Exploring the Role of Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry

The provided content consists of various articles, books, and online resources that focus on human resource management (HRM) in different contexts, including the hospitality industry. The topics covered range from HRM strategies, innovation, and performance to employee loyalty, service quality, and firm performance. The readings also explore the role of justice in turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. Additionally, the content touches on corporate strategy, knowledge creation, intellectual capital, and human capital management. Overall, the articles and books aim to provide insights into the importance of effective HRM practices for organizations to achieve success.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT FOR
SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 .........................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service
industry...................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Justify a human resources plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for an
enterprise ...............................................................................................................................2
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in a Thomas cook service industry.....4
2.2 How employment law affects the management of human resources in an enterprise......5
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for a Thomas Ccook service industry7
3.2 Compare the selection process of different service industries businesses ....................10
4.1Contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of Thomas
cook......................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management is an important part of company. Every company is
having its different department to handle human resources in an enterprise. HR is having primary
concern with people of management (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). This department is
responsible for employees’ benefit, training and development, recruitment, performance
appraisal and rewarding. Employees are very important part of an enterprise. They decide the
failure and success of an organisation. No work can be done without workforces so it very
crucial to handle them properly.
The company which is taken into consideration is Thomas cook. Thomas cook is the
oldest and well known company for travel and tourism in UK. This is a services industry which
provides better services to its customers and tries to satisfy their needs. They are offering and
designing holiday packages for their customers and tries to bring new experience of travelling.
In this report the role of human resources management is discussed. Importance of
current employment relation has also been mentioned below. The various laws regarding
employment has an impact on business operations. The job description and specification is
mention. How training and development is important for a firm is described in this assignment
(Armstrong, 2011).
TASK 1
1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service industry
It is the human resource which carries out all the business activities. There are HR
managers and professionals who have high responsibility to carry out these activities properly. In
this concept employees are real assets of an organisation. HR authority plays important part to
grow business. In context to Thomas cook their professional try to choose candidate those who
can bring ideas and innovation while designing attractive packages. HR main responsibility is to
motivate their employees and create healthy business environment. Following are the role of
HRM in services industry. Collaboration: In this professional and HR managers try to enhance employees’ skills
and motivate them to work together (Boselie, 2010). These authorities decide how to
assign job to people according to their skills and knowledge. To make employees more
flexible they assign different roles so that they learn to work in dynamic environment.
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Proper collaboration brings smoothness in business operations. This can help to build
strong relation between employees and management. Commitment building: HR manger make strategies and policies which increasing
employee engagement with an enterprise (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). For this
management tries to appoint right candidate for right job so that they get satisfaction from
their work. All the employees should be committed to their job and use their ability in an
effective manner. Engagement of employees is very important because it saves cost and
time of management to recruit new candidates again and again.
 Building capacity: HR helps enterprise to get competitive advantage. For this they need
to increase capacity of their workers so that they provide unique services to their
customers. Many firm conducts activities which help employees to grow and increase
their retention in an enterprise. This can increase customer satisfaction which help
companies to sustain for longer run.
The HR of Thomas Cook always motivates and trains their employees so that they can
bring healthy environment in an organisation. Employees of firm provide most unique offers to
their customers so that they can meet customers’ needs and also gain competitive advantage.
There are different department in Thomas cook such as HR, sales and distribution, IT,
destination representatives and finance & account department. All these levels are having their
own roles responsibility (Bratton and Gold, 2012). Workers in these department are specialised
in their work and they know how to complete task in effective and efficient manner
Purpose of HRM in travel and tourism industry is to control conflicts, managing people,
development of employees, leadership, improving communication, improve human relations, job
satisfaction. These all factors are proper address by HRM in an enterprise.
1.2 Justify a human resources plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for an enterprise
Human resources is very important part of any an enterprise. It is very crucial decision to
allocated human resources properly so that company can get good profits. For this activities firm
do human resources planning in which HR manager looks after position that need to be fulfilled.
Thomas Cook human resources planning is given below. Identify the key areas of position: First step is to identify the position where company
needs to hire candidate. For this Thomas Cook adopted human resources planning so that
they gave right position to right candidate. The company have different reason to recruit
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new candidate in an enterprise these reasons can be new product launch, old employees
died or leave job, employee is on holidays and others. Because of this reason firm needs
to fill in their vacant positions.
