Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices at Hilton Hotels

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Managing People in Organization

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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Recruitment and selection................................................................................................................2
Induction and training......................................................................................................................3
Motivation theories..........................................................................................................................5
Individual behaviour at work and effective teamwork....................................................................7
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
This report aims at collecting data about the Hilton Hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton
in 1919. It includes around 600 luxurious hotels in more than 78 countries. This report is going
to find out how human resource management is required by Hilton hotels and its recruitment &
selection process. All required documentation required for a specific position is also assessed. It
also includes a job description and person specification required for that job. Importance of
induction and training along with obstacles that are faced by the organization are also explained
in this report. Solutions are also given to avoid those obstacles. Some motivational theories are
also there which are used by the Hilton hotels and the pros and cons of those theories are also
analyzed. Some factors related to individual behaviour at work and effective teamwork are
explained and supported with the help of some theories and models of groups and teams.
Recruitment and selection
After planning and organizing, it is required to check the human resource available in the
organization. If a number of human resources is required, the process of recruitment and
selection is started. (Islam, 2018)The recruitment process is followed to search for and motivate
the required workforce for the vacant position in the organization. It consists of the following
steps.
1. Various sources of supply of the workforce are determined.
2. Analyzing the time period of these sources
3. Selecting the best source from them
4. Starting the process by inviting applications
The selection process consists of choosing the best candidate from those who have applied for
the required job position. (Sarma, 2017)Hilton Hotels follow a touch process for recruitment and
selection as it is one of the best brands of hotels in the UK. Various steps that are followed in
the selection process by Hilton Hotels are:

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1. Preliminary screening: This is the first step in the selection process where all the
undesired candidates are eliminated by the Hilton Hotels. These are those candidates who
do not have the required qualification.
2. Selection test: This step aims at measuring some characteristics of the candidates such as
intelligence, personality, aptitude etc. (Timming, 2015) Hilton hotel follows this step to
check their ability to sustain for a long time.
3. Employment interview: This step focus on check whether a candidate is suitable for that
job position or not. This is done with the help of a detailed personal interview by the
employer with the candidate. (Ekwoaba et al. 2015) This step is almost required for every
selection process and for fulfilling every vacant job by Hilton Hotels.
4. Reference and background checks: This aims at finding more information, if required,
about a candidate. (Farndale et al. 2018) This is done by Hilton Hotels to check any
criminal record etc. of any candidate with the help of previous employer, teachers, known
persons etc.
5. Selection decision: After checking the background of the candidate Hilton Hotels make a
final decision to select the candidate from all those candidates who have cleared all the
tests, personal interview and have passed in background check also. (Aracena et al.
2017)This is done by the manager of the Hilton Hotels and he is responsible for his
further performance.
6. Medical checkup: Hilton hotels believes in taking a medical examination of the selected
candidate before offering him the call letter. If the selected candidate is able to pass the
medical examination, only then the job I offered to him by the Hilton Hotels, otherwise
not.
7. Job offer: After passing all the exams mentioned above, the job is offered to the candidate
by the Hilton Hotels. They give him a call letter and ask him to sign the copy of the same
letter just to verify his acceptance for the position offered.
8. Contract of Employment: Hilton hotels also make some contract with their employees for
many positions which include job title, duties and responsibilities of the employee, job
timings, leave rules allowances etc.
Hilton hotels use various sources of recruitment for inviting applications from the candidates but
advertisement at various places like newspapers, magazines, website etc. is the common mode

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used by them. (Schouten et al. 2016)This advertisement contains all relevant information
required for the job such as post job profile, qualifications, experience etc. For example, to fulfil
the position of director of sales and marketing, Hilton hotels seeks job description as given
below:
 Marketing and sales management
 Good analyzing qualities of the company's strengths and weakness
 Handle all meetings
 Handle all market rates, documentation of other departments etc.
Hilton hotels assess the following qualities in the candidate.
 Coordinating and communicating constantly with others
 Marketing the hotel actively
 Attending meetings regularly etc.
Induction and training
Training includes upgrading the skills and knowledge of the worker in an organization to
increase his efficiency and production capacity of the organization. (Cooke and Hilton, 2015)
Hilton hotels also provide training to their employees for their development and to increase their
skills. It provides training in two ways:
1. On the job method
2. Off the job method
Induction and training have great importance for the organization in Hilton hotels due
to the following reasons.
1. It helps the Hilton hotels to increase the efficiency of the employees and increase the
production capacity of their organization
2. It helps them to save their money and avoid wastage of resources
3. It helps them in increasing the confidence level of their employees and maintain the
regularity of the employees at work and also increase the turnover of their hotels.

