A Report on Employee Turnover and Management at Hilton Hotels

This report examines the issue of high employee turnover at Hilton Hotels, a major challenge in the competitive hospitality industry. It begins by selecting Hilton as a case study and identifying the problem, then formulates research questions focused on the costs of turnover, influencing factors, and the shortcomings of Hilton's HR policies. The research program relies on secondary data, including company business reports and academic literature on human resource management and employee turnover. The findings highlight the financial and operational costs of turnover, such as increased recruitment expenses and decreased productivity. Factors contributing to turnover include job dissatisfaction, inadequate corporate culture, poor leadership, and insufficient employment relations. The report provides recommendations for improvement, including implementing a better rewarding system, allocating tasks based on employee expertise, and adopting a participative management style to reduce work pressure and identify employee development needs.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Selection of the company and the management problem:.........................................................4
Research Questions:...................................................................................................................6
Design of the Research Program:...............................................................................................6
Research and findings:...............................................................................................................7
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................9
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
The business competition in the hospitality industry is observed to increase in a
notable manner in recent years and one of the major factors that are enhancing the intensity of
the business competition in mentioned industry in recent years, is seen to be the increasing
urge of the people in spending their leisure time or off days in tourism destinations.
Considering the increasing level of business competition in the hospitality industry, the
increased value for retaining the customers in an efficient manner, is observed to be notably
visible for the companies operating in the industry (Li et al., 2013). However, the ability of
the companies in retaining their customers is directly linked with their capability in providing
the much required quality in their services and under such situation, the necessity of retaining
the talented employees, is pretty prominent (Saleem & Raja, 2014). Having said that, the
capability of the organizations in retaining their talented employees is seen to be dependent
on their ability in managing their human resources and under such situation, it is evident that
the sustainability of the company’s business operations is linked with the ability of the
company in managing their human resources.
However the inappropriate management of the human resources from the part of the
senior management of the companies operating in the hospitality industry, has the potential to
affect the success of the companies in improving the sustainability of their business
operations both in terms of the financial and social consideration. The paper is focused in
describing one such situation where it analyses the approach of Hilton Hotel in managing
their human resources. In addition to this, the paper analyses the significantly high employee
turnover that took place in the company in recent years. The paper provides probable
questions that are capable of addressing the mentioned issue and at the same time, the paper
includes a formulation of secondary research program on the basis of the secondary data

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gathered from the business reports of the company and the other literature articles on the
topic of the human resource management. With a precise understanding of the issues that are
probably increasing the employee turnover rate in the company, the paper provides an
important set of recommendations to the human resource managers and the senior
management of the company for the improvement of their approach in managing the human
resource in the company.
Selection of the company and the management problem:
The chosen company for the task is Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. The organization
is one of the largest companies operating in the global hospitality industry and was
established in the year 1919 (Hilton.com, 2019). The company was previously known as
Hilton Hotels Corporation and is currently operating as a public company. The company was
established by an American hotelier named as Conrad Hilton and is currently headquartered
in Tysons Corner (Hilton.com, 2019). The company is able to spread their business across the
globe and that is evident with the business of the company in 5757 different locations
(Hilton.com, 2019). The chairman of the company, Jonathan D. Gray and the president and
chief executive officer, Christopher J. Nassetta are the central figures of the managerial team
of the company (Hilton.com, 2019). The company is able to generate 8.90 billion US dollars
as revenue in the year 2018 along with 1.43 billion US dollars as operating income in the
same year, however, the net income of the company went down to 764 million US dollars
(Hilton.com, 2019). The company faced the impact of the significantly high employee
turnover in the year 2017 and several business researcher are observed to identify it as the
reason behind the inefficient performances of the company in increasing their net income.