 Identify the capabilities for key areas and positions: In this step company identifies the
capabilities which candidates should have for a particular profile. Candidates are hired
according to job profile (Chand, 2010). They find certain skills and knowledge in
candidate while hiring for vacant position. For this firm list down all vacant positions and
notes down different capabilities in candidates to fulfil the job requirements. Identify interested employees: In this step company identify potential candidates and
match their skills and knowledge to job profile. HR Analyse whether these skills match
which required job capabilities or not. Firm identify whether candidates can complete the
task with effective manner or not. If employees are capable to perform then management
gives task to that particular person. Developing and implement succession plans: In this, enterprise identifies areas and
candidates to whom they can give succession planning. Management also conducts
knowledge transfer plans so that they can achieve their determined goals. Succession
planning refers to developing its employees for higher position. This can make
employees more flexible in nature and also they can perform at every level an enterprise.
This succession planning prepares their employees for future prospects.
 Evaluate effectiveness: Last step of human resources planning is to evaluate the
effectiveness of planning among the employees. It is very important to analyse
performance of workers (Chang, Gong and Shum, 2011). So that if there is any loophole,
company can correct it at that point of time. Enterprise compare standard performance to
actual performance. The implementation of all resources should be allocated in an
effective manner.
There are different requirements to do human resources planning. Following are the
requirements of Thomas cook to do human resources planning. Resourcing strategy: The main motive of this strategy is to allocate its resources in
effective manner. Thomas cook wants to achieve competitive advantage. For this they
need to make resources strategy. So that no wastage should take place and services
quality can be increased.
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 Scenario planning: This planning includes all situations which take place because of
environment changes. Company need to prepare its staff for future risk which take place
in firm (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). So for this an enterprise need to do human
resources planning. There are many different situations which Thomas cook face. It
affects their sales of packages and other products. So to overcome from these scenario
organisations prepare its employees. Forecast of demand and supply: To meet customer demand at right time with quality of
product is very important for a firm. For that an enterprise forecast its future demand and
supply so that they can hiring people in their company. so that demand and supply can
properly met. Labour turnover analysis: Another reason to do human resources planning is to reduce
labour turnover. Company has to figure out labour turnover and Thomas cook have less
cost strategy so for that they need to see their actual labour turnover cost to measure
actual position of company.
 Flexibility: For travel and tourism flexibility is must. Flexibility refers to multi-tasking,
outsourcing sub-contracting etc. A company needs to do human resources planning to
bring flexibility in an enterprise (CHUANG and Liao, 2010).
2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in a Thomas cook service industry
Employment relation is very important in an enterprise. This build strong relation
between employees and management. Employment relation helps to bring satisfaction,
motivation, increase productivity. This strong relation generates’ coordination and by workers
can share their skills, knowledge, ability with each. This can tend to achieve enterprise goals
with effective manner.
Employment relation brings harmony in an organisation. It resolves workers’ problem by
which their performance is affected. Employees’ relation not only gives benefits to an individual
but also to whole enterprise, customers, society and others. When an organisation is having good
relations with its employees that firm can sustain for longer in market and has competitive
advantage from its competitors (Guest, 2011).
There are elements which are considered to have ideal employees’ relationship are as
follows.
 Difference between contractual and statutory employment rights
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 Agreement and contract of employment
 The rules and regulation regarding work timing
 Termination of employment contracting
 Inequality in employment
In services industry employment relation is important. To build good employment
relation firm need to give job satisfaction, motivation and increase productivity. These factors
are essential in services industry (Gummesson, Lusch and Vargo, 2010). All the travel industry
are aware about contractual and statutory employment rights and they are applying it effectively
in their business. These are different rights which company need to address. All firms are
concern about working time, safety issues, work disciplines and termination of employment.
In UK employees need to maintain all rules and regulations while working with particular
enterprise. An employers are supposed to follow all laws of UK regarding workers of company.
In UK there is philosophy regarding employment relation is that employer and employee are in
position in which they can bargain the power. Thomas cook is a customer oriented company. UK
believe in win-win approach (Harzing and Pinnington, 2010). That means both the parties in
contract gets equal benefit. Because of these reason company adopt democratic style of
employee relation.
