HRM in Singapore Airlines

Introduction

Human resource management is one of the most important part in a business, as human resource is responsible for the growth and success of the business. Human resource management is one of the responsible elements in the corporate social responsibility of an organization. Corporate social responsibility is a business aspect that helps to develop a sustainable business through the delivery of social, economic and environmental benefits for the stakeholders. Organizations has their CSR policies, which act as the self-regulatory mechanism, with the help of which, a business organization monitors and evaluates its own compliance with the corporate ethical standards, spirit of law and national/international standards or norms (Lovelock, 2011). In this assignment, the focus would be the analysis of Singapore Airline’s human resource management related aspects. Two domains in the human resource management has been selected for discussion; these are “responsible HRM” and “labour practice” in Singapore Airlines. In addition, the strength and weaknesses will also be discussed further.

Background

Singapore Airlines Ltd. is a public airlines company, which includes many airline related subsidiaries. The company was the launch customer for Airbus A380, which is the largest passenger aircraft throughout the world (Singaporeair.com, 2016). The organization hires the best possible employees for improving the services provided by the organization. Human resource management (HRM) is the process of attracting, developing and keeping the right people in the quality workforce. In human resource management, the key functions are recruitment, selection, training and remuneration. Recruiting skilled employees for each designation is vital for maintaining the corporate image of the organization. The organization includes both external as well as internal recruitment. Through external process, the organization recruits experienced employees suitable for each job. After recruiting skilled employees through screening, effective strategies are used for retaining the potential employees.

Responsible Human Resource Management of Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airline’s human resource strategies are way more superior to any other airlines organization. It allows them to have an extra competitive edge over its rivals. Five most important elements that make up Singapore Airline’s human resource strategy are hereby mentioned below:

Recruiting Right People

Recruitment is one of the most important strategies of Singapore Airlines that is performed by its human resource department. Their recruitment strategy includes group and on-to-one interviews along with English language competency test. Human resource department always looks to recruit candidates who can empathies with passengers and are friendly and humble. According to Heracleous & Wirtz (2012), SIA receives nearly 10,000 applications to join its cabin crew, but HRM department selects only 900 from them.

Training Service Champions

Human resource department of SIA helps its newly recruited cabin crew to join an intensive 15-week training course which is known as the most longest and comprehensive in the global airlines industry. HRM department of the organization has facilitated this training facility so that new cabin crew candidates can provide gracious service with confidence. The organization also has an internal initiative known as Transforming Customer Service (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2014). Primary objective of this service is to develop team spirit among the employees in key operational areas such as engineering, ground services, sales support and flight operations.

Esprit de Corps

Human resource department of SIA is also responsible for creating esprit de corps among its employees by grouping them into wards. Each ward includes 180 crew members who are led by a ward leader acts as counselor. Besides, HRM department has also facilitated inter-ward games, overseas bonding seasons and regularly scheduled full-day engagement sessions on the ground (Khatri, 2013).

Empowerment for Quality Service

Human resource department of SIA is responsible for providing a clear concept to the employees about their limitations while taking decisions. Employees are also guided properly by the management so that empowerment can be done of the staffs.

Reward System

After making sure that right people are placed in right positions, human resource department of the organization then ensures that the team is delivering service excellence. Thus, they have implemented several reward systems not only to motivate the employees but also to retain those (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2012). SIA human resource management have implemented several reward systems such as symbolic forms of recognition, share options based on individual performance and connecting variable pay components to individual staff contribution.

Some other factors of Singapore Airline’s human resource management are,

Employee Retention 

Executive vice president of Singapore Airlines stated that they management of the company mostly sees training not as a cost item but at as an investment. Secondary purpose of the organization is to make sure that the new recruits come out of training “better equipped and higher skilled to serve their customers. Human Resource Management of the company also makes sure that employees are rotated across different divisions in the company. Along with traditional reward systems HRM of SIA also provides rewards such as recognition schemes, profit sharing bonuses (Fan & Lingblad, 2016). These processes help the management to attract new candidates and retain existing employees.

Internal Communication

Employee communication programs are extremely important for the mission and corporate values of the organization. This system exists in the People Network Department under human resource department of the organization (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2014). The main purpose of this system is to create sustaining well-built relation among the employees via sharing core values and strategic decisions of the organization with them. In this communication strategy, methods such as print materials, online interaction channels, extra curriculum activities and one-to-one sessions are vastly used. Union members are also asked to participate frequently in these communication operations. Thorough the communication system, the organization tries to enforce union and management relations and motivate a sense of ownership.

Strength and Weakness of SIA’s Responsible Human Resource Management

Singapore Airline’s human resource department is known to have no weakness within their strategies and procedures. As it is discussed above, the human resource organization is maintaining the goals and objectives of the organization by implementing best practices in their departments. According to Sawitri and Muis (2014), three most major responsibilities of a human resource team is to recruit candidates who can meet the organization goals, promoting training services and implementing proper reward and compensations system. Human resource of Singapore Airlines does the same. They recruit only best candidates in every sector of its organization and provide them with a 15 weeks training in order to develop their skills (Fan & Lingblad, 2016). Besides, the organization is also giving away several reward systems in order to implement motivation among them. He only weakness that is seen in their HRM is their relation with pilot union that is discussed in element one.

