Issues and Emerging Trends in HRM in Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the issues and challenges faced by HRM in the hospitality industry, including virtual working, flexible workspaces, health and safety protocols, and the impact of new technology. It also provides job descriptions and personal specifications for different management positions in Savoy hotel.

Human resource management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1 Issues and emerging trends in HRM in hospitality industry ....................................................3
2 : Job description and personal specification of different management position in Savoy hotel
......................................................................................................................................................5
3 : Process of Performance management ..................................................................................12
4 : HR policies ..........................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

Introduction
Human resource management is concerned with managing people in the organisation.
Human resource management of any organisation indulge in the process of Hiring, recruiting and
staffing the right person for the right position in the organisation(Michael, 2019). The main
motive of human resource manager is to provide proper training and development to the new and
existing employees as well so the organisation can attain their desired goal. This report speaks
about the human resource management of Savoy hotel, which is located in London. Savoy was
the very first hotel luxury hotel which is using electric lights and electric lifts in the entire
building. This report focuses on issues and challenges faced by the human resources
management in this hotel is discussed in this report. Besides this, job description and person
specification has also mentioned in this report apart from this process of performance
management along with this different HR policies has also explained in this report.
1 Issues and emerging trends in HRM in hospitality industry
HRM has to face a lot of issues in the hospitality industry as the trend of hotels are
increasing day by day (CATHOLICDIOCESEOFPORT, 2020). Some of the major issues and
challenges faced by the HRM is people empowerment, employee turnover, hiring of skilled
employees cultural gap etc. apart from this HRM has to manage and walk with rapidly growing
technologies.
Increase in the virtual working
One of the emerging trend which is going on in almost all the industry and it is also there
in the hospitality. So this has become a trend but more than a trend it has been an issue for the
HRM of hospitality (Issues Related to Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Sector,
2020). Due to the proliferation of covid19, work from home or doing all the work virtually has
become a trend in most of the countries. This trend has shifted the traditional way of working
into the modern work. But this has become an issue for the HRM of the hospitality industry as
this industry works on providing services to the customers but even though the HR was working
and doing their work from home. As many big hotels did not close their hiring and recruiting
services so it was the responsibility of HR to conduct interviews online apart from this HR has to

give training and development to the employees of hotel when the hotel was close due to the
lock-down besides this HR of many hotels did many activities such has creating and making new
jobs providing proper training and development etc. so this has become an emerging trend and
emerging issue as well (Shayo and et.al, 2017).
To offer flexible workspaces
This is the another challenge and issue for the HRM of hotels as after the pandemic now
the people have started travelling and they are visiting to different as the hotel is known for
delivering best services to the customers and most of the hotels are open for 24 hours as they
want to recover the loss they have faced in lock -down and due to the pandemic (Królikowski
and et.al, 2019). So it is a challenge for HRM to provide flexible working hours and flexible
workplace to the employees so that they don't get stressed from the extra work because in hotels
employees have to do night shifts as well so it is the responsibility of HR to manage the working
hours and shift timing of employees in such a way so that they feel relaxed and enjoy the work.
Health and safety protocol
Nowadays hygiene, cleanliness and safety has become very important in this industry as
the hotels are engaged in providing services, accommodation etc. for that HR has to set new
policies for Covid, as most of the HRM of different hotels have prepared self declaration form
for the visitors, travellers and for employees as well, and it is very important for health
perspective because in hotels people come from different regions, locations and countries. So as
per the policy of HR they have to sign on s self declaration form while staying in a hotel apart
from this, the HR has set some different guild lines for those employees who are working in the
hotel (Fenner and et.al, 2020). HR has to ensure that all, the employees who are working in the
hotel must follow the protocol, the must wear gloves, mask and maintain the social distancing as
well. Apart from this those employees who are engaged in cooking they have to follow the
protocol that they must sanitize their hands before cooking anything same as those who are
working in restaurant area of the hotel they have to sanitize the dining and sitting area to protect
the health of their and the customer as well. Besides these employees have to share their
residential and address and travel history if they have gone to different places. Apart from this
HR has make new policies for the suppliers as well they also provide raw – material after doing
proper sanitisation.

