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Question: Discuss about the Case Study of Qantas Airways. Answer: Introduction Human resource frame of a corporation focuses on recruiting employees as well as deciding their role, responsibilities, duties, values, interests, and interactions; in other words, it manages the human capital of an organisation. The human resource frame is administered by the HR department of a company that performs various actions relating to human capital such as recruitment, training, development, retention, compensation, and others. An effective human resource frame efficiently manages employees requirements and increases their productivity through motivation, training, incentives, maintaining a positive organisational environment and removing the conflict between workers and company. In modern business environment, corporations focus on maintaining an effective human resource frame since it provides them a competitive advantage over their competitors; the insightful understanding of human resource frames strengths and weaknesses allow top-level management to formulate policies that improve the productivity of employees and sustain future development of the company. This report will focus on analysing the strengths and weaknesses of human resource frame maintained by Qantas Airways. Further, the report will provide suggestions to reduce the drawbacks of human resource management and to improve the effectiveness of human capital in Qantas Airways. Qantas Airways The Qantas Airways was founded on 16th November 1920, and it is the third oldest airline company is the world; currently, it is the flag carrier and largest airline of Australia based on international destinations offers, overseas flights, and fleet size. The Qantas is an acronym made by the corporation for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. The company started its international passenger flights services in May 1935; now the company has a total of 118 fleets, and it provides services in more than 85 countries (Qantas, 2017). The head office of Qantas is situated in Mascot, Sydney, Australia and its secondary hubs are in Dubai International Airport, Adelaide airport, and Perth airport. In 2015, the corporation accumulated revenue of AU$16.2 billion and an operating profit of AU$1.03 billion (Ong and Letts, 2016). Qantas Airways has more than 33,826 employees. The subsidiaries of the company include Impulse airlines, Qantas link, Australia Asia airlines, Jetconnect, Jetstar Airways and Network aviation. Qantas Airways is one of the top ten largest airlines in the world, and it is the number one domestic airline in Australia (Rosen, 2017). The company comprises multiple activities through its front and backstage operations. Qantas Airways human resource department focuses on recruiting professionals and providing them extensive training to ensure that they provide excellent services. The productivity and performance of the workers are refined by exceptional training programs that are arranged by the organisation. Qantas management hierarchy includes three levels which are top level, secondary level, and ground level. The top-level management consists of eight members that are headed by a president; the apex level is divided into various departments that manage and formulates policies for various functions such as nomination, audit, recruitment, remunerations, environment, health, security and many others (Day, 2009). The secondary level comprises various executives that look after the policies established by the top level management. This level is divided into 12 central departments which include IT, legal, domestic, finance, loyalties, resources, and others. These departments include managers and air professionals that provide necessary training to workers from ground level in order to develop their skills and abilities. The ground staffs consist of employees that work at ground level such as runways, airports, planes and other places. The diligence and hard work of ground staff allow organisation to provide a high level of service to its customers and sustain their future growth (Sarina and Wri ght, 2015). Strengths of Human Resource Frame Qantas Airways focus on attracting the best talent and developing their skills to ensure they perform at their maximum capacity and provide high-quality services to its customers; the human resource department of the company is highly efficient while selecting professionals and providing them appropriate training (Latemore, 2013). Following are some strengths of Qantas Airways human resource frame. Effective recruitment process Qantas Airways has a robust recruitment process that focuses on hiring professional and qualified candidate for different posts. The HR department thinks outside the box while selecting candidates for the job; they look for extra value in employees rather than just focusing on their credentials (Weller, 2007). To assess unique qualities of candidates, HR department conduct various exercises that provide necessary information which can be utilised while assigning candidates in different positions. Below is a diagram of Qantas Airways recruitment process: Recruitment Process of Qantas Airways Submission of Online Application Interview Psychometric Testing: numerical reasoning, personality tests, verbal reasoning, etc. Assessment Centre In-Tray Exercises Reference Background Checks: Citizenship, Visa, Residency and Medical Check Selection Diversity in Qantas According to Hewett (2016), the CEO of Qantas Airways Alan Joyce provided that maintaining diversity in top-level management assisted them in remaining strong during difficult times. The HR department is committed to maintaining a diverse environment which provides equal respect, value, and compensation to people from different background and gender. The HR department also establishes policies to promote and support recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples in Australia. As per the diversity report of Qantas Airways, following are the diversity policies of the company (Qantas, 2016): Training employees to treat each other with dignity and respect. Developing inclusive leaders that promote and value diversity in team and environment. Developing diversity programs to ensure employees work at their highest potential. Communicating organisational diversity policies and its growth with workers. Identifying and creating new partnerships that promote and develop diversity in the organisational Building an including culture that is flexible and provides services to all employees. Women Workers Qantas Airways has a long history of promoting and nurturing their women workers and providing various services for their development. Following facilities are provided by HR department to women employees (Qantas, 2016): Equal opportunity, harassment, and anti-discrimination policies Talent management in order to put women in leadership positions Increasing female engineers Female pilots in advertisement and promotion for recruitment Women @ Qantas development program Flexible work, safety, and other benefits Employees Talent Programs Qantas Airways