Human Resource Management in Service Industries - HND Report

This report delves into Human Resource Management (HRM) within the service industry, using the Hilton Hotel as a primary case study. It begins by outlining the evolving role and significance of HRM, highlighting the shift from a cost-centric view to a value-added function. The report then examines the specific roles and responsibilities of an HR manager at Hilton, including planning, recruitment, selection, employee monitoring, training, and reward systems. It explores the process of human resource planning, encompassing demand and supply analysis, and the development of action plans. The report further investigates the importance of employee relations, emphasizing its impact on achieving organizational objectives, fostering employee commitment, and ensuring legal compliance. It also analyzes the influence of employment laws, such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Safety Act 1974, on Hilton's operations. Finally, the report provides a detailed job description and specification for a receptionist role at Hilton, along with a comparative analysis of the selection processes employed by Hilton and British Airways. The report concludes by offering insights into the strategic importance of HRM in enhancing efficiency, productivity, and overall organizational success within the service sector.

Human Resource Management in Service
Industries
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Table of Contents
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LIST OF TABLE
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LIST OF FIGURES
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INTRODUCTION
Role and significance of human resource management has very much changed with the rise
in time. Earlier it was taken as a function of management which increases the cost of company and
does not adds much value to it. But now the point of view regarding HRM has undergone a
complete change because of cut throat competition, change in time and innovative business
practices. Several studies suggests that by applying effective HR policies and procedures, any
organization can enhance efficiency and productivity (Hendry, 2012). Focusing this scenario, this
report is prepared to look at the importance and role of HRM in service industry in the context of
Hotel Hilton.
TASK 1
1.1
Role of HR department is to recruit good people, train them, and make them good
employees to achieve high level of customer service. It also encompasses wages, benefits, and
welfare administration. In this context, here are the roles and purpose of HR manager at Hilton
Hotel:
 Planning and forecasting: For the mentioned company, the HR manager is needed to
conduct HR planning to enable information regarding number of vacant posts in the hotel.
By this, he can forecast about the number of employee required in near future (Dias, 2016).
In addition to this, HR manager possess the role of assessing demand and supply of
individuals in market place to develop strategies.
 Recruitment and selection: One of the key role of HR is recruiting and selecting skilled
and talented people in the company. Hilton hotel conducts internal and external recruitment
to manage their operations in desired and planned manner. They adopt 5 stage selection
process for middle level employees which includes: preliminary interview, written test
regarding to field, intellectual test, HR level interview and final interview where salary is
negotiated and joining letter is offered.
 Monitoring of employees: Here the HR manager is required to monitor and evaluate the
employee's performance to manage it accordingly. In the cited hotel, 360 degree appraisal
method is followed in which feedback and reviews are taken from peer groups, superior,
subordinate, and from the employee himself (Mondy and Martocchio 2016). This provides
actual information about behaviour and performance of the employees.
 Training and development: Hilton offers training on a regular basis to its employees to
enhance their competency and efficiency (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). In addition to it,
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company is able to boost career opportunities of employees, high level of motivation and
increasing overall performance.
 Reward and recognition: HR manager of Hilton hotel make sure to offer rewards and
recognition to its employees . Rewards are offered on quarterly basis based on their
performance and extra efforts in the form of monetary terms. Recognition is done on social
media, notice board, and on the official email ID of employees (Boxall and Purcell 2011).
1.2
Human resource plan is a practice of analysing the requirement of people within the
organisation. For this HR manager assess the demand and supply of employees in economy.
Following is the process of HRP within the context of Hilton hotel:1. Assess the requirement of human resource: At the initial stage HR assess the need by
looking at the resignations, work load in future, external and internal environment etc.
through this procedure preliminary decision is made for recruitment and selection.2. Forecasting demand of human resource: After the initial stage, demand of personnel is
analysed. In this context, external environment is identified to assess the need of more
employees. After this, exact number of vacant posts in the hotel is taken. On the basis of
this, company initiates the recruitment process to get handful of candidates at the time of
selection.3. Analysing the supply in economy: After the demand is analysed, now it required to assess
the actual supply of employees in economy to take decision regarding pay scale can be
taken. If there is low supply of individual then Hilton needs to hire employees on higher pay
and vice versa (Guest, D.E. 2011). Apart from this, HR manager also takes decision related
to internal or external recruitment which majorly depends upon the availability of skilled
employees in the marketplace.