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(Information: Number of Hilton Worldwide employees from 2013 to 2017 (in thousands))
(Information Courtesy: Statista.com, 2019)
Hence, it is evident that the company faced the impact of the inappropriate
management of the human resources. From the statistics of employees in the company, it is
understandable that the company is associated to a significant growth in the mentioned
industry and that is prominent with the requirement of large number of personnel in each
years. As the company had the objective of managing the demands, it continuously tried to
expand their workforce which is evident with the increase in the number of employees in the
company from 152 thousands of 2013 to 169 thousands of 2016 (Statista.com, 2019).
However, from the statistics of employees in the company of 2017, it is visible that the
workforce got reduced in a notable manner and the high rate of employee turnover appeared
as a major concern for the company which affected the financial stability of the company and

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the service reputation of the company as well (Statista.com, 2019). Hence the selected
problem with the company is the high rate of employee turnover.
Research Questions:
With a precise focus on the problems faced by the mentioned company, the research
questions are as follows:
 What is the cost associated with the high rate of employee turnover?
 What are the factors that have the potential to affect the employee turnover in
organizational context?
 What are the drawbacks of the selected company’s human resource policies in
managing the employment relations and in reducing the employee turnover rate in the
company?
Design of the Research Program:
Considering the problems faced by the company, it is important to identify the factor
that triggered the employee turnover in the company. With a precise focus on the developed
research questions, it is evident that the success of the research is significantly dependent on
appropriate evaluation of the literature on the various aspects of the human resource related to
the questions. The research is based on the secondary information collected from various
sources such as the business reports of the company, literature on the mentioned topic or
more specifically the scholarly articles on the human resource management and the possible
factors that affects the employee turnover in the organizational context. Along with this, the
online business articles are also important sources of information that are required to be used
for the identification of the solution of the research questions.

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Research and findings:
Considering the cost of employee turnover, AlBattat and Som (2013), claimed that the
companies are liable to face the impact of the employee turnover both in the form of loss of
money and decrement in the quality of the services. The secondary research on the literature
of the employee turnover is significant in stating a number of possible consequences for the
companies such as the increased utilization of the resources in managing the vacancy created
due to the employee turnover, the expenses related to the selection or recruitment of new
employees to fill those positions. Along with this, the employee turnover is a menace for the
companies as the financial resources spent on a newcomer goes in vain. Along with this, the
company faces the necessity of spending in bulk for the induction process, orientation process
and training and development of the new employees (Shukla & Sinha, 2013).
Hence, the monetary investment on the employees selected to fill up the vacant
position is also a significant concern for the companies operating in the world of business and
more specifically in the hospitality industry. Other than this, the increment in the rate of the
employee turnover in the organizations has the potential to affect the productivity of the
companies which is considered to be a genuine concern for the shareholders of the companies
in generating larger amount of revenue (Khan, 2014). Apart from this, the increment in the
rate of employee turnover in the companies has the potential to affect the reputation of the
companies in being an efficient employer and that somewhat reduces the ability of the
companies in recruiting the individuals for filling up the vacant positions. Hence the impact
of the employee turnover in the companies is pretty prominent and is recognized as one of the
important challenges for the human resource managers.
Considering the factors that have the potential to trigger the rate of employee turnover
in the companies, Hancock et al., (2013) claimed that the job dissatisfaction or the job stress
of the employees is one of the crucial reasons responsible for the increment in the employee

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turnover rate. With a precise understanding of the concept of the job dissatisfaction, Zopiatis,
Constanti and Theocharous (2014) stated that the success of the new employees in managing
their operational activities is largely dependent on their ability of learning and the capability
of the companies in effectively meeting the developmental needs of the new employees.
Under such situation, the incapability of the human resource managers of the companies in
meeting the developmental needs of the employees is seen to be an important factor
responsible for the increment in the faulty operations of the employees. The repetitive faulty
operations from the part of the employees decreases their personal and organizational
efficiency and at the same time, it also increases the dissatisfaction of the employees of the
companies. Other than this, Qureshi et al., (2013) claimed that the inappropriate corporate
culture or the work environment is also a point of concern for the employees as such
organizational surroundings promote the occurrences of the destructive conflicts inside the
organizations. Hence the team performances get affected and the bonding between the
employees loses its quality. Schyns and Schilling (2013) stated that the base of such
situations is observed to be the inappropriate leadership inside the organizational settings.
According to Arokiasamy (2013), the inappropriate employment relations is also a
significant concern for the employees. Lamba and Choudhary (2013) claimed that the
incapability of the human resource managers in forming an appropriate wage characteristics
or the work time characteristics in accordance to the industry standards is a significant
concern for the employees in continuing their service in the organizations. Other than this, a
large section of the modern employees are observed to be considerably concerned regarding
the workplace injuries and the impact of the concern is more prominent amongst the
employees operating in the coalmines or in the construction companies. Under such situation,
the inappropriate infrastructure provided by the companies to their employees for the
management of their safety, has the potential to increase the dissatisfaction of the employees.

