E84 : Human Resource Management

Ryanair is a European based passenger airline company that has an objective of becoming the biggest scheduled passenger airline by bringing continuous improvements in its services. In such a challenging market, the company plans to overtake its competitors by offering its services at a lower cost than that of the competitors.

The company has recently opened 10 new bases at some of the primary European airports and is working hard to expand its fleet to 430 aircrafts by the mid of this year. The company is also working on introducing new flight routes and grow its traffic over 130 million. To achieve its goals and objectives, the company is mainly focusing on the improvement of its services, reducing the fare and improving the condition of its human resources by implementing efficient human resource management functions.

Training and development plan

As discussed above, Ryanair airlines has been planning to expand its presence in the European market by increasing its fleet and improving its services, for which, it has been highly relying upon the competencies of its human resources.

Training and development programs are a core function in human resource management that are aimed at increasing the technical skills and competencies of the employees and to bring about an overall development in their way or working (Salas, et al., 2012). Training and development is given a lot of importance at Ryanair airlines. The management of the company offers training and development opportunities to all its staff members without any kind of discrimination. The candidates hired by the company are required to undergo an initial training program while there are recurrent training programs arranged for them at later stages. A major part of the initial orientation or training program is related with the safety precautions that are to be followed by the employees while the employees working as cabin crew have to undergo fire and evacuation drill trainings every year, till the time they are associated with the company. The company also offers salary hikes to those employees who complete advance training levels but there is still a lot of scope for improvement when it comes to training and development at Ryanair Airlines. Some improvement strategies for the company are discussed below:

Training need analysis

From the case study, it can be observed that the company has its own way of training and developing its employees and it is not doing anything to assess whether the employees need to learn new skills or competencies. Most of its training programs are the same for the entire workforce and are implemented year after year. Therefore, it is crucial for the company to conduct a training need analysis on a regular basis.

Conducting a training need assessment might bring some urgent issues into the notice of the managers. The company is mostly focusing on safety precautions and flying capabilities while it also needs to focus on training and development programs that would enhance the ability of its staff to serve the passengers. The quality of services offered by an airline is the top attribute that the passengers look for and the company needs to implement training and development programs that would enable its staff to offer higher quality services to the passengers. Another area that the airline can target for improvement by implementing training and development programs is presentation. The crew working in the airlines should undergo training and development programs that can improve their presentation skills, such as dressing up, setting up food and drinks in flights, ensure cleanliness, etc. Such attributes are given a lot of value by the customers and can help the company in attracting a greater pool of customers. Lastly, the airline crew should also be trained for providing first aid to the passengers. There can be a number of instances where the passengers can get hurt during the flight. In such cases, some professional health care personnel might not be available and the flight crew should be able to provide first aid to the passengers.

Therefore, it is clear that the company needs to undertake training need assessments more often and give priority to other skills and competencies as well.

Kashbox model

KASH, which stands for Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits, states that all the four components are important for the success of an organisation and to achieve better performance levels because most of the times, business organisations focus more on knowledge and skills of the employees and forget the role that is played by attitude and habits (Salmon, n.d.)

Comparing the strategies of the company using KASH model, we can actually understand the effectiveness of its training program. The training and development system of the company addresses all four aspects i.e. knowledge, skills, attitude and habits (Czarnecki, 2013). The company is already focusing on orientation program and is making its employees undergo training and development programs on a regular basis, which enables the company to address all 4 attributes defined in this model. Orientation and regular training programs is increasing the knowledge of the employees, increases their skills, improves their attitude and improves their work habits as well.

Recruitment, selection and performance

Ryanair airlines has been implementing very efficient human resource management policies in the past few years, which is paving the way for the company to achieve its organisational goals and objectives. The company already has 13,000 aviation professionals working under it while it promoted 900 employees in the past year, which generated a vacancy for around 1,500 new employees.

To achieve the best results, the company needs to strengthen its recruitment, selection and performance management systems even more. First of all, offering equal opportunity to the candidates is important because the company has to offer services to clients from different cultural backgrounds and to serve them better, it should have a diverse workforce. Another area that requires improvement is the recruitment and selection process through a licensed approved organisation (Kumari, 2012). Making the candidates pay for their own training and development programs can sometimes be dissatisfying and demotivate them, which can decrease the potential pool of talent available for selection. Instead of making the conditions tougher for the potential candidates, the company can introduce a clause where it would wipe off all the training and development expenses that are paid by the candidates, in case they are selected by the company. Such strategies can help the company in attracting a large pool of talented employees from all around the world.

