’s success is related to its smart human resource management.