Contemporary Issues and Emerging Trends in HRM

This article discusses the contemporary issues and emerging trends in HRM in the hospitality industry. It covers topics such as improving brand image, implementing automated response systems, flexible working environments, emphasis on soft skills, skilled labor shortage, employee turnover, inexperienced managers, stress management, customer care, training and development, focus on satisfaction and morale, culture and ethics, and challenges faced by HR in the hospitality industry.

Human Resource
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1 & LO2.....................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary issues and emerging trends in HRM....................................................................3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................6
Job description and person specification.....................................................................................6
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
Managing people and performance..............................................................................................9
LO5................................................................................................................................................10
Training material that can help HR............................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
They sat that it is the employees only who takes the organisation in next high level. They are
consider as the paramount asset for any company as this is them who with their efforts help the company
in reaching to their goals or objectives. The organisation aims to hire the talented candidates who have the
required skills and knowledge which also helped the organisation in the development of new ideas and
process. The HRM department is responsible for the task of conducting recruiting the required work force
in the organisation. The HRM department knows that a person gives his best when he does the work of
his interest or forte or which they at the interview only ask candidates about their future career goals.
Along with it they also acknowledge the candidates about how their organisation and the work allotted
can help them in the achievement of their career plans (Albrecht and et. al., 2015). As in the case with
hospitality business where the core task is to provide best hospitality services and treatment to customers.
The hospitality business people know that the only can increase the customer’s experience only when
they have the polite and humble work force. Managing the human resource is very hard task to perform.
Hiring employees into the work place includes recruitment, interview, selection, training and
development programs, motivation and many more. Constantly motivating the employees towards a
particular goal is very hard to maintain, to keep up the phase the HRM department constantly comes with
the programs which keeps on motivating the employees towards the direction of their goal. Motivation
can be financial or non- financial. For reference purpose this report has taken an example of a hotel name,
Hilton Hotel, London. The hotel has its chains in around 85b countries. The hotel has its headquarters in
Virginia, US. The hotel is very much famous for its luxurious services which it provides to the customer.
This report discusses about various contemporary problems and issues faced by human resource
management, along with the approaches to handle the performance of employees (Alfes and et. al.,
2013). The report also includes the training materials so that HR manager can make the rules and policies
accordingly.
LO1 & LO2
Contemporary issues and emerging trends in HRM
In hospitality industry the employees or the workforce has to directly interact with the customers
to provide the necessary services. It is very much necessary for the employee to have a good
communication skills. The services which are provided by this industries may include food and
beverages, hotel or accommodation services, travel and tourism and so on. This industries only runs or
can yield profit if they can provide good services to their customers because customer satisfaction is
everything here. The following points are some articles which presents the issues or trends faced by hotel
industries while managing their employees.
HR trends in hotel industry
According to the views of Armstrong, 2020, employees are taken as backbone of the company
especially in the hospitality business where the customer directly interact with the employees. Here the
employees plays a major face for the Hotel. When the employees are polite and gentle it puts a good
impression on the customer and they feel delighted by such services. It is very important to select the best
candidates in this industry, and in order to do that the HR manager selects the best candidates from the
available pool (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020). The HR manager of hotel focus on some trends which
are emerging into hotel industries and these trends are as follows:

Improving brand image: According to the reports, hospitality industries have more number of turnover,
very often the employees are likely to leave the job. The hotel should tries to maintain a good image and
reputation into the market so that it can attract the people or candidates for jobs. The hotel should opt
various marketing sources such as advertising on TV, newspaper, distribution of pamphlets and the so on
to build a strong image for the company.
Implement automated response system: In this era where all the management information can get
saved at information technology system, it has become for the HR managers to stores the data to the
employees who are currently working with them. Also the company also stores the data of candidates
who have employed for the job earlier but could not get it. But the Hotel management saves their data for
future jobs vacancies. This only helps the HR manager in reduction of their work.
Flexible working environment: The environment of the work place should be flexible enough so that
the employees feel comfortable while working in that place. The organisation should provide much
flexibility to their employees that they can work very conveniently irrespective to the place or time. This
process help the employees in marinating good life balance. Life balance here means a good balance
between personal life and professional life (Bamberger and Meshoulam, 2014). And when a person is
successful in maintain a balance between the two, it is noted that he gives the best in his work and also to
his families.
Emphasis on soft skills: when a company an integrated force and efficient work environment, the use of
interpersonal skills are very important. These skills help in marinating the peace and work in the work
place. In the work place the employees worked in groups, the interpersonal skills help in bringing the
members of the group together and keep their energy at the direction of goal or to the task for which the
group has been made. When in group, the members comes up different ideas and opinions which is
innovate and creative and which also helps the business in performing the work in different way.
Management issues in hospitality industry:
As per the article Sparrow, 2016 , the hotel industry comes under the fastest growing industries.
As the travel and tourism of the people is increasing the demand for the hotel industries is also increasing.
This industry is totally based on customer satisfaction. There are certain issues which are faced by the
manager with regard to managing people in company:
Skilled labour shortage: As stated above, the turnover ratio in this industry is very high. The employees
kept on leaving the job very often. To find the candidates who have the right skills and knowledge about
the work is very much hard to find. The HR team has to find reality hard to select the talented candidate
for the job as they don’t want to hamper the customer satisfaction by employing a wrong or less skilled
candidate.
Employee turnover: retaining the employees in the hospitality industry is very difficult. For which the
company has to perform the recruiting cycle or process very frequently. This process adds to the cost for
the company also (Berman and et.al.,2019). The cost for hiring an employees is actually more than to
retaining it. The basic reason behind the increase in turn over percentage can be that employees are not
feeling satisfied with their jobs.
Inexperienced managers: In hospitality industry it is very much difficult to find the employee with the
skills and knowledge the company is looking for. Sometime, at the times for ergency, the company has to
hire the people who have not accurate skills which the company is looking for but still they hire them
because the company is in need.

