Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry

This assignment delves into the critical role of human resource management (HRM) within the dynamic hospitality sector. It examines how strategic HRM practices influence employee attitudes, behaviors, and organizational performance. The analysis considers the impact of high-performance work systems, corporate strategy alignment, and the evolving technological landscape on HRM functions in hotels.

Human Resource
Management for Service
Industries

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1.1 Role and purpose of HRM...................................................................................................3
P1.2 Human resource plan...........................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P2.1 Current state of employment relations.................................................................................7
P2.2 Effects of Employment law.................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P3.1 Job description and person specification.............................................................................9
P3.2 Selection processes ...........................................................................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P4.1 Enclosed in ppt..................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Resources are required for implementing business strategies in an effective manner.
Some important resources that are required by almost all functioning industries is money or
capital and human beings or workforce. Hilton Hotel has gathered brand value because of its
high end services to customers with efficient human resource management strategies. This report
helps in understanding various aspects of human resource management with a glance over their
functions and roles in Hilton Hotel. From development of employee legislation to imparting
effective training and development sessions, human resource management handles it all. This
assessment will help in gathering understanding about these facts. An informative section about
job description and person specification is also provided in this report. This content presented in
the report shall help in developing an insight about the practises of human resource function in
an organisation like Hilton Hotel.
TASK 1
P1.1 Role and purpose of HRM
Human resource management (HRM) is an important function of every business
organisation. To sustain in highly competitive markets, companies have to develop their human
resource efficiently. The essence of this management function lies in handling employees or
entire workforce in such a way that business processes are not hindered. HRM has a well defined
set of responsibilities and function (Fee, 2014). These are defined below:
1. Recruitment
2. Staffing
3. Training employees
4. Developing policies and regulations
5. Managing employee demands and needs
6. Planning retention strategies
It is not possible for business authorities to look after every minute activity that is going
in the internal business environment (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Hence, a separate
functioning department exists in some form or the other in Hilton Hotel that looks after
employees' professional actions and reactions. Being a part of service industry, Hilton has to
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maintain good relations with both internal stakeholders and external stakeholders so that growth
of business is not disrupted. HR has to play its specific role in developing productive workspace.
These roles are defined below:
 Collaboration with coordination is essential when smooth execution of business
operations is concerned. The significance of collaboration is felt when certain operation
is hindered or mismanaged. For instance: when HR advises manager of Hilton Hotel
Stratford to schedule everyday activities in advance so that next day operations are not
chaotic. Effective collaboration with manager helps HR to keep a check on day to day
activities.
 An important role of HR is to build commitment of employees towards the company.
Hilton's vision and objective cannot be achieved if people do not hold commitment
towards workplace. HR drives workforce with a positive spirit and encouraging words
that develops responsibilities amongst employees. Individuals start developing
organisation oriented priorities rather than self-centred attitude (Purce, 2014).
 Core competencies of a company are essential whenever Hilton is subjected to
competition. HRM is the key to develop employee capabilities and competencies. If
individuals are addressed to opportunities that will help in improving skills and
knowledge, then internal competency of Hilton will increase.
It is clearly understood from above described facts that HRM plays an important role in
the development and growth of organisation. From quick implementation of changes to planning
and utilising human resource all these functions are effectively fulfilled. But it necessary every
individual to understand the importance and purpose for which this body or function is imbibed
in structure and operations of Hilton or any other service industry company (Swart and Kinnie,
2014).
Purpose of HRM:
Staffing, recruiting, compensation management, handling employees and their
requirements, appraisal management, etc. are certain functions of HRM. This governing body of
Hilton functions with principles and ethics that are guided by legal structure of the company. The
main purpose is to guide individuals about the policies and rules which are defined for
maintaining discipline and decorum inside the organisation (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014).
