Human Resource Management
Singapore Airline is one of the strongest brands in Asia. Behind most of today’s successful service organizations stands a firm commitment to effective management of human resource, including recruitment, selection, training, motivations and retention of employees.
From the interview with SIA’s senior management, we know SIA can get the best achievement in Asia is a matter of course. To support its service excellence strategy, SIA adopts a rigorous system and process for staff selection and recruitment. For example, cabin crews who must be under 26 years of age are initially assessed on both academic qualifications and physical attributes. SIA pilots are requires to compete 29 months of comprehensive training before they are allowed to take off and land a plane. We think SIA can do well if their managers take the five interrelated and mutually supportive elements.
- Stringent selection and recruitment process. The right people are your most important assets and the wrong people are liability. SIA should choose the right people and make more profit. The selection of staff and cabin crews should be stringently and the process of recruitment must be strictly.
- Extensive investment in training and retraining. The airline places considerable emphasis on training is very important, so much so that training is one of its focal points in its human resource and service excellence strategy. SIA should put extensive investment in training and retraining the staff and the cabin crews. And SIA should do the result of extensive training that equips front-line staff with the required skills and attitude.
- Successful service delivery teams. SIA should develop its teamwork among its diverse group because in a view of importance of teamwork in the delivery of service excellence. SIA should give delivering warm, friendly and service.
- Empowerment of front-line staff to control quality. Service staff can be very important for a firm’s competitive positioning. SIA should to train its front-line staff –the Singapore Girls-to become synonymous with SIA and the personification of quality service. SIA should make front-line staff is empowered to make appropriate decisions to customize service delivery and take corrective actions instantaneously during service recovery. They must achieve a situation that somebody say SIA, they can combine the airline industry’s most instantly recognizable figures, if SIA can achieve this, it can give SIA a key competitive advantage as no other airlines can manage to brand and promote its cabin crew as successfully.
- Motivating staff through rewards and recognition. Understanding that many service businesses fail because they do not utilize the full range of available rewards effectively, SIA should offer various forms of rewards, including interesting and varied job content and performance based share options.
Controlling
In controlling, managers evaluate how well an organization is achieving its goals and take action to maintain or improve performance.
United States authorities have announced to strengthen the security requirement of the affected is the direct flight service (Sin Chew Jit Poh, 1996). To be more excellent, SIA should provide direct flight to U.S. For example, it can open a new direct line to Los Angeles in Changi Airport. So improving the security of direct flight should become an important action for SIA.
The passengers and cabin staffs’ safety is the primary considerations. Hence SIA enhanced the security procedures including some additional security measure. Like before boarding, the passengers’ luggage should be checked strictly. The passengers should accept a type of body check. One hour before the plane lands, passengers cannot tough baggage and so on.
At first Singapore Airlines faced a worse-than-expected quarterly loss as the global economic slowdown affected profit margins. For suggestions, SIA’s priority way to avoid this is reducing cost. “Advance booking indicate that demand for air travel has stopped declining and is gradually recovering.” The growing presence of budget airlines in the region was making life tougher for premium carriers like Singapore Airlines. Budget carriers like AirAsia of Malaysia are on an aggressive expansion drive despite the economic downturn. SIA also can decide to reduce the employees’ salaries, reducing the number of working days as well.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Singapore Airline (SIA) has garnered a host of accolades for its outstanding level of service and it can sustain its enviable position and become the world’s best airline as well as the most profitable if SIA keep innovating and changing.
SIA has managed to achieve what many others in the aviation industry and only dream of: cost-effective service excellence that is reinforced by effective human resource management and a positive company culture and image.
In addition to that, the exercise Planning, Leading, Organizing and Controlling (POLC) in the management of the company will help steer the airlines with greater more effective and efficient work flow.
In sum, Singapore Airlines, like any other business that operates in the global marketplace, is subject to the pressures of change. Yet considering the core competencies of SIA as part of its withstanding reputation as a leader in the airline industry, it will soar as high as its flights – breaking barriers and opening more opportunities for high quality service for the fulfilment of customers’ high expectations.
References
- Daniel Chan, ‘The story of Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Girl’,
Journal of Management Development, 19, no. 6 (2000): 456–72.
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Sin Chew Jit Poh, (2010-01-21), ‘Singapore-reinforced passenger appeal – Thai Hugh old air hostesses compensates pay 30 times’, (online). Available from Date Accessed: 23rd March 2010
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Singaporeair (2010), KrisFlyer, [Online] Available from: Date Accessed: 24th March 2010
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Sin Chew Jit Poh, (2010-02-01), ‘Singapore Airline CEO shared experience’, (online). Available from Date Accessed: 22nd March 2010
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Porter M., Competitive Advantage, Free Press,New York, 1985 Shostack G. L., Designing services that deliver, Harvard Business Review, vol 62, no 1, January-
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February 1984 Date Accessed: 23rd March 2010
