Employee Retention in Hospitality Sector: Strategies and Challenges

This report discusses the importance of employee retention in the hospitality sector, specifically focusing on Marriott International Hotel. It explores the challenges faced by hotels in retaining employees and highlights strategies for enhancing employee retention. The study emphasizes the significance of training and development practices and recommends implementing effective communication, leadership styles, and additional employee benefits to support employee retention efforts.

Reflection 4:
Research project
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ABSTRACT
The presented report talks about employee retention within the hospitality sector in order
to represent the importance that it holds for a hotel. To conduct this study the Marriott
international hotel taken into consideration, which help in getting an idea regarding the several
challenges that faced by a hotel in retaining its employees. The main interest of this study is that
it represent several challenges in maintain employee retention along with putting major focus
toward the strategies to be adopted for dealing with this issue.
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SUMMARY
The current report is based on investigating about the strategies that can be used by a
hotel for enhancing its employee retention as it is consider as one the most significant practices
to keep the performance of hotel competitive. This study is based on Marriott internal hotel
which maintain a chain of its resorts and hotels within several different countries. For performing
this investigation both the secondary and primary sources are used under quantitative type of
investigation so that information can be gathered in more accurate manner. From this study it has
been determine that training and development practices is consider to be most effective strategy
for enhancing the employee retention within hotel. But to implement it effectively while dealing
with challenges it has been recommended that the strategies are implemented along with certain
practices like maintaining a smooth flow of communication, adopting leadership style effectively
and providing additional benefits to the employees so that it become easier to get full support
from the workforce toward the efforts imposed by the Marriott hotel toward maintain employee
retention.
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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................3
Contents...........................................................................................................................................4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................6
Overview of the study..................................................................................................................6
Background of the study..............................................................................................................6
Rationale......................................................................................................................................6
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................7
Research Objectives:...................................................................................................................7
Research Question.......................................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................7
Importance of employee retention in the hospitality industry.....................................................7
Different challenges faced in the process of employee retention................................................8
Different factor which used to impact the employee retention for Marriott Hotel......................8
The best way for enhancing employee retention with in Marriott Hotel.....................................9
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................9
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS...............................................................................12
CHAPTER 5: CRITICAL APPRAISAL, RECOMMENDATION & SUGGESTION FOR
FURTHER WORK........................................................................................................................19
Critical appraisal........................................................................................................................19
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................21
Suggestion for further work.......................................................................................................21
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION......................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I want to thanks God who present their support through my project and help me
in accomplishing this effectively due to which I become possible to achieve goals and objectives.
After that I want to thank my seniors and mentors who presented their support by guiding me
and suggesting me over my mistakes as well as for the patients that they kept for resolving all my
queries and providing me appropriate guidelines throughout my work.
Other than this I present my big thanks to the employees of Marriott International Hotel
who helped me in collecting information regarding this investigation. At the end, I want to
thanks my parents as provide me full support and love during every stage of my project to get it
complete effectively.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Overview of the study
Employee retention is defined as the ability of an organisation to keep its employees
within the organisation for longer duration. The employee retention is consider to be more
significant within an hospitality organisation, as here the employees are the one who have direct
interaction with the customers. As a result of which their interaction and manner in which they
serve those customers contribute a lot in making customer satisfied or not (Idris, 2014). Hence, it
is crucial for an hospitality organisation to keep its employees retained so that with they have
thorough knowledge of organisational culture and practices and treat customer accordingly to
make them happy with the offering, which is not possible when their always remain new
employees to cater the customers who don’t have much knowledge of ways in which clients
must be handled. Therefore, for determining the role of employee retention and strategy to
maintain it following investigation is conducted by considering Marriott international hotel
Background of the study
Employee retention has now become crucial within the hospitality organisation as there
remains a regular turnover of employees which make it difficult for the hotels to maintain high
skilled and competent workforce. Therefore, this study is conducted to determine the several
strategies that can be adopted by a hospitality organisation in order to keep its employees
retained for longer duration (Anitha, 2016). For this, Marriott international hotels are taken into
consideration which is a larger multinational chain of hotels and resorts that provide
accommodation related services throughout the world. It maintains a border range of customers
base and to maintain that constantly for longer duration, employees retention is crucial as it
support in ensuring the customers that visits its hotel’ get catered from the high skilled
employees who ensure that they get satisfied and visit again to avail such hospitality services
back.