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Scope or opportunities is considered to be one of the driving or motivational forces that keeps
workforce aligned with company in critical circumstances. Organisational structure of
multinationals is defined in such a way that right from the lowest level or position employees can
explore and develop their skills for grabbing maximum opportunities. Integration with high
levels of cooperation is the motive behind designing of HRM strategies (Riley, 2014). This
serves their purpose of supporting Hilton in creating a qualitative and quantitative working
environment that will yield great outcomes in the form of high customer satisfaction.
P1.2 Human resource plan
Analysis of demand and supply
Hilton Hotel Stratford operates in hospitality industry. Considering the supply and
demand, it has been found that in the UK, the demand is outpacing the supply growth (UK hotels
forecast, 2016). Situation analysis: In order to create a human resource plan, it is important for Hilton
Hotel to thoroughly analyse the external factors. Hospitality industry has a highly
competitive environment which is significantly impacted by the advancements in
technology. Through this environmental scanning, technological advancements have been
identified as an opportunity for the hotel which can be tapped by developing a skilled and
trained workforce (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). At the same time, Hilton hotel faces
threat from fierce competition that prevails in the hospitality industry. Internal analysis: At this step, it is required that the organization should focus upon
competencies of employees and composition of workforce. It also includes the culture of
the hotel. Forecasting demand: The HR plan for Hilton Hotel Stratford needs to forecast the labour
demand and supply predictions. There is high labour demand which is greater than the
supply. Forecasting supply: Based on the characteristics of the labour market, the forecasting of
supply is done. These include the mobility of labour, education level, demographic trends
and government regulations.
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 Action plan: The plan is prepared after the current workforce inventory has been
compared with the labour forecast. This aspect stresses on the workforce size of Hilton
hotel, the gaps related to skills and position types.
In this regard, the following human resource plan can be prepared for Hilton Hotel
Stratford: Determining human resource needs: Hilton Hotel is required to increase the size of
workforce. This is justified on the basis of the increase in demand. Moreover, external
analysis also indicates that in order to match the demand, the number of employees need
to be enhanced (Wilton, 2016). Determining recruiting strategy: A combination of internal as well as external
recruitment strategies need to be undertaken by Hilton hotel in order to increase the size
of the workforce. This will comprise of recruiting through recruitment agencies as well as
opting for internal promotions. Selection: The selection needs to be multi phased so that rightly skilled people are
recruited for the various newly created posts in the hotel. Face- to –face interviews will
essentially be a part of the selection process. Training and development: The HR plan of Hilton hotel will essentially comprise of
training and development. This is justified as the existing as well as the newly recruited
employees will have to be trained in using the technology in order to keep pace with the
trends in the hospitality industry. Determination of compensation: This is the next step of HR plan where compensation
will be determined on the basis of the government regulations as well as the job position
(Hollenbeck and Jamieson, 2015). It is justified so that Hilton hotel does not lose its staff
to the competitor organizations.
 Performance appraisal: The last step of the HR plan will comprise of developing
standards so that performance of the employees can be rated.
TASK 2
P2.1 Current state of employment relations
Multinational organisations like Hilton must always remember one particular fact before
devising new strategies and that is effective employee relations. No strategy or action plan can be
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successful until and unless workforce support is achieved. Several times, business authorities
ignore this point of remembrance and get lean in their profit oriented mindset that they forget to
maintain their relations with employees (Hoque, 2013). Hence, HRM function is developed in
Hilton Hotel Stratford. Hotel industry is entirely service oriented. They have to develop human
relations in the most effective manner when sighting growth and huge profits. For understanding
the concept of effective employment relations in Hilton Hotel the following example can be
considered.
Senior management holds the manager accountable for any delay in operation or
function. Hence, they scold and mistreat the manager which tends to create a drift amongst these
two levels. The manager will further misbehave with respective employee because of whom this
situation has occurred. Furthermore, that employee may develop a negative perception towards
complete organisation as result he/she may either leave the company or create negative group-
ism in organisational culture (Stone, Deadrick and Johnson, 2015). Henceforth, it becomes
essential for the company to maintain and develop healthy employee relations.
The current state of employment relations in Hotel industry is quite brittle and brisk.
