Research Report: Talent Management Challenges in Hospitality

This report presents a research project focusing on the challenges of managing talent within the hospitality sector, specifically using Cosmos Holiday as a case study. The research aims to identify challenges in talent management, evaluate the importance of talent management, and determine effective ways to manage talent within an organization. The methodology includes a literature review, primary research using questionnaires, and secondary research from various sources. The report discusses research methods, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, sampling techniques, and ethical considerations. Data analysis is performed using thematic and content analysis. The findings cover talent management strategies, challenges such as cultural differences and employee turnover, and recommendations for improvement, including continuous training and development, and fostering a culture of trust. The report concludes with a reflection on the research methods and lessons learned.

Research Project

Table of Contents
Topic – “Challenges of managing talent in the hospitality sector...................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Research proposal and literature review ..........................................................................3
Research aim and objectives..................................................................................................3
Rationale of research..............................................................................................................4
Time Scale..............................................................................................................................4
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................5
Theme 1: Importance of Talent Management........................................................................5
Theme 2: Challenges of managing talent...............................................................................5
Theme 3: Ways to develop and manage talent.......................................................................6
P2 Appropriate research methods ..........................................................................................6
Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Research.........................................................6
A Sample................................................................................................................................7
Ethics, reliability and validity.................................................................................................7
Analysing data........................................................................................................................7
LO2..................................................................................................................................................7
P3: Primary and secondary research using appropriate methods ..........................................7
P4. Analytical tools to analyse research findings and data..................................................10
LO3................................................................................................................................................20
P5: Research outcomes in an appropriate manner................................................................20
LO4................................................................................................................................................21
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods ..........................................................21
P7. Alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in view of the outcomes..........21
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .........................................................................22
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................22
Recommendations ...............................................................................................................22
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................1

Topic – “Challenges of managing talent in the hospitality sector
Introduction
Today, to earn a competitive image, it becomes highly essential for a company, to develop
and manage the talent systematically. It concerns on abilities, skills, knowledge and expertise
which determine productivity of workers, to achieve corporate goals (Flick, 2015). For this
purpose, management focuses mainly on bringing new talent and managing existing ones at
workplace. A research regarding with this concept, including challenges that a company may
face while managing talent, is done in present project. To conduct study on such a wide concept,
Cosmos Holiday is chosen which is a Tour operator of UK and founded in 1961. It offers a range
of tour and travel related services, cruises as well as railway journeys in more than countries. A
number of employees who are highly talented are worked in this company, who give their best
performances to increase satisfaction of customers. Since there are number of organisations
present like Globus, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations and more, that operate business in same sector,
therefore, management of Cosmos Holidays highly concerns on managing and retaining best
talent at workplace.
Talent management is one of the important functions of a company, which concerns on
attracting top talent, employee engagement and motivation, increase their performance and more.
This would help in retaining top talent and improving business performance, as well as higher
client satisfaction also (Murillo and King 2019). In context with Cosmos Holidays, as it deals in
hospitality industry where competition is much high, therefore, it is essential for this firm to
manage talent. But before developing strategies for talent management, the challenges or
problems which may arise in front of organisation, are needed to identify first. For this purpose,
to conduct a study, following aims and objectives will be addressed, by a number of
methodologies like literature review, primary data analysis and more.
LO1
P1 Research proposal and literature review
Research aim and objectives
Research Aim: “To determine the challenges that a company face in talent management at
workplace”. A research on Cosmos Holidays
Research objectives:

 To evaluate the importance of managing talent at workplace.
 To identify the challenges which may arise in front of Cosmos Holiday while developing
and managing talent at its workplace.
 To determine ways by which talent can be managed systematically within an
organisation.
Research Questions:
 What challenges a company may face during talent management that deal in
hospitality sector?
Rationale of research
For making research on a wide concept, Talent Management as the main topic is chosen
by present researchers, because it will help them on analysing why developing own skills is
essential, to work in a large company. It will also give opportunity to analyse value of a talented
person in organisation, so that during academics, researchers of present project will concern
more on enhancing own skills and knowledge.
Time Scale

