Introduction
EasyJet is a British airline offering domestic and international services across more than six hundred routes in over thirty-two countries. Based in London’s Luton Airport, the carrier enjoys a huge customer base due to its competitive quality services, customer care rapport, and increased employee motivation and retention (EasyJet Plc: At Glance n.d.).
Other four United Kingdom’s airports within which the carrier enjoys wide market base include Gatwick, Stansted, Southend, Bristol, and Edinburgh. Likewise, the carrier boasts of huge markets in Malpesa, Naples, Venice, Nice, Basel, and Geneva. Other areas of influence include Paris Orly, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Lisbon, Lyon, and Rome Fiumicino.
In order to consolidate the market base, EasyJet Company has a series of clearly defined goals and objectives. This paper seeks to explore the culture in EasyJet Company that drives it to success. Similarly, the paper seeks to understand the gaps that exist within the success structures that derail the company’s goals.
At the end of the analysis, the paper gives recommendation for areas that require improvement to ensure EasyJet remains competitive in the provision of air travel services.
Strategies for Success
In order to execute these core values and ensure a high rate of return on investment, EasyJet employs various strategies for success. Some of the key strategies are highlighted below.
Employee variables
High performance culture
EasyJet strives to develop a high performance culture in the provision of goods and services to its customers. In order to do this, the company promotes employee engagement, training, and appraisal to ensure adequate motivation. Such a setting together with high rewards for employees and instant appreciation structures ensure that EasyJet enjoys a competitive advantage over other players in the airline transport sector (Gostick and Elton 2012).
Employee engagement reviews and statistics help forms employee engagement programmes of the company. This approach takes place on an annual basis with continuous improvement to implement the outcomes of the surveys successfully.
As Gostick and Elton (2012) observe, such employee examinations help the company evaluate individual goals and ambitions of the employees, thereby creating an avenue for the development of company goals and objectives within specified timeframes.
Similarly, the company ensures inclusivity in job execution. In this context, EasyJet captains and non-technical staffs get additional day trainings and capacity building on leadership and management roles in the company. Such an initiative plays a critical function in supporting the commercial objectives of the company.
Effective communication culture
For an organisation to achieve its strategic goals, it is important for the leaders to develop an effective open communication culture (Slack, Brandon-Jones, and Johnston 2013). EasyJet has an adequate internal and external communication structure that enables employees stay up-to-date with the business progress.
The chief executive officer holds weekly call on the top management staff while the employees in the lower carders of management get updates from frequent news round-ups. In the same way, the executive management teams organise frequent base visits to communicate new strategies of management to the people on the ground. All these coupled with the community-based newsletter ensure a complete chain of communication from the company’s leaders to the consumers (Belasen 2000).
Recognition and reward
Reward and recognition plays an imperative role in recruitment and retention of employees as Armstrong (2012) denotes. Salary and wage reviews carried out annually with reference to the trending market rates ensure that employees’ packages are at per with the prevailing economic situations.
The focus on cash and variable payment includes annual performance-based bonuses calculated depending on employee and company output levels and grants of company shares (Slack, Brandon-Jones, and Johnston 2013). In the company’s competitive recruitment segment, EasyJet employs an inclusive policy that ensures complete regards to affirmative action.
Operational Process
EasyJet has an established recruitment campaigns that ensures recruitment of the best human resource base. In the company’s recruitment policy, recruitment recommends flexible employment contract for the cabin crew. This policy ensures continued growth in the company’s employee base.
Currently, the company has more than seven hundred and fifty cabin crew and more than one hundred flexi crew pilots (EasyJet Plc: At Glance n.d.). With 38% internal recruitment structure, the management and administrative department of the company has more than three hundred functionalities (EasyJet Plc: Low Cost with Care and Convenience n.d.).
Employee wellbeing culture
Employee physical and psychological health influence company performance. Driven by the desire for maximum employee production, EasyJet Airline Company recognises employees’ wellbeing and wellness. Employee engagement terms takes into account an employee’s personal commitments, goals, and health status (Attridge 2005).
Successful and profitable companies rely on an industrious and healthy workforce. In order to maintain the health status of the employee, EasyJet offer support to employees undergoing stressful situations, and those professional and social challenges.
These it does through the Employee Assistance Programme under the human resource department. EasyJet anonymously assesses employees’ stress situations through a confidential reporting helpline set out for employees to report their concerns (Goldsby and Martichenko 2005).
