Research Project: COVID-19 Impact on HR Talent Retention at Chiquito

This research project investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human resource (HR) capabilities, specifically focusing on the ability to retain top talent within the Mexican Restaurant Chiquito, a hospitality sector business. The report begins with an introduction to the background of the study, highlighting the pandemic's negative effects on the hospitality industry, including job losses and financial strain, and the pre-existing challenges of Brexit. The research questions explore COVID-19's impact on HR, the issues of high employee turnover faced by Chiquito, and effective strategies for overcoming these challenges. A literature review provides an overview of the current research on COVID-19's impact on HR, employee turnover, and potential solutions. The methodology section outlines the research approach. Findings and analysis delve into the specific challenges faced by the restaurant and the ways HR can mitigate them. The report concludes with recommendations, limitations, and a reflection on alternative research methodologies. The report aims to identify how COVID-19 has impacted the HR's ability to reduce high employee turnover within the hospitality sector with a case study on Mexican Restaurant Chiquito.

Research Project
(Impact of COVID 19 on human resource
ability to retain top talent at workplace within
Mexican Restaurant Chiquito)
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................6
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................9
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS...............................................................................12
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION......................................................................................................18
Chapter 6: Recommendation..........................................................................................................19
Limitations of the research.............................................................................................................20
CHAPTER 6: REFLECTION AND ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly I would express thanks to god for being able to finish this research report with
success. Than I would like to show gratitude to my seniors that, whose precious guidance or way
has been the one that helped me in completion of research project over the impact of COVID 19
on human resource ability to retain top talent at workplace within a hospitality sector
Then I would like to show appreciation to my friends as well as parents who have helped me
with their precious guidance and proper suggestions have been vital in different level of the
completion of report.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
COVID 19 is a pandemic situation that has negative impact over each and every industry,
organisation and an individual. In case of hospitality industry, COVID 19 has direct or negative
impact by affecting jobs of workforce that directly places major effect over human resource
department particularly retention practices (Baum and Hai, 2020). This has negative effect on the
performance of hospitality businesses by increasing heavy loss of earnings, inability to pay
salary to employees etc. Along with this, the maximum cause of worry is analysis around the
amount of workforce that the hospitality business attracts as of European migrants. Restaurants,
Hotel, leisure and entertainment enterprises employ over 400.000 migrant employees. Pre-Brexit,
European Union nationals -many of whom are working within hospitality industry- were free to
enter the United Kingdom without a work permit or visa, which is in relation to change within a
post-Brexit reality. Therefore, Brexit and COVID 19 have major effects over hospitality
industry. For this report, Mexican Restaurant Chiquito is a given hospitality sector that provides
effective services to the customers. The present study contains the analysis over evaluating the
impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to reduce high employee turnover. Therefore,
employee turnover is a major issue which is widely faces by the business during the pandemic of
COVID 19.
Reason for choosing the topic
Main reason behind choosing this topic is to increase knowledge regarding the COVID 19
and its impact over HR capabilities in retention of top talent. Another reason for selecting this
topic is to fulfil research gap which is the impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to
retain top talent at workplace within a hospitality firm. In previous study, there is impact of
Brexit of human resource but there is lack of data about the impact of COVID 19 on hospitality
industry and ability of human resource in retaining of top talent. By using research questions in
literature review section, research gap has been fulfilled by researcher effectively (Béland,
Brodeur and Wright, 2020).
Information about the organisation
This report is based on hospitality industry that is a broad category of field and includes
number of business such as event planning, restaurant, transportation etc. Mexican Restaurant
Chiquito is a given organisation that words under hospitality organisation and provides number
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of effective services to the visitors or customers (Gössling, Scott and Hall, 2020). Therefore, it is
a famous Colourful chain restaurant which is dishing up a menu of Tex-Mex favourites, beer and
cocktails. The company is offering best of Mexican food & drinks, in a fun and lively
atmosphere, served up by a team that is passionate about giving our guests a great time. The
restaurant is working for the objective of increasing of operations of the business via managing
the top talent at workplace in the pandemic of COVID 19.
