Imperial Hotel Case Study: Addressing Staff Turnover in London

This case study examines the Imperial Hotel in London, focusing on the critical issue of high staff turnover, with approximately 80% of staff leaving annually. The report details the challenges faced by the hotel, including customer dissatisfaction, poor service quality, and increased training expenses. It identifies key contributing factors to staff turnover, such as inadequate pay, strict management styles, limited promotion opportunities, and transportation issues for night-shift workers. The analysis explores the negative impacts on the hotel's profitability, productivity, and reputation, especially in a competitive market. The study proposes several solutions, including improving recruitment strategies, offering competitive wages, providing better training, implementing flexible work hours, and fostering a positive work culture to enhance employee satisfaction and retention. The report concludes with a call to action for the hotel management to address these issues to ensure long-term success.

Imperial Hotel case
study

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
ISSUE FACED BY THE IMPERIAL HOTEL.........................................................................3
PROBLEM 2- High staff turnover with 80% of the staff leaving within the year................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Managing the organization requires proper strategies and tactics so that the firm can
solve the issues and the problem which are arising in the organization. This report talks about
the Imperial Hotel London which is one of the famous hotels. Peter Farnsworth has taken the
post as a manager in the hotel and identified several issues which the organization is facing in
the present time period. But the major problem witnessed in the organization is the staff
turnover which is resulting in several issues like customer satisfaction, poor service quality
etc. the report will discuss the issues which is faced by the Imperial Hotel. Further, it will also
focus on the effects which it will have in the future. On the other hand, the reasons for the
heavy staff turnover has been identified by the manager. Further, the report will also
emphasize on the strategies and the solutions which can be taken by the manager to overcome
the situation of the Imperial Hotel.
ISSUE FACED BY THE IMPERIAL HOTEL
Imperial Hotel is one of the most renowned hotel in London. It has a huge brand name
in the market which regarding the services and the facilities which it is providing to its
customers. but in the recent times, the organization is suffering from the staff turnover
problem as it has been witnessed that around 80% of the hotel staff are leaving the hotel
every year due to several reasons (Kim, Lee and Carlson, 2010). As it is important for the
service industry to retain the employees in the organization the reason is that the reputation of
the hotel depend upon the services which are provided by their staff members. As there are
12 conference rooms, 4 restaurants etc., so it requires a huge staff to take care of their
customers.
The reasons behind leaving the organization are the employees are not getting the
proper pay which they desire. As per the survey of their manager Peter they analysed that the
problem they are not retaining in the organization is that the pay scale of the firm is not good
as compare to the other hotels which they are providing to their staff members. As it is seen
that all the individuals work to earn their livelihood. On the other hand, the other reason
which has been evaluated that the managerial style which is adopted in the Imperial Hotel is
strict and they feel that they are not free to take decisions regarding anything. This can be
clubbed into the negative working environment (Tsai, Cheng and Chang, 2010). It is one of
the strong reasons because it is seen that most of the employees leave the organization
because of the negative culture of the firm.

Another reason for the high staff turnover is that there is less opportunity for
promotion in the organization and even the Imperial hotel are not providing proper bonuses to
their employees. They are dissatisfied with the monetary incentive which they are getting
from the Imperial Hotel. Due to this reason, most of the employees are leaving the
organization. This is further creating pressure on the existing employees who are working in
the organization. By seeing the environment of the organization, they are feeling dissatisfied
and even the employees are facing excessive work pressure in the hotel (Bohdanowicz,
Zientara and Novotna, 2011). Another issue for the staff turnover in the Imperial hotel is that
the hotel staff are facing problem in the transportation. As in the hotel, there are night shift
for the employees so they are finding difficulty in seeking the transportation at night. Besides
this, another problem which is witnessed is that there are workers from the foreign nationals
who are doing the part time job so after some time they also leave the organization.
Through the staff turnover, the Imperial hotel is facing several problems as they are
not able to provide their staff with the proper service’s which is creating customer
dissatisfaction in the organization. Besides this, they are spending huge expense in the
training of staff members. They train the employees and after some time they leave the
organization. This way the Imperial hotel is wasting their money as well as their time in the
development. On the other hand, they have to pay the extra expense on recruiting the
employees in the organization. As recruitment of the staff causes heavy amount to the firm
and they have to bear the cost several times due to the high staff turnover (Karatepe, 2012).
This problem is big because it is affecting the profit and the productivity of the organization.
Due to this issue, the sales of the organization have gone down. This is impacting the
reputation of the organization in the current and in the future time period. Besides this, due to
the increasing competition in the hotel industry, it has become vital for the organization to
retain their staff as well as their customers so that they can maintain profitability in the
organization. With the changing business environment, the staff turnover will increase as the
employees are getting huge opportunity in their field. so, for this reason, it has become
important to retain the staff in the firm. On the other hand, this issue will directly affect the
goodwill of the organization which will negatively impact the perception of the customers
(Davidson and Wang, 2011). staff turnover is crucial problem which overall affect the
organization. There are several strategies and theories which can be adopted by the Imperial
hotel to overcome the problem which they are facing in the organization. The pay scale issue
is the most prominent problem which is leading the staff to quit the organization. As the
major factor which is missing in the firm is the motivation aspect. The employees are not

