Strategic Human

OTHM Level 7 Assignment resource management

Program
PgDip in [name Title (s)
of the course]
Strategic Human
Module resource management Module
Code

Contribution to overall
100% Word Count 4500
module assessment

Mr.Ashley
Module Leader Internal Sanuja Goonetilleke
Rathnayake
Verifier

Hand Out Date

26.02.2023 Submission
26.02.2023
Deadline:

Student Name
A M Shashikala Student ID KEN2022SP093
Dilukshi Rupasinghe

Please include the following statement on the title page of the submitted
assignment, followed by your name:
Disclosure: “I declare that this assignment is solely my own, also I acknowledge that all
the materials I have used are the published and unpublished works of other
authors. Finally, all references have been duly cited according to the given
referencing style.”
Executive Summary

Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a process in order to accomplished

organization long term goal aligning with employee’s behavior and company’s strategies. In
this report included with current HR practices that has been followed by Sri Lankan Airlines.
Comprises with identified various issues in an areas such as Planning, retention, training and
development, employee engagement and recruitment etc… which will be challenging in
achieving an organizational loan term goals. Also new HR functions which are related to
SHRM are discussed in the report. The main observation and conclusion statement is to
develop a strategic plan to solve the current issues at Sri Lankan Airlines while merging
strategic objectives and the employees.

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Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 2
1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Company Background ................................................................................................. 4
1.2 Core Purpose ............................................................................................................... 5
2.0 Literature view ................................................................................................................ 5
3.0 Human resource planning .................................................................................................... 6
Steps to Human Resource Planning ...................................................................................... 6
Analyzing Labor Supply.................................................................................................... 7
Forecasting Labor Demand ............................................................................................... 7
Balancing Labor Demand with Supply ............................................................................. 7
Developing and Implementing a Plan ............................................................................... 7
4.0 Recruitment Srilankan airline .............................................................................................. 8
4.1Employee recruitment and Selection at Sriankan Airlines ............................................... 9
5.0 Current HR Practices of the company ............................................................................. 11
6.0 Issues and shortcoming in current practices ...................................................................... 13
7.0 Recommendation ............................................................................................................... 16
7.0 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 18
8.0 References ..................................................................................................................... 19

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1.0 Introduction

Strategic Human resource is the foundation of any business. This has to be managed in terms
of getting effective results. This includes the development and implementation of HR
strategies. In other words Strategic human resource management is the process of integrating
HR function with the strategic objectives of the organization in order to achieve
organizational goals. (Armstrong, 2008)
Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a process of managing human resources
that link the workforce the core strategies, objectives and goals of and
organization.(https://Emeritus.org) SHRM practices are beneficial for both employee and the
organization.
Here the entire report has aimed to understand HR strategies, human resource planning,
ethical and legal issues in developing HR policies and leadership at Sri Lankan Airline.

1.1 Company Background

Srilankan is the flag carrier of Srilanka. (Formerly known as Air Lanka). It is a member
airline of the Oneworld airline alliance. It is currently the largest airline in Sri Lanka by
number of aircraft and destinations and was launched in 1979 as Air Lanka following the
termination of operations of the original Sri Lankan flag carrier Air Ceylon.

The Airline operates to 113 destinations in 51 countries (including codeshare operations)

from its main hub located at Bandaranaike International Airport near Colombo. SriLankan
Airlines joined the Oneworld airline alliance on 1 May 2014 (Wikipedia)

SriLankan Airlines wins two prestigious awards for Human Resources Practices and
Corporate Social Responsibility at the Sri Lanka Best Employer Brand Awards and the South
Asian Partnership Summit & Business Awards 2016 (SAPS) of the World HRD Congress
respectively.( https://www.srilankan.com/en_uk/corporate/news-details/107)

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1.2 Core Purpose

Vision - ―To be Asia’s most customers – centric airline.‖

Mission – ―To delight our customers with reliable and pleasant travel experience with
warmth and hospitality, the Srilankan way. We strive to meet our stakeholder expectation as a
competent, proactive and diligent organization which is financially viable. ―

2.0 Literature view

SHRM has been studied over 30 years and highly recognized for its impact to the
organizational performance.