human resource department has implemented various talent and education programs that are focused on improving knowledge and skills of its employees. The company provides scholarships and loans to employees who decided to study further in order to enhance their knowledge (Bamber, 2015). These programs attract a large number of qualified candidates in the recruitment procedure of Qantas Airways. Following are few programs provided by the corporation to its workers: Harvard leadership program Graduate program Women @ Qantas Development Program Emerging Leader program Indigenous careers @ Qantas team University cadetships and School-based traineeships Training and Development Qantas Airways provide world-class training to its employees and professionals to improve their productivity. The company focus on self-learning policies and foster it by establishing a flexible environment. The self-assessment assignments, tasks, and evaluation techniques help the employees to dwell deep and enhance their capabilities and skills (Gittell and Bamber, 2010). The training programs are divided into four main sections to fulfill the requirements of each trainee; this segregation allows employees to learn comfortably, and it reduces the feeling of discrimination. The trainers provide training based on the readiness of employees and motivate them to improve their performance. Weaknesses of Human Resource Frame Along with several strengths, there are few weaknesses in HR frame of Qantas Airways due to various challenges faced by them. Lack of New Talent More than 95 percent of the Qantas Airways operations are situated in Australia, in order to reduce cost; the company hires workers from local cities (Haynold and Rosander, 2006). The use of local recruitment policy narrows down the scope of the organisation to select talented and skilled employees. The number of airlines professionals is also low, which increases their bargaining demand at the time of recruitment. Qantas Airways provide training to improve the performance of employees, but workers without any knowledge or degree in airline find it difficult to learn new topics. New and talented employees bring new ideas with them that are beneficial for a corporations growth. Therefore, lack of talented employees is significant weaknesses of HR frame of Qantas Airways. High Employee Turnover Qantas Airways is known for the benefits provided by them to their employees, but in return, they constantly put high pressure on them to perform better. Especially in peak season, the employees face a high level of workload that can be dangerous for their physical and mental health. The company also provide flexible hours to its employees, but still, many workers do long shifts during both day and night (Pauka, 2016). These factors increase the employee turnover ratio, and HR department find it difficult to retain workers in the organisation. Employee Engagement In Qantas Airways, most of the employees find it difficult to engage with top-level management due to lack of effective HR policies; it is difficult for low-level workers to communicate their problems directly to the senior management of the company (Oxenbridge, Wallace, White, Tiernan and Lansbury, 2010). The HR staff also failed to effectively assess the requirements and needs of their workers which made employees disconnect from the organisation and it reduced their productivity as well. Lack of Ability to Change The human resource frame of Qantas Airways lacks the ability to change their policies as per the marketing requirements. The HR frame has rigid traditional policies that are not enough to fulfill the requirements of modern employees (Healey, 2016). The company has implemented various modern policies regarding diversity and discrimination, but there is still space for more. The HR department did not incorporate modern technology into their functions which reduces their ability to assess qualities of candidates using digital methods, it increases the time of recruitment and did not analyse the full potential of candidates (Allen, 2006). Recommendations Overall Qantas Airways has an efficient Human resource frame, but it includes few weaknesses as well. Following suggestions can assist the company in reducing their weaknesses and improve the effectiveness of their processes. The company should start international recruitment processes that allow them to attract and hire talented employees from all over the world. Using this strategy will widen the choices for company, and they will be able to hire employees as per their specific technical requirements. The company should recruit part-time employees during their peak season to reduce the pressure from their employees. They should also establish a positive environment in the workplace by assessing the requirement of their workers and fulfilling them. The senior-level HR management should enhance their engagement with low-level staff; the employees must be able to tell their problems and feel like a part of the family. A quarterly meet up program should be established which allow workers to give their feedback to top-level management, and in return, management motivates the employees. The HR department should implement modern technology into its operations to enhance their efficiency. For example, using digital assessment methods to measure capabilities and knowledge of the candidates will reduce the recruitment time and assist in selected of suitable candidates. Conclusion From the above observations, it can be concluded that human resource frame deals with human capital of an organisation. Effective management of human capital is necessary to sustain future development of a corporation. The HR frame of Qantas Airways has several strengths along with few weaknesses. The strengths include diversification in the workplace, equal opportunities to women, effective recruitment process that focus on selecting the best talents, talent programs for workers and high-quality training programs. The weaknesses include high turnover ratio, lack of implementation of modern technology, shortage of new talent, and low employees engagement. The company can adopt various policies to reduce its weaknesses such as international recruitments, hiring part-time workers, quarterly employees engagement program and using modern technologies in recruitment procedure. These strategies will benefit organisation by increasing the effectiveness of HR frame and sustain their future growth. References Allen, J., 2006. How to adjust to a new corporate culture after a merger.Keeping Good Companies,58(1), p.51. Bamber, G.J., 2015. Low-cost airlines product and labor market strategic choices: Australian perspectives.Members-only Library. Day, Q.I., 2009. Alan Joycee, Ceo Qantas.Retrieved July,5, p.2010. Gittell, J.H. and Bamber, G.J., 2010. High-and low-road strategies for competing on costs and their implications for employment relations: international studies in the airline industry.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,21(2), pp.165-179. Healey, B., 2016. How did Qantas improve its human resources management?. 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