2.2 How employment law affects the management of human resources in an enterprise
For every enterprise law is guideline which tells how business activities should be
conducted. It is necessary for every country to follow legal laws govern by its government and
legal authority. UK also have many rules regarding employees. In an enterprise human perform
all activities. So participation of employees in an organisation is very important. There is
employment relation Act and employments right Act which are enforces to protect employer and
employees rights. These also help to establish good relation between employer and employees.
Employment relation Act discuss following employees matter.
 Independent contractor
 Obligation of employees and employee
 Termination of employment
 Collective bargaining
 personal grievance
 Wages and payment of employees
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 Dismissal notice
 Child care
 Unfair dismissal
 Employer insolvency
Thomas Cook is having corporate strategy of with competitive advantage through its
unique products and its Human Resources. For this a company needs to reduce its cost of labour
turnover and motivate the employees. The practices which are taken by firm for its human
resource should not be unethical and illegal (Hendry, 2012). Because of this reason these Acts
are implemented by the firm. Thomas Cook allows its employees to engage in union activities.
Thomas cook gives holidays on Saturday and Sunday to its employees and working hours are
also kept flexible according to industry requirements. Employment Rights Act also have a major
impact on business environment. Employees should have all the rights which he/she is entitled
for.
It is under purview of law that all the workers of an enterprise should be treated equally.
No discrimination should be made by anyone in the organisation. Thomas Cook provides
incentives based on performance. It helps company to control cost of an employment. By this,
enterprise can bring same opportunity for every worker and if they get higher incentives their
motivation level also increases. If firm gives equal opportunity then it can bring multi-cultural in
a business unit.
UK has certain laws which protect interests of an employee. If company members are
involved in certain union activities they get benefits by government of country. Under Minimum
Wages Act 1998, it is stated that minimum wages should be £6.31 for those who are 21 years
old.. There should be 28 paid holidays in a month for employees and any worker is not allowed
to work more than 48 hours at stretch according to working time Regulation Act 1998. There are
right of children care which employees received by a company. Under employment Act 2008 an
employee should have flexible working patterns (Hoque, 2013).
There is a huge impact on human resources practices on Thomas cook business operation.
To give employees training, development and motivation, company needs to consider laws
regarding HRM so that they can make effective policies. Firm needs to recruit candidate
according to UK rules and regulations. They have to provide minimum wages and fixed working
hours. Every employee of Thomas cook has a right to safety in their job and have healthy
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business environment. By abiding to such basic laws, this firm can generate good reputation in
market and prevent legal issues.
TASK 2
3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for a Thomas Cook service industry
Job description is a document in which employees’ roles and responsibilities are
mentioned. The required skills and knowledge which company want in their candidate should
listed in this document. (Kern, 2014.). It is a general written statement which includes duties,
and key result areas that are to be performed by employees. Job description is used to form the
basis of job specifications. For example, Thomas Cook is hiring candidate for customer services
(Low, Chen and Wu, 2011). So for that it has designed the following job description:
JOB DESCRIPTION
Organization Name Thomas cook
Division Customer service
Designation Customer services agent
Location London
Report to Human Resource Manager
Job summary Customer services agent of Thomas cook makes sure
that customers are taking packages with it should be
satisfied. The agent needs to solve customer enquiries
about hotel, flights and other information.
Roles and Responsibilities  Checking customer details
 Providing accurate information
 Solving their inquiry regarding hotel, flights
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and conveniences
 Updating customers if any changes in flight
timings, hotel check in and check outs.
 Solving transaction issues
 Promoting and updating customers about new
offers and deals.
Skill Required  A strong knowledge of particular field
 Excellent interpersonal, oral and
communication skills
 Should have required qualification
 Person should has ability to work in team
 Person should have ability to solve problems
and issues effectively.
Personal Qualities  Commitment to public communications
 Should be honest and flexible in nature
Salary 15000 pond
Working hours 9:30AM to 7 PM
JOB SPECIFICATION (Personal profile)
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 The candidate should be above 18 years old (Mathis and Jackson, 2011)
 A person should have under graduate degree.