Being a labour intensive sector, separate trade unions and employer organisations have been
established for managing the needs and requirements of people who are giving their services in
some form or the other (Stredwick, 2013). European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) is
an organisation that monitors hotel and service industry workers and their working conditions in
the member states of European Union. The existence of such regulatory bodies enables workers
to confront their business authorities about poor working conditions or unfair wages without any
fear of oppression. There are various elements that can affect the balance of employment
relations in countries (Björkman and et. al., 2013). It can be discrimination on the basis of
gender, age, religion or changing lifestyle. Growing population means people require more
money to sustain their needs. This can be met if companies have appropriate wages defined in
their financial and economic structure.
Hilton's business expansion plans cannot be implemented smoothly if there is no healthy
employment relations. Workforce oppression, discrimination or negative politics are the factors
that needs to be controlled. It will not only ruin employee relations but also retard growth and
development of the company (Kehoe and Wright, 2013). Workplace relations are developed
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when leaders are effective. Current business environment has leaders that have transformational
characteristics. Unlike historic leaders, they believe in overall development rather than individual
benefits. This attribute of their helps employees to figure their place in the company. Moreover,
they develop a sense of respect towards functioning of Hilton is leaders are transformational.
Modern world civilisations believe in equal opportunities to everyone without
discriminating on the basis of any subject. The concept of sustainability in competitive markets
has also influenced business organisations to develop strategies in such a manner that people,
profits and the environment are under control and nobody is harmed or abused in any way
(Rothenberg, Hull and Tang, 2015). Hence, these aspects describe that current status of
employment relations in the hotel industry is quite healthy and modifying into a friendly one.
P2.2 Effects of Employment law
Employment laws are developed by the judiciary of the country for safeguarding
individuals at workplace. There are variety of legislations and policies that are defined only for
the welfare of the employees. HRM practises are largely impacted by Employment laws and
legislation. These effects can be positive or negative depending on the acceptance of employees
and the organisation. Since, Hilton's newly developed branch in Stratford shall only function
smoothly if there are certain laws and rules that will abide every functioning individual
irrespective of their working position (Chuang, Chen and Chuang, 2013).
Workplace in hotel or service industry is subjected to abuse and harm continuously. This
can be internal or external depending on the source through which abuse or harm is goiung to
take place. Certain criminal activities can take place from client side or from one employee to the
customer or even between employees of the company. HRM helps in managing such issues
through employment law. Basically,employment agreement is a legislation that is to be agreed
by every individual when they get the offer letter or official joining letter for Hilton. It consists
of various clauses and important rules which that potenti9al employee has to follow during
his/her working tenure (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016). Despite of being a private sector
organisation, Hilton holds the responsibility of safeguarding its existing employees and
customers from different kinds of threats.
Human resource management is positively affected by anti-discriminatory laws, wage
and hour law, leave provisions policies, healthcare and safeguarding laws. When a person is
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being discriminated on the basis of race, colour, gender or any other thing then, he/she has the
right to complain and file a legal suit against respective individual or organisation according to
these laws. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act helps human resource management to
handle the cases that involve discrimination and exploitation. On the other hand, leave provisions
in the employment act allows employees to take certain amount of leaves which are permissible
at the government side (Heizer and Barry, 2013). HRM is responsible for allocation of leaves
and holidays according to the office structure of Hilton. Such laws affects HRM to take
appropriate decisions which are in accordance with the leave provisional laws. The Fair Labour
Standards Act (FLSA) monitors this attribute of workforce. Companies are bound to pay
employees an extra income for overtime and extra hours they spend in the office. Furthermore,
any sort of violation if witnessed can lead to heavy monetary loss for the company.
The affects of employment law on human resource management is felt by Hilton in the
form of more strict workspace. Discipline and obedience is generated amongst employees when
they have a pressure of being punished and condenmend if found guilty of any unethical
practises. The responsibility of human resource managers increases as they will be held
accountable if acts and policies that are implemented by country government are not followed
effectively (Smith and Maull, 2014). Moreover, corporate social governance idea can be
visualised into active reality if employment laws are followed and implemented as an integral
part of human resource management strategies. Hence, hotel industry is bound to follow the laws
and regulations strictly without any form of lineage or extra leverage for special cases.
