Impact of COVID 19 on HR Remuneration and Compensation Practices

Research Project
(Impact of COVID 19 over the human resource
remuneration and compensation practices)
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Executive Summary
Main purpose of conducting this report is to analyse the impact of COVID 19 over the
human resource remuneration and compensation practices of J+A Cafe, London. In order to
attain this purpose, different activities were followed by researcher. Development of aim and
objectives is a first activity that was helped researcher in identification of main rational behind
doing this report. Literature review is another part of study that were completed by using
different number of secondary sources which are journals, magazines, publication research,
books etc. All these are effective and useful sources that were applied within an investigation for
gathering information about the impact of COVID 19 on hospitality. Research methodology is
another part of study that was completed with the effective use of questionnaire, quantitative
research, deductive approach, positivism philosophy etc. These are main methods that were
effective for researcher in collecting of primary data about the existing topic. Data analysis and
interpretation is another part of study that was completed by using content analysis. This is an
analytical technique that support researcher in making of themes on each questions and
interpreting data within lesser time period. Conclusion and recommendation is another part that
includes entire information of report briefly.
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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis
supported by a literature review.............................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
What is the major impact of COVID 19 on hospitality sector?.............................................7
What are several challenges that J+A Cafe faces in human resource management due to
COVID 19?.............................................................................................................................7
What are the the consequences of COVID 19 over remuneration practices J+A Cafe for
employees?.............................................................................................................................8
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary research.
................................................................................................................................................8
M1 Evaluate different research approaches and methodology and make justifications for the
choice of methods selected based on philosophical/theoretical frameworks.......................12
LO 2...............................................................................................................................................12
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a tourism or
hospitality research project that consider costs, access and ethical issues...........................12
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools analyse research findings and data..........................13
M2 Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis..20
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................20
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience. 20
M3 Coherently and logically communicate outcomes to the intended audience demonstrating
how outcomes meet set research objectives.........................................................................23
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................23
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
hospitality research project...................................................................................................23
P7. Alternative research methodology.................................................................................23
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M4 Provide critical reflection and insight that results in recommended actions for
improvements and future research considerations...............................................................24
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................24
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26
Appendix........................................................................................................................................28
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is seen as the important which clearly describes the formal
system through which organisational workforce are managed. Here, the main focus of human
resource manager is to emphasise on satisfying its existing workforce so that they can sustain
longer within the company and work for them with the loyalty. Workforce is the main resource
in hospitality sector as they are responsible for handling customers and fulfilling their needs
accordingly. COVID 19 is seen as infectious disease which was developed due to Coronavirus.
COVID 19 is most harmful disease as it spreads with just normal interaction with one another. It
is one of the most harmful diseases which transmit from person to person who comes in contact
with one another. Epidemic COVID 19 has directly placed impact over most of the businesses
but its major influence can be seen as hospitality sector (Boughton and et. al., 2020). This is so
because COVID 19 has affected jobs of hospitality sector workforce which directly places major
influence over HR department especially remuneration and compensation practices. The present
investigation has been conducted on J+A Cafe. This is London based cafe which runs its
business at small scale. In order to save people from COVID 19 government has taken initiative
of lockdown so that social distancing can be avoided. This has simply affected business of J+A
Cafe as they have to close their cafe till the lockdown gets over. The present investigation has
been conducted to check out the impact of COVID 19 over the human resource remuneration and
compensation practices of J+A Cafe.
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis supported
by a literature review.
Research Aim
To investigate about the impact of COVID 19 over the human resource remuneration and
compensation practices. A case study J+A Cafe, London.
Research Objectives
 To develop understanding on the impact of COVID 19 on hospitality sector
 To determine challenges that J+A Cafe faces in human resource management due to
COVID 19
 To ascertain the consequences of COVID 19 over remuneration practices J+A Cafe for
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employees.
Research Question
 What is the major impact of COVID 19 on hospitality sector?
 What are several challenges that J+A Cafe faces in human resource management due to
COVID 19?
 What are the consequences of COVID 19 over remuneration practices J+A Cafe for
employees?
Rationale of this project
The initial motive of conducting this investigation is to develop understanding on the
several changes that would arise in hospitality sector due to COVID 19. The overall influences
wanted to be develop on human resources department as it is highly difficult for them to tackle
the workforce without having any type of operations. Another influential motive of conducting
this investigation is the self interest of the investigator towards improving their own skills such
as communication, research, technological skills, analytical skill, presentation skill, team
working skill, conflict management skill etc. Development of these skills will definitely help
investigator in conducting effective research in the near future (Carter Anderson and Mossialos,
2020).
