Executive summary

The HRM issue I choose to write about is job analysis and design and the organisation

reflected in this paper is Qantas engineering (QE) which resides under the Qantas Airways

Ltd Group.

Qantas has recently undergone a huge transformation with the reduction of 5000 jobs.

Competition paves the way to downsizing and reorganisation changesi which meant that QE

was going to reduce its workforce from 500 to 180 engineers. The main cause for this

reduction in engineering was benchmarking the QE organisation with engineering

organisations of other major competitor airlines such as Emirates airlines, Singapore airlines

and British airways, retirement of ageing aircraft, reliability and on-wing performance of

newer engines / airframes due to improvement in materials and computers/ programs that

simplified administrative tasks. The most significant reason was that Qantas was losing its

domestic market share to Virgin Australia and this meant that Qantas had to lower its cost

base in order to compete.

This reduction in workforce meant that existing engineers had to be flexible & adaptable to

learn and pickup engineering functions that redundant staff had been doing all these years.

There was clearly a failure to analyse jobs before the transformation and redesign work in

line with the new company strategic plan.

Table of contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................................6

Background.......................................................................................................................................................6

External factors.................................................................................................................................................7

Transformation..................................................................................................................................................7

Recommendations............................................................................................................................................9

1. Organisational management and planning................................................................................................9

2. Communication.......................................................................................................................................10

3. Technology..............................................................................................................................................11

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................12

Reference list...................................................................................................................................................12

Introduction

This report focuses on the recent business transformation of Qantas Engineering in which

executive management’s decision to cost cut has led to wide scale redundancies and

consolidation of Qantas engineering departments. The transformation has been brought on

by competition and the need for greater efficiency and cost cutting. This has enabled a

flatter hierarchy within the organisation and Qantas engineering department. Although

efforts are currently underway the scope of the transformation has resulted in an existing

need to improve job analysis and more specifically job design. As outlined in hoe et al

(2015) job analysis “is the building block” of everything human resource managers do. A job

analysis and work redesign is required as a measure to retain staff, make sure key

competitive strengths can be achieved and maintained, reduce frustration and set clear

direction and guidelines to ensure greater productivity and accuracy and finally to realign

Qantas Engineering with the organisations strategic goals.

Background

The purpose of the QE organisation is to ensure the continued airworthiness of Qantas

aircraft by providing technical support to the Line Maintenance Organisation (LMO),

supporting relevant workshops (Maintenance Repair Organizations/MROs) both in Australia

and overseas, performing maintenance program management and assisting in operational

troubleshooting. QE performs a key role in ensuring smooth operation and on-time

performance of international and domestic flight services provided by Qantas Airways.

Being a premium airline, Qantas’ competitive advantage relies on ‘on-time’ performance,

premium in-flight services, premium quality aircraft hardware optimizing customer

experience (e.g. seating, cabin interiors, reliable engines, etc.) and an overall disruption-free

experience by customers. In this way, Qantas acts as a traditional organisation by relying on

its superior products & services.

The major restructure of Qantas Engineering has resulted in reduction of its workforce from

500 to 180 engineers. Qantas ceased all interstate engineering departments and moved all

engineering services and functions to one centrally located department in Mascot Sydney.

Although the workforce had been cut, the work load has remained at the same volume. This

forced existing engineers to pick up engineering & administrative functions that the

redundant staff had previously been doing.

External factors

Qantas provides customers with international and domestic flight services and operates in a

highly competitive market. Foreign investment in the competitor airline Virgin Australia

threatened the position that Qantas has had in the domestic market share for all these

years. This saw the rise in capacity and lowering of ticket prices for almost a year where

both companies were bleeding funds in order to make a stand and to keep a firm hold on

their domestic market share.

Because of this difficult competitive environment, firms are increasingly under pressure to

find new ways to improve productivity, and have responded by reorganizing work

processes. In addition, new competitors have increased the premium placed upon quality,

service, and innovation and this too leads to restructuring of work. Competitive

environments require firms to find new ways to improve productivity and many have

responded by reorganizing work processes. E.g. American icon Kodak whose landscape was

turned upside down by digital photography, reduced employment from 145 000 in 1988 to

20 000 in 2009.ii

In order to make proactive human resource decisions, a company needs an effective HR

information system (HRIS). A well-designed HRIS must provide current and accurate data on

both the external challenges facing the organization and the internal organizational

resources and needsiii.