4. Development of action plan: On the basis of demand and supply. An action plan is prepared
by the HR manager within cited company for recruitment and selection of employees. They
have to decide whether to go for internal or external recruitment (Ulrich, D., 2013). The HR
manager is also having a target to call the candidates for interview to fill the vacant
positions with skilled and talented employees in the hotel.
TASK 2
2.1
For gaining high amount of support from the employees, employee relations has a
significant part in an organisation. It enables the company to attain their objectives by offering
sound and high class service to its customers. Also, it motivates the employees which ultimately
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supports in receiving commitment from them so that the organisation boosts their competency in the
market area(Harzing A.W. and Pinnington, 2010). Additionally it is a legal aspect among employee
and employer which aids in giving rights to the employees with a significant opposition at the
workplace. By this, the company is able to minimise the changes of discrepancies and unlawful
practices.
Taking this into account, Hilton hotel focuses on employment relations to derive high value
for nation and staff as well. By taking help of it, the company crafts the policies and norms for
doing employee welfare. From this, hotel management offers same and equal amount of rights to its
employees which certainly helps in developing morale of personnel. Employment relations is highly
effective developing appropriate competitive position in the economy.
Besides this, Hilton has formulated its organisational structure highly focusing upon
national policies of the workplace. By this, the brand image of hotel Hilton has improved at global
level and therefore large number of individuals are attracting towards the organisation. Some more
advantages it is giving to hotel Hilton are: employees are able to raise their voice against any
unethical practices, probability of discrimination at the workplace has reduced and so equality is
worshipped, healthy and cordial relations with the employees which results in less number of
conflicts and disputes (Bratton and Gold 2012). In addition to it, concept of collective bargaining
aids in developing a base where demands, problems, needs and views can be presented in front of
the employer and the top management.
2.2
To offer legal rights of the employees, it is essential for company irrespective of their
industry to adhere with the employment laws. It helps in defining the legal capacity and
expectations of employer and employees both and aids in covering provision for employment
contract and of dismissal. These laws play a vital role for developing effective and sound
employment framework in hotel Hilton. Considering this, the following are the impacts of
employment laws on functioning of hotel Hilton:
 Equality Act 2010: This act focuses on giving equal chances and preferences to employees
at workplace to minimise the situation of discrimination of any nature from which their
morale can be hampered. Further, it states that discrimination must not take place on any
grounds i.e. age, gender, nationality, culture, beliefs, or any other demographic factors
(Bloom, N. and Van Reenen, J., 2011). Following this law, company has developed a sound
recruitment and selection policy in which applicant are provided equal opportunities to
showcase their skills and competency. This in turn helps the company to develop a
workplace where employees are able to work in an cross cultural team where better ideas
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and suggestions are gained to address any kind of problems and issues.
 Health and safety act 1974: The other set of employment law pays attention towards
health and safety of employees. The management of Hilton is bounded with the duty of
providing safe and secure workplace where productivity is increased. Proper training and
development activities are arranged to give information about the act to be taken at the time
of emergency or mishap or accident.
 Working time 1998: With respect to working time for employees this act has been formed.
According to this law, specific working hours per week is set by the regulatory bodies and
company needs to to practice the same. Because of this law company faces change in
managing their work and so it needs to hire more people for same job role. However it has
managed to do the same and hence the brand image of the company has developed.
TASK 3
3.1
List of activities which comprises of general tasks, responsibilities, functions is referred to
Job description. This helps the candidate to know about the series of tasks that he or she needs to
perform while working on a particular job profile (CHUANG, C.H. and Liao H.U.I. 2010). This
enables the company in determining the specification for employees so that appropriate and skilled
employees are appointed in the organisation. Considering this below is the job description and job
specification for recruiting receptionist in the hotel:
Purpose of the post:
This position is liable for offering administrative and clerical support to the hotel. It is
required to help the customers in fulfilling their wants and needs in an effective manner.