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From the business reports of the company, it is evident that the factors such as the
inappropriate leadership from the part of the senior managers of the company in meeting the
developmental needs of the employees, the inappropriate rewards policy of the company, the
substandard wage and work time characteristics of the company and the excessive work
pressure imposed on the employees of the company are recognized as the factors that
contributed in the increment of the rate of employee turnover in the company (Hilton.com,
2019).
Recommendations:
With a precise understanding of the impact of the above mentioned factors that
resulted in the increment in the employee turnover rate in the company, the company is
required to undertake the below mentioned actions for the improvement the condition of the
company.
The company needs to come up with an improved rewarding policy which includes
the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and has the capability to attract the talented employees in
an efficient manner.
The human resource managers of the company need to allocate task on the basis of
the expertise and capacity of the employees as that will effectively reduce the work pressure
on the employees of the company.
The company needs to implement participative management style in the organization
for effective distribution of the work pressure and for the efficient identification of the
developmental needs of the employees operating in the company.
Other than this, the company needs to improve their wage and work time
characteristics in accordance to the industry standards.

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Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it is evident that the company has the capability to become one
of the largest companies operating in the global hospitality industry. However, the ability of
the company in reaching the mentioned position is seen to be largely limited due to various
issues such as the high unemployment rate in the company, incapability in managing the
developmental needs of the employees, inappropriate leadership from the part of the human
resource managers of the company and inefficient management of the employment relations.
Hence, the ability of the managers in resolving the mentioned issues are the success factors
for the company in improving their sustainability.

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References:
AlBattat, A. R. S., & Som, A. P. M. (2013). Employee dissatisfaction and turnover crises in
the Malaysian hospitality industry. International Journal of Business and
Management, 8(5), 62.
Arokiasamy, A. R. A. (2013). A qualitative study on causes and effects of employee turnover
in the private sector in Malaysia. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 16(11),
1532-1541.
Hancock, J. I., Allen, D. G., Bosco, F. A., McDaniel, K. R., & Pierce, C. A. (2013). Meta-
analytic review of employee turnover as a predictor of firm performance. Journal of
Management, 39(3), 573-603.
Hilton.com (2019). Hotels by Hilton - Book the Best Rates Across All Brands. Retrieved 16
September 2019, from https://www.hilton.com/en/
Khan, M. A. (2014). Organizational cynicism and employee turnover intention: Evidence
from banking sector in Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences
(PJCSS), 8(1), 30-41.
Lamba, S., & Choudhary, N. (2013). Impact of HRM practices on organizational
commitment of employees. International Journal of Advancements in Research &
Technology, 2(4), 407-423.
Li, L., Gray, D. E., John Lockwood, A., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Learning about managing the
business in the hospitality industry. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 24(4),
525-559.
Qureshi, M. I., Iftikhar, M., Abbas, S. G., Hassan, U., Khan, K., & Zaman, K. (2013).
Relationship between job stress, workload, environment and employees turnover

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intentions: What we know, what should we know. World Applied Sciences Journal,
23(6), 764-770.
Saleem, H., & Raja, N. S. (2014). The impact of service quality on customer satisfaction,
customer loyalty and brand image: Evidence from hotel industry of Pakistan. Middle-
East Journal of Scientific Research, 19(5), 706-711.
Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of
destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 138-158.
Shukla, S., & Sinha, A. (2013). Employee Turnover in banking sector: Empirical evidence.
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 11(5), 57-61.
Statista.com (2019). Hilton: employee numbers 2013-2018 | Statista. Retrieved 16 September
2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/297758/number-of-hilton-worldwide-
employees/
Zopiatis, A., Constanti, P., & Theocharous, A. L. (2014). Job involvement, commitment,
satisfaction and turnover: Evidence from hotel employees in Cyprus. Tourism
Management, 41, 129-140.