As the safety of guest has also become a big issue for the HR, to reduce the touching, HR
has prepared new protocols that the employees will do cleaning by electronic sprays specially in
the lobby, lift and staircases apart from this HR has prepared a new guideline for the guest that
they will go for the mandatory temperature check as the health is very big issue for the guest as
well as employees.
New technology
Another emerging issue and challenge for the HRM of hotel industry is to wake with the
new emerging change of technology (Ma, 2019). As the customers and visitors are putting more
emphasis on doing booking and reservation through the website of the hotel or by other online
booking application so it the responsibility of HR to check that, the website of their hotel must be
updated and show all the necessary details such as how many rooms are empty, how's many
guest can check-in in a time, what are the special precautions they are taking for the safety of the
guest. Apart from this, now guest and visitors preferred contactless check in and check out so
being the HR it another challenge for them tom maintain such hierarchy and follow the
technology. As new trend called “new normal” is going on in the entire world so it has become
the responsibility of HR to make sure that their hotel must follow the guidelines issued by the
government as well (Shukla, 2020). Apart from this, HR has to conduct all the interviews with
the help of technology, they have to sent the offer letter and other necessary documents with the
help of technology only. Apart from this HR has to provide training with the help of technology
to the new employees and existing employees as well.
2 : Job description and personal specification of different management position in Savoy hotel
Job description and specification of HR manager in Savoy hotel
Job Description
Company Savoy
Post HR manager
Location Strand, London WC2R 0EZ, United kingdom
Report to Tom Jones
Last date 15/5/2021

Qualification Minimum 1 year of experience
 Masters in Human resource management
Skills  Interpersonal skill
 Communication skill
 Problem solving skill
 Ability to implement HRM software
 To address the issues of high net worth customers
Responsibilities  Develop training and educational training sessions
for other employees
 Manage salary and wages for employees
 Attract new talent towards the company
 Maintain work culture in the hotel premises
 Resolve conflicts
PERSON SPECIFICATION : HR Manager
Section Criteria
Educational qualification  Bachelors in hotel management or any bachelors degree
in any stream
 Masters in hotel management or in Human resource
management
 Any certification in hotel management

Experience  Minimum 1 year of experience in HRM
 Internship as an HR in any hotel
Skills and Special
knowledge
 Good interpersonal skills
 To coordinate with all the employees
 Effective communication skills
 Decision making ability
 Should efficient in solving problems
 Skills to use different HRM software
Working Relationship  To maintain norms and standards in the premises of hotel
 To develop rules for other departments of the hotel
 To resolve conflicts in the hotel
 Develop training for employees
 To manage salary, wages and perks of employees
Job Purpose  Develop different policies in the hotel
 To attract skilled and highly educated people toward the
organisation
 To provide training and education to the new and existing
employees
 To look after
Job description and specification of front office manager of Savoy hotel
Job Description
Company Savoy
Post Front office manager
Location Strand, London WC2R 0EZ, United kingdom
Report to Tom Jones

Last date 25/04/2021
Qualification Minimum 2 year of experience
 Bachelors in hotel management
Skills  Supervision skill
 Leadership skill
 written and oral both communication skill
 Team building skills
Responsibilities  Schedule and manage the front office staff
 Manage different shifts of front office employees
 Maintain and supervise master key control
 To handle problem, queries quickly and efficiently
 Allocate budget to front office
 Handle all the cash and credit
 Communicate with other departments
 Manage the records and data of the guest
 Deliver all the necessary services on time
PERSON SPECIFICATION : Front office manager

