Human resource management at Singapore Airlines.

Principles of Management ~ Kathryn K. Peters ~ 02025412

Human Resource Management at Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines are committed to service and product innovation despite this their mission statement has not changed they still aim to seek out new ways to develop and improve their position as leaders in innovation excellence.

Singapore Airlines as well as other organisations recruit for a number of reasons. The main reasons that led Singapore Airlines to maximise the quality of their service through Human Resource Management could be because of their success and rapid growth, which has occurred over the past twenty-two years. Toady Singapore airlines operate a fleet of over ninety aircrafts and own a 14.499 strong work force, which is a 3.5% increase than they had between the year 2000 and 2001. They travel across five continents linking more than one hundred destinations in more than forty countries. Other reasons include the changing jobs within the business, having to fill vacancies created by resignation, retirement, and dismissal and in many cases internal promotions.

To maintain their position as a leading global corporation, Singapore Airlines are committed to recruiting and nurturing job seekers to meet their manpower needs. The recruitment process can be very expensive in terms of the resources used in the process and the cost of employing the wrong staff. It is important to select the right candidates for an interview and for the job. Businesses in general need to clear about the requirements of the job and the kind of person they are looking for. This is done in to sections, the recruitment which involves producing a job advertisement including a job description and a person specification then carefully planning how and when to advertise. The second part is the selection process, which identifies the strengths and weaknesses of job applications, Curriculum vitaes, cover letters and most of all the short-listing of successful applicants.

Singapore Airlines recruit and select potential employees using applications which are available to be completed and submitted over the internet through their company website. Cabin crew vacancies are recruited through walk in interview processes. These vacancies are advertised in local newspapers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, and in Korea.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Singapore Airlines recruit both internally from within the business and externally, when recruiting internally financial savings can be made, employees with inside knowledge of how the business operates will need shorter periods of training. Internal promotions can be seen as an incentive for staff to work harder, the downside to recruiting internally is that the person promoted will have to be replaced and as in many cases the promotion of one employee could lead to conflict with another. Job advertisements take many forms. Many giving a job title, job description, location, salary, qualification requirements, experience required and usually concluded with a contact and address. Singapore Airlines advertisements provide potential candidates with helpful information and its clearness would probably discourage applications from people who do not have the required qualifications for the job – see attachment one.

Selection is based on candidates successfully passing the interview and psychometric tests and in cases of recruiting managers and administrative officers aptitude is tested. Psychometric and attitude testing are used to find out whether individuals have the right personalities and qualities to do specific types of work. ‘A psychometric test is a way of assessing an individual personality and motivation often by the means of a paper and pencil questionnaire’ - Kiersey Character and Temperament sorter. These test are now conducted electronically, psychometric tests can draw out an individuals willingness or ability to work in a team or to handle stress. Modern day organisations rely on these tests, they believe they are reliable indicators of the personality of an individual and that they are useful predictors of whether individuals will fit into the organisation and its culture.

‘Throughout employment with Singapore Airlines employees are given opportunities for development and training to enhance their profession as well as their personal competences’ – Sim Kay Wee (senior vice president)

The SIA group spends over $100 million on training each year and its training expenditure per employee exceeds Singapore’s national average per worker. Their investment in employees training forms the largest component of the airlines expenditure, which shows their seriousness about staff development – Reuters News Agency.

Singapore Airlines is an employee-focused organisation, the company believes in developing the individual to his/her fullest potential. Emphasis is placed on training and employees are encouraged to attend courses which would help develop their work skills, provision is also made for self development courses such as public speaking skills and stress management courses- Singaporeair.com/careers.

Singapore Airlines offer employees the ability to move from one post to another within the organisation. This allows them to gain flexibility within their workforce by having the option of moving employees to different jobs and geographical areas according to changing economic conditions. Singapore Airliners allow most employees to change job roles every four years. SIA’s investment in staff development created 3.1 training places for every employees during the year 2002 which works out to be 15.9 training days per employee. SIA had to let 114-cabin crew trainees go in November 2001 due to the cut back of services on their routes, as a good employer arrangements were made foe 85 of them to join the SilkAir cabin crew.

Singapore Airlines provide employees with many benefits. Employees with at least six months service for every year of employment are entitled to a free air ticket to any Singapore Airline destination.

Employees are entitled to the profit sharing bonus announced annually based on the companies performance along with basic dental and medical care, subsidised insurance cover and holiday subsidy plans. The year 2001 saw a cut back in benefits, due to low profit. No profit sharing bonus was paid, which also led to a wage cut. The drop in profit was not as serious as predicted so wages were restored to their previous levels after a period of five months - Evening Standard

Bibliography

Internet News Articles

(Results of a search engine query on Singapore Airlines)

Reuters News Agency – Thursday 20th March 2003

Singapore Airlines, Internet www page at ULR: (accessed 03/04/03)

SIA International culinary panel serves up new talents (18/03/03)
Singapore Airlines receives top honours for investor relations (21/11/02)
SIA releases 114 trainees (16/11/02)
SIA group management staff to experience salary cuts of between seven and fifteen percent (Evening Standard 08/10/01)

Singapore Airlines, Internet www page at ULR:

http:// (accessed 22/03/03 – 07/07/03)

Human Resources at Singapore Airlines – Case Study (Chee, 1993)

Singapore Airlines Annual Report 2001/02 pg: 3, 29, 49, and 94