Stress management : Coping up the changing trends and satisfaction level of customers has created
stress upon the management. The stress to find out new and innovate ways for satisfying the customers is
very heavy. Because the competition in hospitality business has increased so much that the every hotel
company is coming up with ideas for satisfying the customer experience (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Therefore, hotel Hilton management people burdens with stress of generating innovative and creative
ideas to satisfy their customers.
Customer care: Customer care is very much essential in every industry, especially in hotel industries.
The hotel companies spend a lot of money on providing the training and development to their staff so that
their skills get increases. There increased skills would help the company itself as these employees will
then perform more efficient in their work. When the employees become efficient, they would deliver best
services to the customers which directly would increase the experiences of customers along with their
satisfaction. The employees should be intelligent enough to understand that the different people requires
different care and it is the duty of employees to understand it and took responsibility of customers likely.
Challenges of HR in hospitality industry:
According to the views of Bratton, 2017, the hospitality industry is related to providing the
customers a healthy and good experience. A company can provide the customers by analysing the trend
which is running into the market so that the company keeps up with the change. The hotel companies also
analyse about the taste and preferences which customers want to experience and according to it
companies provide the customers with all services. In this changing globalised world, there are various
challenges which the HR manager has to face in hospitality industries, and these are as follows:
Training and development: As the services provides by the hotel companies changes with the demand
and customer preference, these companies provide the necessary training and development program to
their employee so that they have the required skills (Brewster and Hegewisch eds., 2017). The HR
manager faces many difficulties in providing the training and development program to the employees as
they have to the necessary arrangements for that and it also adds to the cost to the company.
Focus on satisfaction and morale: It is the duty of HR team to constantly encourage the people who are
working into the organisation. The HR can encourage them through the use of financial or non financial
methods. Financial method of motivation may include giving rewards, bonus, prize money and so on to
the employee who have performed well in their work. The non financial motivation may include awards,
appreciation, certificates and much more. By bringing such things time to time, employees keep on get
motivating to perform their work. Apart from this a good salary is also a factor which keeps a person
satisfied.
Culture and ethics: The company has to adopt such culture and ethics in the work place that every
employee feels satisfied and comfortable in doing the work. The culture should be such that every person
must have the right to put his point onto the table
As a HR manager in Hotel Hilton i faced many problems in managing the work force. Some of
the problems may include demotivated and unsatisfied work force, increase of turn over ratio, improper
management and the so on. First i changed the structure for remuneration, I offered more handsome
salary but only to the people who deserves this. Then I select the talented candidates by offering them a
good salary. Then I tried to motivate the work force by giving them the required training and
development programs, offering them more rewards so that they perform the best and the like. As in the
hotel, the customer first encounters with the work force (Budhwar and Debrah, eds, 2013). It is the
employees only who handles the customers. Providing the training and development program has proven

