BUSM4590 People & Organisations: Hilton HRM Strengths & Weaknesses

This report provides an analysis of Hilton Worldwide's human resource management (HRM) practices, examining both its strengths and weaknesses. The strengths identified include effective employee evaluation processes, a commitment to creating a diversified environment, efficient conflict management strategies, and comprehensive employee benefits packages. Weaknesses highlighted are a lack of focus on recruiting new talent, a somewhat slow adoption of strategic HR practices, a disconnection between internal HR outcomes and external customer satisfaction, and insufficient employee retention schemes. Recommendations are offered to address these weaknesses, such as increasing opportunities for new talent, aligning HR policies with overall organizational goals, emphasizing the link between employee development and customer experience, and implementing attractive employee retention programs. The report concludes that focusing on HRM practices is crucial for long-term organizational success and provides a valuable overview of Hilton's HRM landscape.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Overview and Selection of the Company...................................................................................2
Strengths.....................................................................................................................................2
Evaluation of Existing Employees.........................................................................................3
Diversified Environment........................................................................................................3
Conflict Management.............................................................................................................3
Weakness....................................................................................................................................4
No chance for new talent........................................................................................................4
Lack of Strategic Foundation.................................................................................................4
Less Consumer Focused.........................................................................................................5
Lack of Employee Retention Schemes...................................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Human resources management plays an important role in the functioning of an organization.
The HRM is related not only to the selection, recruitment, and training of employees but it is
also responsible for the well-being of employees from the organizational perspective. The
report will explore the practical and theoretical sides of the relationship between operational
planning and development of the organization and the strategies of the human resource
department to determine the deep information of the subject. The text is based upon the
relevant research, study of cases and literature provided by the various authors. For the
purpose of determining this relationship, Hilton Worldwide has been chosen, a well-known
brand in the hospitality industry in the present scenario. The report will describe the strengths
and weaknesses of the human resource department in context with the operations
management (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2008). The whole structure of the report includes an
overview of the selected organization along with the basis of selection, strengths, and
weaknesses of the HRM, recommendations and conclusion. The conclusion is provided at the
end of the report to summarize the key findings and to provide an overview to the report to
increase the effectiveness on the reader's mind.
Overview and Selection of the Company
Hilton Hotels Corporation is a conspicuous international hospitality organization having 5200
hotels with more than 640,000 beds in 105 nations. The Hilton Group is owned by a private
equity firm known as Blackstone Group. Hilton is providing employment to the thousands of
employees in the present scenario (Trejos, 2018). Thus, it is clear that the performance if the
organizations in largely depends upon the strengths and weaknesses of its human resources.
The hotel was established in 1919 and providing its services form approx. past 99 years in the
tourism and hospitality sector (Hilton, 2018). Hilton is primarily known for its selection of
customer services on the basis of the priority of customers.
Everyone wants to work with such type of big and emerging organization. It would provide a
great knowledge to study upon the strengths and weaknesses of the human resource
department of such a reputed organization. This reason increases the appropriateness of the
selection of this organization for the purpose of this study.

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Strengths
The strengths of the human resources are directly linked to the performance of the
organization especially in the hospitality services where everything is all about the customer
services, which is provided the human resources only. The main strengths of the human
resources department that helps in increasing the performance of Hilton can be listed as
below:
Evaluation of Existing Employees
This is considered as one of the best strategy or strength of Hilton. It evaluates the
performance of the employees on the monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly basis. The
employees are provided with certain parameters to work within. At the end of the term, their
performances are evaluated. This helps the management of the weaker sections of the
employees (Marsick, 2007). Along with this, the hard-working employees capable of
promotions are also identified and they are promoted at the end of the year. Evaluation of
employees is done the basis of the percentage of responsibilities bear by them successfully,
ratings are given by the customers, ratings given by the managers, and their internal behavior
with the management and other colleagues. These approaches are found suitable for the
performance evaluation as these include opinion from internal as well as from the external
sources, which decreases the chances of biases. This strength helps in improving the
motivation among employees to perform better to provide the best customer experiences and
increase their ratings, which increases the satisfaction level of the customers ( Whetten &
Cameron, 2011)
Diversified Environment
The opportunities are provided to the employees on the basis of their performance and not on
the basis of religions, caste, races, sex, and cultures. It helps in creating a diversified
environment within the companies. It also increases the fair work environment, which
motivates the employees to perform better. As per the Maslow's theory of needs, the
employees feel motivates when they are provided equal opportunities and recognition at the
workplace. The difference is also not made between male and female employees. Same
employment benefits and opportunities for growth are provided to the female employees also.
It increases the value of the organization in terms of providing fair employment opportunities
(Bolman & Deal, 2013)

