Recruiting Strategies For The Hospitality Industry In Australia Essay.

Select an organisation or industry as the case study for your report. Identify some of the key challenges for recruiting the workforce for this organisation/industry, and recommend strategies to address these challenges. Your report should make reference to factors such as labour supply/demand, organisational image, demographic issues (such as an ageing workforce, generations, diversity etc), as well as recruitment strategies such as employer branding and types of advertising.

Key challenges and strategies

The industry of hospitality has attracted tremendous attention from tycoons in business, academicians and the analysts of economics because of the effects that it has on Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP). This sector of service is dynamic and proficient human resource management is needed to maintain efficiency and professionalism in service delivery.

One of the necessary maintenance strategies of this area is the effective recruitment of the workforce. However, some challenges are faced by the various players in this industry. As such, this report aims to identify these workforce recruitment problems and establish evidence-based strategies to effectively handle this issue.

The rates of shortages, turnover number among others are some of the key challenges that are faced in Australia’s hospitality industry. Intriguingly, this problem is also faced on the global platform (Iverson, 2013). Therefore, there lies a stream of issues that lead to some of these problems (Jackson, 2015).

The first challenge for consideration is the elevated turnover of employees in most of the Australian states and neighbouring countries. A study that was done in 2013 by New South Wales institutions confirmed that the restaurant, hotel and other employees in the hospitality industry recorded a turnover of 34 percent. Averagely, other industries had a turnover of 15 percent in the same year (Iverson, 2013). However, the researchers linked the issue with the differences between younger and older managers. Other reasons include the seasonality of the industry and the poor packages of compensation that have been realised. Some workers in the industry especially those in positions that need fewer skills view a job in the sector as a means of only paying the bills (McManus, 2013).    

Additionally, other workers view the restaurant and hotel jobs as stepping stones to the careers in the future. As such, these are the individuals that the employers in hospitality have to endure if they wish to recruit workers with an utmost commitment to the long-term value of the firms.  Therefore, there is little these employers can do to achieve the goals of the companies. For instance, the manager of Palazzo Versace Australia hinted to the media that averagely, workers do not stay for more than three years at the same place of work (McManus, 2013).

The constant uncertainty of Australia’s economy is another challenge that the hospitality industry faces during recruitment. Is the economy of Australia improving? The volatility of the Consumer Confidence Index may have risen during the 2017 month of August (McManus, 2013). However, this question’s answer is still interpretatively open to pundits. The levels of unemployment are still trending down in Australia, and yet the household median income remains at a level that was there in 2008. There is an increase in business travel thus leading to an increased demand for services that are associated with hospitality and families in Australia continue spending more than 40 percent of their food spending in restaurants. However, the debt ceiling may begin to be argued by legislators, and the scaling back of the quantitative program of easing may be effected. Business people are not sure of what shall exist in the future. Therefore, it is easy to deduce the reasons behind some hotel and restaurant owners refusing to continue hiring people (Nevett, 2014).

Elevated turnover of employees

Finding the most qualified candidates for the hospitality job is an uphill task. In a bid to identify these candidates who are seeking careers, and those that are likely to stay at the firm for a long time, hotel and restaurant owners and managers in Australia are supposed to understand the areas they search for these candidates. The best areas to begin this process includes the niche networks. These niche networks do not only attract zealous seekers of jobs in the hospitality industry, but they also have a specific and extensive library of articles that are specific to this industry (Nevett, 2014).

Even though the economy has no direct control from many of the employers, the recruiters and managers in the hospitality industry in Australia can swiftly handle the other challenges of hiring in a direct manner. Uncannily searching for employees who are focused on careers at the niche networks makes the difference between a continuous operation of the restaurant or hotel with insufficient staff and acquiring the most talented workforce (Nevett, 2014).

The increase in the awareness among the workforce that is multi-generational has caused variance in the values and expectations among the employees (Hlongwane, & Ledimo, 2015). There is a difference in priorities especially among the generation that is younger in Australia, which is known as Generation Y in the context of America. On a broader perspective, there is a bigger difference with their counterparts who are senior. The young Australians have concentrated much on their self-actualization, an elevated expectation of progress that is rapid in their careers and they ultimately change their jobs, careers and industries to meet their goals (Hlongwane, & Ledimo, 2015). As such, the recruiters have a problem that is expected not to end soon because the majority of the job seekers are the youth (Hlongwane, & Ledimo, 2015). Furthermore, the ageing workforce needs to be replaced especially in the management positions and those that require intense energy and thoughts. In a real sense, the challenge has been hard to tackle.

Accordingly, the employee engagement analysis is supposed to be highly sophisticated. Outlooks of the long term enable managers of Human Resource to plan and predict specific talent-shortfall areas (Olsen, & Zhao, 2014).

Further, they need to adopt programs of management training to help prepare for the future growth demands (Olsen, & Zhao, 2014).

Another thought is to the areas of talent shortage in this industry that are affected, and this can be achieved through scanning and projection. Since hospitality was merged with many other sectors and created out of smaller mergers making one bigger organisation, some of the areas include food and beverage, front office, specialisation of jobs among others. All these areas are affected by recruitment challenges and need to be improved (Pizam, 2016).