to be a great help for our hotel. From that program, the employees learn too much and also they put it in
their practice, this not only has increased the value from customer side but also of the hotel. Giving
training and development program helps in keeping the employees up to the date and it also brings the
required change in them. I took the help of various techniques to evaluate the performance of employees.
Some of the techniques may include 360 degree feedback strategy, performance appraisal, mentoring and
coaching and mentoring and so on (Buller and McEvoy, 2012). All these strategies has helped me in
evaluating the performance of every employees. By getting so i can judge that which employee has
performed very well in his work and which employee’s performance is not up to the mark so that
necessary training could be given to them for their performance improvement.
LO3
Job description and person specification
The HR department plays a paramount role in the recruiting and selecting the desired work force
for the organisation. The HR department hires those candidates which they believe to have determination
to work and have the required skills and education in the field of their work. It is important to hire right
people in the organisation as it is the employees only who takes the organisation to the very next level. As
it is a hospitality industry, the employees or the candidates should be good at interpersonal things, they
should have the good communication skills which impresses the customers. They say that it is very
important for the people to perform the work of their interest because they know that if they person such
work, they will do it the best. At the time of interview I seldom ask to candidate about their future goals
which they have with their career. If their career plans matches with the job which we have the vacancy
for then, I hired him. Because doing that job would adds value to his goals and as it will value to his goals
he would perform it with utmost motivation. Having an understanding about the actual number of
employees needing in a Hotel is very necessary (Cascio, 2015). By knowing such the manager can
evaluate what skills and education are needed for what profile of work to hire in Hotel. The structure of
employee can help in better management of people. Necessary training and development program can be
easily determined that which employee would be needing what kind of training. This can the better work
force which ultimately would results in better profits for the company. This hospitality industry deals to
the people or customer directly so it is very important for the company to have good communication
skills.
Hotel Hilton is the hotel chain which is present globally and they also provides the luxurious
services to their customers. The company has established their hotel at around 84 countries. The company
has a good and strong brand name which helps the company at the time of expansion or diversification.
Creating a good brand image is also necessary and helpful in attracting the candidates for the jobs, the
company does not have to do much marketing and advertising for vacancies. The company owns around
858 b hotels in which they provide the travellers a good experience by satisfying by providing their
hospitality services (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016). As there is in the increase in travel and
tourism industries, there is also a sharp increase in the hotel and accommodation industries. There is an
urgent requirement of hotel supervisor at London branch. This means that the company’s HR department
will undertake the recruitment and selection process for hiring the talented candidate. The candidate
should have all the skills, knowledge and experience which they are looking for. The company has made
job description and person specification which helps in clearly communicating the kind of skills and
knowledge the company is looking for.

Hotel Supervisor: Hotel supervisor have the tasks to supervise all the operations and work which
is carried out in a hotel along with assisting the hotel managers so that the task which is related to the
management completes effectively and efficiently. The tries their best to give best quality of services to
their customers for example, giving welcome drinks, free dinners or breakfast and sometimes both, clean
rooms, laundry services, and the so forth. The supervisor monitors, direct and control all the activities and
resources of a hotel.
Job description: It is the document which helps the company in figuring out about all the qualities, skills,
characteristics, education, experiences and the so forth a desired candidate should have. This written
document helps the HR department in screening out the candidates who does not fit for the position. This
also helps in sending the invitation to the candidates who posses these skills and qualities (Daley, 2012 ).
A job description is given below for the post of a supervisor in Hotel Hilton.
Hotel supervisor job description
Job title: Hotel supervisor
Company: Hilton hotels and resorts
Reports to: Hotel manager
Prepared date: April 2020
Job purpose: the task of super visor is to supervise all the operational activities and manages all the
resources and operations in the Hotel. The supervisor has to supervisor the employees and teach them
about their jobs and the performance which the company expect from them.
Qualifications:
 The candidate should hold the hotel management degree from a known university or institute and
must have secured minimum 60%.
 The candidate must have experience in supervising job.
Essential duties:
 Making schedules of employees so that they know about their work and can perform them
effectively.
 The supervisor also has to supervise the work of their team members so that required feedback
can be given to them.
 They monitor the performance of employees which results in the maximising the customer
satisfaction.
 Preparation is reports about management which helps in determining the performance and
position of Hotel.
Person Specification: Person specification is a written document which specifies the qualities and skills
a candidate needs to have in him for a particular job. This document helps an individual in determining

that is he eligible for the vacancy or not by matching his skills with required skills. The person
specification is presented as below:
Person Specification
 Post: Hotel supervisor
 Department: Operations department
 Key: this includes what is being required as an evidence
(A): Application form, (I): Interview, (R): Role
Attributes Essential Desirable
 Qualification &
Experience
 The candidate should
have a degree from a
known college or
institute.
 The candidates should
have at least an
experience of 1 year as a
supervisor.
 He must have a
certificate for his inter
personal skills.
 The person should be
able to communicate
effectively to the
customers.
 Skills or knowledge  The candidate should a
certain skill or
knowledge about Ms
Word.
 The candidate should
posses leadership and
managerial quality in
him.
 The person should have
the ability of critical
thinking so that he can
identify the problem with
required solutions.
LO4
Managing people and performance

