HR Policies and Practices in the Service Industry

This assignment delves into the crucial role of Human Resource (HR) policies and practices within the service industry. It requires students to examine how these policies impact various aspects of service delivery, including employee satisfaction, customer experience, and overall organizational success. The analysis should encompass challenges faced by HR professionals in implementing effective policies within the dynamic service sector, along with best practices for fostering a positive and productive work environment.

HRM IN SERVICE
INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
2.1...........................................................................................................................................3
1.2...........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1...........................................................................................................................................5
2.2...........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1...........................................................................................................................................7
3.2...........................................................................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1.........................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
HRM is the main body of organisations who use to administer the functions and
operations of a company. The business firms have HR department so that a sound policy and
procedure can be made for determining operations of an enterprise. Humans or employees are
the main assets for a company which needs a management so that their work can be designed to
be in line with organisation's goals and objectives (Chand, 2010). The present report is focussed
on same concept with special reference to Hilton hotel which is chain of hotels that serves
worldwide. The report will focus on various aspects of HR which are important for
accomplishing tasks of a venture.
TASK 1
2.1
The role of HRM in Hilton hotel, Stratford is to manage various areas of services to give
complete satisfaction to its customers. The mentioned hotel is indulged in service industry hence
its main aim is to give best services that can give maximum satisfaction to consumers. Apart
from this, the HRM of firm use to allot various responsibilities to its employees for executing

routine functions with main focus on its customers (Talib and et.al., 2011). The company has
main emphasis on achieving improved performance by making its some of the key areas best in
their presentation which are:
 Planning strategies
 Recruitment of skilled employees
 Monitoring employees performance
 Imparting training
 Planning budget
The said organisation faces the challenge of increased number of employee's turnover
ratio in company. This makes the required number of workers to be in deficit and as a result
company has to face difficulties in meeting needs and requirements of customers. The HRM of
cited hotel studied the cause and identified the major issues that has resulted in augmented
number of labour turnover (Gazzoli, Hancer and Park, 2010). Therefore, the venture decided to
apply standard wage system so that skilled employees can be retained in the industry. Moreover,
the mentioned hotel also use to focus on some of its particular functions which play a leading
role in success of entity. These functions are enlisted down under: Recruitment: The main role of HR department in said hotel is done by recruiting skilled
and qualified staff that can perfectly suit for position vacant in company. So, organisation
makes planning for hiring and interviewing applicants in proper manner. After hiring, the
department also make arrangements for giving them appropriate induction so that
employees can become familiar with work culture (Hertog, Gallouj and Segers, 2011). Financial management: The HRM of quoted firm has the duty to monitor financial flows
of company. The department use to make budgets with the help of finance department so
that company's working can be accomplished without any obstacle. This department use
to keep a check on various purchases made by company so that correct outflow and
inflow can be monitored.
 Management of employees: The most crucial and primary function of HR department is
to do the recruitment and selection process. The said department plays its role by
selecting applicants as per the requirements of hotel. Additionally, it use to impart
training and development sessions to employees in areas where performance is lacking

(Größler and Zock, 2010). The department use to allot specific tasks and provide
guidelines for performing the job.
1.2
The Human resource department of Hilton should make a proper strategy to plan for
accomplishing tasks of company so that all operations of the organisation can be done smoothly.
For this planning, main focus should be on identifying correct number of workforce that will be
needed in present and future. Additionally, this plan will need a good forecasting so that a proper
demand and supply structure can be determined. Apart from this, hotel should also analyse its
external and internal environment which can affect the human resource planning of cited firm
(Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). The planning process of human resource will be
conducted in following way:
 Analysis of demand and supply: The company should firstly go for determining aims
and objectives of organisation. This will help in making correct decision for demand and
supply related to required workforce.
 Demand: The HRM of Hilton use to assess the needed quantity of employees in all
departments so as to make arrangement for that. This demand is fulfilled by organising
the recruitment function and providing proper guidance to new joined so that work can be
completed in right manner.
 Supply: The assessed demand of workforce by HR is filled by supplying correct quantity
of employees to each department (Lee, Lee and Kang, 2012.). The supply of requisite
number is consummated by using both internal and external sources of recruitment.
Internal sources may range from promotion and transfers to existing employee referrals.
While external sources are print media, websites and so on.
There are some factors that may affect the operations and planning process of HR. These
factors may exist intrinsically or extrinsically. The internal factors include modifications in
policies and procedures of organisation. Besides this, changes in government policies, fluctuation
in labour market and economic conditions are some external factors.
 Designing human resource plan: The main task of HR department is to assist in
determining objectives of organisation (Ng and Nudurupati, 2010). The determined
objective should be clearly defined to employees so that their functions can be in line to
ascertained aims. The developed plan is monitored, and measured to check its