In today’s competitive world organization need to continuously improve its performance

whether by enhancing product and service quality or reducing cost, in order to effectively
compete in the market. Strengthening human resource management is considered as one of
the solutions to elevate organizational performance through organization capability (Katou,
2010; Chang and Huang 2005). The company’s business strategy is the core factor that guide
HRM system. In recent studies proves with examples.(Andersen et al., 2007; Muduli, 2012;
Katou and Budhwar, 2010; Schuler and Jackson, 1989; Collings et al., 2010; Chow et al.,
2008; Bao et al., 2011).

All so numbers of studies indicated that HRM has a direct impact on human resource
outcomes and organizational performance (Snell and Dean, 1992; Youndt and Snell, 2004,
Takeuchi et al., 2007; Guthrie et al., 2011; Katou and Budhwar, 2010; Katou, 2012; Arthur,
1994; Huang, 2001; Guthrie et al., 2009) (MacDuffie, 1995; Guthrie et al., 2009; Huselid,
1995; Delery and Doty, 1996; Nigam et al., 2011; Absar et al., 2012; Khan, 2010; Su and
Wright, 2012)

The objective of this assignment is to present the literature review of strategic human
resource management (SHRM) studies to explain meanings, variables, and their relationship
related to SHRM.

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Figure 1 Conceptual model

3.0 Human resource planning

Human resource planning (HRP) is a process of systematic planning ahead to achieve
optimum use of an organization’s most valuable asset ―Employees‖ HRP ensure the best fit
between jobs and employees while avoiding manpower shortages. In order to have an
effective HR planning few steps to be followed

 Analyzing present labor supply

 Forecasting labor demand
 Balancing projected labor demand with supply
 Supporting organizational goals.

HR Planning is an important investment for any business as it allows companies to remain

both productive and profitable.

HR Planning is the key function that companies are using to plan ahead to maintain a steady
supply of skilled employees. Therefore it refers as workforce planning.

The challenges to HRP include forces that are always changing, such as employees getting
sick, getting promoted or getting maternity and paternity leave. HRP ensures there is the best
fit between workers and jobs, avoiding shortages and surpluses in the employee pool.

To satisfy their objectives, HR managers have to make plans to do the following:

 Find and attract skilled employees.

 Select, train, and reward the best candidates.
 Cope with absences and deal with conflicts.
 Promote employees or let some of them go.

Investing in HRP is one of the most important decisions a company can make. After all, a
company is only as good as its employees, and a high level of employee engagement can be
essential for a company's success. If a company has the best employees and the best
practices in place, it can mean the difference between sluggishness and productivity, helping
to lead a company to profitability.

Steps to Human Resource Planning

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There are four general, broad steps involved in the human resource planning process. Each
step needs to be taken in sequence in order to arrive at the end goal, which is to develop a
strategy that enables the company to successfully find and retain enough qualified
employees to meet the company's needs.

Analyzing Labor Supply

The first step of human resource planning is to identify the company's current human
resources supply. In this step, the HR department studies the strength of the organization
based on the number of employees, their skills, qualifications, positions, benefits, and
performance levels.

Forecasting Labor Demand

The second step requires the company to outline the future of its workforce. Here, the HR
department can consider certain issues like promotions, retirements, layoffs, and transfers—
anything those factors into the future needs of a company. The HR department can also look
at external conditions impacting labor demand, such as new technology that might increase
or decrease the need for workers.

Balancing Labor Demand with Supply

The third step in the HRP process is forecasting the employment demand. HR creates a gap
analysis that lays out specific needs to narrow the supply of the company's labor versus
future demand. This analysis will often generate a series of questions, such as:

 Should employees learn new skills?

 Does the company need more managers?
 Do all employees play to their strengths in their current roles?

Developing and Implementing a Plan

The answers to questions from the gap analysis help HR determine how to proceed, which is
the final phase of the HRP process. HR must now take practical steps to integrate its plan
with the rest of the company. The department needs a budget, the ability to implement the
plan, and a collaborative effort with all departments to execute that plan.