Section Criteria
Educational qualification  Minimum 2 years of relevant experience as a front office
manager
 Bachelors degree in hotel management
Experience  Experience in managing front desk
 Relevant experience in dealing with queries and problems
of customers, visitors and guests.
 Should have appropriate experience in handling cash at
the front office
 Manage the different shifts of employees at front office
Skills and Special
knowledge
 Must have time management skills
 Should address the visitors with efficiently and politely
 Must have problem solving skills
 Should possesses the teaching quality to guide others
 Must have excellence in oral and written communication
 Skills to implement new policies and rules
 Must have knowledge of finance to handle manage
money at the front office
 Should manage the material resources
 Must have knowledge of system analysis
 Effective control and knowledge of quality control
 Must have basic mathematical knowledge
Key responsibilities  To manage the different shifts of employees at front
office
 To manage master key control
 To manage the front desk of the hotel
 Should solve the problem
 To decrease conflict at the desk
 Must have knowledge of all the services provided by the

hotel
 To maintain good relation with other departments
Working Relationship Internal
 Sales department
 To coordinate with HR department
 To maintain healthy relation with finance department
External
 Visitors and tourists
Job description and person specification of housekeeping manager
Job Description
Company Savoy
Post Housekeeping manager
Location Strand, London WC2R 0EZ, United kingdom
Report to Tom Jones
Last date 17/06/2021
Qualification Minimum 3 year of experience
 Diploma in hotel management
 Bachelors in any stream- commerce, science and arts
Skills  Should have leadership skills
 Have knowledge of basic maths
 Must have operational knowledge
Responsibilities  To develop a budget for housekeeping department
 To maintain records of tools and equipment of the
hotel
 To manage the shifts of the employees
 To handle the customer queries

PERSON SPECIFICATION : House keeping manager
Section Criteria
Educational qualification  3 year of work experience as a house keeping manger
 Graduation in any stream
 Diploma in hotel management
Experience  Experience In handling room attendants and cleaning
staff
 Provide training to new employees
 To manage repairs and maintenance in the cleaning
department
 To manage budget and controlling cost
Skills and Special
knowledge
 Must have experience in managing the housekeeping
department
 Have knowledge of finding defaults and damages in the
rooms
 To manage budget and control the cost
 To handle the shifts of employees specially o9n
weekends
 Strong technical and operational knowledge
Key responsibilities  To maintain budget of housekeeping department on
annual basis
 Should be responsible for cleanliness, and orderliness of
entire hotel premises
 To develop housekeeping system
 To prepare reports of tools and essentials of the specific

rooms
 To attend and resolve the complaints of guest
 To organise and develop on the job training programs for
the employees
 To inspect the public areas on daily basis
 To coordinate with maintenance department
Working Relationship Internal
 Maintenance department
 HR department
 Front office department
External
 To resolve customer queries
 To work with suppliers
3 : Process of Performance management
Performance management refers to the ongoing procedure of communicating the work
responsibility, performance expectations, and priorities to the employees of Savoy hotels. The
aim of performance management is to develop a healthy environment in the hotel so that
employees can deliver their work effectively and also give quality work(Delery and et.al, 2017).
The main objective of performance management communicate between the top management and
employees to make sure that the hotel meets its strategies. The main objective of performance
management is to reduce the employees turnover in the hotel and also provide appropriate
training to the employees.
Process
Planning
In this process performance manager of Savoy hotel clearly states the job description to
draw the attention of new and skilled employees by making them aware about the job role at the
time of interview, performance manger can reduce the employee turnover in the hotel.
Monitoring
As per this stage the performance manager, monitors the performance of the employees
and try to identify that do the employees performing well or not. HR appreciates those