Performance management is another area of concern for the company because performance is not being given much importance in the case. Performance management can be of a great benefit when a company implements aggressive strategies to take over the market. Implementing a performance management system will allow the company to keep a check on employee behaviour and attitude while fostering an environment where meeting performance objectives is a prime focus (Ferreira & Otley, 2009). The management at Ryanair airlines can also associate a reward system with its performance management system so that it can engage the employees and can motivate them to demonstrate exceptional performance levels, which would ultimately help the company in meeting its mission and vision. Further, the company can also use a Kirkpatrick model to measure the performance of its training and development programs.

Kirkpatrick model 

This four-level training evaluation model was developed by Kirkpatrick to assess the effectiveness of training programs. The four levels in the model are reaction, learning, behaviour and results.

In the first stage, the reaction of the employees to the training program is assessed. Measuring the reaction is an important part as it helps in understanding how well the training was received. Measuring the achievement of learning objectives is the second stage in the Kirkpatrick model. This stage helps the managers in checking whether the training objectives formulated by them have been met or not. Measuring the achievements of training objectives also assists managers in knowing what the trainees have learnt and enables them to improve future training programs. The third stage involves an evaluation of the change in behaviour demonstrated by the employees (Training Industry, 2013). Measuring the change in behaviour will allow the managers of the airlines to check if the employees have been able to transfer their learning to their job when the conditions become favourable. In the final stage, the managers will be required to analyse the results of the training program and checking if the training program has proven to be useful from a business point of view.  

There are other learning models as well that can be used by the company to measure the effect of a training program. One such model is the Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method in which two cases are compared. One case is successful training program while the other case is a failed training program. By comparing the most successful and the least successful training programs, business organisations can identify areas that require improvements (Downes, 2016). Similarly, Anderson’s Value of Learning Method is aimed at focusing on the alignment between the strategic goals of an organisation and the training objectives. Under this method, a training program is successful only if the two goals are aligned with one another.

Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model is one of the best models to evaluate the training effectiveness because it is relatively simple to understand and considers the impact of the training program on each level of the organisation (Rouse, 2011). Where most models rely on the measurement of the difference that the training program has made on the employees, the model developed by Kirkpatrick also takes organisational conditions into mind. At times, it can be possible that the training program was a success but the organisational conditions were not favourable for the employees to implement their learning to their jobs.

Conclusion: 

Ryanair Airlines is a competent company in the European market and is implementing very effective strategies to take over the market with a storm. There are certain areas where the company can make improvements, such as the training and development program, recruitment and selection, performance management, etc. which would increase the chances of its success in the market.

Reference:

Rouse, D., 2011. Employing Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Framework to Determine the Effectiveness of Health Information Management Courses and Programs. Perspect Health Inf Manag. , 8(Spring).

Training Industry, 2013. Four Levels of Evaluation. [Online] Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/wiki/four-levels-of-evaluation/?utm_content=cpdc
[Accessed 5 May 2018].

Ferreira, A. & Otley, D., 2009. The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis. Management Accounting Research , 20(4), pp. 263-282.

Kumari, N., 2012. A Study of the Recruitment and Selection process: SMC Global. Industrial Engineering Letters, 2(1), pp. 34-43.

Salmon, M., n.d. Lean Six Sigma Case Study within a Public School District..

Czarnecki, H., 2013. KASH - Knowledge, Attitude, Skills & Habits. [Online]
Available at: https://virtual.auburnworks.org/profiles/blogs/kash-knowledge-attitude-skills-habits[Accessed 5 May 2018].

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Kraiger, K. & Smith-Jentsch, K. A., 2012. The Science of Training and Development in Organizations What Matters in Practice. Psychological Science in the Public Interest , 12 June, 13(2), pp. 74-101.

Downes, A., 2016. 4 Learning Evaluation Models You Can Use. [Online]
Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/4-learning-evaluation-models-can-use
[Accessed 5 May 2018].