Challenges In Hospitality Industry Workforce Management (essay).

Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change?

What are the leading hospitality and tourism companies reporting?

Hot air or making a difference?

The aim of the paper is to determine the challenges that are mainly faced by the companies dealing in hospitality industry related to the attracting and retaining the workforce. In addition, this is related to the human resource management and its related practice. The industry on which the report has been prepared is hospitality industry. Human resource management is a term that is mainly used with the purpose to define the formal system devised for the effective management of the personnel that are present within the organisations. In the hospitality industry, it is very essential for the company to manage the personnel which is must to perform the operations and to earn the maximum profit (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly & Kynighou, 2016). The employees of the company are the one who directly coordinates with the customers and serves them delight experience which makes them visit the place again.

The strategic management of human resource consists of components which mainly include attraction and retention of the workforce, enhancing the quality of work experience and many others elements. According to the analysis, this is found that the turnover of employees is high in the hospitality industry. In the hospitality industry, it is essential to attract and retain the workforce which is must to improve the quality of the work experience (Bratton & Gold, 2017). Though, in the current era with the rise in the opportunities in the market, it has become difficult for the companies in the hospitality industry to make the strategies related the human resource.

According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the year 2016, the turnover rate in the hospitality sector was 70% for the second consecutive year. In addition to this, in 2016 the overall turnover rate in the restaurant and accommodation sector was 72.9% which was higher than 2015 because, in 2015, it was 72.2%. The data is too high because it was recorded in the year 2010 that turnover rate was only 56.4% (National Restaurant Association, 2017). The rise in the turnover is possible because this is found that the hospitality is considered as one of the fastest global rising industry which is able to contribute more than one third to service business. This reflects that the hospitality companies are facing numerous issues in attracting and retaining the employees in the current market (Rose, 2018). Some of the issues related to the attraction and retention of employees are explained below with support to themes.

Recruitment and selection

Job design is one of the challenges which affect the working of the employees in the current market. The job design is the core function of the management of the human resource and it is linked to the specification of the method, content, the relationship of jobs. In simple words, it aims at outlining and organising the tasks, duties and responsibility of the person with certain objectives. The job design of the hospitality companies is the major reason which leads to the issues for attracting and retaining as the design of work in the sector is not easy to be performed by every individual person (Shani, Uriely, Reichel & Ginsburg, 2014). The design of work include the long hours shifts, rotation in work role, no longer leaves, include the huge range of roles from servers and chefs to housekeepers and concierges.

All these issues lead to the barrier for the job searcher or candidates to enter into the hospitality industry because they find that the job design is too difficult to be filled comparing it with the salary that is offered for performing the work. This job design reduces the number of female candidate’s participation in the job responsibility because of the job design. This reduces the opportunity for the number of female candidates for the jobs (Baum, 2015). In addition, the employees who are working in the hospitality industry are not able to meet the job design which is one of the major reason due to which they leave the organisation. For example; an employee working for the McDonald’s find that they are supposed to stand for making a bill on prime location of Sydney for long hours (i.e. 10 hours) will soon leave the job because he might not be able to meet the job design with the desired roles and responsibility. The companies that are involved in the hospitality industry are willing to retain the maximum employees due to which they thought to select the right candidate for their companies that will remain in the organisation for the longer period of time.

This is found that recruitment and selection of employees within the hospitality industry is one of the leading issues which are faced by the employees. The hospitality industry mainly provides the recruitments to the youth labour pool to fulfil the needs of the workforce in the organisation. Though, the insufficient youth workers are employed by the companies in the hospitality industry (Solnet, Nickson, Robinson, Kralj & Baum, 2014). Considering the fact, companies are dealing with the lack of a skilled pool in the hospitality industry due to which they increase the efforts towards the youth and bringing the strategies for attracting talented employees. The attraction of the employees becomes difficult for the company mainly for the restaurant, hotel and lodging services due to the negative image of the high turnover of the employees. HR of the companies involved in the hospitality sector generally make the wrong selection decision for the candidate due to the high turnover which again leads to a turnover and affects the working of the company (Kokemuller, 2018).

Skills shortage and turnover rates

This is found with the analyses that people find a lack of awareness and less knowledge when they talk about the hospitality industry. There is the possibility that it might remain the unexplored or people are not able to get in connection with the needs and demand of the hospitality industry (Severson, 2018). Thus, this leads to the issue of the skills shortage in the hospitality industry. In the hospitality industry, selecting the right candidate is one of the major issues which are faced by the company. The right candidate with the knowledge and skills can work effectively with this company and will deliver the delight experience to the customers (Reynolds, 2018). Moreover, the right candidate is one who understands the culture of the company and industry and accepts the job design which is one of the major factors.

In addition, a skilled employee can actually deliver the delight experience when they want to do the same. For example; in the 5- star hotel the experience which is offered to the customers is received by customers at the roadside cuisine because of their quality and the way they serve. This shows that the customer service and quality food which is offered by the both is same which shows that efforts of the staff in the hotel. The personnel of the hotels and restaurants are the one who can lead the building and can make it a memorable place for the customers (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey & Shields, 2016). Therefore, the right selection of the employees is one of the essential factors which need to be resolved by the companies dealing in the hospitality industry for which they need to conduct the test in an effective manner. Moreover, the HR needs to be very careful while selecting the employees.

