Number of employees: 7,500 in UK, another 6,000 world-wide
Annual turnover: 2 billion
Group HR director: Priscilla Vacassin
Welcome to Britain. Or at least, welcome to BAA, which, for the 118 million people passing through its seven UK airports every year, amounts to roughly the same thing. In addition to the UK properties (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton), BAA has an interest in 11 other international airports.
The business can be split into two main areas: terminals and airfield. The range of skills and experience required by staff is considerable. And as workplaces, airports are unique. While BAA looks like any other landlord managing an out-of-town shopping centre, considerations such as security mean that HR is under the spotlight to get its people management right.
And something does seem to be going right. Even if BAAs customers keep flying away, its staff are staying put. At a turnover rate of 3%, the company has an extremely high level of staff retention when compared with other retailers.
With low staff turnover, spending on training isnt wasted
10% of our staff have been here for more than 25 years, says Priscilla Vacassin, BAAs group HR director. Our people love this business. If you want to work in this sector then BAA is the biggest name by far. We are a good payer by local standards, and we have tried to make it a nice place to work with an accessible culture.
Get the levels of staff turnover down and you enter a virtuous circle where spending on training and development is not wasted, and where collective corporate experience is deep and valuable. In HR terms we are definitely reaping the benefits of keeping our staff for longer, Vacassin says. Our people know the business well and they know what will work. And because of the emphasis on security they develop a strong sense of responsibility.
BAA is national, international and local at the same time. HR is managed strategically from head office, but also locally, with an HR director reporting to the managing director of each airport. The national HR forum, bringing together HR managers from around the company, meets quarterly to discuss strategy, and monthly to discuss operations.
Security lapses bring selection and recruitment into question
It is vital for the BAA employer brand that everyone places the same emphasis on safety and customer service. A new vision statement is currently being prepared by BAAs senior managers and will be unveiled later this year. Safety and security will remain at its heart. Two robberies earlier this year at Heathrow brought into question selection and recruitment in one area of security, with union officials claiming that too much outsourcing of contracts has led to inadequate controls. This aspect is under review. It is just one example of the complexity involved in managing an airport site.
Each airport has to devise its own recruitment strategy. But nationally BAA uses the same performance development process, the same change management programme and the same pay and benefits system.
Some sense of being a public service remains embedded in BAAs culture. We may be a profit-making private business, Vacassin says, but our staff understand that we are running these airports for the UK. Were the first thing you see when you arrive, were the last thing you see when you leave.