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4.0 Recruitment Srilankan airline

Sri Lankan airline operates require recruiting employees with extremely varied talents and
capabilities with diverse skill set. This process mainly handling with HR department which
align with cooperate strategies and achievement of organization goals. As this function
playing a vital part in strategy formulation and implementation business partner were assign
to each department to play a facilitator role across all HR related activities such as
communication, employee engagement, redefining job role and key result areas, identifying
training and development need.

The main challenge faced by Srilankan Airlines under recruitment is attracting the right talent
and retaining them especially because middle eastern carriers which offer impressive
rewards.

Recruitment is basically done through interviews by selecting candidates according to

required qualifications. Also they have set talent pipelines from state universities through
means of internship and also carrier fair mediums.

Aviation college which offers entry levels school leavers and to take them through a
leadership development and mentoring to create a long term process for managing the talent
across the organization. According to latest information out of total employee working 61%
are males and 39% are females under different age category.

Recruitment is categories as follows,

20 – 28 years 79.1%

29 – 37 years 13.9%

38 – 46 years 0.9%

56 – 64 years 0.4%

To maintain a transparent recruitment process always should build trust and credibility with
other parties and should be open and clear with candidates helps to set proper expectations,
avoid disappointments, and shape a positive candidate experience. By being transparent you'll
not only have an easier time recruiting top talent, you will also have higher rates of retention
because expectations have been clear from the beginning. Following points can be considered
to maintain a transparent recruitment process; we suggest if srilankan airlines can follow
these kinds of things the recruitment process will be more fair and transparent

 Setting the right expectations from the start

 Share and adhere to a timeline
 Brief candidates before the interview about the process
 Be fair during the interview
 Give feedback after each interview
 Setting probation goals.

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4.1Employee recruitment and Selection at Sriankan Airlines
Recruitment and selection process includes with 6 main steps.

1. creating a job description

2. advertising the role
3. screening candidates
4. conducting interviews
5. carrying out tests or assessments
6. selecting the successful candidate

4.2 Recruitment Process in SriLankan airlines

Their hiring manager submits a completed requisition to the HR department. HR department

will assign a requisition number to assist in tracking and reporting. The HR department will
meet with the hiring manager to discuss the position and determine the most effective
recruitment and selection process.

 Recruitment sources will include some or all of the following:

 Srilankan Airline website.
 Internal posting.
 Online job boards.
 Social media sites (Facebook and LinkedIn).
 Newspaper advertising.
 Employee referrals.

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The HR department and hiring manager will review resumes of qualified candidates to
identify the most appropriate candidates for interviewing. The HR department will conduct
telephone pre-screens of identified candidates and schedule in-person interviews with the
hiring manager.

4.3 Selection Process of Srilankan Airlines

This process applies for external hires only.

Hiring managers are responsible for conducting timely, effective interviews of qualified
candidates. The HR department is available to advise hiring managers on interview
techniques and final candidate selection. A candidate evaluation form will be completed for
each candidate interviewed and will be used to make a final candidate selection. There will be
an IQ and English exams for the evaluation.

Upon the selection of the final candidate, the hiring manager and the HR department will
collaborate to develop an appropriate offer of employment (including position title,
compensation, etc.). The HR department or hiring manager will extend the verbal offer of
employment to the candidate selected. The HR department will prepare a written offer of
employment that is contingent upon the success completion of required background checks.
The HR department will conduct reference checks and background checks on the selected
final candidate. Upon receipt of an offer letter signed by the candidate and the successful
completion of background checks, the HR department will close out the requisition on the
tracking report.

5.0 Current HR Practices of the company

HR practices are differ from HR activities, HR Practices are strategic operations of HR,
including planning, organizing, and managing the department. HR activities are daily
operations involved with running a HR Department.

Basically HR practice is the components through which the human resources personnel can
develop the leadership of the staff. It occurs through the practice of developing extensive

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training courses and motivating programs. HR activities embody the directives set forth
through HR practices. HR activities include recruitment, hiring and firing and the
administration of health benefits.