applicability. Managers can devise a plan to communicate the planning with its all
stakeholders so that maximum support can be attained. Apart from this, management can
also review the plans on timely basis so that changes can be induced whenever required.
TASK 2
2.1
The name of Hilton hotel is recognised in global market as it delivers high quality
services to its guests. The cited company focusses on its each section of service so that it can
ensure the superior work from employees in gaining satisfaction of guests (Amin and et.al.,
2013). The mentioned venture use to bring innovations in its work so that guests can be served
with different experiences. Apart from that, the said enterprise assumes its employees as a useful
assets that contributes in success of hotel. So, mentioned hotel use to maintain a good and sound
relation between employer and employees. Here, participative management is encouraged and
employees are involved in each and every step of decision making where their interest is related.
The suggestions from members are taken which can improve the position of hotel so that best
method can be applied from various alternatives (Barnard, 2012). In present time, cited hotel has
taken various steps to make a healthy relation between employer and employees which are
discussed below: Liberal communication: The hotel has the system of decentralising the authority and
responsibilities. This allows managers of different levels to make important and instant
decisions. Moreover, participation of workers increases which enhances the quality of
decision making. This also reduces the chances of any conflicting situation from any of
the party as decision is taken with consent of all employer and employees. Group activities: The aforesaid hotel attempts to build a strong relationship between its
employer and employees (Hernández, 2012). For this task, company use to arrange
various group activities which needs team efforts for accomplishing the specific task. For
instance celebrating different functions and festivals together, organising annual parties,
celebration of birthdays, rewarding employees and so on.
 Management of conflicts: In said company, management has given liberty to all
employees so that they can discuss their issues and problems with seniors freely. This

makes less possibilities of increasing dispute situations in company. This attitude of
quoted enterprise helps in creating a positive environment at workplace.
Above discussed measures help in maintaining a constructive relationship between
employer and employees. The organisation has a system of collective bargaining for handling
conflicts between various parties of venture (Mazaroff and Horn, 2015). The step taken by
management of involving employees in decision making has solved the problem of labour
turnover to some extent in hotel. The HR department of hotel has laid own some policies which
helps in maintaining discipline. Moreover, management also ensures that no single activity is
undertaken violating the laws of country. The said establishment also use to do counselling and
rewarding employees so that their motivation level remains high.
2.2
Employment laws are used as a roadmap to manage the business according to legal
framework. These laws define the roles a company has to play in accordance of constitution
made by country (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013). These laws affect the management of
mentioned hotel in following ways: Employment relation act: This act implies the importance of making agreement for
employment at the time of joining of a new worker. The said company use to mention
various terms and conditions in the agreement which is useful as an evident for both
employer and employee. The training and development of a worker is also related with
this agreement. Any terms and conditions mentioned in this concord should not be
violated. Equal pay act: This is the basic act of country which is applied uniformly in every
organisation (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Therefore the said act implies to treat each employee of
organisation same and hence they should be paid equally for same kind of works. The
quoted firm also follow this act and makes no discrimination between males, females or a
disable person. Minimum wage act: This act makes a standard according to which workers are entitled to
have at-least minimum wage rate according to their work. The time schedule of job and
age of employee is also considered under this law. Hence, the said hotel should also take
care of this act to ensure payment of the wages at correct rate (The Importance of an HR
policies & Practices Strategy, 2016).