Rationale
The main reason behind conducting this study is develop an understanding regarding the
role of employee retention within the hospitality organisation and strategies that must be adopted
in order to maintain this (Terera and Ngirande, 2014). Other than that, it also provide an insight
about the factors that have a direct influence over employee retention so that an organisation be
able to tackle them much effectively.
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Research Aim
To ascertain different strategy which is used to enhance employee retention in hospitality
industry. A case study based on Marriott Hotel.
Research Objectives:
 To analyse the importance of employee retention in the hospitality industry
 To identify different challenges faced in the process of employee retention.
 To analyse different factor which used to impact the employee retention for Marriott
Hotel.
 To recommend the way through which employee retention can be enhanced in the
Marriott Hotel.
Research Question
 What importance does employee retention brings in hospitality industry?
 What are the different challenges which are faced in the process of employee retention?
 What are different factor which used to impact the employee retention for Marriott
Hotel?
 What is the best way through which employee retention can be enhanced in the Marriott
Hotel?
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Importance of employee retention in the hospitality industry
According to Sandhya, K. and Kumar, D.P., 2014, it has been stated that employee
retention is important for every organisation as employees are the assets of company who
understand the goals of organisation and give their efforts to complete the task and attaining the
business success. If there is high employee turnover then it increases high expenses such as
hiring new staff, training, recognising and get them ready to work. This helps to increase the
productivity and profitability by maintaining good performance and recruiting skied employees.
In context to Marriott Hotel, manager are playing important role to retain the employees and they
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fill their basic needs and motivate them by using different motivational ways that make them
happy and getting the thing done in certain period of time.
Different challenges faced in the process of employee retention
According to Bhattacharya. 2015, In current scenario, there are different changes are
faced by organisation at the time of employees retention such as salary dissatisfaction that is
main issue that demotivate employees and creating the feeling of leaving the organisation. All
employees wants and have expectation to get good salary so they can work effectively and retain
for long ter. In Marriott Hotel, employees are facing such challenges due to salary dissatisfaction
that create conflicts among people. The next challenge is high job opportunities to few people
that is also a major issue in hospital industry. There is high cut throat competition in market that
attracts best and talented people to offer high opportunities so employees take decision to leave
the existing organisation for the purpose of getting new job opportunities. Hiring the wrong
candidates and Job rotation is another challenge which is facing by Marriott Hotel while running
and providing different types of accommodation services. If management of such hotel hired
wrong person who is unable to work and do not have talent to attracts the customers then there is
chances to employees retention which increases cost of business to hire again new and talented
employees by conducting many interviews. Moreover, some time employees started to feel bore
by doing same work that demotivate them to leave the organisation for the purpose of learning
new one. Therefore such problems are faced by selected hospitality industry at the time of
running business.
Different factor which used to impact the employee retention for Marriott Hotel.
According to Smitson. G., 2020, There are various factors which has impacted on
employee retention for Marriott Hotel such as greater stability and job security that employees
wants from organisation. In hospital industry, the retention of employees is important as they
understand all responsibilities and perform it carefully that attracts customers and encourages
them to buy more so it helps to increase the customer base in such industry. The management of
such organisation should provide employees job security and stability that can motivate them and
impacts positively. Significant increase in come is another factor that states employees of
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Marriott Hotel reacts positively in case of reward quality and company loyalty salary increase.
According to this, appraisal is the main factor that impacted on employee retention so
management should focus on such factor and give rewards and appraisals to employees that can
help to retain and getting the work done on certain time.
The best way for enhancing employee retention with in Marriott Hotel
As per the view point of Halvorson. C., 2018 employee retention has now become one of
the challenging practices that find it much difficult for an organisation to maintain it for longer.
But this turnover of employees is consider to most expensive practices as it cost approx. double
salary of employee when they get replaced. Therefore, there are certain tactics that must be
adopted to deal with this issue such as,
Salary and benefits: - The main reason behind majority of people leave their job is their
dissatisfaction with their salary. So, Marriott hotel must fix up the salary and benefit for its
employees in such competitive that they don’t find it anywhere else and get a reason to stay
retained.
Provide leadership: - Another main reason that employees leave jobs are their lack of
ability to perform and manage work appropriately, reason being they don’t get much support and
guidance which results into mental stress and frustration. So, the Marriott hotel must focuses
toward maintaining leadership practices within workplace so that employees become able to
perform their work much effectively and timely manner with proper guidance and support.
