High pay and share options are more likely to motivate staff
than expensive internal communication schemes, RyanAir’s head of HR told a
conference in Dublin last week.
Eddie Wilson dismissed the use of the intranet or mission
statements as tools to get the company’s message across to its employees.
Wilson said, "There is no point in introducing an
intranet for our employees as the majority of staff are highly mobile and don’t
have access to a PC."
He added, "We don’t waste time on programmes or
initiatives that 80 per cent of people don’t know or understand and we don’t
treat our people like morons."
He said the workforce is motivated by high pay and that
all employees are entitled to share options within the
company.Â
Wilson claimed that RyanAir’s no-nonsense approach to HR had
contributed to increasing the productivity of its workforce.
"Our revenue per employee is £266,000 compared with
£115,000 for British Airways," claimed Wilson at Conference Partnership’s
event, called Measuring the Value of your Internal Communication.
Other figures show that RyanAir has a ratio of 3,963
passengers per employee, which Wilson claimed is much higher than its
competitors.
Wilson added that the workplace culture is strongly
influenced by the chief executive Michael O’Leary.
He said, "It’s a culture of living and breathing cost
control. For example, we don’t spend money on pens in the office. We take an ‘a
la carte’ approach to personnel, not one of best practice."
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The airline communicates with its staff through a 24 hour
workplace TV channel which was set up for only £20,000.
By Karen Higginbottom