Additionally it is needed to provide proper support to general managers in smooth and effective
operation so that best services are offered to the customers.
Key responsibilities:
1. To greet and attend guests and meeting the customers need.
2. To deal with the requirement made by clients and to make sure they are fulfilled as desired.
3. To produce fast and accurate billing of the services made by guests.
4. To ensure the cleanliness of of the front office every time .
5. To command the reservation and cancellation of bookings.
Skills required:
1. Pleasing personality
2. Good dressing
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3. Ability to remain calm and composed when conflict arises.
4. Capability to work without supervision.
5. Effective administrative skills
6. Sound interpersonal skills
7. Good command over language
For recruiting candidates for the above mentioned job profile, the following specification is taken
by Hilton hotel:
1. Qualifications: GCSE standard English or equal to that. Bachelor degree in management or
equivalent.
2. Experience: At least 1 year working experience in hotel industry.
3. Personal Characteristics: Ability to communicate in different languages, perform good in
pressure also, develop sound working relationships, ability to work in a team, adaptable and
self motivated.
3.2
The procedure of choosing the most skilled and competent candidate from the pool of
candidates created in the recruitment stage, is referred as selection. This aids the company to
develop a base of highly skilled employees to for effective achievement of business objectives. In
this context, below is the detailed comparison of the selection processes of Hilton hotel with British
Airways:
Selection process at Hilton Selection process at British Airways
Hilton follows a definite process for
selection to select the most desired candidate
as it is giant hospitality firm. For this it
adopts a 5 step procedure which starts with
preliminary test where general information is
taken and applicant form is filled. After that
written test is conducted based on the field of
candidate so that filtering can be done.
Candidates who pass this goes for
intellectual test where general aptitude and
IQ is evaluated. Afterwards HR level
interview is conducted in which references
are checked and mental health of the
Contrary to Hilton hotel, British Airways
follows more complex selection procedure. It
consists of 6 stages which initiates with short-
listing of resumes based upon skills and
qualification of employees. After that group
discussion is arranged to check mental state and
thinking power. Afterwards, candidate is filtered
and moves for panel interview in which field
related questions are asked. Candidates who
pass in this test then goes for simulation test
where they are needed to handle real world
scenario in a controlled environment. After this,
HR interview is conducted and collection of key
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candidate is seen. Then at the last stage the
candidates who are finalised go for the final
interview where salary negotiation is done
and joining letter is offered to the most fit
candidate (Storey J.,2014).
information of candidates is done to prepare a
profile. On the basis of this, final interview is
done and most skilled and top rankers are
offered the job.
TASK 4
PPT attached
CONCLUSION
It has been analysed from this report that HRM has a vital role in increasing the efficiency
and competency of the company. With the help of effective HR practices and policies skilled and
talented employees are selected due to which the company is able to accomplish its long term
objectives (Purce J. 2014). From this report it has been concluded that significance of HRM is
crucial even in the service industry because in this industry , employees are mainly used for
offering services and handling with the customers. Therefore need and importance of HRM is very
high in the context of hospitality industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.
Mondy, R. and Martocchio, J.J., 2016. Human resource management. Human Resource
Management, Global Edition.
Dias, L., 2016. Human resource management. Human Resource Management.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Guest, D.E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(1), pp.3-13.
Jiang, K., Lepak, D.P., Hu, J. and Baer, J.C., 2012. How does human resource management
influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms.
Academy of management Journal, 55(6), pp.1264-1294.
Ulrich, D., 2013. Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering
results. Harvard Business Press.
Harzing, A.W. and Pinnington, A. eds., 2010. International human resource management. Sage.
Wright, P.M. and McMahan, G.C., 2011. Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’back into
strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(2),
pp.93-104.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
CHUANG, C.H. and Liao, H.U.I., 2010. Strategic human resource management in service context:
Taking care of business by taking care of employees and customers. Personnel Psychology,
63(1), pp.153-196.
Bloom, N. and Van Reenen, J., 2011. Human resource management and productivity. Handbook of
labor economics, 4, pp.1697-1767.
Online
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