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4. It helps them in promoting their interest and preparing them to be future managers so that
the can take any decision quickly.
It also plays a crucial role in the life of employees. It is beneficial to them in the following
ways:
1. It helps the employees to maintain their confidence level and increase satisfaction from
their work performed.
2. They can earn more money by performing better after upgrading their skills and
knowledge.
3. Chances of accidents also get minimized as an employee become efficient in handling
complex machines also.
4. It also helps them in promotion in future by enhancing their skills through proper
training.
But there are some obstacles that every organization faces in various procedures. Hilton
hotels also face some obstacles that come along its path of training and development.
These are:
1. Semantic barriers: Sometimes while training an employee has to make assumptions
related to the case an employee has to understand these assumptions. But unclarified
assumptions or failing in assuming it properly creates a problem for the organization.
Similarly, there occurs technical jargon many times. (McClain et al. 2018)Technical
words are not understood by everyone easily.
2. Psychological barriers: if the employee is present at the place of training only
physically and not mentally then it also acts as an obstacle in his training. Lack of
attention and poor retention is a big obstacle that Hilton hotels usually faces. (Derous
and Fruyt, 2016)
3. Organizational barriers: Hilton hotels have some rules and regulations that are to be
followed by the employees but many times they are not able to understand them
clearly and hence act as an obstacle for the organization. (Stringfellow and Jap, 2015)

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4. Personal barriers: Fear of challenge, lack of confidence, incentives and unwillingness
to communicate are some personal barriers that employees of Hilton Hotels usually
face during their training course.
To cope up with some barriers Hilton hotels take suitable measures such as
1. It always tries to clear its thoughts and ideas before communicating them to
employees.
2. It tries to provide training to the employees according to their available skills and
knowledge.
3. They provide them training only in that area which is of any help to them. They
train them in their required fields.
These measures help the Hilton hotels to cope up with barriers that come along the path
of their training.
Motivation theories
Here are some theories that are used by every organization to motivate their employees. Some of
these theories are:
Herzberg’s two-factor theory: According to this theory there always exists two factors that affect
the behaviour of an individual. One that helps in increasing the confidence and satisfaction level
in the employee such as recognition, opportunities, growth, and second that has no effect on him
but create a feeling of dissatisfaction when it is absent such as working environment, relations
among employees, salary, etc.
ADVANTAGE: This theory helps the managers to find the difference between the behavioural
needs of the employees and impart them better motivation. (Doane et al. 2016)It helps to
generate motivation from inside of an individual. This theory helps the organization to know the
needs of the employees and help them to focus on eliminating their needs by providing them

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with those facilities that they are lacking in. In this theory, the primary focus is on meeting needs
and money is considered as a secondary need
DISADVANTAGE: These factors can be changed according to the lifetime of an individual.
Also, it can be different for different individuals. Also, this focuses on only personal satisfaction
and not on production. (Nicholls, 2017) This theory focuses on only internal factors and ignores
external factors.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: This theory explains that there exist different levels of need in an
individual that rises from basic needs to higher needs. These needs are related to psychological
needs firstly such as food, Shelter, clothing in starting and security, financial and satisfaction
later on. Secondly some social needs like love, family, friends etc. (Menard et al. 2017) Then his
needs move to safety esteem needs like recognition, and lastly his personal needs.
ADVANTAGE: This theory is very simple to understand. It helps an individual to motivate for
completing his basic needs and then moving towards his higher needs. (Zagzebski, 2016) It is
basically based on human nature and its behaviour. It is applicable in all fields of life of an
individual.
DISADVANTAGE: This fails to explain why an individual forgets his basic needs in front of
higher needs. As every individual has different needs and has different cultures. So this theory
needs to be applied accordingly which acts as an obstacle for the organization because it is not
possible to measure such differences. (Ryan and Deci, 2017)
Incentive theory: This theory focuses on providing incentives and rewards to motivate an
employee to increase his performance. Incentives can be financial as well as non-financial. This
theory helps in retaining the employees for a longer period of time.
ADVANTAGE: This brings positive result in the performance of the employees, creating an
environment suitable to employees and helps them to focus on success. This theory helps in
creating a competitive environment in the organization. (Britton, 2015)This theory also helps the
employees to develop personal goals and achieve them in need of high incentives.

