Outdated HR policy & third party staffing behind poor customer service at Air India

QCI suggests that for operational improvement at AIR India, there is a need to completely revamp the existing HR policy on hiring, training, employee personal development.

One of the primary complaints received by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) against the state-owned airline, Air India, was poor customer service and unprofessional behavior from the staff.

A study done by Quality Council of India (QCI) has identified the core reason behind this trend. According to QCI, the root causes behind poor customer service are lack of ownership due to third party staffing, outdated HR policy, poor customer service offered due to no accountability in the operational model and lack of feedback and monitoring causing non-cooperative and unprofessional behavior of the staff.

QCI suggests that for operational improvement at AIR India, there is a need to completely revamp the existing HR policy on hiring, training, employee personal development.

This includes periodic mandatory training and certification of staff and designing of online training modules for employees.

QCI has also recommended employee performance evaluation on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as on time reporting for the flight, customer feedback, complaints against them. This will be supported with an incentive scheme for the staff through awards such as Employee of the Month or monetary perks

The study by QCI has also suggested initiation of affiliate DCGA courses to universities to award degree or equivalent.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) received 11,94,931 (related to central government) grievances in 2016 across 88 Ministries/Departments through Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS).

The department then commissioned Quality Council of India for a grievance analysis study of top 20 Ministries/Departments receiving high number of citizen grievances. The study involved identification of top grievance categories and recommending systemic reforms.

The PG portal had received 11,94,931 grievances across 88 ministries and departments in 2016. Of these 83 per cent of the grievances were disposed by Ministries/ Departments and 32 per cent of all grievances were received by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. And out of all complaints received against DGCA, 31 per cent of the grievances were received by Air India followed by Airport Infrastructure which accounted for another 18 per cent of the grievances. This was followed by grievances related to employment and relevant education, travel rules and malpractices accounting for 10 per cent, 9 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.