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Employment of a highly productive workforce combined with great innovation and research avenues within EasyJet enables the technical and management staffs to develop viable innovative and creative ideas that seek to consolidate the customer base (Beyerlein and Beyerlein 2006). Low cost of travel and relatively cheap tickets of the business class remains the greatest innovative idea that continues to earn the company great profits.
With the desire to capitalise on the frequent passengers using the economy class for business trips, EasyJet developed a low-cost ticketing system with increased carriage capacity. At the same time, increase in fleet and high number of international routes capitalised on the economic and business class with relatively high quality services, ensuring increased revenues.
Under this model, low-cost passengers with frequent travels get the service provided in the premium class at relatively low costs (Dodgson and Gann 2008). Low-cost-High fleet carriage ensures highly focused point flyers, limited flight schedules for the carriers, and increased number of refundable ticketless flights.
Such a system consolidates the loyalty of the frequent business travellers within nine hundred mile destinations. For the fleet carriers, the model ensures maximum capitalisation of the aircraft capacity based on effective ground services, controlled flight schedules, reduced timeframes in the hauling stations, as well as a high number of flight trips between cities and secondary airports (EasyJet Plc: At Glance n.d.).
These initiatives ensure that the aircraft take minimal time on the ground with high frequency flight times. Notably, increased number of flights increases the company’s earnings. Moreover, the model provides simplified structures necessary for efficiency at the workplace, especially in customer service provision.
Efficient service delivery with a lean and productive human resource system translates to high productivity, leading to the competitive edge that EasyJet enjoys in the air travel industry. Similarly, in the process modelling, EasyJet maximise on the use of the Boeing 737 series (EasyJet Plc: Low Cost with Care and Convenience n.d.). With a large carrier and relatively simple navigation manual, the use of this series ensures that the company cuts costs of training and re-training of captains and pilots, replacing spare parts, and maintenance of the aircraft.
With the processing model cutting down the cost related to carriage and aircraft maintenance, EasyJet enjoys high productivity and profit margins. The management has also created a culture of quality-service provision among employees. In this move, the principles of agile and lean leadership are evident.
The management uses feedback from consumers to develop fully new products in the airline. In addition, there exist a decentralised decision-making framework that helps in empowering employees in making responsible decisions in a timely manner.
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Supply Chain Management (SCM) encompasses all activities that have to occur so that consumers get the right goods and services within a specified time schedule. SCM at EasyJet commence with the suppliers and closes with consumers.
In a bid to deal with customers directly, EasyJet has cut down its supply chain; it primarily use downstream supply chain type of management. However, it occasionally uses upstream option to rent and purchase planes from Airbus and Boeing (Supply Chain Management 2009). In its SCM, the company uses the push strategy to initiate communication between the purchaser and the vendor.
Advertisements at EasyJet create awareness among consumers, hence making them opt to use the products. This is a pull strategy of the SCM as used by the company. In addition, the company has automated its services to increase efficiency within the supply chain, as well as reduce costs.
Service concept
EasyJet boasts of a superior built-in business advantage. In order to hack away the overhead costs of production, EasyJet takes some of the unconventional approaches. For example, its modern 737 aircraft run on a relatively lower cost in comparison to the older versions.
Reduction in cost is associated with increased number of seat in the EasyJet’s branded version of the aircraft. Similarly, a 737 airbus requires less training and retraining of crew thus reducing the cost of production. This unique approach allows the company to develop a cost per set model in comparison to competitors in the airline travel industry.
In the seat sales model, prices start at very low levels and increases as the company registers more sales. However, it is important to note that relative price level for the seats remain lowest in comparison to the competitors (O’Neil 2003).
Capacity management and resource control
EasyJet promotes seat-by-seat sales model through a series of initiative. Capacity management and controlled used of resources represent one of the underlying drivers of this model. The company eliminated the business class of passenger.
In a conventional airliner running business class services, the maximum number of passengers in a 737 airbus stands at 109. However, EasyJet, after scrapping the business class modifies 737 airbuses to a capacity of 149 passengers. This helps reduce the cost of cabin crew overheads.
Similarly, EasyJet runs a ticketless system of booking. This implies that the company engages directly with the passengers reducing the costs of contracting agents. Ticketless systems also reduce the frequency of delays passengers undergo when picking up their tickets.