Transformation

As a result of the transformation, Qantas has been able to maintain its market share,

improve customer satisfaction and cut costs as there were a lot of functions that were made

redundant by the introduction of new computer programs to reduce administrative tasks,

without jeopardising safety and regulatory needs of CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority).

Introduction of reliable aircraft and engines that didn’t require as much focus and attention

on maintenance activities and retirement of older ageing aircraft such as the older Boeing

747-400’s and 737-400 series contributed to this change.

Significant changes need to be made internally within the Qantas Engineering

organization, involving several compulsory redundancies, various role amalgamations.

Although staff numbers are being reduced, roles aren’t being restructured, Qantas

Management intend on minimizing the effect on the end customer/stakeholder

(people travelling on Qantas flights). This means that Qantas will need to maintain on

time performance standards and minimize service disruptions, whilst continuing to

work within the required safety standards

Frame work. Carrying out daily business activities (to achieve the above) at reduced

staff capacity, will put a strain on the internal stakeholders i.e. LMO and MROs,

potentially resulting in longer hours and as a worst case, delay to aircraft departures.

Job analysis and design go hand in hand with any business transformation. If not carried out

effectively employees within affected departments will have to pick up functions that were

not previously part of their job description. Periods of significant change such as this, often

make staff more emotionally vulnerable and employees may become more susceptible to

feeling exploited or discriminated against. Staff requires being motivated and having the

lines of communication open between the managers and themselves. This empowers the

employees to be in control of their future to make the correct decisions and in this way the

optimal outcome will result for both the employee and the organization as a whole.

This transformation had failed to identify the importance of job analysisiv which is defined as

“a process used to identify the important tasks of a job and the essential competencies an

individual should possess to satisfactorily perform the job” and work redesignv which is

analysing a job that does not yet exist.

As a result of the external pressures mentioned above and the constant bleeding of funds in

order to maintain the 65 % of domestic share and remain competitive, the remaining

employees were left to work out what needed to be done in their respective departments to

complete basic duties. The failure to analyse jobs before the transformation and redesign

work in line with the new company strategic plan had caused a lot of frustration amongst

the employees as there was no defined structure to the activities that needed to be carried

out in the various departments.

Failure to redesign work and invest in training and development cause huge backlogs which

add extra pressure on individual who are already working to capacity and can lessen staff

morale.

As an example, When Melbourne engineering ceased operation one of the jobs in Sydney

included a function of planning engine arising’s, organising engine movements, receipting &

compliance and task writing. This role was expected to be done by one person in Sydney as

opposed to 5 people when Melbourne engineering was operational. The job was not

analysed and redesigned by HR. It was expected that the person who took the role in

Sydney would be able to carry out these tasks.

Changes in the aviation industry require implementation of new behaviours, technology

advancements which change the way jobs tasks are done. So while all these changes take

place the employee is burdened with more work with very little compensation to help the

company align its strategic goals to compete.

Efforts to improve job design and work planning can be integral to operational

improvements and cost-reduction effortsvi. Instead of being inundated and burdened by no-

value added functions, work redesign can help identify multiply sources of inefficiency and

increase productive work time.

Recommendations

The recommendations are best described the three parts below:

1. Organisational management and planning

Human resources for the various departments should identify issues and reviewed all jobs

to align with the new strategic goals set out by the company during the transformation.

Once identified all jobs / work should be redesigned based on skill and competency to

ensure that all important functions were being carried out efficiently and with total

accuracy.

To fix this problem the first steps is to begin with job analysis. During transformation, HR

departments are often inundated with other important activities around the business. In

this case an external firm should be hired to analyse all departments suffering as a result of

staff loss due to the transformation, flatter hierarches, amalgamation of positions and

compensation structures.

This process will eventually identify where additional resources would be required and what

additional training and development will be necessary. What is important is that a resource

gap analysis should be initiated after the initial job analysis would be completed. This would

give the executives and the managers an outlook of the business where changes can be

made.

