Problematic or Challenging Aspect of HRM Essay

Introduction

One major aspect of human resource management is to deal with the management of employees within the organization. Proper employees’ management is beneficial to the organization as it results into increased performance.

Drucker observed that investment in good human resource management practices as well as programs have an increased advantage to the organization in terms of improved productivity in addition to superior financial performance (74). Therefore, organizations especially those that are based on developing countries should focus on human resource management practices that are aimed at improving the organization performance.

Researches indicate that the success of organizations within the current highly competitive environment hugely depends on the type of their employees and innovative human resources management programs and practices (Greer 156). Recruitment, training and development of employees are some of the aspects of human resource management that are critical for the organization success.

Therefore, this paper critically examines some of the recruitment, training and development challenges that need to be addressed by human resource management within an organization.

First the paper will focus on the description of the recruitment, training and development challenges within the Fly Emirates carbine crew staff and then critically analyzing the root causes of the problems. The solution to the problems will then be proposed and how these solutions will be implemented. Finally the paper will look at the obstacles to the successful implementation of the solutions.

The challenging aspect of HRM

As indicated, recruitment training and development of employees is one such aspect of human resource management that should not be taken lightly. Thus, this paper will primarily deal with the recruitment and training problems that human resources within the Fly Emirates should deal with particularly on their carbine crew.

In the recent past, the Fly Emirates airline has seen a tremendous growth creating opportunities for over one thousand employees. In particular, the Fly Emirates airline has employed 440 carbine crew employees who are recruited from various countries around the world. However, the clients have been complaining of poor service delivery especially during flights. This problem has been exacerbated by poor recruitment procedures and lack of proper training services offered to the new Fly Emirates recruits.

A description of the problem and its effects

I work as a carbine crew within the Fly Emirates airline short haul services between Oman and Kuwait. Our major role as crew members is to ensure that we provide the best customer services to the clients while at the same time ensuring that they are safe and comfortable throughout the flight. Crew members are supposed to deal with any emerging emergency and security situation during the flight and at the same time administering first aid to the passengers and any other non-crew members on board.

As part of our job, we have to ensure that all the equipment needed for emergency purposes are in proper working condition prior to the flight. We also have to ensure that the supplies can sufficiently serve the clients.

Moreover, Fly Emirates carbine crew offers assistance to the passengers who cannot easily board the plane in addition to demonstrating safety procedures and use of equipments to all the passengers. Generally, the Fly Emirates carbine crew ensures that the flight is safe and pleasant to all the passengers and the non-crew members on board.

The above description highlights all the challenging roles of the carbine crew. In fact without proper training on these roles, none can achieve them. Basically, the Fly Emirates carbine crew members should be trained on how to deal with emergency and security situations during the flight. Yet, these are not the only responsibilities required of the Fly Emirates carbine crew members.

There are other roles that are considered minor but essential for the success of service delivery. These include serving meals and refreshments to the passengers, completing the paper work after the flight, checking passenger seat belts during takeoff and landing. These duties not only require appropriate skills gained during training but also through experience.

It is true that without proper recruitment of trained and experienced carbine crew members and continuous training and development of these workers, the Fly Emirates carbine crew staff will endlessly contribute negatively to the client and organizational service delivery. This is what has primarily affected the first growing airline dubbed as the Fly Emirates.

With lack of highly trained and experienced carbine crew employees around the world, most airlines have been recruiting insufficiently trained carbine crew members as management trainees.

However, the personnel department does not take the necessary steps to train these new recruits as they assume that they will acquire the needed skills during the assigned tasks or job.

The main issue here is that the main job requires highly skilled personnel to deliver the necessary services. In fact, the Fly Emirates carbine crew needs not only to be trained on emergency and security issues, but also on flight management basics that can only be got through on job training. Therefore, human resource managers should reconsider their recruitment procedures and training programs so as to equip the crew members with appropriate skills to deal with the challenges (Drucker 75).

Critical analyses of the root causes of the problem

As mentioned before, proper recruitment procedures that identify the highly skilled staff as well as staff training programs are essential for the success of the organization. In fact, equipping employees with appropriate skills is necessary in enhancing their performance (Jones 51).

The major cause for the lack of the necessary skills needed for the service delivery is the deficiency of skilled and experienced workers within the job market. Fresh graduates are few and they need an extra training so as to become effective and efficient. Lack of proper training programs for such new recruits within the organization; result in having poorly skilled employees who are ineffective and inefficient (Siddique 222).

The other cause is the UAE employment policy that focuses on employing the country nationals. In fact the nationalization policy requires that major organizations employ to the largest percentage the country nationals (Siddique 230). However, many locals have not taken the necessary training in the carbine crew that would equip them with the needed skills. Even those who have the training still need further training. The problem is that the organization has not appreciated the need of adequate skills in this area hence have not developed better training programs such as that seen in pilots on job upgrading program.