 Person should be willing to work in flexible schedule
 Candidate should able to work in stressful conditions
 The candidate background and medical check should be done by an enterprise before
final placement.
Dimensions Where- Call centre How – By using telephones, computer and reservation systems
 With whom – With executives and other service staff of customer
Job description helps the candidates to understand their roles and responsibilities. They
can decide whether they want to apply for particular job profile or not. It makes clear to
employees about job environment and its working condition. Following are steps by which job
description and job specification can be prepared (Meredith Belbin, 2011). Collect background information: First step is to identify the candidate background
information (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). So that they can formulate job
description. It is very important to see background because after that they can provide
right job to right person. Select representative position: After background check a company choose right position
to right candidate. For this an enterprise need to see which position needto hie
candidates. There are different department in organisation. In which department HR
needs to recruit employment. After back ground check particular job profile is offered. Collect job analysis data: In this a company designs the roles and responsibility which
can be fulfilled by particular job profile (Nadiri and Tanova, 2010). After this enterprise
collects their personal data and match that information with job requirements. Develop job description: After analysing the data job description is preparing where job
identification, job summary, duties and responsibility, relation to other jobs, timing of
interview, salary, timing of office are mention. These factors vary from different job
profiles. Every position in organisation having their own roles and responsibilities. The
experience and qualification also differ from different designation.
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 Prepare Job specification: In this personal profile has been mentioned. There are
certain criteria and conditions mentioned in job specification. The qualities which an
employee should have to get particular job.
Thomas cook is growing and profit earning company. Sometimes they need human
resources to manage and complete their business task. If enterprise wants to hire experienced
candidate, then they need to compare job description of previous job profile to current job profile
which is offered by firm. In this case business unit need to provide better opportunities to
encourage them to work with Thomas cook. If firm wants to hire fresher than they need to
provide good opportunities to new talent so they can start their career in good manner. So that
they improve their skills for their better future.
3.2 Compare the selection process of different service industries businesses
The main purpose of selection is to identify potential candidate for a company job profile.
In this an enterprise select best individual for suitable position (Purce, 2014). Every company is
having its own procedure to selecting employees according to their required position. But this
selection process follows some common steps which are as followed.
 Interviews
 Presentation
 Tests
 Back ground check
There are different selection techniques for various position. The techniques which have
been chosen depend on business nature, competency required for job. In this report the
recruitment process of Thomas cook is compared with HSBC (Riley, 2014). HSBC is providing
banking and financial services. These two companies’ selection processes are different from each
other because of their business nature and types of the work. These both industries have different
operations, having different organisation structure. Following is the selection process of Thomas
Cook:  Provide application form to candidates: First step is to provide application form to
candidate. In this candidate fill his/her personal information with their qualification,
experiences, skills and abilities and their USP for which company should hire them.
 Online test: After filling application form company shortlist the candidate those form
are attractive and give good impression to HR. Those candidates need to give online
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test in which firm analyse candidate maths, English and reasoning. This test can be
taken anywhere if candidate has the good computer access.
 Telephonic interview: Those candidates who passed above online test get chance to
give telephonic interview. Company gives a date on which an interview can be
scheduled. This interview helps an enterprise to know candidate in better way. There
are many questions that have been asked in this telephonic round (Yee, Yeung and
Cheng, 2010). Candidates should calmly answer these questions and in precise manner.
 In store interview: The candidates who are selected in telephonic round can be invited
by a company to their office for face to face interview. This is final stage of selection
process. Candidate has been asked to visit store for personal interview. By this
candidate can see business environment and analyse whether they can adjust in this
atmosphere or not (Schneider and Bowen, 2010). The HR panel ask candidate to
prepare presentation on particular topic. After this they participate in role play activity.
In this way candidate get chance to show their talent and skills. After this business unit
select its final candidate. The background has been check for those student who are
finally selected in all these rounds.
This can help company to select most qualified person for their position.
Selection process of HSBC
Selection process of HSBC is different from Thomas cook. Both companies are into
servicing sector. One is into travel and tourism and another is into banking and financial
services. Following is step which is adopted by HSBC to recruiting its employees. C.V Online forms: The first step of selecting employees is candidate need to upload their
C.V and fill online form which is available on official website of a company. In this
candidate can look after the criteria for particular job and their roles and responsibility.