Literature Review
Theme 1: Importance of Talent Management
As per views of Budhwar and et. al. (2019), it has been analysed that talent management
is the main human resource function of a company. It concerns on hiring, managing, developing
and retaining most eligible employees at workplace, who have capabilities to give best
performance for achievement of corporate goals. In context with Cosmos Holiday, it will give a
number of opportunities to attract skilled and talented employees, that helps in creating an
employer brand also. Along with this, as today, people before taking tour and travel services
used to evaluate how much company is able to meet their expectations. Therefore, talent
management will help Cosmos Holiday not only attract new employees but also in retaining the
new one.
Theme 2: Challenges of managing talent
According to Murillo and King (2019), it has determined that in managing talent, a
number of challenges can be faced by a firm. It includes ethnic and cultural difference because
hiring workers from different-different background would arise diversity at workplace. As
Cosmos Holidays offer services in more than 40 countries therefore, it has employed workers
who are efficient in having knowledge of different languages. So, embracing talent could be

more difficult in such case, because it forces such companies to hire new employees, which
demotivate existing ones as well as increase gap and knowledge skills also (Diversity in the
workplace: 4 Common Challenges and Solutions, 2018). Furthermore, respecting and managing
such type of difference arise issue in front of management to deal with socio-cultural problems
and develop collaboration among all.
Theme 3: Ways to develop and manage talent
As per views of Karim Ansari (2017) for managing talent and overcome from the same, a
number of strategies can be made. It includes creating effective job description, which includes
necessary skills, work relationship, overall duties, company’s code of ethics etc., so that new
applicants can acknowledge themselves about how to work systematically (Six Simple Talent
Management Strategies, 2017). Similarly, assessing candidate cultural fit and creating a culture
of trust, between management and among employees will also help managers of Cosmos
Holidays to increase employee engagement. Furthermore, providing continuous training and
development opportunities will aid managers of respective firm to overcome from challenges of
talent management.
P2 Appropriate research methods
For conducting research, both primary and secondary sources are used that will help in
addressing research problems in most effective manner (Gioia, Corley and Hamilton, 2013). In
this regard, primary research will be conducted by developing a self-questionnaire method,
where employees of Cosmos Holidays will be taken as respondents. While secondary research
will be carried out by undertaking a number of articles from authenticate sources, that will help
in gathering expert views to resolve research problems.
Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Research
A number of research methods can be applied for making a project on a vast topic –
Talent Management. It includes qualitative, quantitative and mixed research methods, which
provide different-different techniques. Qualitative research is used to conduct theoretical study
while quantitative is for numerically analyse the information. In context with present project,
mixed research methods will be used to collect, analyse and integrate both qualitative and
quantitative information.

A Sample
To conduct study, employees and entire stakeholders of Cosmos Holidays will be chosen
as a sample population. Among these, 30 respondents will be selected randomly by using simple
random sampling method, which gives equal and independent chance to each individual of
population group for being selected in research.
Ethics, reliability and validity
As carrying out a project on a wide concept is not easy for any researcher, therefore, it is
essential to determine those aspects which may arise ethical issues (Flick, 2015). Therefore,
under present research, project makers will concern on some concepts like getting informed
consent while carrying out primary research, respect for privacy and dignity of each respondent,
confidentiality and more.
Analysing data
For analysing primary information, thematic analysis will be taken by present researchers
which is considered as most effective tool. This would help in developing different-different
themes for organising numerical data systematically and analysing the same effectively.
LO2
P3: Primary and secondary research using appropriate methods
Primary and secondary research are important part of research methodology as it support
an investigator in gathering of detailed and reliable information about the topic (Flick, 2015).
There are some appropriate methods that are needed to use by researcher for conducting primary
and secondary. These are:
Sampling techniques: There are essentially two techniques of sampling i.e. probabilistic
and non-probabilistic. Within a research, probabilistic sampling will be applied as it helps
researcher to provide equal opportunity to the respondents. 30 employees of Grand Brighton
will be recruited randomly. Main research for using this technique of sampling is to not take
maximum time and cost as compare to non-probabilistic sampling (Gioia, Corley and Hamilton,
2013).
Instrument, tools and procedures of data collection: For collecting primary data, there
are several tools and instruments such as interview, focus group, observation, questionnaire etc.
These are main tools of data collection but for gathering data about the strategic approaches to

talent management in the workplace, questionnaire will be applied. As this tool assist an
investigator in gathering of valid and quantitative data (Green, Camilli and Elmore, 2012).
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you have any idea regarding the talent management?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) According to you, what are the some benefits of managing talent that would be
accomplished Cosmos Holiday?
a) Development of strong market image
b) Reduction in employee's turnover
c) Quick achievement of organisational objectives and goals
Q3) As per your opinion, which among the below stated talent management strategy must be
undertaken by Cosmos Holiday?
a) Detailed job description
b) Personal organisation fit
c) Reward and recognise right
d) Opportunities for continuous improvement
Q4) According to you, what are the main components or elements of talent management at
workplace of Cosmos Holiday?
a) Talent Acquisition and Retention
b) Learning and Motivating
c) Career development
Q5) According to you, what are the several significance of managing talent at workplace?
a) Attract top talent
b) Increase employee performance
c) Higher client satisfaction
d) Engaged employees
Q6) Does management of talent at workplace support Cosmos Holiday in accomplishment of
long term goals and objectives?
a) Yes
b) No

Q7) What challenges may face by Cosmos Holiday during management of talent at workplace?
a) Less workforce engagement
b) Lack of leadership
c) Increased turnover rate of employees
d) Higher total compensation
Q8) As per your point of view, what measures need to use for overcoming challenges faced by
Cosmos Holiday at workplace?
a) Proper engagement of employees
b) Development of leadership style
c) Development of motivation theory
d) Reward and compensation
Q9) What are the some ways by which talent can be managed systematically within an
organisation?
a) Develop clear job description
b) Developing an organisational culture
c) Standardizing talent review and feedback processes
Q10) Provide any suggestions to Cosmos Holiday in development and retention of top talent at
workplace.
Reliability and validity of study: This is another method that is based on questionnaire.
This instrument support researcher in collecting and analysing valid and real data. As
questionnaire is an effective method of data collection that will be useful for gaining valid results
of the study (Kumar, 2019).
Cost, access and ethical issues: This part of investigation is related with ethical and
financial aspects of investigation. Appropriate amount of capital is needed by a researcher to do
an investigation for systematically make use of several techniques and methods like collection of
information from primary source. Along with this, access is another factor that help researcher
for collection of information about the topic. Beside this, entire ethical principles should be
applied by investigator to maintain the viability as well as ethical consideration of study. There
are some principles of research ethics i.e. informed consent, confidentiality, autonomy,

beneficence etc. These principles should be follow by researcher for completing primary and
secondary research in ethical manner (Mackenzie and et. al., 2012).
P4. Analytical tools to analyse research findings and data
Content analysis is an analytical tool that will be used for analysing quantitative
information easily. This is an effective method that helps researcher to made number of themes
on each questions. As it is beneficial for investigator in analysation of information in quantitative
manner. In order to analysis quantitative data, there is requirement of following some steps.
These are development of frequency table, development of graphs and interpretation of
quantitative information in systematic and effective manner. As it turn to assist an investigation
to complete each tasks of study systematically and timely (Mackey and Gass, 2015).
Frequency table
Q1) Do you have any idea regarding the talent management? Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 10
Q2) According to you, what are the some benefits of managing talent that
would be accomplished Cosmos Holiday?
Frequency
a) Development of strong market image 10
b) Reduction in employee's turnover 10
c) Quick achievement of organisational objectives and goals 10
Q3) As per your opinion, which among the below stated talent management
strategy must be undertaken by Cosmos Holiday?
Frequency
a) Detailed job description 8
b) Personal organisation fit 7
c) Reward and recognise right 9
d) Opportunities for continuous improvement 6
Q4) According to you, what are the main components or elements of talent
management at workplace of Cosmos Holiday?
Frequency

a) Talent Acquisition and Retention 12
b) Learning and Motivating 8
c) Career development 10
Q5) According to you, what are the several significance of managing talent at
workplace?
Frequency
a) Attract top talent 9
b) Increase employee performance 6
c) Higher client satisfaction 7
d) Engaged employees 8
Q6) Does management of talent at workplace support Cosmos Holiday in
accomplishment of long term goals and objectives?
Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 10
Q7) What challenges may face by Cosmos Holiday during management of
talent at workplace?
Frequency
a) Less workforce engagement 9
b) Lack of leadership 7
c) Increased turnover rate of employees 8
d) Higher total compensation 6
Q8) As per your point of view, what measures need to use for overcoming
challenges faced by Cosmos Holiday at workplace?
Frequency
a) Proper engagement of employees 8
b) Development of leadership style 6
c) Development of motivation theory 9
d) Reward and compensation 7

Q9) What are the some ways by which talent can be managed systematically
within an organisation?
Frequency
a) Develop clear job description 10
b) Developing an organisational culture 10
c) Standardizing talent review and feedback processes 10
Theme 1: Idea regarding the talent management
Q1) Do you have any idea regarding the talent management? Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 10
a) Yes b) No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
20
10
Frequency
Interpretation: Most of the participants have accurate idea about the concept of talent
management in context of an organisation. Some employees of the hotel not have any idea or
understanding regarding the same.
Theme 2: Some benefits of managing talent
Q2) According to you, what are the some benefits of managing talent that Frequency