Contrary to many air travel carriers, EasyJet does not offer free food and snacks to the passengers. This helps cut down the cost of cabin overheads. All these factors coupled with avoidance of congested airports with delays help the company enjoy significant gains through the reduction of turnaround costs and maximum utilization of resources (O’Neil 2003).
Quality Assurance
As a management strategy, quality assurance focuses on providing confidence within the employee base. It stipulates a set of procedures and measures necessary to ensures quality standards and process that propels the company to develop goods and services beyond the customer expectations. Quality assurance entails all activities in the product design, development, production, and installation.
In EasyJet’s quality assurance policy, the company has, pre-determined sets of standards required for effective quality control. This policy aims at detecting defective products especially in the fleet tools and aircraft machinery. As a result, the company manages to control the purchases of counterfeit products that jeopardize productivity (O’Neil 2003).
EasyJet’s Four Vs and their Impacts on Organizational Performance
Volume dimension
This dimension involves the development of work systems and processes that improve productivity. Volume dimension is set out in the company’s manual; it defines clearly the output targets with specified timeframes (Wang 2009). In such a setting, structuring of volume goals lowers the unit costs of production since a large number of products take care of expenses like rent and other overhead costs.
At EasyJet, the use of the Boeing 737 series ensures carriage of high number of business class passengers in relation to other aircrafts. The earning from extra passengers help cut down production costs. A typical Airbus A319 comes with one hundred and twenty-four seats.
Variety dimension
In this operational management dimension, companies strive to remain flexible in order to meet the dynamic demands of the customer. For the small business enterprises, the major aim remains keeping up with the dynamic customer fashions, while for the multinational companies, consolidating the customer base in regards to loyalty plays a key role in this dimension (Noe and Noe 2012).
In order to earn the best returns out of this dimension, it is mandatory for companies to employ adequate skilled staff for service improvement. For EasyJet, recruitment, employee training and development, and workforce retention structures play a significant role in executing this dimension. EasyJet boasts of committed, passionate, and selfless employees driven by the desire for increased output levels and improved customer care.
Visibility dimension
This dimension focuses on the level of expose a company gives to its operations and services. For example, with increased internet connectivity in the global markets, online marketing strategies are important drivers of this dimension. Major companies continue to use online platforms to maximise market sales.
EasyJet uses its online ticketless platform in order to maximise on the sales of seats in flight carriers. Online booking service increases the level of visibility of the company while maintaining accuracy, precision, and reliability in service delivery. Similarly, these electronic points of sale increase the rates of service delivery since they allow customers to choose from the wide variety of service under an automated checkout system.
Variation dimension
This takes care of the work output levels in regards to seasonality of service demands. In order to maximise sales volumes during the peak seasons without stretching the productivity levels of the existing staff, Phelps (2003) notes that major companies recruit part-time employees or short-term contractors to cover for the workforce deficit during peak seasons.
EasyJet enjoys the use of this dimension, especially on the number of fleet cabin crews during the peak travel seasons (EasyJet Plc: Low Cost with Care and Convenience n.d.). Such recruitment structures eliminate the probability of high opportunity costs during the low seasons.
Recommendation
The rate of globalisation requires risky and daring global investments. Therefore, focusing on a limited area, confines a company’s profit levels. Inasmuch as EasyJet boasts of high number of destinations, its services are limited to only thirty-two countries.
Creating global partnerships with other carriers in services delivery as they explore new parts of the world is a sector that requires prompt evaluation. Despite the difficulties that arise in exploring new markets, the company has the necessary resources to acquire new destinations in Africa, Asia, and the US.
Creating partnerships with local carriers provides and ample avenue for accessing new markets as the company strives to conquer the global air transport services is one approach that can be of great help to the company’s sustainable growth (Pollack 2001).
Conclusion
EasyJet stands as the leading airliner without passengers connecting to destination via various hubs. Despite flying longer distances, the carrier ensures that passengers go through end-to-end journey structures. This ensures that the aircraft takes ore hours in the air than on the ground.
Markedly, this strategy does not only seek to increase efficiency in passenger transports, but also acts as one of the innovative ideas with the widest base of multiplier advantages. If the company introduces a culture of profit making under the same circumstance it currently offer services, high value profit margins are achievable.
Likewise, exploration of newer markets outside Europe acts a recipe for improved earnings. Putting together these personal traits within the innovation and creativity culture in the company’s policies ensures that EasyJet remain a major competitor in the air travel business.
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