 Maternity act: This act gives authority to women employees of a business concern to
have leaves of 16 weeks or 4 months. So HRM of company has to make arrangements for
such situations and give the leaves to employee. Besides this, company has to make
necessary arrangement of new employee that can replace the position of worker on leave.
The company has to abide by all above mentioned laws so that no barriers can be created
which hamper the progress of company. Apart from that, it also ensures the legality of every
activity which makes organisation's work smooth.
TASK 3
3.1
The hotel makes continuous efforts to recruit a talented pool of employees that can
contribute in success of company (Chand, 2010). This effort has always given a positive result to
organisation which is apparent from the present position of hotel in service industry. The HRM
also ensures right management of existing employees which motivate them to be committed of
their jobs.
For moving further in recruitment process, company makes the exact identification of
roles and responsibilities of individuals at different positions. This job is done by making job
description for each profile of business enterprise. Job description is a document that contains
details of the designation, job responsibilities, accountability of the employee etc. Another work
of HR department is to design person specification of a job profile that contains minimum skills,
qualifications and other special abilities that a person have which can be helpful for an
organisation (Gazzoli, Hancer and Park, 2010).
For a receptionist profile in Hilton, company can recruit the person who loves to do help
of people and have very sophisticated nature. Besides this, communication ability of candidate
should also be perfect for this profile. Further, a person with friendly nature and better ability of
interacting with people are the most suitable personalities for the position. This position also
need a cool and calm nature as the person has to handle many queries of guests at a time which
may make a person to be irritated. Moreover, sometimes the receptionist may have to tackle
many guests at a time which is a challenging task with a big pressure (Größler and Zock, 2010).
Job Description
Title- Receptionist

Accountability- To Front office manager
Job role and responsibilities-
 Maintaining quality in services which is to be delivered to guests of hotel.
 Allotting rooms to the guests along with a warm welcome of guests.
 To handing over the keys of allotted rooms and ensure proper fulfilment of their
preference regarding rooms.
 Attending calls for bookings and other related matters to ensure proper services of guests.
 Satisfying queries of customers/ guests about hotel and stay facilities.
 To solve their issues related to room service or any other related fields tactfully.
 Preparing bills and other final settlements or transactions at the time of checking out.
Person specification
 Educational qualification: Degree or diploma in Hotel management (Lee, Lee and Kang,
2012).
 Experience: Freshers can apply, experienced candidates with 1-2 years will be given
preference.
 Other skills: Good communication and interpersonal skills, technical knowledge
(Computer efficient ). efficient in handling customers and solving their issues. Good
ability to attend customers both face to face and through mails and face to face.
3.2
The recruitment and selection process of companies vary from each other. This needs an
efficient planning which can put a right person at a right place. Here, the responsibilities of HR
department increases as a recruiting manager. The decision of recruiting an employee is taken by
companies with the help of various tests and interviews taken by a panel of selection committee
(Amin and et.al., 2013). So, the whole procedure of recruitment and selection process includes
various stages. These process of selection have a little difference when considered in context of
different organisations. To understand these differences, the comparison between selection
procedure of Hilton and British airways is done.
Selection process of Hilton Inviting application: The Hilton company use to invite applications through websites and
print media so that large number of candidates can be communicated for the vacancy.

Besides this, the advertisement mainly gives description of minimum qualification and
skills required along with job role and designation. Evaluation of applications: In the next step, the members of selection committee use to
evaluate applications and resumes that have come in response of given advertisement
(Hernández, 2012). So, mentioned hotel use to search for the applicant that have all
required skills and qualifications. Further, candidates who have some experience in the
same field are preferred. Testing candidates: At this stage, candidates are contacted and invited to give written
tests so that their reasoning abilities can be evaluated. Besides this, here organisation
makes an attempt to test the interest, personality and body language of a candidate as
well. Interview: The candidates who perform good in tests, are further promoted for interview
process. In this step the panel of selection committee use to make questions from relative
fields to check the knowledge of candidate (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013).
 Final selection: At the final step, HR department use to evaluate the scores obtained by
candidates that are given to him/her on each stage of tests. On this basis, applicant is
selected for a specific position with a letter of intent.
Selection process of British airways
 Invitation of applications: The British airways use to contact various employment
agencies to invite applications for vacancies. The cited airways use to updates the
information on its official website as well. This helps in inviting various CV s of
candidates through mails and other mediums.
 Evaluation of application: At this stage company use to shortlist some candidates on the
basis of their qualification and skills required by organisation (Talib and et.al., 2011).
The shortlisted candidates are then invited for tests. The tests conducted by British
airways are related to checking quantitative aptitude and psychological awareness. In
some of the cases, applicants are provided with data of company which they have to
analyse and give their comments on that.
 Interview: The interview is conducted to test the communication and interacting ability of
a candidate. This interview is conducted with the help of video conferencing and
telephones.

