Big Issues Facing HR In Hospitality Industry

Employee Turnover and Retention

Describe about the Big Issues Facing HR in Hospitality Industry.

The primary objective of service industry such as hospitality sector is to recover the economic growth of the country. The service sectors in Australia have contributed to the economic recovery in the country and it has been emphasized that this industry has a lot of potential in terms of growth, productivity and regional competitiveness (Baum, 2015). However, industry analysts have confirmed that despite the growing nature of the industry, the statistical figures are varying on hiring the employees and several other issues are facing by the human resource sector. Several businesses in Australia, both the large and the small ones have severe difficulties in understanding the obligations facing in the human resources and employee retention. A recent article in The HR Magazine by Jen Schramm from the Society for Human resource Management, discusses the major issues faced by the human resource sector. This essay aims to discuss the three most important HR problems in terms of hospitality industry.

Several studies have shown that the hospitality industry needs appropriate and skilled employees. According to Nickson (2013), not only numeracy and literacy, hospitality demands more aesthetic labor, which means the required skills in order to behave in a proper way as the job requires, although there have been less researches conducted regarding the value of human resources in the hospitality industry. Since the 1970s, tourism and hospitality industry has emerged to be a significant one for Australian economy. Increases in the international tourism also resulted in a considerable growth in hotels and other related infrastructure and thus this industry has become one of the major employers of human resources. Hospitality industry is a labor intensive industry and around the globe this industry is facing a high level employee turnover and the companies are finding it difficult to retain their employees (Randhawa et al., 2016). Attracting and retaining the quality employees have been a great challenge for this industry and in an obvious way Australia is no exception. The employee turnover rate has a huge cost ramification as well. In a recent study, it was shown that over the last decade added pressure have been found on the hotel returns. The hospitality industry is expected to perform well financially; however, profitability has not been that much strong in the field yet (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). In this kind of financial situation, the labor utilization has become more critical and the expenditure of human capital for the unnecessary turnover became even more significant. There is always significant link between the organizational transaction cost and the employee turnover, which has been addressed in many researches so far and that link also attempts to define the employee relations and business outcome. In other words, involuntary or voluntary turnover of existing employees has a huge cost to the companies that involves advertising, recruiting, training, development program and the quality of the organization (Solnet, Kralj & Baum, 2015). Therefore, it is not only the significant tangible cost, but also the intangible cost associated with it including the loss of efficient employees and replacement costs. Researchers found that the lost investment in the training and development is the perfect instance of turnover and opportunity costs.

Impact of Technology on HR in Hospitality Industry

Several studies have pointed out that employee turnover costs are also associated with the organizational behavior and other factors such as role conflict, less job satisfaction, lack of motivation, corrosive leadership, lack of development in the career and these have a great impact on the productivity and the quality service in the hospitality industry (Stone et al., 2015). Employee turnover results in lack in productivity and may account for two thirds of turnover cost. Therefore reduction in the employee turnover might be helpful in reducing the hotel costs and also improving the labor productivity. However, managing and accounting for employee turnover remains a problematical question for the hospitality industry and thereby adding the burden and turnover costs. However, there might be few strategies that can be applicable in order to achieve an improved situation in the industry. As many studies have pointed out the human resources accountability structure continue staying weak if the HR department of a certain organization keep on baring the cost of the turnover and there will be no department that can minimize that (Mok, Sparks & Kadampully, 2013). It is also pointed out in several researches that they employee turnover is an artificially manufactured culture in the hospitality industry to meet the accepted yet vague organizational objectives. All these researches highlight the fact that hospitality industry has faced a huge labor retention problem. However, a timely examination into the turnover costs is very much essential in understanding the impact on the hospitality industry and a enviable turnover rate might be achieved through effective human resource management strategies.

Human resources industry is always seen as a non innovative genre where the decisions regarding salary are made and team building sessions get organized. However, this industry is changing in a rapid manner and incorporating technology. The hospitality industry, in fact, has a dynamic environment and a place for continuous movement and development (Hoque, 2013). Throughout last few decades the industry has witnessed several changes at unprecedented pace through the use of technology. There are varieties of tools that can help the organizations to ensure the satisfaction of the guests. In a recent study, it was identified that human capital has faced several challenges in the modern age regarding the employee engagement, competitive compensation, developing organizational leaders and employee retention. These challenges have sparkled innovative ideas in the human resource sector across the globe. It is already seen that social media is being used for several recruitment and many important organizations have turned their channels to identify the appropriate candidates. The virtual world has been continued to be matured and found its way into the professional environment. The popularity of social networking sites have changed radically as well. In the hospitality industry the guests now have an opportunity to share their experience to others, also can exchange significant information about their stay, hotel amenities and others (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). These networking sites also allow the visitors to rate their services and review their experience online. These reviews tend to have a large impact on the future potential guests when they try to research online before making decisions about their travels. According to a recent study, a huge percentage of travelers feel confident with their decisions while they read good reviews online. Therefore technology has a huge impact on the human resource sector as well.

Virtual Reality

As the virtual reality have been a matured one now, many companies have started releasing their products online and in terms of hospitality it is also true, as it can be seen in the previous discussion. This kind technology has prepared for disrupting the talent management and the productivity, as the potential of the virtual reality can be envisioned and the employees can use for any requirements from assignment to corporate trainings (Marler & Parry, 2016). Furthermore, the digital involvement of the employees will increase more and in several situations the training and development procedures can be done virtually as well.