TASK 3
P3.1 Job description and person specification
Hilton Hotel Stratford may or may not require new candidates for handling certain
operations. When placing an advertisement at different portals, there are two important things
that need to be considered (Sallis, 2014). These are job description and person specification.
Here, these two elements are described for the job position of banquet manager in the hotel.
Job Description
Job Title: Banquet manager
Reports To: Sales and Food manager
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Position Summary:
Banquet manager is a person who has to look after the events and conferences that will tale
place in the Hotel. He has a responsibility of collaborating food and beverages supply to clients
according to their demands and conditions. The individuals working at this position have to
look after trainees and new recruits, develop daily operations schedule for his subordinates and
must care for house activities that will take place.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Following set of duties and responsibilities have to be fulfilled by the person working as a
banquet manager.
 Manage and control budgets that are allocated to food, beverage and labour that is
involved in the banquet.
 Meet everyday deadlines and schedule objectives in most ethical form.
 Supervising and coordinating with different functions that are engaged with banqueting.
 The banquet manager has to be assured and informed about any sort of changes that are
made in the planned events and conferences.
 Actual function budget sheets must be prepared and forecasted for getting the vision of
approximate expenses which will be involved in both client side and hotel side.
 Inventory records, labour costs and food costs are to be maintained and recorded.
 Entire banqueting facility has to be supervised and monitored effectively without
compromising hotel standards and customer requirements.
 Communication channels must be developed and maintained by banquet manager for
correlating different operations and people that are employed for the same.
 Working with head Chef and head server for ensuring proper arrangement and
achievement of customer specifications.
Person Specification-Banqueting manager
Work Experience: Minimum of 5 years experience in banqueting and events industry as a
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manager or team leader.
Education/Qualification: A post graduate degree in management of business entities with first
class percentage is necessary. Graduates with ample experience can also apply.
Skills and abilities:
 Planning and scheduling efficiency.
 Time management skills are a must.
 Knowledge of relevant industry with limited understanding of basic work laws and
legislations.
 Technical capabilities like basic computer operations, Microsoft office usage, internet
surfing.
 Delegation abilities with effective communication skills.
 The person has to be good enough in judging competencies or flaws in the organisation
which means body language expert.
 Organisational skill with efficient problem solving is required.
P3.2 Selection processes
Recruitment and selection is a human resource management function. The nature or
procedure of selection of individuals in different industries is different. It entirely depends on the
requirement and eligibility criteria of every business organisation. Service industry involves real
time communication and interaction with customers (The Role of Human Resource Management
in Organizations, 2017). Hence, the most important aspect of job criteria is effective
communication skills. Being more precise, selection process of Hilton is quite different from Red
Carnation Hotel and Marriott. Following comparative table depicts this difference.
Hilton Hotel Red Carnation Hotel
Hilton Hotel has a rigid selection process with
multiple stages build to get best candidate
profile.
Since, the organisation holds a brand
reputation; it becomes important for the
Red Carnation Hotel is a British multinational
company functioning in the Hotel industry.
The selection process of this organisation is
quite simple and flexible depending on the
requirement of the company.
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company to recruit individuals that have
efficient skills and sufficient knowledge to
perform their job.
The selection process in Hilton is divided into
six main stages that are:
 Notification
 Reviewing
 Screening
 Personal interviewing
 Background verification
 Selection.
It is segregated into three steps that is:
 Screening
 Interviewing and
 Selection
Many times, organisation faces situations
where reference or influence of people also
leads to selection of certain candidates.
This comparative table depicts that Hilton's selection process is quite complex and
involves multiple stages. The reason behind such procedure is the need for highly skilled staff.