By this they apply for position in which candidate can perform well and they have skills
according to job requirement (Shih, Chang and Lin, 2010). Application evaluation: After receiving all applications HR department analyses all these
forms and match with the job position. All applications are selected on basis of its
quality, skills and knowledge which candidate is having. There is software in company
which stores database. This database helps to identify potential candidate suitable for
particular job vacancy.
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 Ability test: After selecting right number of application. The candidates need to give test.
In this test candidate ability, problem solving skills, communication skills are need to be
examined. In this candidate need to give answer very carefully because it is major part of
selection process. Capability based interview: Selected candidate get chance to have face to face interview.
Certain questions have been asked to candidate and they need to answer according to
their ability and knowledge. In this HR panel can analyse candidate gestures, postures
and level of confidence. Reply letter: Company send regular feedback of candidate interview process through
emails. So that candidate should know whether they are selected or not.
 Job letter: This is a final stage in which the job letter is given to the candidate which are
chosen by company. In this job letter the timings, salary and terms, condition are mention
that candidate need to follow.
4.1Contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of Thomas cook
The training and development activity is very essential for every employee. With the help
of this factor it leads to increase the efficiency of employees work as well as also lead to improve
the productivity of an organization. Training and development is a major thing which each and
every firm adopts because this is a only thing through which all barriers and skills of an
individual get developed and thus with the help of this a firm will generate more and more profit.
Thomas cook provide training to their workers having main the motive to provide quality
services to their users. With the help of this method an individual skills and abilities get
improved which is necessary for an enterprise. With the help of those improvement and
developed skills and capabilities a person can do the work in more effective manner and thus it
also help in utilizing all resources in an appropriate manner and wastage can be reduced
(Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016).
The training has it large contribution in an industry. This leads to overall development of
a person which is the main purpose behind the program conducted by firm. By this production
activities can be taken in proper manner and firm can get effective outcomes. In context of
Thomas cook which is a service industry those who are engaged in tour operations. They have to
provide proper training to their employees through which they can maintain a friendly and
appropriate behaviour with their clients and thus it directly leads to satisfaction of customers.
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Thus training and growth contributes more and more in attaining effective outcome (Wright and
McMahan, 2011).
CONCLUSION
The human resources management is very important part in an organisation. The main
purpose of HRM is to bring collaboration, competitive advantage and building capability. There
is separate department in every organisation which looks after all the activities regarding human
resources. There are certain activities in HRM including employment relation, appraisal, training
and development activities, motivation activities etc. These all activities help employees to
enhance their skills and knowledge. By this employees efficiency can be increased and enterprise
can achieve their goals. Every enterprise need to hire new people for their business for this they
follow particular format so that they recruit right person at right place. Thomas Cook recruits
employees in their enterprise those who are highly innovative and creative. The company
regularly motivates its employees so that they can retain them for longer term.
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REFERENCES
Book and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Armstrong, M., 2011. Armstrong's handbook of strategic human resource management. Kogan
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Boselie, P., 2010. Strategic human resource management: A balanced approach. Tata McGraw-
Hill Education.
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Chand, M., 2010. The impact of HRM practices on service quality, customer satisfaction and
performance in the Indian hotel industry. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 21(4). pp.551-566.
Chang, S., Gong, Y. and Shum, C., 2011. Promoting innovation in hospitality companies
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Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2017. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
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performance. Routledge.
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Low, C., Chen, Y. and Wu, M., 2011. Understanding the determinants of cloud computing
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Mathis, R.L. and Jackson, J.H., 2011. Human resource management: Essential perspectives.
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Meredith Belbin, R., 2011. Management teams: Why they succeed or fail. Human Resource
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Schneider, B. and Bowen, D.E., 2010. Winning the service game. In Handbook of service
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Shih, K.H., Chang, C.J. and Lin, B., 2010. Assessing knowledge creation and intellectual capital
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Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
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strategic human resource management. Human resource management journal, 21(2),
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Yee, R.W., Yeung, A.C. and Cheng, T.E., 2010. An empirical study of employee loyalty, service
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