Another important impact of modern technology in the hospitality industry is the advance learning about machines. There are automated data analyses through algorithms and other programs can be done. These allow the machines to collect several information from the corporate environments and improve the human resource depart of a certain organization (Robinson et al., 2014). These technological developments can improve the efficiency of the analysis done on the initial level and allow the HR professionals to look for the higher results. The machine learning application in the hospitality industry is primarily focused on the talent relationship and predictive analysis, mostly used in the recruitment process.

Studies also show that several organizations will soon adopt the cloud computing technology for data access and human resource sector is expected to be ahead of that curve and will spend more on utilizing the cloud solutions to increase the productivity of their workforce rather than other sectors in the hospitality industry. Increasing of these tools will be available with much information and that will make the HR professionals shift to the business performance and execution, as it will free up the human resource departs from the training and development (Deery & Jago, 2015). The time consuming jobs like preferences of the employees, work patterns will start being automated with the help of this technology and the human resource professionals could focus of more engaging challenges that will increase the productivity of the company. However, this development of technology can increase a level of insecurity in the professionals as they might face some risks as well.

Another HR issue that is faced by the developing hospitality sector is the importance of big data. Big data is the torrent of information in details about the consumers and the employees, which now have begun through the hospitality human resources and allow the managers to connect the HR policies with the corporate financial outcomes (Ramos et al., 2017). Hospitality organizations have gradually started addressing both the challenges and the possibilities of big data. Additionally, in dealing with the huge volume of information, the organizations should cope with the variety and the velocity of the information while they can also make sure that there has been an ethical application of the gathered information.

Machine Learning

There are four primary attributes of the type of big human resource data and a framework has been developed regarding the nature of the data. These four primary attributes are velocity, volume, veracity and variety (Xiang et al., 2015). It is stated by several professionals that the companies have a huge data that points for all the individuals in their use. The primary levels of this information are the employees and the applicants and the former employees, but some companies also obtain and analyze the information in the transaction level. In addition to that, the managing of volume can be very much tricky for the information technology constraint. The veracity of the information is a prominent concern. While most of the HR professional using this technology are confident about the HR metrics, many are concerned about the quality of the HR data. There is also a substantial variance in the big HR data that is collected by the companies (Xiang et al., 2015). For instance it can be said that for the recruitment process the data not only includes demographic information about the potential candidates, but also the specific channels to be used by the applicants to apply for the specific job, interviews and other related information. Other than the three previous aspects of big data, there also lies another component, velocity that concerns with the incredible speed of the compilation of the data. The organizations using big data entirely rely on the provided information and consider it to the accurate one.

The companies in the hospitality industry that use the big HR data consider the main objective to gather and examine the data o enhance their business performance and other functional operations. At the end they can also use the varied data mining process to examine the sources of the data as well. The primary challenge for the hospitality industry is that the variance factor is very much common in the industry. Therefore it is important to differentiate between the practical and statistical significance of the data (Supanti, Butcher & Fredline, 2015). In future the hospitality industry need a more purposeful approach to the data analysis process and the function specific activities are important to understand, especially how they are related.

In conclusion it can be said that the complex and rapid changing environment in the hospitality industry might be very much challenging for any human resource professional. However, at the same time the growing technology and other advancements are enhancing the growth of the industry itself. It is not necessary for any profession to expertise each and every thing in the industry, but a deep insight into the issues might give the professional a lot help. In order to overcome all the problems the professionals need to overcome their personal anxiety and fear because at the end of the day the industry will be improved.

Cloud Computing

Reference List

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Baum, T. (Ed.). (2016). Human resource issues in international tourism. Elsevier.

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Hoque, K. (2013). Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation and performance. Routledge.

Marler, J. H., & Parry, E. (2016). Human resource management, strategic involvement and e-HRM technology. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(19), 2233-2253.

McPhail, R., Patiar, A., Herington, C., Creed, P., & Davidson, M. (2015). Development and initial validation of a hospitality employees’ job satisfaction index: Evidence from Australia. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(8), 1814-1838.

Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge.

Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge.

Nickson, D. (2013). Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.

Ramos, C. M., Martins, D. J., Serra, F., Lam, R., Cardoso, P. J., Correia, M. B., & Rodrigues, J. M. (2017). Framework for a Hospitality Big Data Warehouse: The Implementation of an Efficient Hospitality Business Intelligence System. International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), 9(2), 27-45.

Randhawa, P., Kim, M., Voorhees, C. M., Cichy, R. F., Koenigsfeld, J. P., & Perdue, J. (2016). Hospitality service innovations in private clubs. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 57(1), 93-110.

Robinson, R. N., Kralj, A., Solnet, D. J., Goh, E., & Callan, V. (2014). Thinking job embeddedness not turnover: Towards a better understanding of frontline hotel worker retention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, 101-109.

Solnet, D., Kralj, A., & Baum, T. (2015). 360 degrees of pressure: The changing role of the HR professional in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), 271-292.

Stone, D. L., Deadrick, D. L., Lukaszewski, K. M., & Johnson, R. (2015). The influence of technology on the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 216-231.

Supanti, D., Butcher, K., & Fredline, L. (2015). Enhancing the employer-employee relationship through corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(7), 1479-1498.

Wirtz, J., & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services marketing: people, technology, strategy. World Scientific Publishing Co Inc.

Xiang, Z., Schwartz, Z., Gerdes, J. H., & Uysal, M. (2015). What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 44, 120-130.