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is considered as a framework that consist of set of tools and
techniques that are being consider by an investigator in order to perform a particular
investigation in effective manner (Kumar, 2019). This act as a guide for the investigator in order
to provide them an idea regarding the manner in which they have to perform a particular research
activity. The methods used for conducting this investigation is mentioned below:
Research philosophy: - It is about the belief regarding the manner in which the data is
being gathered, analysed and used for performing an investigation. There are mainly two type of
philosophies used such as positivism and interpretivism. Among both of them the interpretivism
philosophy will be taken into consideration as it helps the researcher in developing an
understanding regarding the human interest that are involved within the study.
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Research method: - The type of investigation method adopted by the researcher plays a
significant role in the way the study is being conducted and final outcome is extracted.
Qualitative and quantitative methods are considered to be two main methods that are used for
performing investigation (Mackey and Gass, 2015). Among these quantitative investigations will
be taken into consideration as it will support in gathering eth numerical facts and figures about
the topic of concern that make it easier to provide information with more accuracy and also
assure the reliability and validity of the study.
Sources of investigation: - It is defined as the medium or sources that are used by the
scholar in order to collect the information for performing an investigation about the particular
area of study. The sources of investigation are of two type such as primary and secondary
sources of information (Omland, and Thapa, 2017). For gathering the effective information
regarding the strategies help in maintaining employee retention both the sources will be used as
it help in providing the better understanding by providing current as well as past information.
The primary information will be gathered with the help of questionnaire and on the other side the
secondary information will be gathered through online sources such as books, journals, articles
etc.
Research approach: - The outcome of investigation is heavily depending on the
approach that is used by an investigator in order to interpret or analyse the information
effectively. There are mainly two approaches used within an investigation such as inductive and
deductive (Scotland, 2012). Among both the approaches deductive approach will be taken into
consideration for this investigation as this will help the researcher in forming up a new theory
with the help of data that is gathered from the investigation.
Sampling: - It refers to the process through which the number of people are being
selected in order to gather the information regarding a current study area. The samplings
methods are of two type such as probabilistic and non-probabilistic (Silverman, D. ed., 2016).
Among them for this study the probabilistic method of sampling will be used which provide an
equal chance to each people of being selected. The current study involves the sample size of 20
employees of Marriott hotel which is selected using probabilistic sampling.
Research strategy: - It is defined as the tactic or approach used for collecting the
information about the investigation area (Taherdoost, 2016). There are number of strategies used
for gathering the primary information such as case study, interview, questionnaire, focus group
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etc. All these strategies are very much effective but for conducting this investigation
questionnaire will be used which is mentioned below:
Questionnaire
Q1 Are you aware about the role of employee retention for an organisation?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2 According to you, what is the importance of employee retention for Marriott international
hotel?
a) Maintenance of talented workforce
b) Higher productivity
c) Improve employee morale
Q3 What are the several factor that may have a direct influence over the retention of the
employees within Marriott hotel?
a) Cultural factor
b) Management relationship
c) Equality in opportunity
Q4 In what ways, does the employee retention get influenced by the organisation culture?
a) Demotivate employees
b) Poor work quality
c) Job dissatisfaction
Q5 Among the following which one is the main reason due to which the employee retention is
getting affected negatively within hospitality sector?
a) High work pressure
b) Slow growth opportunity
c) Lower job-life balance
Q6 According to you what are several actions Marriott hotel can undertake in order to keep its
employees retained?
a) Training and development
b) Fair compensation and appreciation
c) Developing culture of corporation
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Q7 What are the several challenges that Marriott International may face within the process of
employee retention?
a) Salary dissatisfaction
b) Interpersonal conflict
c) lack of management support
Q8 As per your view point, what are several strategies that can be adopted by Marriott hotel for
ensuring smooth functioning of employee retention process?
a) Provide additional benefits
b) Maintain communication flow
c) Adopt effective leadership practices.
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Data analysis if refers to the process of evaluating the gathered data using certain tools or
techniques in order to extract out more meaningful method or presenting the actual finding of the
study in line with research objectives. For this study the investigator will use thematic analysis
for evaluating the data, where the investigator form up several themes and represent the data
using different graphs that help in presenting actual finding.
Q1 Are you aware about the role of employee retention for an
organisation?
Frequency
a) Yes 15
b) No 5
Q2 According to you, what is the importance of employee retention
for Marriott international hotel?
Frequency
a) Maintenance of talented workforce 10
b) Higher productivity 5
c) Improve employee morale 5
Q3 What are the several factor that may have a direct influence
over the retention of the employees within Marriott hotel?
