preview

Singapore Airlines Essay

Better Essays

Singapore Airlines: Managing Human Resources for Cost effective Service Excellence
“In Singapore, we always want to be the best in a lot of things. SIA is no different. … a lot of things that we have been taught from young, from our Asian heritage … filial piety, the care and concern, hospitality, and, of course, the most important part is trying, if we can, to do whatever we can to please the customer. And how do we do it? Sometimes, people just wonder, ‘How do you guys manage to do it with limited time and resources on a flight?’ yet we manage to do it somehow. Call us magicians.”
Lim Suet Kwee, Senior Rank Trainer, Singapore Airlines Training School, and Senior Flight Stewardess

SIA’s new business class has the widest seats in the A …show more content…

Even though training is often emphasized as a key element of success in service industries, SIA remains the airline with the highest emphasis on this aspect. Newly recruited cabin crew are required to undertake intensive four-month training courses—the longest and most comprehensive in the industry. SIA’s training aims to enable cabin crew to provide gracious service reflecting warmth and friendliness while maintaining an image of authority and confidence in the passengers’ minds. SIA’s holistic training includes not only safety and functional issues but also beauty care, gourmet food, and wine appreciation, as well as the art of conversation. As SIA’s reputation for service excellence grows stronger, its customers tend to have even higher expectations, which increase the pressure on its frontline staff. According to Ms. Lim Suu Kuan, Commercial Training Manager, the motto of SIA is this: “If SIA can’t do it for you, no other airline can. The challenge is to help the staff deal with difficult situations and take the brickbats. The company helps its staff deal with the emotional turmoil of having to satisfy and even please very demanding customers without feeling that they are being taken advantage of.” Former CEO Dr. Cheong Choong Kong also commented that “to the company, training is forever and no one is too young to be trained, nor too old.” Continuous training and

Get Access