4 star hotels’ people development approaches
To make people deal with customers more effectively and also to improve the work performance
of the people so that using new techniques and skills can be learned by them it is important to
develop people regularly.
Certain strategies for the same are:
On job training: In this employees are trained on the job so that they can perform better in the
roles allotted to them (Dries, 2013). They can efficiently deal with a problem when faced on the
spot by which customers are completely satisfied.
 Seminar and open sessions: In this confidence of the employees is developed so that they
can perform better by conducting influential people’s seminars and open sessions on
regular basis.
 Mentoring: Proper and regular mentoring can be done of the employees so that they can
be helped in improve their efficiency of work which will help them in timely completion
of work.
The people and the performance of the people of 5 star hotels are also needed to be managed so
that customers can be provided a high quality service and also for the improvement of the
company’s brand recognition in the market.
Performance management strategies and policies of Hilton Hotel Bankside, Mandarin Oriental
Hyde park and The May Fair, A Radisson collection hotel are:-
Performance appraisal: Based on the performance employees are appraised so that better
performance can be rewarded. This encourages them to perform even better as they can get
remuneration which also improve the company’s overall performance and productivity (Jiang
and et. al., 2012).
 Effective communication: The results achieved can be maximised by using an effective
channel of commination like emails, video calls, etc. which helps in efficient monitoring
of the work and fast and accurate flow of information in the company. Also by this
employees understand their roles and responsibilities in a better way they can use their
skills and talents efficiently and maximize the company’s profit.
360 degree feedback: In this feedbacks of the customers, managers, supervisors, etc. are taken
so that overall performance of the employee can be improved and also for the satisfaction amd
improving the work efficiency of the workers. This also helps them to use skills and qualities in
the best possible way (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
Development of employees is also needed so that they complete their work in time and
compamy can maintain it’s competitive edge if their goals are in time and budget.
5 star hotel’s development strategies are:

 Performance test and observations: In this certain benchmarks are set and the
performance of the employees are tested based on these benchmarks so that they can
improve their performance if it is not unto the benchmark and within specified time.
Ranking method: In this based on the efficiency of the employees in dealing with customers they
are ranked (Morgeson, Brannick and Levine, 2019). This motivates the lowest ranked employees
to improve their performance to get good position in the company.
 Psychological appraisals: In this appraisals are given based on the psychology of the
managers. In this the employee who impresses the manager through their performance
gets appraised. This motivates them to develop their skills talent to achieve better
performance.
Thus Hilton hotel can achieve better results which helps in providing high level quality
and therefore maximising customer satisfaction by using above discussed people
development and performance management techniques.
LO5
Training material that can help HR
Some things that can increase efficiency and productive skills of HR given below
Benchmark against the competition – competition increases a productivity of human and forces
them to work hard to be in competition .that makes a human energetic and increase their will
power to work and by this we can get your goals for future and improve them according your
need (Oechsler, 2012).
Survey the employees – growth in employee can be seen by doing surveys by this method HR
are able to make decision how to improve the condition of employee if needed .survey provides
a improvement level made by a employee by taking effective approaches that builds internal
confidence and encourage employee to do work more effectively.
Align training with management’s operating goals- employee training should be effective so
that it can able to make a employee efficient and effective towards its work and increase the
interest of a employee towards its works which will help company to achieve their goals
(Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013).
Run it like a business- training and development programs must be strategic so that employees
feel the pressure and increase their efficiency towards work and help company to achieve its goal
on specified time period as well as it will increase their on time decision making .which will help
them to make their work interesting and enjoyable .

Weave it into company’s culture- what if this development training is added in companies
culture by this company can able to provide its importance to employee by doing a individual
developments well as it increase their trust towards company. By this employees get encouraged
towards learning and improvement programs and they will give their 100% in it.
Keep innovating- innovation is a key to success (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016).
innovation in this programs and training increases a interest of employees towards work and they
will get to know new innovative techniques to do their work as well as using this innovating
techniques increase a effectiveness of a employee will enhance customer experience.
Measure results- : The effectiveness of the programs in achieving desired results must be
measured so that improvements can be made which can help in achieving better results that can
help the employees in becoming better in their performance.
CONCLUSION
This report has talks about the importance of human resource department in an
organisation. The report includes the challenges and issues which is faced by the HR manager in
hospitality industry. Some of the issue may include, lack of skills, increase in turnover ratios, and
lack of motivation and so on. On the other hand the challenges may include the stress
management, motivating the employees, training and development and much more. The report
also includes a person specification and job description which helps the people in knowing
detailed information about the vacancies.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals

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