Research questions
 How COVID 19 has impact over human resource in a hospitality firm?
 What are the major issues faced by human resource of Mexican Restaurant Chiquito high
employee turnover during COVID 19?
 What are the effective ways for overcoming the issues associated with the high employee
turnover in pandemic situation like COVID 19?
Aims and objectives
Aim: To identify the impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to reduce high employee
turnover. A study on Mexican Restaurant Chiquito.
Objectives:
 To explore the impact of COVID 19 on human resource within a hospitality sector.
 To determine the issues faced by human resource of Mexican Restaurant because of high
employee turnover during COVID 19.
 To determine the ways by which human resource can overcome issues associated with
the high employee turnover in pandemic situation like COVID 19.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review mainly refers as an exhaustive outline of past examination on a theme. It
is an orderly, reproducible, express and powerful strategy for assessing, blending and
recognizing the current collection of recorded just as finished work created by experts,
researchers and agents (Gössling, Scott and Hall, 2020). For undertaking the present research
based on the area of determining the impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to retain
top talent at workplace within a hospitality sector, into suitable consideration literature review is
imperative in enhancing detailed data base which would be efficient to enhance recognition
about the chosen study area.
The impact of COVID 19 on human resource within a hospitality sector.
As per the views expressed by Alex Sogno, 2020, In today’s era, the world is facing the
issue of COVID 19 and this has wider impact over the operations and progressions of businesses
as well. This corona is a health disease or can define as an infectious disease which is caused by
a newly discovered corona virus. However, the entire globe is facing the issue of corn virus as it
influences the living of people and also has direct negative impact over the performance and
operations of business. Hospitality is defined to be the most leading industry and contributes a lot
in the economic development of the business, thus it contributes around 10.4 percent of global
GDP which supports one on ten jobs on the universe, thus it has also been said that hospitality
industry is the one of the job provider and the Human resource within hospitality sectors are
badly influenced by the effective of COVID 19 as the hotels are concern over reducing their staff
due to the issue of Corona virus and with the increasing effect of Corona virus the tourism
industry got affected as the number of tourism are reduces at rapid basis and influences the
operations and profitability of the business. COVID 19 adversely impacted the Humnnd resource
of hospitality in the manner of creating Heavy loss of earnings Inability of pay salary to workers,
Discontinuation of main operations of different organizations, unemployment and so on.
On the other hand, Zizek (2020), Covid 19 has negative impact on human resource. This
situation increases the high employee turnover because, they are not able in giving actual salary
that automatically increase high employee turnover. For Instance, the globe is affects as similar
when the Brexit has arises, thus, Brexit was also a major challenge by which businesses within
EU, UK and the entire globe. Therefore, Brexit is mainly determined as the withdrawal of United
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Kingdom from the European Union which has created a huge impact over the operations and
progression of business industries from each segment.
The issues faced by human resource of Mexican Restaurant because of high employee
turnover during COVID 19
As per the views analysis of Jeanne Meister, 2020, human resource is defined to be the
most imperative aspect of a business, thus human resource plays a vital role in the growth and
success of the business. However, in the context of hospitality industry human resource is
imperative to render effective facilities to the people and satisfy them. Mexican Restaurant
Chiquito is a leading restaurant which has its major concern over reducing the high employee
turnover for the intention of increasing their performance in the pandemic situation of COVID
19. Business from each segment are affected due to COVID 19 (Carr, 2020). For instance, at the
time of Brexit unemployment was considered to be the major challenge and as similar with this,
unemployment and higher employee turnover are also termed to be the major challenge which
are faced by Mexican Restaurant Chiquito while reducing high employee trunover during
pandemic situation like COVID 19. In addition to this, there are assorted issues like Payment of
regular salary, Rewards according to performance, Safeguard the health from contamination,
Conduction of personality development programmes, Extra retaining cost, loyalty of employees
and so on. Thus these are needs to be overcome by the business for reducing the impact of
COVID 19 and employee trunover to gain growth and success
On the other hand, (El Maarouf, Belghazi and El Maarouf (2020), high employee turnover
is a biggest issue within an organisation because it reduced the brand image, decreased business
sales, reduced customer satisfaction etc. These are major issues that raised due to high employee
turnover during Covid 19 situation. Along with this, there are some issues faced by human
resource because of Covid 19 i.e. high employee turnover. This is a main issue that have
negative effect on the performance and ability of human resource manager. This turn to also
impact on Mexican Restaurant by decreasing the brand value and image in marketplace. There
are also some major issues such as conflict among employees, lack of employee engagement,
increase miscommunication among employees and many more. All these issues have direct and
negative impact over business performance of Mexican Restaurant.