Sri Lankan Airlines bagged two awards; Silver Award and a Special Category award for best
Employee Engagement at the Human Capital Awards in 2017. (SriLankan, 2017)

The secret that company runs under is 'HIPER- Harmony, Innovation, Productivity,

Engaging and Resourcing.

"You facilitate harmony and you have good motivated and happy workforce. You facilitate
innovation and you get new thinking. Facilitate productivity and get a good return of what
you invest in people; facilitate engagement and people are gainfully employed and engaged" -
(Mendis, 2017)

SriLankn airline best HR practices are,

 Succession planning - It is challenging to ensure the future of the business is in the

right leader. To ensure the organization’s future assurance they focus on succession
planning program where they have identified some 40 people through their
performance and assessing them on modern business needs through technical
exercises such as assessment centers, psychological profiling, etc. The identified 40
people are been in leadership pipeline and are being trained accordingly they conduct
a management trainee program after the industry was rebranded and strengthened as
'SriLankan Future Leaders Program'. In this program 1,100 applicants and 25 were
chosen for one and a half year program which they are to be inducted into the
mainstream to climb the management ladder.

 Team Building and Performance management - SriLankan Airlines has realized

that the competitive mindset of the employees has decreased over the years; they
introduced 10 sporting activities within the organization for the employees. They
conduct internal competitions and move on to a Group Sports Day, SriLankan has
started competing in the mercantile sector. They held Achievers Award to recognize
service excellence, productivity, friend of community, sports and aesthetics and
personal and professional development will be given out and of the five. This has
brought employees together; improve productivity, motivation, communication,
positive reinforcement within the organization.

 Training and development – capacity Building - The International Aviation

Academy (IAA) which looks after regulatory training as well as on-the-job training, is
the SriLankan Airlines training facility accredited by International Air Transport
Association, They conduct both IAA and IATA certified programs and Srilankan is in
among the top 10 training partners in South Asia for IATA.

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6.0 Issues and shortcoming in current practices

In each and every organization facing issues differently while operating HR practices, there
are common issues that every organization faces at any stage of their business, especially in
Covid 19 pandemic entire process of HR handling were changed. And took some serious
time to fit to the new normal situation, overcoming issues Such as,

1. Compliance with laws and regulations

This is most common and priority number one issue when it comes to an issue dealing with
labor law. Making sure you're adhering to all relevant laws in your operation area. This can
be a huge challenge for small HR organizations, especially if no one on the team has
experience dealing with local labor laws and regulations.

Srilankan airline operates under international aviation regulations. So the rules and
regulations are mostly changing with the international laws and regulations .Therefor quality
of the service and workforce has to be next level.

Key challenges that arise include:

 The tediousness of keeping tracking of all employment laws in all areas in which the
company operates.
 Ensure that all operations, recruiting, and employment processes adhere to local and
international Aviation law.
 Lack of time and expertise to understand the issues and nuances of the law failure to
fully comply with laws and regulations can lead to serious consequences for a small
company, including audits, lawsuits, and even bankruptcy.

2. Health and safety

Like with laws and regulations, HR organizations are often in charge of ensuring all health
and safety requirements are being met at the company. specially with the unexpected
situation like Covid 19.

Key challenges that arise include:

 Creating and enforcing health and safety processes at the company

 Providing employee training and documentation of course completion to prove
compliance with health and safety measures
 Monitoring and adapting to local health and safety laws
 Tracking instances of workplace injuries or safety violations to protect against
potential workplace compensation lawsuits
 Like with employment laws and regulations, failure to execute a thorough health and
safety program can expose the company to costly lawsuits and injury claims.

3. Change management

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Managing change can be a big headache for both HR departments and the employees they
serve. This is especially true for fast-growing organizations experiencing rapid evolution in
their processes or onboarding new employees at a high clip. Unfortunately, HR often bears
the brunt of this frustration.

Key challenges that arise include:

 Adapting HR processes and policies to match the company's growth and ambitions
 Balancing the needs and wants of legacy employees with those of new employees and
management
 Ensuring open communication before, during, and after changes are made
 Dealing with negative feedback or frustrations from employees
 When done poorly, change management can have an adverse effect on performance,
staff engagement, and morale. It often falls on the HR department to find ways to
ensure people-centric change doesn't affect productivity and output.