Research gap
One of the main gaps within an investigation is to identify the impact of COVID 19 over the
human resource remuneration and compensation practices. In previous study, there is
information about the impact of COVID 19 but there is lack of data about COVID 19 impacts on
human resource remuneration and compensation practices of an organisation. In order to fulfil
this gap, research questions will be followed because it will support investigator in fulfilment of
research gap as well as achievement of research aim and objectives easily (Chen, 2020).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review introduces to the important section and process of collecting secondary
information regarding any field of study. This part of research needs different number of
secondary sources which are magazines, books, articles, publication research etc. All these are
considering important and useful sources of collecting and gathering secondary data for literature
review. This is important and useful chapter of research report because it will helps researcher in
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identification of research gaps in past studies (Cho, 2020). There are some research questions
that will be useful for researcher to fulfil above mentioned research gaps effectively. These
questions are explained as below:
What is the major impact of COVID 19 on hospitality sector?
According to the Corburn and et. al., (2020), the impact of COVID 19 has huge over
hospitality industry in negative manner. During the period of this pandemic most the businesses
under this sector discontinues the business due to the guidelines of government. The some who
operates are only those that have facility of home delivery. Now, the demand of products and
services under this industry is very low. This is because of the threat of contamination. There are
many type of negative impacts is ascertained by hospitality sector due to COVID 19 over
different areas which are defined below:
Heavy loss of earnings: There is heavy loss of earnings among all businesses that have
operations within hospitality industry. Here, government has the guidelines regarding social
distancing and quarantine where nobody is allowed to go out of the home without any important
reason. This causes that owners of business and staff not able to operate the operations and even
the consumers are not in the situation to avail the same (Davis and et. al., 2020).
Inability of pay salary to workers: There is no earning from the businesses by the
employers but still they have to pay the salaries to their staff members because they also have to
run their basic life. This creates the situation where employer faced the double trouble. First
businesses are shut down or no demand in market and even have to pay the amount to
employees. This resultant into development of the situation like inability of payment (Ding,
Levine, Lin and Xie, 2020).
What are several challenges that J+A Cafe faces in human resource management due to COVID
19?
As per the view presented by Jimma, (2020), due to the issue of COVID 19, it is difficult
for the all organizations to effectively manage their human resource. The same situation is facing
by the employer of J+A Cafe where lots of challenges occur in this process. All these are defined
below:
Employee’s prevention from contamination: It is the duties of the employer that must
apply such practices that will be effective from the point of prevent COVID 19 contamination. In
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this regard, they have to focus over regular sanitization of area, employees and consumers which
is difficult in area (March, 2020).
Working with same capacity of employees: The government has the guidelines regarding
social distancing for preventing its spread from one person to another. It is difficult for the
employer work with same workforce by following the policy of social distancing. This resulted
into direct negative impact over improvement activities of business (Ranasinghe and et. al.,
2020).
What are the the consequences of COVID 19 over remuneration practices J+A Cafe for
employees?
According to the Satiani, Zigrang and Bailey–Wheaton, (2020), the consequence of
COVID 19 is negative over the remuneration policy of J+A Cafe because of inability to conduct
business or earning profits. Still, they have to pay to their employees for carrying basic life. In
this regard, the changes they put over remuneration policy are considered as negative in relation
to employees. All these are defined below:
Payment of less salary: The first impact ascertained over the remuneration policy that all
employees get the less salary up to some percentage because of organizational inability to
carrying operations in market (Schaefer and et. al., 2020).
No bonus: The organization does not have enough income to pay salaries to employees. In
this condition, the possibility of paying bonus is not conceivable. Also, this will not be played to
the employees till the organization start continuing the business or generate demand for their
products and services.
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary research.
Research methodology is determined as the essential section of every investigation which
simply provides direction to the researcher as well as their team members in conducting whole
investigation in the systematic manner within the provided time frame. All essential research
method used by investigator for conducting this research are specified as below:
Data collection: Data collection is seen as the effective method of gathering information on
the proposed topic with the usage of several sources (Amjad and et. al., 2018). This gathered
information simply helps investigator in obtaining valid research outcome in quicker manner.
Here, Primary and secondary method of data collection are two main forms through which
investigator gathers maximum information on the chosen topic within the provided timeframe. In
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