Principles of Human Resource Management - Australian Airlines - Case Study Example

Human Resource principles Name University: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Case analysis 3 Recommendations 5 Internal and external recruitment methods that Australian Airline should consider using 5 Internal recruitment methods 6 References 11 Case analysis Currently Australian Airline is experiencing issues related to bad management. The company’s cost has gone up as well as the company is on the verge of losing its market share and money. The company’s aim is to be the fastest growing, most profitable airline in the Asia- Pacific region. In order to achieve this goal, it requires the company to recruit cabin crews as well as other personnel staff who are motivated and have strong service orientation. The employee’s which the company intends to recruit are required to fit the image of the company as a young dynamic company Australian airline that has an international outlook and is going places. Since the company intends to recruit well qualified professional employees who will work towards success of the airline company, it is important for Australian Airline to put in place proper and effective recruitment internal and external recruitment methods, selection procedures among others (Chew & Chan,2008:p.503). Recruitment is one of the human resource management functions which determine the success of a company at any given particular level. Hence in most organizations it is considered as the fundamental human resource function whose activities have a critical impact on organizational performance. Research done by Collings, Scullion & Dowling (2009,p.78) indicates that poor recruitment decisions today are key reasons behind poor organizational performance as well as lack of organizational goal achievement which is the case of Australian Airline (Collings, Scullion & Dowling (2009,p.78). Recruiting and retaining professional well talented employees is critical to an organizational success. As the job market continues to develop and become more competitive, the available skills grow more diverse hence it is always important that recruiters become more selective in their choices..Poor recruitment decisions are likely to impact on organizational objective achievement hence in the long run affecting the company’s competitive edge as well as market share. With is in mind it will be important for Australian Airline to put in place proper selection procedures which will result in effective employee selection (Wood & Collings, 2009:pp.56-80). Since the company intends to recruit new employees to fill the vacancies of Cabin crews, the company can use various internal and external recruitment strategies which will help the company in achieving the required success. Before implementing the recruitment strategies through which the company will use to recruit is employees, it will be important for the company to implement successful recruitment procedures which will help the company to successful recruit its employees. This will involve a number of processes. To begin with, it is necessary for Australian Airline to develop human resource selection policy concerned with recruitment and retention of employees. For an organization to achieve its Human resource objectives, selection decisions are required to conform to the corporate policy. A good selection policy is one which communicates clearly the company’s selection goals. In developing a selection policy it will be necessary for the company to consider various issues such as equal employment opportunity, quality of people, source of people, management roles, Selection techniques, industrial relations, legal issues, organizational strategic business objectives, and cost of recruitment among others (Collings, Scullion & Dowling,2009:p.78).During the selection process, the concerned human resource managers should recognize the process as a systematic information gathering process whose aim is to generate as much job related data as possible to enable the manager to choose the right individuals to fill the vacancies available. The other essential procedure which should be considered is the validation of selection procedures. A decision to hire or not to hire actually requires all line and human resource managers to clearly identify the criteria that distinguish successful candidates from unsuccessful job performances. This is important for Australian Airline because in any recruitment process, lack of a systematic approach which examines validity and reliability of the entire process makes it more difficult to demonstrate relationships between selection criteria and predictors. In such situations, decisions tend to remain subjective of dubious value and open to legal challenge. In contrast if the relationship between the predictors and criteria is more accurate and stronger, then the employment decision is easier in satisfying EEO demands that selection procedures should be objective, non-discriminatory and results in the best candidate being selected without prejudice or discrimination (Wood& Collings,2009:pp.56-80). The third procedure should be needs assessment to determine the current and future human resource requirements of the organization. If Australian Airline wants to be effective in its organizational activities, it is important that all the human resource requirements for each job category and functional division of the organization be assessed sufficiently well and priority assigned. Proper identification and documentation of actual process of recruitment and selection should be put in place to ensure equity and adherence to equal employment opportunities without biasness and discrimination (Wood& Collings, 2009:pp.56-80). Recommendations Internal and external recruitment methods that Australian Airline should consider using There are various internal and external recruitment methods that Australian Airline could consider adopting. Internal recruitment methods One of the internal methods which Australian Airline could consider adopting is the promotion and transfer of exiting personnel. Employee promotion is one of the key areas of human resource function hence it requires proper selection procedures when it comes to giving promotions to employees (Wood& Collings, 2009:pp.56-80). Employee promotion is important in any organization because it acts as an sensitive for employees to work more harder in achieving organizational objectives as well as growth. When using this kind of recruitment procedure Australian Airline should ensure that it is conducted on the basis of equality and only deserving employees are rewarded with the promotions. In order to ensure successful employee promotion it will be important to outline specific criteria which will be used to determine employee promotion. This could be achieving particular sales targets, performance, meeting organizational deadlines among others. The second method which Australian Airline should consider adopting is job posting which actually is an internal recruitment method of placing notices on available job openings on company’s manual’s, electronic bulletin boards, company newsletters and through office memoranda together with a listing of its attributes such as criteria of knowledge, qualification, skill and experience(Wood& Collings,2009:pp.56-80). The purpose of posting the available job openings is to bring attention of all the interested employees that the jobs need to be filled. External recruitment methods In terms of external recruitment, there are various methods which Australian Airline can adopt. External recruitment methods are into categories thus informal and formal recruiting methods. Informal organizational recruitment methods are described as organizational methods which involve rehiring of former employees, students who were on internship in the organization and choosing from those walk in applicants whose unsolicited resumes have been retained in the company’s file for almost two years. Informal employee recruitment methods taps