Fostering strategies of management and economically fit the environment of work is an uphill task that can be enhanced through legislative strategy. Therefore, recruiters need to create a suitable environment by partnering with both the state and the federal governments of Australia so that the employees are made to understand the importance of staying in the hospitality industry. This can be made easy by engaging the major stakeholders and mentorship programs from the bigger restaurants and hotels across Australia (Pizam, 2016).

Constant uncertainty of Australia's economy

Promotion of the program of retaining employees is another strategy that can help tackle the challenges of recruitment. This method is essential because it stimulates potential candidates. An employee who is retained is a marker of satisfaction, and the employer shall have the upper hand by word of mouth. The restaurants and hotels are supposed to introduce a post-employment security plan and a program of financial benefits that extends for a long term (Pizam, 2016). These methods may include pension programs, insurance, schemes of sharing profits among others.

They help lower the turnover of employees that are existent (Iverson, 2013).  

Employer branding is critical because it denotes the reputation of a firm as the employer. If the organisation is made a good place for someone to work, then the turnover rates are automatically evaded. Australian hotels and restaurants could adopt some processes or events like programs of engaging employees, the appointment of celebrities as executives on an honorary basis acting as ambassadors, promoting a balance of life at work, and programs of the quality of work life (QWL). These engagements help portray the hotel as distinct to its target markets (Iverson, 2013). As such, most of the Australian students will be inspired to adopt a career in the sector of hospitality thus improving the workforce. Restaurants and hotels that are branded may also mention their traditions in corporate sector and culture to candidates who are potential (Wang, 2013).  

The positioning of the company is a move that can be effective in eliminating some of the challenges of recruitment. As a means of attempting to bring closer the talented and skilled hoteliers, managers of human resource are supposed to advertise the service packages and benefits to the potential workers. They should also continue to conduct surveys on job evaluation so that they are kept competitive in the markets. Furthermore, the managers are supposed to act in a knowledgeable manner on the enhancement of benefits, opportunities, and conditions of work in the market of hospitality employment so that their offers are differentiated from employment (Wang, 2013).

Aside from market positioning, hotels can also create programs of promotions on the practice of positioning human resource management in a bid to attract potential workers (Wang, 2013). Some tools of human resource positioning could be strategized as minority quotas, children or siblings of freedom fighting, branding employees, a structure of payment based on merit among others.

Conclusion  

Many challenges have marred recruitment in the hospitality industry in Australia. Some of them include high rates of employee turnover, others view the industry as an elevator to their real careers, economic times that are uncertain, difficulty to find staff that are qualified and the different priorities that are held by the different generations. However, some strategies can help handle these challenges. They include positioning the company, branding the employer firms, promotion of a retention program for employees and liaison with legislators and the government.

One of the recommendations includes prompting the process of a job application. The swiftness and proximity of the procedure of recruitment are the primary concern of human resource in Australia. The process of applying for jobs is supposed to be easy, fast, adaptive, flexible and approachable so that the applicants are able to access convenience in application. Today, online or E-recruitment is a major process that is needed to foster swiftness (Younge, & Marx, 2015). Nevertheless, the E-recruitment needs to be limited to the position of managers because computer literacy is a major problem among the senior people and a good number of the youth in Australia. Secondly, recruitment can be prioritised as a strategic activity for HR. Again, a hiring system can be developed for the hospitality organisations to enhance precision. Additionally, company positioning, branding of the employer and promotion of an employee retention strategy are supposed to be effected (Younge, & Marx, 2015).

References

Grobelna, A. (2015). Intercultural Challenges Facing the Hospitality Industry. Implications for Education and Hospitality Management. Journal Of Intercultural Management, 7(3).

Hlongwane, V., & Ledimo, O. (2015). Generational differences on work engagement levels of government healthcare institution employees. Journal Of Governance And Regulation, 4(1).

Iverson, R. (2013). An Event History Analysis of Employee Turnover: The Case of Hospital Employees in Australia. Human Resource Management Review, 9(4), 397-418.

Jackson, T. (2015). Local Economy special edition on Australia and New Zealand: Commentary. Local Economy, 30(1), 5-11.

McManus, L. (2013). Customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the hotel industry: Evidence from Australia. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 33, 140-152.

Nevett, W. (2014). Operations management perspectives and the hospitality industry. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 4(4), 173-178.

Olsen, M., & Zhao, J. (2014). Industry change, environmental scanning and firm strategy: how is the hospitality industry doing?. Tourism And Hospitality Planning & Development, 1(1), 13-18.

Pizam, A. (2016). Does the tourism/hospitality industry possess the characteristics of a knowledge-based industry?. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 26(4), 759-763.

Wang, Y. (2013). Constructing career competency model of hospitality industry employees for career success. International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(7), 994-1016.

Younge, K., & Marx, M. (2015). The Value of Employee Retention: Evidence From a Natural Experiment. Journal Of Economics & Management Strategy, 25(3), 652-677.