Communication is key to analysing job analysis in the department. The manager responsible

should make a list of necessary tasks required for the area to decide the manpower required

to complete the necessary tasks based on skill and competency. A matrix should be created

to align these tasks with an employee, review and communicate this in a job description to

ensure that the employee is not overburdened unnecessarily.

2. Communication

Knoll workplace researchvii state that there are five “must include” communication elements

can contribute to the success of your transforming workplace:

A proactive approach to communication

Honest tone in messaging

Consistent language and terms

Message content that “connects the dots” for employees

Ongoing communication

In these times of significant change to establish power as a manager, staffs needs to be

motivated and communication is key to achieving changes in the workplace. Feedback

seeking behaviour is viewed as a valuable behaviour for individual job performance and

organisational effectivenessviii

Effective communication is required in order to raise awareness about the strategic future

of the company and to provide staff with clarity of their future.

To do this the following would be required

Clearly establish the intention of the communication

Message clarity

Check to ensure the message has been received and understood by regular surveys

and feedback sessions.

Establishing power

3. Technology

Over the decades it has become evident that one of the most important ways to facilitate

effective organisation redesign through process engineering in organisations is through the

use of information technology as an enabler of changeix.

Technological changes within Qantas engineering often means that an employee’s job or

part of their job can be made redundant by automating processes using macros data

analysis software programs. Success on the job should be about being able to broaden

individual abilities and thus greater use of technology will enable higher productivity with

fewer errors.

Furthermore technological advancements can help managers gain a better understanding of

people that make up the organisation and hence in this way power once again shifts

towards the manager. An example of this is the DiSCx tool which is used to address any

mismatch between current expertise and growth potential for the region. This tool is a

personnel assessment tool that helps leaders to increase knowledge of the individuals who

make up the teams and hence manage teams more effectively by understanding the

priorities of the department. This also leads to picking the right person for the right job with

the correct skills and competencies.

The outputs from this tool will score the individual on their dominance / forcefulness,

sociability/ influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. These results will help to determine

which part of the business the individual would be more suited to. Likewise this behaviour

tool can be used to raise awareness of their own qualities and subsequently understanding

where change is required.

Conclusion

From the discussions above we can positively state that job analysis and work design is

important in a restructuring any organisation that undergoes transformation.

Job analysis provides information to organizations which helps them determine

which employees are best fit for specific jobs.

It underpins most of the HRM processes – job design, job evaluation, human

resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development,

compensation and pay, performance management and career planning.xi

Over the past years, the concept of job analysis has been changing dramatically. Increased

competitiveness has led to reduction in management with flatter organisations. This in turn

has led for a demand in employee flexibility. This can be achieved by hiring an external firm

for a period of time to enable key employees from being inundated with backlogs and help

them add value to the business. New technology should be embraced by management in

order to provide job efficiency and effectiveness. Communication is key to achieving a

positive outcome for the recommendations above.

Reference list

1. 711SHRM Strategic Human Resource Management, AIB Topic 2: Learning material.

2. Osterman, P 2010, 'Job design in the context of the job market', Journal Of

Organizational Behavior, 31, 2/3, pp. 401-411, Business Source Complete,

EBSCOhost, viewed 7 July 2015.

3. Siddique, C 2004, 'Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice',

International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 15, 1, pp. 219-244, Business

Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 July 2015.

4. Harvard Business Review, January 2007 Kotter.

5. State of Colorado, 2002,

(http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/dhr/select/docs/jobanal.pdf).

6. Noe et al. 2015 Chapter 4.

7. Juliano, JJ 2007, 'Work Design Can Decrease Costs, Help with Upcoming Skills

Shortage', Natural Gas & Electricity, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 28-31.

8. http://www.knoll.com/media/480/221/wp_CommunicatingWorkplaceChange.pdf.

9. The role of Technology as an enabler in job redesign, David.M.Savino

10. Ashford &Cummings, 1983;Chen,Lam, & Zhong,2007;Ilgen,Fisher, & Taylor,1979

11. AIB MBA STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Sample Exam Questions

with Answer Guidelines pg. 3.

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