 Final selection: The candidates are finally selected on the basis of their scores given by
HR department and selection committee. In said organisation, candidates are asked to
complete a certain period of probation to obtain a confirmation letter of employment
(Hertog, Gallouj and Segers, 2011).
TASK 4
4.1
Types of training in Hilton
1. Primary training: This type of training can be considered as a part of induction process in
which hotel mainly intends to make new employees familiar with the environment of
organisation. The mentioned venture use to give a basic training of attending guests,
servicing them and attending their queries.
2. On the job training: The said enterprise use to train employee during working hours
through observation. Here, employees are instructed to learn by seeing the work of
seniors which is considered as a best method of learning. The employees are given
grooming classes as well under such training. This practice is considered best way as
employees can be made to learn on the job without wasting extra money and efforts on
separate training (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013).
3. Off the job training: In this method, the employees are sent to various workshops and
seminars to other places. This method of training is adopted by Hilton to give more
exposure to its workers and provide an opportunity to gain upgraded knowledge and
skills.
Benefits of training and its contribution
I. Improvement in efficiency: The training and development sessions arranged by hotel
helps to make employees efficient in handling guests and delivering them quality
services. This makes the perception of workers vast and positive so that they can have the
feeling of job satisfaction. The training helps in increasing productivity of workforce and
they become able to give maximum satisfaction to customers by their services (Ng and
Nudurupati, 2010). Moreover, HR department use to compare the performances of
employees with previous performance.

II. Achieving desired objectives:The training helps the HR department by achieving their
desired aims in the form of quality services delivered to guests. It also confirms the
satisfaction of employees which results in reduced number of labour turnover. The
workers become efficient in handling guests and solving their problems as well.
CONCLUSION
The present report has helped in understanding the importance of HR in the field of
service industry. The report concludes that process of recruitment and selection in various
organisations differ from each other slightly. Further, training and development of employees
help in gaining determined objectives. Thus HRM is a crucial part which helps in attaining
success of company by its various activities.

REFERENCES
Journals and Books
Amin, M. and et.al., 2013. Service quality dimension and customer satisfaction: An empirical
study in the Malaysian hotel industry. Services Marketing Quarterly. 34(2). pp. 115-125.
Barnard, C., 2012. EU employment law. OUP Oxford.
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.
Gazzoli, G., Hancer, M. and Park, Y., 2010. The role and effect of job satisfaction and
empowerment on customers’ perception of service quality: a study in the restaurant
industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 34(1). pp. 56-77.
Grohmann, A. and Kauffeld, S., 2013. Evaluating training programs: development and correlates
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Größler, A. and Zock, A., 2010. Supporting long‐term workforce planning with a dynamic aging
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Hernández, T. K., 2012. Racial Subordination in Latin America: The Role of the State,
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Hertog, P.D., Gallouj, F. and Segers, J., 2011. Measuring innovation in a ‘low-tech’service
industry: the case of the Dutch hospitality industry. The Service Industries Journal. 31(9).
pp. 1429-1449.
Lee, S.M., Lee, D. and Kang, C.Y., 2012. The impact of high-performance work systems in the
health-care industry: employee reactions, service quality, customer satisfaction, and
customer loyalty. The Service Industries Journal. 32(1). pp. 17-36.
Mazaroff, S. and Horn, T., 2015. Maryland Employment Law. LexisNexis.
Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013. Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Ng, I.C. and Nudurupati, S.S., 2010. Outcome-based service contracts in the defence industry-
mitigating the challenges. Journal of Service Management. 21(5). pp. 656-674.
Talib, F. and et.al., 2011. Total quality management and service quality: an exploratory study of
quality management practices and barriers in service industry. International Journal of
Services and Operations Management. 10(1). pp. 94-118.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Online
The Importance of an HR policies & Practices Strategy, 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/76982>. [Accessed on 15th November 2016].

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