4. Compensation management

Compensation and benefits are one issue that no HR organization is able to get around. This
is the core concern for all employees and has an immense impact on everything from
performance to engagement to productivity.

Key challenges that arise include:

 Knowing how to structure compensation packages to stay competitive in your

industry
 Monitoring the recruitment landscape to see what others are offering
 Matching compensation demand in the market, especially if you're trying to compete
against larger competitors
 Providing competitive perks, employee benefits, and bonuses that align with what
your ideal candidates want
 It takes a lot of time and money to ensure that your total compensation packages are
appealing and competitive. In reality, small companies will struggle to compete
against large corporations and their limitless budgets.

5. Landing top talent

Like with compensation, smaller HR organizations often get muscled out in the fight for top
talents. This is another major HR problem in companies that don't have the resources to go
after the best candidates aggressively.

 Devoting the time that's needed to hire top talent while also juggling all of the other
requirements of an HR manager

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  Spending lots of resources to court a top candidate, only to have them leave early in
their term with you, or get scooped up by a competitor during the hiring process
 Competition for top talent is fierce. Large organizations use every resource at their
disposal to find and hire the best in the industry. Unfortunately, that means that
smaller organizations are often at a financial disadvantage when hiring.

6. Retention

Landing top talent is one thing, but retaining them long term comes with a new set of HR
challenges for companies.

Key challenges that arise include:

 Focusing the bulk of your time and energy on employee retention

 Balancing the cost of hiring top talent, with the risk of them leaving prematurely
 Accounting for the variety of factors that might cause retention issues, including:
 External poaching
 Lack of engagement
 Lack of career development
 Lack of growth opportunities
 Non-competitive salaries or benefits
 Monitoring and adapting to issues that are leading to increased employee departures
 Maintaining productivity levels while balancing all of the above

7. Monitoring productivity and performance

Productivity and performance is a shared responsibility between managers and the HR

department. Managers are ultimately responsible for their team's performance, but it will fall
on the HR department to make tough decisions if certain departments or teams aren't
performing at the level they need to be.

Key challenges that arise include:

 Monitoring performance and productivity levels to ensure that the business is

operating efficiently and hitting output goals
 Identifying problems areas and taking necessary actions to turn things around
 Working cross-functionally to find root causes for low performance and identifying
potential solutions
 Reporting human resource issues back to the executive team who will then make
strategic decisions
 Keeping an eye on productivity and performance involves monitoring key indicators,
engaging in candid conversations with managers and employees, and generally acting
like a detective to find problems. While part of the job, it's a time-consuming
responsibility and a common HR problem in companies.

https://recruitee.com/articles/common-hr-problems

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7.0 Recommendation

1. Compliance with laws and regulations

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

 Ensuring that at least one person on your management team is in charge of

understanding local employment laws and regulations
 Giving that person the time and resources needed to study and understand those laws
and regulations
 Consulting a legal expert with questions about the laws and regulations
 Auditing your existing processes to ensure that everything is above board

While these solutions will require more time and money, it's critically important to get them
right to ensure your company's health and future success.

2. Health and safety

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

 Designating a health and safety person or committee at your organization

 Giving them the tools and training needed to study and understand local health and
safety laws
 Empowering them with absolute control over health and safety at the organization,
including the power to make changes, upgrades, or even shut down operations
temporarily if needed

Health and safety should be a top priority for any company. As such, this challenge should be
on shortlist to tackle as soon as possible

3. Change management

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

 Clearly communicating the benefits of change to all employees

 Implementing a change management process that outlines how, when, and where
employees are informed of process changes
 Encouraging open and honest feedback from employees when a change is made
 Making it crystal clear why you are making a change and what the benefits are to the
company and employees

It's not possible to please everyone all the time. But a few simple change management best
practices can make your life a lot easier when scaling or altering your processes.