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Conflict Management
Managing conflicts in an efficient manner is a challenging task for most of the businesses.
But, in the case of Hilton Worldwide, it can be considered as one of the main strengths of the
organization. There is a separate team for handling different type of conflicts in the
organization (Bolman & Deal, 2014). For example, if the conflict is regarding any operational
and managerial function then the management department is managing the same. Similarly, if
the conflict is regarding the breach of any type of legal and ethical framework of the
organization, then the legal and human resource department is handling it. Along with this,
all the employees are provided a chance to present their views so that the right decision can
be taken. It increases the faith and trust of employees in the management, which decreases
the employee attrition rate ( Dejanaaz, et. al., 2007 ).
Budgets and Benefits Packages
The maintenance of budgets packages of the employees is another major strength of Hilton.
The salaries are provided in time to the employees of all department. Along with this, all
employees are provided with the benefits of medical insurance, which covers all the
expenditure in case of any type of health problems. These benefits attract the employees to
work in the organization (Robbins & Judge, 2011). It also creates a sense among the
employees to be valued by their organizations. Thus, this tool act as a strength for the
organization and its human resources. The organization also bear all the expenses of the
dependent family members of the employees from the higher level to the lower level
employees. This also helps in increasing the satisfaction level of the employees which
motivates them to perform better in their workplace (Monday, 2017).
Weakness
No chance for new talent
It is important to induct new employees for the proper management and functioning of the
organization. The new employees bring new objectivity, ideas and new perspectives with
themselves. Hilton loses these opportunities as it focuses on the development and training of
the existing workforce instead of recruiting new employees. This limits the expertise of the
organization in most of the scenarios (Olander, et al., 2015).
Lack of Strategic Foundation
The human resource department of Hilton has garnered a reputation of being a bit slow in the
process of adoption of new techniques and developing trends in the market. The HR

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department is strategic more in the internal management of the company instead of managing
the external resources of the organization. For example, the HR managers often discuss how
to hire the top performers or better talent, but they do not discuss that how these strategies
can be related to the performance of the organization. HR department is often criticized for a
universal lack of business judgment (Quinn, et al., 2008). This is one of the major
weaknesses of the organization. The managers without the collaborations of the operations
teams perform the HR functions separately. It decreases the chances of customer satisfaction
especially in the hospitality industry.
Less Consumer Focused
Another major weakness of the organization is the disconnection between internal and
external outcomes. For example, the KPI's of the HR department related to the hiring and
managing the workforce like the timing of hiring, productivity, and retention. Such KPI's
deployed focus on how these techniques can be positively influenced with better internal
practices and technology to achieve the organizational goals. These KPI's results in
increasing the employee standards on the reports but leave a little bit of dissatisfaction from
external audiences including customers and stakeholders. Though the HR managers of the
company are focusing the productivity of employees, they are not considering the needs of
customer or client who are affected by the productivity of internal adjustments.
(Venkatraman, 2018)
Lack of Employee Retention Schemes
Although Hilton spends a large amount and time on the training and development of its
employees, yet there is a lack of employee retentions schemes for the employee who are not
satisfied with their work and are willing to leave the organization. It increases the attrition
rate of the organization. Also, there is a loss of organization in terms of moving out the
experiences and trained staff of the hotel which can also be hired by any other competitors to
take the advantage of the loopholes of Hilton (Pereira & Gomes, 2012).
Recommendations
To overcome the above weaknesses, the management of the Hilton can follow the below
mentions recommendations, which can help up to some extent:
 The opportunities should be provided to the new talent also. For this purpose, the HR
department should increase the number of openings as per the need of the
organizations. It would increase the number of diversified employees and a number of

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a new innovative idea, which can help the organization provide better customer
services (Thomas & Karodia, 2014).
 The HR department should frame its policies as per the strategic goals of the whole
organization. By doing this, the goals of the organization would also get completed at
the completion of the individual goals of the HR department. For example: if the HR
department is going to hire new employees then it should discuss the number of new
emerging operations by the operations department. Thus, it would be easy for the HR
team to select the employees on the basis of the proposed business functions and
operations (Woon & Kahl, 2015).
 The HR department should not focus only on the development of the existing and new
employees. They should also focus that either their development is being helpful in
providing customer experience or not. Because the employees are working for the
organization and it is their prime duty to use all their skills and expertise in
performing their duties. If the employees are not doing so, then their whole
development is of no worth for the organization and it consumes the time and
financial resources of the organization, which is not profitable (Yang & Cherry,
2008).
 The HR department is required to introduce some attractive and effective retention
schemes for the potential employees so that their experience can be used in the
organization for a long-term and attrition rate can be decreased. Also, this will not
allow the competitors to use the expertise of the organization for providing any type
of tough competition (Gilani, et al., 2012).
Conclusion
On the basis of the above study, it can be concluded that for getting success in the long run,
an organization should primarily focus on the practices of its human resource department.
The Hilton Worldwide is a well-known and reputed organization in the hospitality industry.
Although the management is performing well its specialized industry because of the above-
mentioned strengths of the human resource department, yet there are some differences in the
performance of the organization and human resource management. These differences can be
analyzed on the basis of the above-mentioned weaknesses of the human resource
management of Hilton. The study is highly based on the secondary data derived from the
literature proved by a number of the author in the context of human resource management of
the retail sector. This increases the effectiveness of data and develops the expected

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understanding as per the ability of the reader. All the strengths and weaknesses have a
relevant meaning in increasing and decreasing the financial, ethical and social performance of
the organization and thus are included in this report. On the basis of the entire analysis, some
recommendations have been provided that can be used by the management of Hilton to
manage the weaknesses and to enhance the productivity and performance of its human factors
which would directly impact upon the overall performance of the organization.

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