Recruitment and Selection Analysis – Emirates Airlines

Keywords: recruitment methods evaluation, airline recruitment analysis

Human Resource is a term which is used for describing the single entity of the individuals who make the entire work force of any company or organization. Along with the organization, it can be applied for any business or for the entire nation. Human Resource can be considered as the function which is used for implementing and charging strategies in the organization. It has the responsibility of making the policies in relation with the student management.

Introduction to Recruitment Section

Recruitment section in the Human Resource Department is the one which is solely responsible for the recruitment of the employees in the company or the organization. It has the responsibility for hiring and firing of the employees. It sets the final compensation of the employees and also whatever extra perks to be given to them. Recruitment Section is considered as one of the most important section of human resource.

Unlike what it was five years ago, the demands of the employees of every airline company has raised of its initial standards. As using airlines today has changed from being a luxury to a necessity, airline companies now are prospering at a much higher rate than what they used to a few years ago. It can be understood that an increased customer satisfaction in terms of both quality and quantity can take place only with an increased work delivered by the employees. This is the reason that the demands of the employees have also increased in a span of less than three years. Emirates Airlines had an advantage over other airline companies that its employees were convinced with lower salaries. Even the Indian and Pakistani expatriates were paid relatively lesser than what the other airlines paid their counterparts in western countries. Today, with the success of Emirate Airlines, this would not be feasible anymore. The top management of the company which includes the traditional sheikhs of the region would take time to be convinced by the fact that the employees’ salaries should be raised. In the meanwhile, one can see a high turnover rate in the company’s HR department. So, if one relates this to the two-factor theory of motivation, one would realize that the reasons which had caused immense satisfaction for the employees five years ago are the same for dissatisfaction today. There is certainly a drawback related to the employee appraisal policy which Emirates would have to work upon so that they can continue with their rising spree. As UAE has abundance of tourism inviting flight utility for wide stretches of time, the HR department would have to re-frame its strategies to reduce a high turnover rate, decrease absenteeism and most importantly sort out job dissatisfaction. (Maurice Flanagan’s Emirates Airline: Flying High and Treating Customers like Sheikhs, 2007)

Justification for Choice of Project

As the employees are the backbone to customer satisfaction, therefore emirates should have a very good HR recruitment process, that will help them select good employees that will enhance the image of emirates and provides the best services to the customers, as the HR recruitment process is important so as the employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction i.e. knowing the reasons for employee dissatisfaction (or satisfaction as the case might be), and as emirates is one of the leading airlines of the world therefore it will need more and more workforce in the terms of cabin crews, ground staff, technical staff, pilots and other posts. Understanding the HR recruitment process of emirates airways would give a detailed understanding of the HR recruiting processes and the related advantages/disadvantages and other factors.

Specified and SMART objectives

The objective of this research is to find out the HR recruiting policies and processes in Emirates Airlines, and to find the factors that affect this process. This objective can be shown in reference to SMART objectives as follows:

Examine the current system of recruitment and selection used at Emirates Airlines for employees
Compare the current system with a model of best practice
Identify strengths and weaknesses of the recruitment and selection process
Make recommendations for improvements.

Explanation of Intended Outcome

The HR recruiting process of emirates airlines is somewhat not favourable for the employees that the company recruit because the company is using techniques that have a very selective procedure i.e. the employees that emirates airlines recruit are very highly skilled and experienced persons, but the airlines are not paying enough to them as much as other airlines do, this gives rise to high employee dissatisfaction.

One of the most highly satisfied employee team of Emirates Airlines is facing problems which can have an adverse effect on the company’s performance. It is obvious that there are certain changes that the company needs to make to address this malfunctioning. The research looks to critically survey the company and eliminate such drawbacks and make recommendations to improve conditions. (SMART Objectives , 2010)

Literature Review

HRM helps in improving the working environment of the company and works in benefit of the common employee to increase everyone’s performance to get better results. HR professional’s responsibilities vary from quality recruitment & hiring through giving world class training and experience, their role are very important in creating motivation for the employees. (Gold, 2001) They inspire the workers by implementing different policies like succession strategy and leisure manager concept. Their task is to regularly analyze the activities of every employee all over the company and then promote them accordingly, also the incentive and increase in basic salary is done after the evaluation process by HR specialists. This Emirates Airline case throws light on the involvement of HR department with the line managers. It analyzes the simultaneous working capabilities of line managers and HR professionals. There come some problems in the working of line managers and HRM department when they try to interfere in each other’s working. In last some years it has been found that the roles of the line managers are being transferred much to HR department. (Hillstrom)

HR department of Emirates Airline fears its authority and not want to share it with line managers. In case of cost reduction HR department may be replaced by HRIS, also the line manager lack the commitment in assisting HR related activities like employee training, quality enhancement etc, and HR professionals have to bear a lot of difficulty in training line managers. Line managers also get pressurized to implement latest HR practices and may be criticized for the improper adoption and not getting desired results. Disputes may arise between the line managers and their fellow workers related to salary and incentive issues.

Previously in Emirates Airline human resource of the company was used to be managed by the line managers. But it has become very important for every organization to have HR departmentÂ []Â and specialists for implementing several HRM practices to improve the condition of the company. HRM helps in improving the working environment of the company and works in benefit of the common employee to increase everyone’s performance to get better results. HR professional’s responsibilities vary from quality recruitment & hiring through giving world class training and experience, their role are very important in creating motivation for the employees. They inspire the workers by implementing different policies like succession strategy and leisure manager concept. Their task is to regularly analyze the activities of every employee all over the company and then promote them accordingly, also the incentive and increase in basic salary is done after the evaluation process by HR specialists. (Training and Development (Example of Emirates Airlines), 2010)

Recruitment Department has taken several initiatives to improve the employee base of the company. It has also organized seminars. These seminars were a major breakthrough in improving the interaction of the employees with the experienced management and authority. In the seminar several speakers discussed their experience of the business life and the employees got opportunity to interact with these professionals. (Arthur, 2001)

Gardner and Palmer (1992) in Australia gave a perspective which was compatible with differential impact on different areas of HRM. This was also part of multiple constituency framework proposed by Tsui and Milkovich in USA (1987). So these Employment Relations models become an alternative for strategic HRM. This model also agrees with the concept that the HRM strategy and other “strategic” factors may have an impact on HRM policies and practices, but it also considers a number of other forces influencing HRM in practice.