a smaller market compared to formal employee recruitment method hence in most cases it should be used by the company to hire clerks and lower level employees(Wood& Collings,2009:pp.56-80). Formal employee recruitment methods on other hand is an organizational recruiting method which entails searching the labour market more widely for qualified candidates who have no previous attachments to the company to fill the existing organizational vacancies. Formal recruitment job methods comprises of job advertisements in newspapers, newspaper/magazine/journal advertising and the use of employment agencies and executive search firms, and college recruitment (Wood& Collings, 2009:pp.56-80). Externally recruitment enables the company to employ well qualified professionals for a particular job opening through posting vacancies externally in various arms of media as well as employment agencies. Posting organizational vacancies in various arms of media reaches a wider audience among which the company has the liability of choosing potential candidates to fill the available positions. This method is relatively expensive as well as time consuming since it requires the organization to go through a series of processes including initial advertisements, short-listing, interviewing and the other processes that precede selection. Recruiting through media or recruiting agency has various disadvantages apart from being effective. One of them is the mere fact that there is no guarantee that the results will be satisfactory to the organization. Additionally, the cost involved is higher compared to internal recruiting method hence in most cases the cost of advertising tends to limit organizational frequency and duration of job posting as well as the amount of information required making it difficult for a job seeker to accurately judge the worth of the position being offered(Wood& Collings,2009:pp.56-80). Moreover, there is a high possibility of hiring a candidate who does not live up to the high potential displayed during the selection process. Australian Airline should also think of using recruitment firms as well as prominent employment agencies all over Australia. This is because employment agencies over the years are becoming popular especially when it comes to searching for management level as well as executive level employees(Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503). Though, recruiting through this medium is very costly to the organization it is very faster and there is certainty that individuals with right professional competence will be selected for the vacancy. The other external recruitment method which Australian Airline should consider adopting is the use of online applications mostly referred to s internet recruiting. With the current advances in technology, using the internet is faster and cheaper than many other traditional recruitment methods. Since Australian Airline is currently experiencing financial problems as the company performance has drastically reduced it will be important for it to it internet recruitment method. Using the internet, Australian Airline post its job vacancies on the internet sites for a little amount of money which can remain there for periods of over forty to fifty days or more at no additional cost. Through, the internet job seekers can view the details of the job vacancies, apply for them as well as get response online from the organization. Using this medium there is a high possibility that Australian Airline will be in a position to recruit highly qualified individuals to fit the available vacancies (Nankervis, & Robert, 2009:pp.50-56). Once the methods have been identified and applicants for various job posts selected, interviewers of the applicants should conduct the interviews in a free and fair manner without biasness, prejudice and selection of applicants should provide equal employment. When conducting interviews, human resource panel will be required to review the application forms or resumes adequately well (Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503).Person-organization fit is an essential aspect for any Australian organization. Australian Airline being part of these organizations, it is important that the company’s objectives and goals be directly related to the organization. This is because many employees demonstrate greater organizational commitment when they perceive that their values are closely aligned with the organization’s objectives (Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503).It is therefore important for Australian Airline to match organizational culture and values against applicants personality, values, knowledge, skill and abilities to determine if they are compatible and the applicant in actual sense deserves the job. To successful succeed the interviewer will be required to use a matching sheet which is a technique that helps the interviewer to easily match the applicants job dimensions on the left hand side of the page and the person’s relevant qualifications in the right hand column. When carrying out the recruitment, it is important for the recruiters to be aware of prejudices. Most people tend to have prejudices of various sorts hence if the applicants are to be appraised objectively then it will be important that these prejudices don’t impinge on the employee selection decision otherwise the interviewer’s runs the risk of losing good candidates for the company and leaving the way open to charges of discrimination(Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503). Interviewers should ensure that they don’t make snap decisions about the applicant. When conducting interviews many interviewers make judgments about the applicant in the first three to five minutes of the interview as well as reliance on stereotypes (Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503). Conclusion In summary if Australian Airline wants to succeed in this industry it is important for the company to put in place proper external as well as internal recruitment methods which take into consideration human resources requirements of the company. Additionally, employee selection process should begin with linking together organizational human resources and employment objectives, values as well as goals. Since the company’s goal is to become the best performing Australian Airline, it important for the company to recruit best applicant who suits the jobs being offered by the company. Since the success of any company depends on organization’s ultimate personnel and best applicants being selected for a job vananacy, it will be necessary for the company to match correctly the employee’s needs, values and objectives to organizational aims and objectives to ensure employee satisfaction and organizational effectiveness(Chew & Chan, 2008:p.503). When recruiting cabin crews, much job related information about the candidates should be collected as much as possible. To effectively collect ribald and relevant applicant’s information, then it is important that the company uses a variety of sources such as application forms, employment tests, interviews, reference check and medical examinations. Human resource specialists and line managers who intend to conduct the required cabin crew employment tests should be trained in interview planning as well as assessment of applicants job related terms. References Chew, J. & C.C.A. Chan. 2008. ‘Human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay’. International Journal of Manpower, 29(6), pp.503-22 Wood, G. and D.G. Collings.2009. Human Resource Management: A critical introduction. London: Routledge, pp.56-80 Nankervis, A., & C. Robert. 2009. Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices, 5th ed. Publisher: CCH Australia Limited, pp.50-65 Collings, D.G. , H. Scullion & H. Dowling. 2009. “Global staffing: a review and thematic research agenda”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, in press, pp.78 Collings, D., T. Dundon & M. Marchington.2010.Human Resource Management Journal, Volume 20, Issue 4, pp.443 Read More