4. Compensation management

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

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  Shortlisting competitors to watch and analyze what they promote on their careers sites
in terms of perks, benefits, and compensation
 Focusing on employer branding and culture messaging to create intangible benefits
for candidates
 Being creative with compensation to make up for less-than-competitive salaries

The bottom line is that larger companies can and likely will outspend smaller ones to land the
best talent. To combat that reality, smaller companies should look to pitch what's unique and
appealing about their company

5. Landing top talent

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

 Getting creative with how and who you hire

 Beefing up your employer brand to stand out from other companies
 Recruiting directly from colleges and universities to give new and hungry employees
a chance to shine
 Leveraging networks and social channels to directly pitch candidates at no cost
 Hiring the best recruiter possible and letting them do their jobs

Smaller organizations will need to pick and choose their battles when competing for top
talent. If budget and resources are limited, then it might make sense to only go after the best
candidates for strategically critical roles or ones that are going to drive long term success.

6. Retention

Potential solutions to this challenge include:

Finding a fine balance between culture, compensation, and incentives that boosts loyalty and
retention: this will require some experimentation and lots of honest feedback

 Continuously monitoring employee sentiment via pulse surveys, meetings,

anonymous surveys, town halls, etc.
 Keeping an eye on the market to ensure that your compensation packages are
competitive
 Monitoring employee churn rates and retention rates and adapting to what the data is
telling you
 Addressing red flags before they become major issues

If you break down a month-to-month workload for most HR managers, employee retention is
likely one of if not their most important priority.

Keeping employees happy and performing at a high level is incredibly important for a
company's success and comes with many challenges for HR professional

7. Monitoring productivity and performance

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Potential solutions to this challenge include:

 Using HR platforms that integrate performance management, goal management, and

engagement tracking
 Looking for teams who are hitting their goals, studying what they do right, and
presenting those processes as potential changes to the executive team
 Keeping clear lines of communication open with all managers to ensure that issues are
addressed before they snowball

The HR department is often one of the busiest in most companies. That becomes even more
apparent in smaller companies that have fewer employees dedicated to these mission-critical
tasks. This is a very multifaceted role that brings with it many unique problems and
challenges.

Like with most business challenges, focusing on strong communication, technology,

processes, and goal tracking can help them overcome these common HR problems in
companies.

7.0 Conclusion

Strategic Human resources management is a backbone of a successful organization. It help to

maximize the potential of its workforce ―manpower ―through strategic planning ,leadership
management, talent management, performance management and also get the optimum use of
an organization’s most valuable asset ―Employees‖

This can be a long process which is continued to grow with the company while achieving
company’s goals and targets.

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8.0 References
Katou, A. A. and Budhwar, P. S. (2010) Causal relationship between HRM policies and
organisational performance: Evidence from the Greek manufacturing sector. European
Management Journal 28: 25-39.

Katou, A. A. (2012) Investigating Reverse Causality between Human Resource Management

Policies and Organizational Performance in Small Firms. Management Research Review
35(2): 134-156.

Andersen, K. K., Cooper, B. K., and Zhu, C. J. (2007) The Effect of SHRM Practices on
Perceived Firm Financial Performance: Some Initial Evidence from Australia. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources 45(2): 168-179

Muduli, A. (2012) Business Strategy, SHRM, HR Outcome and Organizational Performance:

Evidence from an Indian Industry. Global Management Journal 4(1/2): 111-125

Collings, D. G., Demirbag, M., Mellahi, K., andTatoglu, E. (2010) Strategic Orientation,
Human Resource Management Practices and Organizational Outcomes: Evidence from
Turkey. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 21(14): 2589-2613.

MacDuffie, J. P. (1995) Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance:

Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry. Industrial
and Labor Relations Review 48(2): 197-221

Becker, B. E. and Huselid, M. A. (2006) Strategic Human Resources Management: Where

Do We Go From Here?. Journal of Management 32(6): 898-925.

Absar, N., Nimalathasan, B., and Mahmood, M. (2012) HRM-Market Performance

Relationship: Evidence from Bangladeshi Organizations. South Asian Journal of Global
Business Research 1(2): 238-255.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/human-resource-planning.asp

https://www.srilankan.com/en_uk/corporate/news-details/107

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