Social Responsibility of Singapore Airlines

As a leading global airlines Singapore airlines has characterized the importance of active participation and support provision to the communities or society they serve, which is one of the major social responsibility in Singapore airlines. The organization is supporting charities and non-profit organizations, for many years. The organization has significant contribution in sponsoring the initiatives for promoting sports, education, arts, environment and heritage conservation. SIA offers the support through financial donation, staff volunteerism and rebated air tickets. With the help of Singapore charity gala in October 2014, the organization provided $2.5 million for the community chest of Singapore (Taneja, 2012). Singapore Airlines is the Diamond partner in SG Care & Share 2015 event, where SIA employees distributed goodie bags to the elder people for celebrating the Chinese lunar new year.

The organization is committed to improve Singapore arts scene, thus, the organization has contributed to Singapore Symphony orchestra, Singapore Lyric opera, Singapore dance theatre and Singapore Chinese orchestra. Singapore airlines has committed towards the protection and restoration of Harapan rainforest. It is the result of the company’s values, that the organizational efforts towards environment should be focused on contribution towards the well-being of the earth. The organization has focused upon the “development of an ecosystem restoration resource centre at Harapan” for strengthening he capacity development, training, knowledge management, policy work and communication by Burung Indonesia, for implementation and improvement of government of Indonesia’s ecosystem restoration concession policy. In Australia, Singapore airlines took the commitment of supporting children’s causes and arts, since 1967 (Oum & Yu, 2012).

The organization is also significant responsible towards the environmental protection. “SIA believes that we have a long-term responsibility to help protect the environment”. The organization implemented the SIA’s environmental policy as a part of their commitment towards the environment, which include three steps, “Educate, Ensure and Established”. To manage the flight related environmental impact, the organizational key initiatives include “regular fleet renewal, engineering measures, participating in the ASPIRE program, adopting flight operation procedures, improving flight operation procedures, engaging route-planning procedures, actively participating in international discussion, developing performance improvement packages, working on initiative and employing mobile ground power units and pre-conditioned air units” (Rodrigues & Cusick, 2012).

Strength and Weakness of Social Responsibilities of Singapore Airlines

The introduction of the environmental policies is reducing the environmental impact, imposing a positive brand image upon the service users. In addition, the commitment of the organization towards the international social support and social welfare initiatives enhances the organizational network and strengthens the brand image in the international airlines industry. In contrast, the organization is investing huge amount in making environment friendly flight equipments, which are enhancing the cost of production and maintenance, thereby reducing company’s sole profit (Wilson & Gilligan, 2012).

Conclusion

In this assignment, the major focus was to review the human resource management of the renowned aircraft company in Singapore, Singapore Airlines. The human resource department has several responsibilities, within which two significant responsibilities are reviewed and evaluated here. Here, the responsible HRM and labour practices of Singapore Airlines, as a responsible organization, has been reviewed. In addition, evaluating the responsibilities, the strength and weakness of the company has also been discussed.

Reference List

Fan, T. P. C., & Lingblad, M. (2016). Thinking through the meteoric rise of Middle-East carriers from Singapore Airlines' vantage point. Journal of Air Transport Management, 54, 111-122.

Heracleous, L., & Wirtz, J. (2012). Strategy and organisation at Singapore Airlines: achieving sustainable advantage through dual strategy. In Energy, Transport, & the Environment (pp. 479-493). Springer London.

Heracleous, L., & Wirtz, J. (2012). Strategy and organisation at Singapore Airlines: achieving sustainable advantage through dual strategy. In Energy, Transport, & the Environment (pp. 479-493). Springer London.

Heracleous, L., & Wirtz, J. (2014). Singapore Airlines: Achieving sustainable advantage through mastering paradox. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 0021886314522323.

Khatri, N. (2013). 11 Human Resource Management in Singapore.Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific, 20.

Lovelock, C. (2011). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy. Pearson Education India.

Oum, T. H., & Yu, C. (2012). Winning airlines: Productivity and cost competitiveness of the world’s major airlines. Springer Science & Business Media.

Rodrigues, C. C., & Cusick, S. K. (2012). Commercial aviation safety. McGraw-Hill.

Sawitri, D., & Muis, M. (2014). Human resource management: A strategic theoretical perspective. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 6(3), 6.

Singaporeair.com,. (2016). Welcome to Singapore Airlines | Official Website. Singaporeair.com. Retrieved 21 September 2016, from http://www.singaporeair.com/

Taneja, N. K. (2012). Looking beyond the runway: airlines innovating with best practices while facing realities. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..

Wilson, R. M., & Gilligan, C. (2012). Strategic marketing management. Routledge.

 

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