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DISADVANTAGE: It creates a feeling of dissatisfaction in those individuals who do not get this
opportunity. Also, there is a need for continuous incentives which is not possible all the times.
This theory focuses only on efficiency and not on production capacity. (Benin-Goren et al.
2017)They only try to fulfil personal goals and not organizational goals.
Self-determination theory: This theory focuses on determining the motivation for those
individuals who want personal growth and wants to fulfil personal goals and objectives.
ADVANTAGE: This helps in improving personal performance of an individual. Employees take
challenges that help them to increase their skills. (Barsade and Knight, 2015)They try to achieve
them with all their efforts. It helps in motivating them internally.
DISADVANTAGE: This theory does not provide any stimulus to motivate them.
Hilton hotels also use those theories to enhance their working and efficiency of their
employees. Two of them are as follows:
THEORY X: According to this theory, employees are satisfied with whatever they had. They
show no interest in other things. They only focus on their work for which they are paid by the
company. They follow the strategy that Boss is always right and always follow his instructions
without any personal suggestion. (Raes et al. 2015)This theory is only for those who want to
work and needs to get the reward for their work.
THEORY Y: According to this theory, employees are not satisfied with whatever they had.
They always focus on getting more and more. They like to attend meetings and takes parts in
other things also. They always share there ideas and advice with their boss. They love to take
responsibilities and give their full efforts to achieve objectives. They focus on organizational
goals rather than personal goals.
Hence these are some of the motivation theories that Hilton hotels apply in his working criterion.
Individual behaviour at work and effective teamwork
Every organization requires good behaviour and teamwork to accomplish their desired goals.
Teamwork is based on relations among employees that helps them to trust each other and work

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properly. There exist some factors that affect individual behaviour and enables effective
cooperation and teamwork. These are:
 Goals and objectives: Teamwork is effective if it has some goals to achieve.to make a
team effective, the goals of the organization must be set in advance and defines to the
team clearly. It helps them to focus on their group goals and individual behaviour as
every individual focus on his performance to Achieve their team goals.
 Obstacles: Every team face some obstacles for which every team must keep solutions in
advance to face them in future. Every member must know the value of their efforts so
that they can work accordingly. If they know the compensated value they try to work
properly and helps in maximum productivity. Compensation act as a solution to such
obstacles.
 Communication: Good communication is the basic factor that affects the working of any
team. Communication between teams as well their members is must which helps in
removing any kind of misunderstanding and improve individual behaviour. Informal
communication help in making personal relations and formal communication results in
better working.
 Positive attitude: If individuals have a positive attitude towards their working they can
help the team to perform better. Every individual must remain positive to their goals and
try to achieve them. If they lack personal interactions such as meetings, sharing their
experiences, informal communication it acts as a barrier to their working. As a result,
They create a negative attitude towards the environment.
 Conflicts: Conflicts among employees affect the working of the organization as they feel
disheartened to work together. Conflicts divert the tea from their goals. Hilton hotels
always try to find out the conflicts if any and try to provide solutions to remove them.
Hilton hotels also use some models to enhance individual behaviour and effective
teamwork such as:
 Tuckman Model of group development: This model focuses on performing the
task properly with the help of groups and teams. It consists of different stages.
These are forming, storming, norming and performing and adjourning.

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1. Forming includes the formation of team and groups and assigning them tasks
to achieve organizational goals. According to this theory if every individual
does not focus on team goals and work on its own it will not achieve the
organizational goals. Hence the formation of the team and make them work
for the organization is the basic step that Hilton hotels take while working.
2. Storming: After the formation of the team they started having good relations
among them. Due to which they have to face conflicts that arise due to a leak
of ideas and opinions from an individual. Team leader helps them by
maintaining good relations among them.
3. Norming: If conflicts are provided proper solutions and the team works
properly it will help them to achieve their goals and motivate them to share
their ideas and as a result increases the efficiency of the employees.
4. Performing: Individuals will perform to achieve their team goals and try to
give their full efforts. They will know what work they have to perform and
will not get problem in their working.
5. Adjourning: After the completing of the task, the team is adjourned. But this
creates anxiety in their members sometimes. Hilton hotels always try to
eradicate this problem by organizing casual meetings for them.
 Mars Model of individual behaviour: Hilton hotel uses this model to focus on
individual behaviour that may get affected by internal and external factors of the
environment. There exist four factors that affect individual behaviour. These are:
1. Motivation
2. Ability
3. Role perceptions
4. Situational factors
Conclusion and recommendations
Hilton hotels know the value of good teamwork and effective communication between them. He
uses proper recruitment and selection process to fill the vacant positions. It uses different models
and theories for proper functioning in its organization. Here are some recommendations for it.
While providing training t with their employees it must focus on their decision-making ability

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also. Opinions and suggestions of the employees must be welcomed. Their basic needs must be
considered along with organizational goals. This report has analyzed that it is trying to serve its
customers in the best possible manner and implement different techniques for improving their
working conditions.