Impact of COVID 19 on HR in Hospitality Industry

Research Project
(An investigation into the Impact of COVID 19
on human resource within hospitality industry)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Research proposal for defining research questions and literature review ............................3
P2 Different number of research methods for conducting primary and secondary research .....7
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................14
Research proposal and ethical form .........................................................................................14

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Human resource is an employee or person in an organisation and part of the entire
workforce or personnel of that company. It is an individual person within an enterprise's overall
workforce, with each and every person leading their talents and skulls to the company to support
it succeed (Dias and et. al., 2020). HRM introduces to the effective process of recruiting,
selecting, inducting workforce, giving orientation, appraising the employee's performance,
imparting training and development, motivating employees etc. Human resource is an important
part of an organisation because it will help them in retaining of talented employees at workplace.
For this research, Barbary is a chosen small scale restaurant that provide quality in products and
services to the visitors. Human resource manger of Barbary played an essential role for retaining
knowledgeable employees that results in higher growth of company.
Research proposal for defining research questions and literature review
Overview of the title or research
Employee retention introduces to an effort by an organisation to maintain a working
environment that highly helps present employee in remaining with the company. Employee
retention is one of the main role of human resource manager that helps company in improvement
of its success. During COVID 19, HR manger of Barbary faced major challenges while retaining
talented employees such as no or lack of face-to-face intercalation, high expectation of
employees regrading salary, low resources within company and many other. All these are major
challenges that will negatively impact on business growth and success. In order to overcome
these challenges, different retention strategies will be followed by human resource such as
providing pay according to their performance, encouragement of flexibility, development of

training and development program etc. These are essential ways in retention of talented
employees during COVID 19 time period (Ferraris, Erhardt and Bresciani, 2019).
Research aim
To determine the issues faced by human resource management of an organisation while
retaining top talent during the period of COIVID 19. A study on “The Barbary”
Research Objectives
 To determine the role of HRM within hospitality industry.
 To identify the challenges faced by HR while retaining top talent in COVID 19 situation. To recommend different ways by which HR of The Barbary can retain top talent during
COVID 19.
Research questions
 What are the roles played by HRM in hospitality industry?
 What types of challenges faced by human resource of Barbary in COVID19 situation
while retention of top talent? What are the effective ways through which top talent can be retain by HR of The Barbary
in COVID 19 situation?
Rationale of the research
Main reason behind choosing this topic is to find out the major role of human resource in
an enterprise in any kind of situation. By doing this research, researcher can easily identify
challenges that may arise during COVID 19 situation while retention of top talent. This research
is essential at academic as well personal level. At academic level, current study help students by
rising their understanding about the impact of COVID 19 situation on hospitality industry. This
investigation is also essential at personal level by improving research skills of researcher. As it

will facilitate them in completion of full research systematically and successfully (Kaushik and
Guleria, 2020).
Literature review is significant and essential process of gathering secondary data via
different sources like articles, magazines, books, publication research and many other applicable
sources related to the research topic. This is an important section of research because it helps
investigator in identification of research gap. In current study, main research gap is the issues
faced by human resource management of an organisation while retaining top talent during the
period of COIVID 19. In previous studies or investigations, there were data available about the
challenges faced by HR management while retaining of talented employees, but there is lack or
insufficient information about the challenges faced in retaining of knowledgeable employees
during COVID 19. In order to eliminate this gap, research questions will be followed. This will
support in fulfilling of research gap as well as accomplishment of research aim and objectives
(Milojevic and Katsadze, 2020).
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
What are the roles played by human resource management in hospitality industry?
According to the Rouse (2017), human resource management introduces to the practices
or process if recruiting, selecting, deploying and managing employees of an organisation. Human
resource played an effective and significant role within hospitality sector. They have different
roles such as recruitment, selection, retention etc. All these are major roles that will be essential
and important for hospitality industry because it will help them in increment of its sales and
revenues.
On the other side, Bolden-Barrett (2020), The hospitality sector is expectable to develop
over 17 % via 2014, relay on United State bureau of Labour Statistics. This development is