employees who are performing well in the hotel and also give them different rewards to reduce
the staff turnover, this will be a motivation for rest of the employees as well.
Developing
In the monitoring phase those employees who were not performing as per the
expectations, the HR of Savoy hotel provides proper training to those employees so that they can
enhance their productivity (Kianto and et.al, 2017). HR provides different kind of assignments
and education to the employees to increases their knowledge.
Apart from this to reduce employee turnover in the hotel because the major reason behind
the increasing employee turnover is low remuneration, lack of training and development and
growth opportunities. Apart from this, the conflicts between the employees and management can
also become a reason for employee turnover. High staff turnover in Savoy hotel will directly
impact the customer services of the hotel and in result Savoy hotel can lose its potential and loyal
customers, and this will indirectly impact the reputation and goodwill of the company. To reduce
the employee turnover, performance management can do these things.
Reduce turnover with fair compensation
This the most important factor of employee turnover in the Savoy hotel as the employees
are not feeling satisfied with pay scale offered by the hotel as they are working and performing
more than their remuneration in such case employees will always look to change their job so it
the responsibility of HR to overcome such issue and communicate with the employees to reduce
the staff turnover ion the hotel (Kianto and et.al, 2017). This is the duty of HRM to enhance the
employee engagement in the hotel.
Hire the right people
This is the another best way to reduce high employee turnover is to hire the right people
at the right position who can suits the hotel, and conduct work as per the expectations of the
hotel.
Encourage the employees
HR should encourage the employees at the workplace so this will increase the morale of
the employees and they will perform their job enthusiastically (Fedotova and et.al, 2018). By
encouraging the morale of the employees they will feel happy and encouraged at the workplace
as well.
Flexible work

when the employees work for more than their standard work time they get frustrated and
always think to switch their job as they don't get time for their personal life as well. To overcome
this situation, HR of savoy hotel should provide flexible working hours so that they don't get
frustrated from their work (Riccucci and et.al, 2019). Apart from this HR can organise some
relaxation and fun activities in the hotel for employees so that they don't loose interest in the
work.
Appreciate the performance
HR must appreciate the performance of those employees who are performing outstanding
as the hotel industry is fully based on providing services to the customers and if the employees
are devoting their time in fulfilling the needs and demands of the employees their work must get
appreciated and they should get rewards for their loyalty towards the work.
Growth opportunities
Every person needs growth at the place where they are working, because working on a
same position for years on the same pay scale is not good for their career and this is also an
important reason of increased employee turnover. So it is the responsibility of HR to provide
growth opportunities to each and every employee this will automatically boost their morale to
perform better than other employees.
Identification of training needs and enhance performance
In the hospitality industry, the taste and choices of the customers is rapidly increasing so
the employees must get proper training to use different kind of technology in their work it is the
responsibility of the HR to provide them proper training and education so that they can face any
issue and problem at their own level and apart from this it is must for the employees that they are
well aware with the culture, rules and norms of the hotel (Visser and et.al, 2020). Training will
reduce the chances of committing errors and mistakes at the workplace at the workplace. Apart
from this HR should provide employee handbook so that they can read the instructions and as per
that they can perform in the organisation as well. Apart from this training will not just increase
the knowledge of the employees but they will understand how to approach to customers and
satisfy them, this will help the hotel as well to increase the profit.
4 : HR policies
In Savoy hotel, HR works for the benefits of the employees and ensures that know one
employee has to face any kind of issues in the hotel specially when they are working. The main

aim of HR at workplace is that all the employees should feel safe and secure in the hotel. Even
HR always remain their to address any kind of issues, problems and grievances faced by the
employees at the workplace. Apart from this HR made different policies which are related to the
compensation of the employees in which they don't feel that they are getting fewer wages as
compared to other employees to avoid such situation from the hotel HR prepares different salary
structure as per the knowledge, eligibility and skills of the employees (ZAMEER, 2020). Apart
from this there are major two policies which is being followed by the HR of Savoy group.
Grievance Resolution at work
Grievance is a kind of problem or complaint and issues which an employee faces at the
work place or with the work culture. Apart from this grievance can be personal where the
employee feels committed or partiality in the hotel or the employee thinks that something unfair
is happing with them. Besides this, grievance can arises for the safety at work, training and
development, supervision, salary issues etc. To avoid such situation from Savoy hotel, their HR
managers has made grievance policy in which HR encourages the employees of Savoy hotel to
come forward and discuss the issues which they are facing in the hotel whether it is related to
work culture or if they face any personal issue they can openly share it with HR (Brahmana and
et.al, 2018). For that HR has set procedures in Savoy hotel, employees who have felt partiality
or anything else with the help of formal route they can drop a mail to HR regarding their issues
HR will try to settle down such issues by investigating the same at the workplace but even
though when the employees don't get satisfied they forward their problem to senior management
and try to get some solution and appropriate outcome for the employee.
Except this HR of Savoy group has also made an informal procedure in which the
employee who is facing any issue whether it is related to workplace of colleague, they can
directly talk to them and get a solution of their problem. If the employee don't get satisfaction
after talking to the person involved they may directly approach their reporting manger so this is
a lengthy procedure of HR in Savoy group, whenever any employee approaches to reporting
manger, soon after manager help an initial meeting with the team and discuss the issues but
here, the reporting manager has to make sure that the meeting conducts in positive manner and it
does not affect the work culture of Savoy group.
Due to this policy employee feels safe and secure at the workplace and try to focus on
their work, this will also help the hotel to increase its goodwill and reputation in the society and

it will attract the new talent as well because everyone wants such job where they feel safe and
secure (Larsen, 2017).
Recruitment and selection policy
Savoy hotel don't want to compromise in hiring new talent in their hotel as it is one of the
iconic hotel in the hospitality industry and want those people who have good communication
skills, qualification and antiquates as it is very important for the employees who are working in
the hotel, in the absence good communication skill they will not be able to address the visitors
and people who are coming in the hotel (Ariasand, 2019). So it is the another responsibility of
HR to hire right person at the right position who can fulfil the needs of the hotel. To attract the
talented people towards the hotel HR design the job description in which they mention all the
requirements of the hotel such as - experience, qualification, eligibility and what work they have
to perform after getting selected in the Savoy group etc. To recruit skilled people at Savoy hotel
HR follows two methods for recruitment such as internal and external. In internal method they
hire those persons who are suggested by the current employee of the hotel as it becomes easy for
the HR to complete the procedure because they don't have to choose from thousands of
candidates. Besides this the another method followed by the HR is external method in which they
make advertisement of their job description in the newspaper and on their website. Apart from
this they can tie-up with different consultancy and agencies to hire the best candidate in their
hotel. After this HR have to shortlist the application of suitable candidate who fits in the job role
as per the HR, sometimes it becomes very lengthy process for the HR to choose better one from
the thousands of job application. After that HR go for the interview process of the candidate.
Apart from this, HR of Savoy group provides equal opportunity they don't believe in gender
discrimination. After selecting the right candidate it becomes the duty of the HR to pay the
suitable salary package so that they can fulfil their needs and demands. As being a reputed hotel
in the hospitality industry, candidates expects high remuneration and other benefits from the
Savoy for that HR follows a set remuneration structure so the HR has divided remuneration in
grades such a grade A, grade B etc. and as per the skills and experience they pay different salary
and wages to the employees.
Conclusion
After analysing the entire report it is concluded that, this report speaks about the Human
resources management of hospitality industry. This report includes four articles about the

emerging trend and issues faced by the HRM of hospitality industry apart from this job
description of different positions have been mentioned in this report. Besides this, the process of
personnel management have been elaborated in this report how HR tries to minimise the staff
turnover and also recognise the need of training and development for the employees and also
work for the promotion of the employees. Except this, different HR policies for the welfare of
the employees has also mentioned in this report. Apart from this different job description and
person specification of managerial post in a hotel have been mentioned in the report such as –
HR manger, Front desk manger and housekeeping manger.
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