Frequency
a) Cultural factor 12
b) Management relationship 4
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c) Equality in opportunity 4
Q4 In what ways, does the employee retention get influenced by the
organisation culture?
Frequency
a) Demotivate employees 8
b) Poor work quality 6
c) Job dissatisfaction 6
Q5 Among the following which one is the main reason due to which
the employee retention is getting affected negatively within
hospitality sector?
Frequency
a) High work pressure 6
b) Slow growth opportunity 4
c) Lower job-life balance 10
Q6 According to you what are several actions Marriott hotel can
undertake in order to keep its employees retained?
Frequency
a) Training and development 10
b) Fair compensation and appreciation 6
c) Developing culture of corporation 4
Q7 What are the several challenges that Marriott International may
face within the process of employee retention?
Frequency
a) Salary dissatisfaction 6
b) Interpersonal conflict 4
c) lack of management support 10
Q8 As per your view point, what are several strategies that can be
adopted by Marriott hotel for ensuring smooth functioning of
employee retention process?
Frequency
a) Provide additional benefits 6
b) Maintain communication flow 6
c) Adopt effective leadership practices 8
I am very happy that I got this opportuinity for being a part of this project which not only
help in getting me aware about the several kind of bio tecghnology that are used within
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agricultural industry for imrproving iots practices but also support me in getting my personal
development doen throughout this project. The experience throughopit this project was great and
I presented my learning and experience with the help of self reflection which is presented below:
Personal reflection
In order to execute this project a team was formnulated which work toward gathering the
infomrtaion and try to provide action that can be takern to overcome the challenges or ixssues
that agricyultural industry is already facing wit
So, to continue with this in future I made certain views abouit the things that I will perform in
ordre to approach a team work.
. Other than this I decide to give equal chance to each individual in team for keeping their view
point nad suggestions toward a particulat and I will value them so that more coordination in team
can be established whichj not only help in reducing the burden of worek but also allow in
perfoming it well.
.
Q1 Are you aware about the role of employee retention for an
organisation?
Frequency
a) Yes 15
b) No 5
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Q2 According to you, what is the importance of employee retention
for Marriott international hotel?
Frequency
a) Maintenance of talented workforce 10
b) Higher productivity 5
c) Improve employee morale 5
Q3 What are the several factor that may have a direct influence
over the retention of the employees within Marriott hotel?
Frequency
15

a) Cultural factor 12
b) Management relationship 4
c) Equality in opportunity 4
Q4 In what ways, does the employee retention get influenced by the
organisation culture?
Frequency
a) Demotivate employees 8
b) Poor work quality 6
c) Job dissatisfaction 6
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Q5 Among the following which one is the main reason due to which
the employee retention is getting affected negatively within
hospitality sector?
Frequency
a) High work pressure 6
b) Slow growth opportunity 4
c) Lower job-life balance 10
Q6 According to you what are several actions Marriott hotel can
undertake in order to keep its employees retained?
Frequency
a) Training and development 10
b) Fair compensation and appreciation 6
c) Developing culture of corporation 4
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Q7 What are the several challenges that Marriott International may
face within the process of employee retention?
Frequency
a) Salary dissatisfaction 6
b) Interpersonal conflict 4
c) lack of management support 10
Q8 As per your view point, what are several strategies that can be Frequency
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adopted by Marriott hotel for ensuring smooth functioning of
employee retention process?
a) Provide additional benefits 6
b) Maintain communication flow 6
c) Adopt effective leadership practices 8
CHAPTER 5: CRITICAL APPRAISAL, RECOMMENDATION &
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER WORK
Critical appraisal
Theme 1: The role of employee retention for an organisation
Interpretation: The employee retention plays a significant role within an organisation by
providing numerous of benefit toward its growth and success. So while performing
investigation on this it has been identified that around 15 out of 20 employees said yes they
are aware about the actual role an employee retention plays within a hospitality organisation.
On the other hand, the 5 respondents said that they are not aware about the role that an
employee retention has within the hospitality organisation.
Theme 2: The importance of employee retention for Marriott international hotel
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Interpretation: The employee retention plays a significant role within the hospitality
organisation and to determine this study is conducted. From this it has been identified that
around 10 employees said that Marriott hotel will get a well-maintained talented workforce,
while on other side the 5 respondents said that it help in making higher productivity, but 5
another employees said that it help in enhancing the morale of employees. From analysis of
data it has bene identified that more employees are in favour that it help Marriott hotel in
maintaining talented workforce as by retaining the employees longer it become easier to
keep the skills and knowledge that are being developed among while organisation remain to
the management itself.