The ways by which human resource can overcome issues associated with the high employee
turnover in pandemic situation like COVID 19
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According to the opinion analysis of Tim McElgunn, 2020, in the light of COVID 19
businesses are at their edge as these influences the functionality of the business and mainly
hampers the human resource at workplace. Therefore, COVID 19 is a recognised as the key issue
in today’s scenario and adversely affect the functionality of business and mainly the Human
resource of the business. Mexican Restaurant Chiquito is leading hotel which came under
hospitality organisation and provides number of effective services to the visitors or customers,
therefore, businesses are facing a lot challenges during the effect of Corona virus (Zaman and et.
al., 2020). However, COVID 19 and Brexit both has direct impact over the entire globe and
mainly influences the hospitality industry, there are assorted ways which can be opt by the
Human resource of the business for the intention of reducing the turnover of employees at
workplace in the pandemic situation of COVID 19. High rewards according performance, Focus
over effective sanitisation of all, help to improve their skills and personality, provide higher
responsibilities, render specific safety training and so on, thus these are termed to be the effective
ways that are significant for a hotel business to reducing the turnover of employees for longer
time and ensure to generate profitability in the situation of Corona virus (Cattivelli and Rusciano,
2020). For instance, Brexit has also created assorted challenged for hospitality industry as before
Brexit the employees of both EU and UK are free to enter into the countries without issuing a
work permit and after Brexit the issue of Unemployment has arises, thus the Brexit and COVID
19 has direct impact over the operations of business and also affect the economic condition of a
country. Although, hiring experienced and skilled employees also helps the business in reducing
the extra turnover and increasing the profitability of the business.
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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
It is said that research methodology is systematic plan which helps the researchers to find
the optimal approach for the correct conduct of the research. In fact, philosophers have over the
years developed a number of methodologies to perform work lawfully. Two important research
methods, such as qualitative and quantitative methods of investigation, can be used in particular.
This makes it easy to make the right decisions to achieve favourable results on the selected
subject. Under this, research onion used in conducting the research methodology on impact of
COVID 19 on human resource ability to retain top talent at workplace within a hospitality sector.
The research onion was developed through Saunders et. al., and its different layers given below:
Research Philosophy- It is decided by the assumption that researchers can perform research and
produce research results successfully in relation to the reality. The philosophy of research is
primarily of two kinds such as positivism and interpretativism.
The researcher will use the forms of Interpritivism research philosophy to perform this
analysis (McColl-Kennedy et al . 2019). The major reason to select this philosophy is to obtain
effective results of research based on human perception. In this part, the researcher will assess
the total collected information critically using the different viewpoints of the authors. In addition
to this, the approach is also effective for executing qualitative analyse effectively.
Research Approach- The research approach defines the useful and important method of
data evaluation, which basically translates into two methods that can be used in order to achieve
the right results through the whole examination. In this regard, the approach is mainly based on
deductive and inductive research (Hoque and et. al., 2020).
The inductive research approach is implemented by the researcher as the hypothesis or
theory that relies on analysis of impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to retain top
talent at workplace within a hospitality sector and results will be influential in achieving a valid
result in inductive research. Even then, inductive methodology needs mixed analysis and the area
is fused with mixed evaluation to tackle the question of the impact of COVID 19 on human
resource ability to retain top talent at workplace within a hospitality sector. However, inductive
approach is suitable for qualitative study and helps in rendering information via the support of
theories and oncepts.