above the 14% average for many other industries. But high turnover of employees remains an
issue for the hospitality sector. Human resource can suggest incentives to maximise retention, for
example discounts on vendors' services and products or employee recognition programs.
What types of challenges faced by human resource of Barbary in COVID19 situation while
retention of top talent?
According to the Nicola and et. al., (2020), employees retention is significant part of the
business development and success. This will assist an enterprise by increasing number of
customers and also help them in achievement of competitive advantages. Along with this, there
are various challenges faced by HR of Barbary while retaining top talent and knowledgeable
employees during COVID 19. These challenges are high expectation of employees regrading
salary, no or lack of face-to-face intercalation,, low resources within company and many other.
During COVID 19, company is not able to interact face-to-face with their employees that results
in no pressure for employees to stay in current position. In COVID 19, hospitality industry faced
major issue of earnings, due to this issue, they not able in providence of salary to the employees
according to their expectations. As they leave such company and position that increase major
force on HR manger of Barbary.
What are the effective ways through which top talent can be retain by HR of The Barbary in
COVID 19 situation?
As per the view presented by Florentine (2019), employee retention is major issue for
hospitality industry during the period of COVID 19. There are different strategies that will be
useful for human resource manager of Barbary in retention of top talent. These strategies are
explained as below:

Offer the right benefits: In order to retain talented employees during COVID 19 time
period, it is the role of human resource manager to provide right benefits to the employees. For
this, they must provide facility of work from home and also give them bonus according to their
performance.
Leverage technology: This is another strategy or way for retaining talented employees in
COVID 19. For this, HR manager of Barbary must provide facility of technology to their
employees during COVID 19. This will assist them in retention of top talent at workplace for
longer time period.
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This is a part of research methodology that facilitate investigator in gathering and
analysing of primary and secondary information regarding specific area of study (Terziev, 2020).
There are approaches and methods that will be followed within a current study for achieving
valid outcomes. These methods and approaches will be described as below:
Research approach: This is an effective process of analysing qualitative and quantitative
data through inductive and deductive approach. For performing present study over the impact of
COVID 19, deductive approach of study is more suitable as it facilitates in evluating of data in
quantitative and numerical way. Inductive approach of study is not appropriate within a research
because it not helps in driving of valid conclusion (Nieves and Quintana, 2018).
Research philosophy: There are certain kind of research philosophies which named are
epistemology, ontology and axiology. These are effective but for carrying out present study on
COVID 19 and its impact over human resource, positivism type is useful as it assist investigator
to gather and evaluate quantitative information in minimum time duration. Interpretivisim type
of philosophy is not use within a study as it takes more time.

Research strategy: There are various strategies used for collecting primary as well as
secondary information about specific area of research. These strategies are action research,
experimental, case study, systematic literature review, survey and so on. These are main types of
research strategies but for conducting primary and secondary research, survey and systematic
literature review has been followed. Survey has been applied by investigator for assembling
primary information regarding the impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability while
retaining top talent. Systematic literature review is another strategy that will help in collecting of
secondary data about the existing topic (Subramony and et. al., 2018).
Research choice: This is important section of methodology that have three different
methods such as memo method, mixed method and multi-mixed. All these are suitable for
collecting and analysing of information in form of qualitative or quantitative. Within a current
research, memo method is more appropriate because it facilitate in gathering and evaluating of
only one type of data, either qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative information will be followed
within an investigation because it not requires maximum time and helps researcher in gaining of
valid outcomes. Qualitative information is not suitable for doing present study because it requires
more sources that results in maximum cost (Papa and et. al., 2018).
Time horizon: There are basically two types of time horizon such as cross-sectional and
longitudinal. In order to conduct primary or secondary research, cross-sectional time horizon will
be more suitable as it is based on real situation and also support in completion of each activity of
study in allotted time. Gantt chart is more effective tool for analysing time of each activity
helped in completion of research project. Gantt chart according to the research will be shown as
below: