HR Operations: Recruitment and Selection in Hospitality

This essay delves into the critical aspects of human resource operations within the hospitality industry, focusing on recruitment and selection processes. It begins by defining recruitment as the process of identifying potential candidates and selection as the process of choosing the right candidates. The essay highlights the problems associated with traditional recruitment methods, which often prioritize hard skills over soft skills. It then emphasizes the increasing importance of soft skills such as team leadership, problem-solving, and communication in meeting guest needs and creating positive work experiences. The discussion includes the role of psychometric testing and the need for employees to solve problems. Furthermore, the essay references research that supports the value of soft skills in the hospitality industry, particularly in the context of the Australian accommodation sector, where soft skills have contributed to growth. The essay concludes by underscoring the shift from solely relying on hard skills to the essential integration of soft skills for success in the industry.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE OPERATIONS
Human Resource Operations
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Recruitment refers to process that helps in the identification of potential candidates
who can apply for jobs. It is a positive process that helps in attracting a large number of
candidates. Recruitment helps in reaching out to the right employees that helps a company in
getting the requisite manpower that can help in the operations of a company (Davidson &
Wang, 2011). Selection is indicative of process that helps in choosing right candidates in
relation to the vacant positions. It rejects the candidates who do not have the potential and
helps in the identification of right candidate for the various positions. This essay discusses
about the problems existing in the traditional method of the recruitment and the selection in
the hospitality industry. The essay discusses about the importance of the soft skills in the
present age in regard to hospitality industry.
The traditional method of the recruitment and the selection lays a great amount of
emphasis on the hard skills that has become less important in the present age. Hard skills
refer to the specific abilities that can be achieved by an individual with the help of the right
qualification. Hard competencies that are required by an individual for getting the success is
dependent on that of individual specifications in relation to the role of the management. The
hard skills that are necessary for an employee in the hospitality industry are the food
management along with the marketing skills (Beesley & Davidson, 2013). The scientific
selection process in the earlier times used to lay importance on the preparation of the food
and the beverage, cleaning and the management. It includes the employees knowing how to
make use of the cleaning chemicals that can help in the maintenance of the hotels. An
individual needs to have profound knowledge in relation to the food and the wine industry
that can help an individual in attaining the success in the hospitality sector.
The scientific selection process of the recruitment lays emphasis on the written tests
along with the personal interviews that helps in measuring the hard skills that the workers
have in a company. It was held in the earlier times that the scientific process of the

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recruitment can help an organization in achieving the objective (Bradley, 2006). It was
thought of that this process can be instrumental in reducing the labour absenteeism along with
the turnover. It was however found that this method of assessing the employees cannot help
in judging the true merit of the employees and cannot facilitate the growth of the company.
Psychometric tests refer to the scientific method that helps in measuring the mental
capabilities of the individuals. It helps in measuring the personality characteristics along with
the aptitude of the employees working in a company. The traditional methods of recruiting
did not take into consideration behavioural capacity along with individual capabilities of
individuals that are imperative in the present age. The problems arise within the hospitality
industry and the workers within the hospitality industry have to know how to solve the
problems that can help them in rising ahead in the professional position. The human
resources in the hospitality industry did not consider the aptitude along with the ability tests
that can prove to be crucial in solving the issues (Davidson & Wang, 2011). It can help in
understanding whether an individual is able to learn from that of the past experience that can
help them in solving the issues in the future. The general aptitude test is of great importance
in the hospitality industry as it can help in measuring the abilities and the traits of the
employees.
It has however been found that the employees can perform in the effective manner in
the event of being endowed with the soft skills that can take an individual ahead in the
profession within the hospitality industry. The soft skills encompasses the introspective along
with the interpersonal skills that can help an individual in facing the real experiences
(Gustafsson et al., 2005). The soft skills that are essential in relation to hospitality
management are the team leadership, problem solving along with the influence. The
managers should know how to gain trust of the team at the time of listening that can help in
the creation of a positive team environment. The soft skills are of crucial importance in the

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hospitality industry as it can help in fostering the cooperation along with the communication
that can help in meeting the needs of the guests. Hospitality is an industry that is dependent
on the service along with the perception. The customers and the staffs have to be provided
with the best outcome and this requires soft skills on the part of the employees who are
working in the hospitality industry (Jaykumar, 2018). The behaviour of the employees
should be shaped in the hospitality industry that can help them in delivering the effective
performance in a company.
It has been brought out with the help of research that the soft skills are integral to the
hospitality industry as the employees have to directly deal with the customers. The strong
interpersonal skills can help in the creation of a positive work experience. Research has
indicated the fact that the employees who work in service industries should possess the soft
skills that can help in creating a good experience in front of the customers. It can help in the
flourishing of the organization and it can help in bringing about the growth of the employees
(Losekoot et al., 2018). The validity of the research is on account of the fact that it has been
found that the accommodation sector in Australia has been able to witness the recorded
growth in that of Average Daily Rate along with the Revenue per Available room in the year
2018. Supply of the rooms has grown by that of 2.0 % and the demand has grown by that of
1.8 % across the entire country. The human resources in the hospitality industry recruits the
employees on the basis of their soft skills that has been able to aid in the process of growth of
the hospitality industry in Australia (Foerster-Metz & Golowko, 2018). Sydney along with
Melbourne have been able to make a great deal of profits as the human resources in the
hospitality industry lays a great deal of importance on recruiting the employees who have the
ability of leading, coaching and the problem solving.
Traditional method of selection used to lay importance on hard skills that are of
crucial importance in the present age. The qualification that an individual has can help him in

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gaining the hard skills that can help him in his profession. The previous methods of
recruitment used to lay stress on written tests that helped in ascertaining the knowledge of the
employees. The knowledge of the employees cannot help an individual in surviving in the
present age. The workers in the hospitality industry should have the soft skills that can help
them in providing a better experience to the customers. Psychometric tests are indicative of
the scientific method that can measure mental capabilities of people. The soft skills are
imperative in the hospitality industry and it can help the workers in creating a good
impression in front of the customers. The employees should have the interpersonal skills that
can help in creating positive work experience.

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References
Beesley, L. G., & Davidson, M. (2013). A critical analysis of skilled labor supply and
demand in the Australian hospitality industry. Journal of Quality Assurance in
Hospitality & Tourism, 14(3), 264-280.
Bradley, L. M. (2006). Perceptions of justice when selecting internal and externaljob
candidates. Personnel Review, 35(1), 66-77.
Davidson, M. C., & Wang, Y. (2011). Sustainable labor practices? Hotel human resource
managers views on turnover and skill shortages. Journal of Human Resources in
Hospitality & Tourism, 10(3), 235-253.
Foerster-Metz, U. S. F. P., & Golowko, N. (2018). The need for digital and soft skills in the
Romanian business service industry. Management & Marketing, 13(1), 831-847.
Gustafsson, A., Edvardsson, B., Nickson, D., Warhurst, C., & Dutton, E. (2005). The
importance of attitude and appearance in the service encounter in retail and
hospitality. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal.
Jaykumar, P. (2018). HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT INSTITUTES-THE SKILLS
TRAINING INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE. Journal of Services Research, 18(2).
Losekoot, E., Lasten, E., Lawson, A., & Chen, B. (2018). The development of soft skills
during internships: The hospitality student’s voice. Research in Hospitality
Management, 8(2), 155-159.