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Research Choice- Quantitative and qualitative methods of this layer are related. An
investigator must make a significant decision on the selection of any particular method for
carrying out a research.
In this study, qualitative methods are used because they contain single values that are
analysed mainly by use of theoretical aspects. Therefore, it mainly focuses over accumulating
information with the assistance of theoretical aspects and the observation of the authors views.
Research Strategy- Interview is one of the better strategies that used in conducting the
present investigation. This strategy is suitable for conducting qualitative research efficient and it
gives suitable evaluation via conducting one to one session for gathering specific data on impact
of COVID 19 on human resource ability to retain top talent at workplace within a hospitality
sector (Jasmine, 2019).
Data Collection method- Data collection is explained as the process, by which accurate
insights for an examination are collected, measured and analyzed using valued techniques.
Reliable and accurate collection of data is essential in order to maintain the integrity of research,
ensure quality and also make the informed business decisions. Two different types of data
collection methods are primary and secondary. Both are useful methods in data collection and
better investigation (Zheng, Goh and Wen, 2020).
In this, primary method used to develop interview to collect more accurate data in a given
time frame. This could easily be used to collect correct amounts of information in the very short
term. Secondary method, by using various sources including books, journals, internet articles,
and so on, was used in literature review section.
Data analysis- For analysis of the data, there has been thematic analysis used. Under
this, evaluation is being conducted via determining the separate views of the participants to
generate suitable results (Kabir and et. al., 2020).
Time horizon- It is relevant to the efficiency of the time needed to complete the project. This
explains significantly the time needed to complete the project work. Time horizons are
longitudinal and cross-sectional in two various kinds.
Cross sectional time horizons are used, since investigation at other times is primarily
related to the study of the specific phenomenon.
Sampling-It is a process of selecting population part and explained that this is a group of
people who studied in research. Two different types of sampling methods are probabilistic and
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non probabilistic. Convenience sampling can be effectively examined with non-probabilistic
method as in this participants are selected from the specific group where individual are
connected to the similar subject. There were 5 respondents chosen into account to collect
information related to the impact of COVID 19 on human resource ability to retain top talent at
workplace within a hospitality sector (Maliszewska, Mattoo and Van Der Mensbrugghe, 2020).
Therefore, in this employees of Mexican Restaurant Chiquito is select to gather specific
information as employees are the best choice to gather information from the business and its
operations.
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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
This is a process of analysing and finding data about the topic. Current report is based on
qualitative collected information about the impact of COVID 19 and in order to analysis such
type of data, thematic analysis is being implemented to conduct evaluation via analysing the
views and opinion of the participants (Nicola and et. al., 2020). Therefore, qualitative study is
imperative in providing descriptive evaluation via developing theoretical perspective. In this 6
questions are designed to conduct an interview in which each question is asked from the 5
participants to gather in-depth knowledge about a specific area from evaluating the different
perspective of people.
Interview
Q1) According to you, what are the major influence of COVID 19 over the hospitality industry?
Q2) As per your perspective, what key role are performed by the human resource management
within the hospitality industry?
Q3) What do you think, are the major issues faced by human resource of Mexican Restaurant
Chiquito because of high employee turnover during the pandemic situation like COVID 19?
Q4) As per your perspective, is it important for Mexican Restaurant Chiquito to retain top talent
for surviving during the pandemic of COVID 19?
Q5) Please provide opinion for the suitable ways that are effective in overcoming from the issues
which occurs in retention of employees during the pandemic of COVID 19?
Q6) What do you think, are the effective strategies that Mexican Restaurant Chiquito has to
adopt for retaining top talent during the pandemic of COVID 19?
Thematic Analysis:
Theme 1) There are different major influence of COVID 19 over the hospitality industry.
Interpretation: In this present analysis the study is being executed over determining the major
impact of COVID 19 over the hospitality industry and in this interview is being executed among
5 participants.
Participants 1: According to the detailed analysis of the participants view it has been analysed
that, the participant said that COVID 19 mainly has its impact over Heavy loss of earnings
within the hospitality sector.
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