Air Canada

This is so far the largest airline in Canada. It was established in 1937 and it provides flight services to cargos and passengers to over 180 destinations across the globe. It is also among the top ten world largest passenger airplane and it is also among the founder members of the Star Alliance. The organization is likely to face issues rising from the external environmental factors in the next five years that might have some impacts on its HR strategy. Such issues and their respective impacts on the HR strategy are discussed broadly below. On the economic climate, the organization is likely to face severe net loss especially when the new Wet Jet is launched next year. This is because it will have to deploy its planes to the domestic routes and the rouge subsidiary. This means that more employees will have to be employed by the organization and hence increasing its cost of operations that might result into huge losses. The losses will have affect the HR strategy because the company will be forced to reduce some workers either by attrition or by termination and so that the company does not spend too much resources on paying employees (Vosa, 2010). The organization may also have to increase the airline costs to help cater for the losses that might befall it due. Concerning globalization climate, the organization might run out of expatriates to deal with clients and customers worldwide due to the globalized business. With will have an effect on the strategies of the AIR CANADA organization in the following ways. The organization’s HR will be obliged to pursue employees to work in some places far from home up to periods that are extended. This means that the air Canada will have to cater for the employees housing and orientation to new customers. These services must also be provided to the families of the employees by the HR of the organization because the employees cannot literary spend more time abroad without their spouses and children if they had. The company will also be obliged to train employees that are abroad and may not attend their live sessions in Canada. They may have to conduct virtual training conducted live through the internet and the teleconferences so that they are updated to what the global changes may require. The HR will also have to adjust its communication techniques to the employees abroad because of the difference in time zone (Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2008). They must give out information on exact time without assumptions that the employees operating in remote countries will be available at odd times, thus they will have to set up alerts of emails in such a way that they reach the employee who is abroad at the beginning of his/her work day. Similarly, concerning the political and legislative factors, the AIR CANADA Company is likely to face new laws and standards concerning the workplace and compliance needs that will come with a lot of pressure within the next five years. These new regulation and work place compliance requirements will influence every step of the organization’s HR process. The laws may touch on hiring needs, the required level of training. In the same way, the government of Canada may impose a low requiring every firm in the land to give higher compensation to employees without terminating any single employee (Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2008). Such laws will force the HR department to re organize its strategic plan so that it complies fully with them. If the company fails to adhere to these laws and regulations, it may attract heavy penalties and extensive fines and if it was so severe can cost the company to shut down completely. For instance, if the government imposes new laws that require the AIR CANADA to prevent sexual harassment of its workers and passengers in the plane, the company will be obliged to formulate new internal regulations to prevent such cases so that it operates within the framework of the legislation. Technological factors will also likely to face the company within the next five years and in the end cause an impact of the strategies of the HR. The passage of time has allowed transformation of AIR Canada into information technology age from the year 1937 when it begun its operations up to now. There is likely to be a new development in technology that may require new system of plane operations worldwide and this will require more need to advance in the HRIM strategic field. This means that the organization will need more expatriates not only in HR but also in the efficient use of technology in addition to the application of their HR analytical skills (Ensher, Nielson & Grant, 2002). Need my arise on handling the increasing demands of the organization’s flight services due to the increased world population and thus the company will have to develop a technological mechanism in such a way that every customer is satisfied entirely with their services. It will have to train new employees on IT skills or hire IT experts to help in handling the increasingly technological needs of the company. This technological advancement will also change the HR hiring Techniques such that new job applicants will not need to submit their application forms manually but rather do it via online system that assess and picks out the outstanding person with the required skills. The organization is also likely to face the demographic factors within the next five years and they comprise the workforce characteristics such as education level, race, gender and cultural background. The organization will have to a balance in the sector of gender, race and diverse ethnicity due to the increasing awareness of equality worldwide. Therefore, the HR will be affected in such a way that they design the jobs by keeping a balance in the work-life of the employees (Varma & Budhwar, 2013). This will be impacted in the planning of the HR, whereby all balanced demographic factors must be present before the department makes a decision otherwise it will be considered biased. The HR has to also consider demographic factors when recruiting and workplace security so that there is an internal peace among the workers and a certain level of satisfaction. In other words, due to the increasing diversification of workforce, the company will have to practice different motivation needs and strategies to retain them regardless of race, gender or ethnicity. Additionally, the shareholders have a much greater impact on the operation of the AIR Canada Company and are likely to influence the HR strategic decisions in the next five years. This is because the main gender of shareholders is to see that the company maximizes profit earnings so that their equity is also maximized. Due to the increasing competition and other external demands, the shareholders are likely to pressurize the HR department to lay fresh strategies to make sure that their objective of profit maximization is met fully. These shareholders have a rather direct influence on this organization because they vote for the board members whom they believe will prioritize their preferences. In addition to that, the organization has some shareholders who hold large amounts of shares with the organization and they may publicly voice their concerns to sway the decisions of the company (Kokkaew & Koompai, 2012). The shareholders are also likely to bring more changes in the strategic planning of the company. This is because the company has in other circumstances neglected the philanthropic pursuits to fulfill the financial goals of the shareholders. Therefore, they are likely to make a decision to affect the strategic plan in such a way that their financial interests are not ignored at any circumstance. In conclusion, the external environment of Air Canada organization is changing rapidly and is probably going to change more rapidly within the next five years. Therefore, the professionals of HR should get prepared to comply with the requirements that are changing at an increasing rate. It is also evidenced from this text that it is not in the capacity of the Air Canada to control such external environments yet they have a very heavy impact on its performance. Apart from affecting the performance of the organization, the external factors have proved to likely cause the HR professionals to incorporate the necessary measures so that they align themselves with these issues due the impact that causes them to re-design their HR practices.

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