Theme 3: The several factor that may have a direct influence over the retention of the
employees within Marriott hotel
Interpretation: There are number of factors that have a direct influence over the retaining of the
employees within Marriot hotel. For this employee said that the cultural factor is the major
one that influence the employee’s retention. In the other side respondents said that the
relationship which management maintains influence tis ration of employee retention and
respondents said that equality in opportunity is the main factor. By analysing the data, it has
bene identified that more people are in favour of cultural factor as it involves the
environment in which employees work, pressure they hold, behaviour their face etc. which
influence their satisfaction toward hotel and their job.
Theme 4: The employee retention gets influenced by the organisation culture
Interpretation: The employee retention factor is highly influenced by the culture in which
employees work. Over these 8 employees said that employees get demotivated with the
negative culture. On the other side 6 people said that inappropriate working culture results
into poor work quality and 6 respondents said that it leads to job dissatisfaction. From this it
has been analysed that the major influence if culture over employee is demotivation, this is
so because if employees get negative working culture with no motivation, growth and
appreciation they get demotivated toward work and leave the organisation for finding better
place to work.
Theme 5: The main reason due to which the employee retention is getting affected negatively
within hospitality sector
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Interpretation: By gathering information about the reason due to which employee retention get
affected in negative manner, it has been identified that around 6 people believes it is due to
high work pressure, while 4 said that slow growth opportunity and 10 respondents said that
it lower the job-life balance. Hence the majority of responses are toward lower Job-Life
balance, as in hotel an employee have lots of responsibilities and they remain active for 24
hour for their customers to keep them satisfy which sometimes ruin the job-life balance.
Theme 6: Several actions Marriott hotel can undertake in order to keep its employees retained
Interpretation: There are number of actions that Marriott hotel can take in order to keep the
employees retained for longer duration. Over these 10 employees said that training nad
development is the better action that can be undertaken, while 6 respondents said that fair
compensation and appreciation is that main action, but 4 respondents said that developing
culture of corporation positively help a lot in this. By analysing the gathered data it has been
identified that training and development is most appropriate strategy as it help in providing
employees with an opportunity to develop themselves and at the same time prepare them for
future growth within organisation.
Theme 7: The several challenges that Marriott International may face within the process of
employee retention
Interpretation: There are number of challenges that Marriott international hotel may face while
managing employee’s retention practices. On these 6 employees said that salary
dissatisfaction remain the major challenge, while 4 respondents said that interpersonal
conflict remain the major issue and 10 respondents said that lack of management support is
the challenges. After evaluating the gathered data it has been identified that lack of
management support to the employees remain the major challenge for Marriott hotel in
employee retention which create more issues for employees in their working.
Theme 8: Several strategies that can be adopted by Marriott hotel for ensuring smooth
functioning of employee retention process
Interpretation: In order to ensure that employee retention process can be performed in smooth
manner the data is gathered regarding the strategies to be adopted. From this it has been
identified that around 6 people said that Marriott hotel must focuses toward providing
additional benefits, 6 said that it must maintain a continuous communication flow and 8 said
that it must focus toward adopting the right leadership practices. From this it has been
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identified that by adopting right leadership style it become helpful to the Marriot hotel in
providing employees with a behaviour that keep motivate them in tehri work and support
them whenever required.
Recommendation
There are number of issues that are being faced by an organisation while implementing the
strategies for employee retention, so following recommendation are provided to the Marriott
hotel so that these issues can be avoided,
 The manager must focus toward adopting the right way of communication so that the
information gets presented among the employees is right so that it get implemented in
work accordingly for positive outcome.
 The Marriott hotel must focus more toward performing leadership practices so
that employees remain motivated toward their job role and be able to perform it with less
difficulties. This help in keeping employees feel valued from the behaviour and support
of management that leads them stay for longer within the organisation.
Suggestion for further work
The current study represents the information about the strategies that must be adopted by the
Marriott hotel in order to maintain employee retention within the organisation. But the main gap
within the study is that it doesn’t perform an in-depth study about the several factors or forces
present within organisation that leads to reduction of employee retention. Hence, for further
work it is suggested that an investigation must be performed to determine the main cause behind
the challenges in employee retention faced by Marriott hotel so that they can avoid at very
beginning stage. Despite of this, in current study