Talking about the research conducted by the different authors, this is found that the employee’s turnover rates are usually affected because of the employee dissatisfaction with the overall environment, working conditions and the wages (AlBattat, Som & Helalat, 2014). Agreeing to the same, the scholars study that it leads to the cause due to which the employee makes the decisions for quitting the current jobs and searching for the other jobs in different industries in order to get the advantage in terms of the working environment, employment opportunities and many others. In the hospitality industry, the employees get dissatisfied when they relationship is not strong with their supervisor in the current era. For example- In the Amari Hotel, Thailand, the employee’s dissatisfaction is high because the employees are unable to form the effective relationship with the supervisor. The opinion of the employees and supervisor varies a lot in the hospitality industry because the employees are the one who deals with the guest or customers on daily basis. On the other hand, the supervisors are able to understand the needs of the customers or guest effectively which is the reason for the differences among the views of the supervisors and employees. This leads to issues in retaining the employees within the hospitality industry (Crick and Spencer, 2011).

Employee dissatisfaction and relationship issues

The employee relation is one of the challenges in attracting and retaining the employees. In the hospitality industry, the views and opinion of the employees and supervisors vary a lot which is one of the reason due to which the conflicts take place. It is suggested that in the industry, the supervisors should listen to their employees because they are the one who deals with the needs and demands of the customers. Along with this, in most of the companies, this is found that they don't value the employees which make them leave the company (Robinson, Kralj, Solnet, Goh & Callan, 2014). This leads to the demotivation to the other employees as well. The employees should be values and supervisors should involve them while making the decisions.

Managing Diversity and Work-Life Balance are one of the important HR topics. It is essential for the companies in different industries to manage the diversity and work-life balance. It has been observed that diversity is followed by every company who perform their operations in the Hospitality industry. Though, it is found that it is hard to find the people from the different areas because the demand of the diverse people is increasing (Gajjar & Okumus, 2018). (Tsai, Horng, Liu & Hu, 2015). For example; a Hilton hotel, five-star hotels are performing the business in different countries due to which they hire the diverse people in the market. The reason behind hiring the diverse people is that most of the customers who visit the hotel are from the different regions due to which it is become difficult to deliver the delightful experience. This is the reason hotels manage the diversity in their hotels but maintaining the diversity is a tough job for the HR of the company as they need to attract and select the right people for the company to achieve the success and to retain that employee for long (Barak, 2016).

The work-life balance reflects when an employee who is working is able to manage their work and personal life simultaneously. Though, in the hospitality industry, the employees are not able to manage their work life and personal life because they spend more time on their work due to job design. This made the employees demotivate due to which they leave the job and start searching for the other jobs in the different industry (Tsai, Horng, Liu & Hu, 2015). This has been found that in the hospitality industry most of the employees work on the weak days the most because of the high sales and profit. This is the reason due to which they don’t attain the family effectively which is one of the reasons due to which the HR of the hospitality industry faces the numerous issues in hiring and retaining the employees (Manoharan, Gross & Sardeshmukh, 2014).

Managing diversity and work-life balance

The HR of the company finds that performance management is one of the important elements. The performance management processes through which the company can measure the performance of the human resource within the organisation. In the hospitality industry, the appraisal of the employees includes the investigations of workers execution and their gauge for the future developments. The performance management is related to the performance appraisal of the employees (Riley, 2014). In the hospitality industry, the performance management takes place but it is also a challenge in the hospitality industry due to lack of retention.

The employee’s turnover is high due to which the HR of the company don’t get the opportunity to appraise the performance of the employees because they leave the organisation before they complete a year. Moreover, the employees who remain in the organisation get the low appraisal because companies face the threat of leaving the organisation due to which they don’t pay high amount to their employees. This leads to the issues due to which the employees in the hospitality industry don’t retain. It is suggested to the companies dealing the hospitality industry to pay the high appraisal, rewards and salary which is one of the major motivation due to which the employees retain within the organisation (Deery & Jago, 2015).

In the end, it is found that there are numerous challenges which are faced by the company in attracting and retaining the workforce in the hospitality industry. Major challenges which are faced by the hotels and restaurant are related to the design of work. The job design of these industries is very difficult to be performed by the company. The human resource manager of the company is responsible for attracting and retaining the employees. Though, they face numerous challenges in attracting and retaining the workforce. The attraction in the hospitality industry of the skilled employees is decreasing because of the rise in the employee’s turnover.

According to the analysis, this is found that the employee’s turnover is increasing and this is the reason the organisations are hiring most of the young people. The employee relation is one of the factors due to which most of the employees leave the organisation. In the hospitality industry, the employees who don’t get the value leave the company. It is suggested to the company to involve the employees while making the decisions for enhancing the experience of the customers. Further, the discussion related to the performance management and Managing Diversity with Work-Life Balance is discussed which are mainly faced by the employees in the hospitality industry.

References

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Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

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Shani, A., Uriely, N., Reichel, A., & Ginsburg, L. (2014). Emotional labor in the hospitality industry: The influence of contextual factors. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 37, 150-158.

Solnet, D., Nickson, D., Robinson, R. N., Kralj, A., & Baum, T. (2014). Discourse about workforce development in tourism—An analysis of public policy, planning, and implementation in Australia and Scotland: Hot air or making a difference?. Tourism Analysis, 19(5), 609-623. DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.3727/108354214X14116690097936
Keywords: Employment, Tourism, HRM, Workforce Development

Tsai, C. Y., Horng, J. S., Liu, C. H., & Hu, D. C. (2015). Work environment and atmosphere: The role of organizational support in the creativity performance of tourism and hospitality organizations. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 46 (2015), 26-35.

servers and chefs to housekeepers and concierges