There are some theories like Argyris Intervention Theory, Kotter Eight Step Change Model and Lewin Action Research Model, which tell how an organization can easily make changes in their functional structure with the overall support of their employees and management. These theories are very well defined for the whole change management process but each one has its own pros and cons. Some of these theories have been followed by Emirates Airlines in improving Recruitment & Selection processes and was not very successful in implementation of change process. (New Series – Human Resources – building change competency)

As the demand for employees remain changing in the Emirates Airline, the management have introduce the “annualized hours” concept for their employees. They do the proper calculation of working that is required for the whole year from every employee, and then they should fix the shifts & hours for weeks. For the time high rush they can use the reserved hours of employees to manage the extra work. In time of less work the employee can be sent home (enforced rest). These results in full management of the employees according to changing demand, and it provides flexibility in working pattern.

There are a number of journals based on Human Resource Management that can be useful in addressing the issue related to Emirates Airlines. Of them, the most significant ones are International Journal of Human Resource and SAGE journal that has related papers in this context. The research would also be using Herzberg’s two factor Hygiene theory of motivation and Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory to substantiate its objectives. The two factor theory of Herzberg would give the dimensions of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction to support the experience that the employees have in the company. Maslow’s needs theory would state the status that the employees have in the company whether their needs have been fulfilled by the company management or not. It would also state the level of fulfilment of the needs of the employees of the company. Based on this level of satisfaction that the employees have with their employers, one can find the places where changes can be made hence fulfilling the objectives of the research. (Motivation in Theory – Herzberg Two factor Theory, 2010)

Research Methodology

As stated above, a two-month survey of the company’s HR conditions can estimate the current conditions to assist in subsequent primary research.

Primary sources of data to be used in this research would be in the form of questionnaire. A 15 question questionnaire would be distributed among 50 employees of Emirates Airlines. The sample for the primary research would be selected after the company visit and analyzing the employee structure. But major target section will be the newer employees like 12-18 month experience in the Emirates Airline. The process of company will be started on 1st of June, 2011. The company observation activity will be completed by 16th of June. After that pre-test of the questionnaire will get started, the actual distribution of questionnaire will start on 26th June. This would cover all the aspects related to HR recruitment, employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction and employee high turnover. This would be seen in the questionnaire that is shown in the subsequent section. The result of the same would not have to be derived from the results of any previous research hence making it specific in nature. The detailed action plan with dates and timing is being provided in the later section in form of table. The findings of the research in terms of HR recruitment of employees, and to understand the process of HR recruiting would aid in measuring the fulfillment of the objectives. After the application of the results on the company, one would have to wait for a substantial amount of time to measure its success of failure. After conducting a questionnaire analysis amongst the employees of the company preceded by secondary research on the topic, one would be able to achieve the objectives specified. The objectives are achievable by having an effective collection of the results of the questionnaire. They can be attained by distributing the questionnaire in an unbiased sample of the company so as to give realistic results. After doing a secondary research for about a month and simultaneous primary and secondary research for another month, one can attain authentic results of the research.

As the data taken would determine the results of the research, one would need to visit the company’s premises so as to first conduct an observation to select the sample suitable enough to answer the questions in the questionnaire. This would take about 15 days to find the right people. Then a preliminary test would be conducted about 10 times followed by which the final sample of 50 would be taken to assess the responses. The entire process would take 1month in completion. Also, secondary research would be conducted for 2months (one month prior to the primary research as well). This completes the entire research methodology. Several books like Human resource mangement ; recruitment & selcetion are followed for secondary research. Page no. 93-110 are followed form The empoyee Recuritment handbook by Diane Arthur (2001). Page no. 15-28 are folloed from human resource mangement book written by Barton & Gold. (Primary Research, 2010)

Statements of Assumption

The first assumption made here is that the employees amongst whom the questionnaire is to be distributed would be sufficient in terms of authenticity to find the results of the questionnaire. The second assumption that is made is that the employees are highly unsatisfied with the HR recruitment process of the airlines. The third assumption is that the turnover rate of the company is relatively high; the major reason of the turnover can be the lack in the recruitment process. The fourth assumption here is that use of z-test would suffice in findings the results of the questionnaire. No other test would be used here, so here the authenticity of z-test is over rated.

Hindrance in Data Collection

As it is a common experience, the top management resists any changes in a company’s functioning. As the very motive of this research is to bring changes to the HR recruitment system of Emirates Airlines, it can be resisted by the company’s top management. Hence, the research team would have to convince highly qualified set of managers and help get the research done.

Also, the employees might not be contented enough to respond to the questionnaire. It is possible that the research team might not find 50 people after the observation of a suitable group. Secondly, in this context even if the correct 50 are found, the responses might not have serious thoughts behind them.

Code of Ethics

The code of ethics of the country is to abide by the legislation of GCC countries in terms of any international affair within GCC Countries. Also, the laws of Ministry of Aviation need to be followed. Any employee found guilty in this context would have to face serious consequences. Also, under all cases of conflicts in the employees’ views, the decision of the top management of the company will be final.