Other problems that the human resource managers have to deal with are the cross-cultural differences. In fact short haul services operate within the Middle Eastern countries that have almost similar cultural environment. Most of the carbine crews are normally sourced from other countries other than the Middle East countries. Therefore, these workers need to be retrained on the required skills based on the cultural environment in which they will operate (Jones 55).

In as much as the original training incorporated the international standards, what constitute the international standards regarding the appropriate behavior and the implications for business success has been taken from various sources primarily from developed countries (Jones 55).

The proposed realistic and suitable solutions to the problem

The Fly Emirates face numerous staff training and development problems which in turn greatly affects the level of service delivery to the clients. However, to remain competitive in the airline industry, there are quite a number of realistic solutions that can be offered for implementation so as to address the cause of such ensuing problems. The solutions can be categorized under leadership and management (Guest 263).

Leadership solutions

Strategy development: The Fly Emirates leadership must have the requisite skills and knowledge to adequately develop a business and visionary model which fits all the demands that are being made and circumstances which accrue in the Fly Emirates Company. The business strategy must take account of the training and development needs of the carbine staff members.

Staff motivation and development strategy: Basically, in every competitive business environment, an organizational must always lay down strategies on how to develop and motivate its staffs. In fact, given the nature of services that the Fly Emirates carbine crew undertakes, it is worth that the company management appropriately rewards the staffs. The rewards can take many forms ranging from promotions to increments in the remuneration packages.

However, to adequately perform their tasks, training must be provided to all carbine crew members on an equal basis to avoid promotional and reward biasness (Truss 1122). Issue pertaining to level of education and experience must also be taken into account when offering promotion and reward schemes.

Persuading and influencing: Prior to assigning specific tasks to the carbine crew members, the responsible leadership must have the necessary skills and knowledge of explaining the strategic Fly Emirates business issues to pertinent groups and individuals who are based either outside or inside the Fly Emirates airline.

It is essential that for tasks to be satisfactorily accomplished to meet the airline goals as well as the clients’ demands, the leaders must win the staff support. Any training and development needs that are implemented without the acknowledgement and support of the staff are bound to fail or being refuted (Guest 264).

Management solutions

Planning and budgeting: The training, service delivery and staff development problems that the Fly Emirates currently faces emanate perhaps because of poor planning and budgeting strategies.

The management of Fly Emirates should take into consideration the available and identifiable resources including finance, staffs, equipment and aircraft which must be appropriately planned for and effectively managed. To realize this, it is deemed necessary that this airline company implement strategies that ensure all service deliveries; training and development elements or resources are combined in a succession of annual plans with accountabilities and specific targets (Truss 1122).

Development of standard operating procedures: Assigning tasks to any carbine crew staff without proper training and development in that particular field or area of assignment is unhealthy. In fact, such an assignment might make a worker to be very unproductive and fail to deliver as per the clients’ demands or airline expectations. This implies that, the Fly Emirates management needs to develop standardized procedures take corrective actions, monitor performance and set targets for major operations.

By whom, when and how the solution should be implemented

The leadership and management solutions to the problems that Fly Emirates currently faces must be implemented by the entire Fly Emirates leadership and management staffs but with the support of other members and workers. Devoid of incorporating junior employees, the intended solutions might fail to realize their intended goals and objectives.

The implementation of these solutions needs to take place prior to the assignment of carbine crew members to undertake specific tasks. In fact, the solutions should be in place when planning for the business operations and before the prevailing problems worsen. However, since the solutions assume the channel of change or problem management strategy, their implementations should be gradual. There must phase by phase implementation to warrant the success of the solutions (Guest 264).

Probable obstacles to successful solution implementation

Like all challenges, the internal resistance to change is one of the major obstacles. It is not easy for not only human resources department but also the whole organization to easily change their policies.

However the problem can easily be handled using the experiences workers are facing on the job and also using the passenger feedback. The head of the carbine crew department must begin by drawing the proposal to the human resources. However, the proposal could easily be rejected based on other factors such as the organization goals and objectives.

The other potential obstacle is the financial aspect to the proposed solution (Guest 271). The organization Approval to finance the proposed solution would be a major step towards having the highly skilled work force in the carbine. Having highly skilled personnel would be a sure way of providing excellent services to the customers. The other issue could be lack of corporation with other stakeholders such as the training department.

Works Cited

Drucker, Peter. “They’re Not Employees, They’re People.” Harvard Business Review, 80.1 (2002): 70–77. Print.

Greer, Chales. Strategic Human Resource Management: A General Managerial Approach, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.

Guest, David. “Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and Research Agenda”. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8.3(1997): 263-276. Print.

Jones, Stephanie. “Training and Cultural Context in the Arab Emirates: Fighting a Losing Battle.” Employee Relations 30.1 (2008): 48-62. Print.

Siddique, Malim. “Job Analysis: A Strategic Human Resource Management Practice.” The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15.1 (2004): 219–244. Print.

Truss, Charles. “Complexities and Controversies in Linking HRM with Organizational Outcomes”. Journal of Management Studies, 38.8 (2001): 1121-1149. Print.