Being a luxurious hotel, the clients or customers that will opt for staying or acquiring services of
Hilton Stratford will also belong to high income group. Hence, employees that are going to
handle the clients also must be efficient and talented enough. Every worker that functions in a
business is a representative of the company. They are equal contributors in developing corporate
image of organisation in competitive markets. The screening and background verification stages
depict that there is organisation performs double check in selecting deserving candidates (Six
Main Functions of a Human Resource Department, 2017).
On the contrary, Red Carnation Hotel has an entirely different selection procedure. The
company functions to sustain in highly competitive markets. People with a strong referential
background are considered for a particular position without performing any regulatory step. This
depicts that recruitment and staffing process of human resource management is not ethical when
considering Red Carnation Hotel. The selection process has only three basic steps and no
complications are assisted with these. But the only thing that is common between these two
organisations of hotel industry and that is personal interview. This stage of selection process is
designed for understanding the vision and capabilities of potential candidates with close
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examination. It helps in selecting only those individuals that depict the will and desire to work
with particular companies (UK hotels forecast, 2016).
It is important for human resource management of Hilton to understand organisational
requirements and then select an individual. Apart from brand reputation there are many more
elements engaged with recruiting and selection of an individual. These include resource
investment, utilising time in training new entries, allocating certain resources for the benefits of
new employees, etc. If wrong or incapable candidates are recruited then, company shall suffer
loss in terms of resources. Hence, human resource management has to take at most care in
developing selection strategies and processes for gaining best individuals for entire team.
TASK 4
P4.1 Enclosed in ppt.
CONCLUSION
Human resource management can be efficiently applied to functioning structure of the
company when business authorities develop appropriate strategies. This report help in
understanding the functions and specific roles of HRM when applied to Hilton Hotel Stratford.
Moreover, basic aspects of employment relations and laws with their effects on human resource
practises is also discussed. Following these factual information, a job description and person
specification is also provided regarding the job of a banquet manager. This report helps in
understanding the selection process in Hilton Hotel and Red Carnation Hotel along with their
basic differences. It can be inferred from all such data that HRM helps in serving customers with
consistency and efficiency which in turn results in meeting business objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Björkman, I. and et. al., 2013. Talent or not? Employee reactions to talent identification. Human
Resource Management. 52(2). pp.195-214.
Budhwar, P. S. and Debrah, Y. A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Chuang, C. H., Chen, S. J. and Chuang, C. W., 2013. Human resource management practices and
organizational social capital: The role of industrial characteristics. Journal of Business
Research. 66(5). pp.678-687.
Fee, M. C., 2014. Human resources management.
Heizer, R. and Barry, R., 2013. Operation Management, Sustainability and Supply Chain
management (Vol. 11). Pearson, UK.
Hollenbeck, J. R. and Jamieson, B. B., 2015. Human capital, social capital, and social network
analysis: Implications for strategic human resource management. The Academy of
Management Perspectives. 29(3). pp.370-385.
Hoque, K., 2013. Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation and
performance. Routledge.
Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human
resource management. The Academy of Management Annals. 8(1). pp.1-56.
Kehoe, R. R. and Wright, P. M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource
practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management. 39(2). pp.366-
391.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Riley, M., 2014. Human resource management in the hospitality and tourism industry.
Routledge.
Rothenberg, S., Hull, C. E. and Tang, Z., 2015. The impact of human resource management on
corporate social performance strengths and concerns. Business & Society,
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Sallis, E., 2014. Total quality management in education. Routledge.
Smith, L., Maull, R. and CL Ng, I., 2014. Servitization and operations management: a service
dominant-logic approach. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
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Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Stone, D. L., Deadrick, D. L. and Johnson, R., 2015. The influence of technology on the future of
human resource management. Human Resource Management Review. 25(2). pp.216-231.
Stredwick, J., 2013. An introduction to human resource management. Routledge.
Swart, J. and Kinnie, N., 2014. Reconsidering boundaries: Human resource management in a
networked world. Human Resource Management. 53(2). pp.291-310.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
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Online
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The Role of Human Resource Management in Organizations. 2017. [Online]. Available
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organizations-21077.html>. [Accessed on 9th February, 2017].
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