motivated to perform their job which is hampering their working. Further, the staff also
believes that there is no growth in the firm due to this reason they feel that they should switch
the organization so that they can build their career in their respective field.
PROBLEM 2- High staff turnover with 80% of the staff leaving within the year
As per the above mentioned case study of the hotel imperial based in London
requires a lot of improvement in wide areas so to achieve the better goodwill and
raise the growth of the hotel in comparison with the other hotel industries. No doubt
the hotel is very giant and located in huge square feet’s but just lacking behind in
managing the staff and the services of the hotel (
Beeley and Sarkar, 2013). Keeping in focus the above case and the problems of
being the new HR head of the hotel I would like to suggest various solutions and
strategies for the betterment of the hotel as well as to improve the working condition
of imperial London.
First of all as I read in the above case studies I believe that the selection and
recruitment criteria are not so well in the hotel imperial. There should be at least
planned strategies for hiring the staff for the hotel as they are the ones who need to
deal with the other staff as well as with the customers and guests which might come
to stay in the hotel. Instead of hiring students and non resident they must look after
some experience holder person as well the one who is willing to work for the longer
period for the hotel (
Dean, 2015). Also the applicant must be selected on the basis of his future plans and
objectives. For e.g. If you are selecting any of the student you must make sure he is
not looking forward to shift out for the further studies or may not ask for ample
number of leaves for the same.
 Avail the staff with proper wages and salary- The second problem which is one
of the major issues is regarding the wages and salary being paid is not satisfied.
The solution to this problem would be proper allotment of the salary and wages to
the staff also there must not be biased in comparison with the line staff of the
imperial (Walsh,E and et.al., 2014). This is an issue which creates the feeling of
discrimination in the mind of the staff working into the organisation. So being the
HR head I would suggest Mr. Peter to focus upon fixing the right norms for

providing salary and wages to the staff so that this will help in raising their
morale high also this will motivate them to work better for the hotel and its
working.
 This is one of the major issues that being the student they stay for the short period
of the times and are likely to be less regular and particular about their work which
might be because of their busy schedule and their priority. So the first I would
like to implement is creating and preparing a list of applicants who are eligible
for the hotel as our future staff by considering their present past and future profile
(
Stiwinter and Jordan, 2015). This will help in taking the right decisions also it
will help in selecting the right person for the right job. It is a benefit as this will
keep the staff stay for the longer duration.
 Provide proper training to the staff - Not always the staff is in the fault but
sometimes the management as well. Being going through the case of hotel
imperial I feel the management staffs of the hotel is lacking behind in managing
the lower and the middle level staff. Coming to the solution i would like to
suggest that they must provide better training and learning to the staff regarding
how to deal with the customers and guests which stays in the hotel. Also the
major thing which must be taught to the staff is how to communicate with the
guests and what tone must be used while dealing with them. Being rude and
unethical with the customers they may feel dissatisfied which indirectly affects
the goodwill as well as the working of the hotel imperial. If the staff would be
trained about these basic things they would be able maintain good relations with
the guests as well as with the remaining staffs of the hotel.
 Avoid unsociable working hours – The most important t thing is to make your
staff feel comfortable and safe in the work they are doing for their organisation so
the another important thing which must be kept in focus is to avoid unsociable
working hours for the staff there must be proper arrangement and slots of the
timings and staffs must be divided into various shifts so that they may feel
satisfied and do not get fatigue (
Walsh,E and et.al., 2014). Because if the staff member is tired or feeling drowsy
at his work place he may feel frustrated as well aggressive which might reflect in
his behaviour as well in his tone. So make sure to provide proper time allotments
to the staff members so that they may stay for longer period of time.

 Maintain good work culture – being it whichever organisation it is very important
to maintain good work culture because at times salary and wages doesn’t matter if the
work culture into the organisation is not coping up with the satisfaction level of the
staff working there (Fitsimmons, 2012). As going through the case study it was
clearly mentioned that the staff was not maintaining good relations with each other
also they were behaving rude with the customers sometimes due to which they were
losing the impression of ample number of guests who might retain to the hotel
imperial ever again because of experiencing such behaviour of staff with them. Not
only the staff but also sometimes the superiors were not cooperating well with their
staff. So must make sure to maintain healthy relations with the staffs so that they may
work happily and feel good about their organisation they are working at.
CONCLUSION
This report will provide an insight about how the improvements could be done in
respect to attaining the goodwill of the hotel imperial. Also this report is majorly concerned
with the analysing of the prevailing problem and has provided better strategies and solutions
for the same so that the hotel may experience the better employee turnover as well is able to
retain the staff members for the longer duration at hotel imperial.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Beeley, C., and Sarkar,J., 2013. Experiences of staff managing self-harm algorithmicall.
Journal of Forensic Practice. 15: 4. Pp 249-258. doi: 10.1108/JFP-08-2012-0008.
Bohdanowicz, P., Zientara, P. and Novotna, E., 2011. International hotel chains and
environmental protection: an analysis of Hilton's we care! programme (Europe, 2006–
2008). Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 19(7). pp.797-816.
Davidson, M.C. and 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). pp.235-253.
Dean ,L.J., 2015. Staffing for the Future … with the Staff You Have Right Now,
in Samantha Schmehl Hines. Marcy Simons (ed.) Library Staffing for the Future
(Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Volume 34) Emerald
Group Publishing Limited. pp83 – 99.
Fitsimmons,G., 2012. "Functioning staff or staffing functions? The Bottom Line. 25 : 4.
Pp 152-154. doi: 10.1108/08880451211292586.
Karatepe, O.M., 2012. The effects of coworker and perceived organizational support on hotel
employee outcomes: The moderating role of job embeddedness. Journal of Hospitality
& Tourism Research. 36(4). pp.495-516.
Kim, B.P., Lee, G. and Carlson, K.D., 2010. An examination of the nature of the relationship
between Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) and turnover intent at different
organizational levels. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 29(4). pp.591-
597.
Stiwinter,K., and Jordan,R.P., 2015.TMI: using a library staff wiki to manage
information and improve communication. Library Hi Tech News. 32 : 8. Pp 16-18.
doi: 10.1108/LHTN-04-2015-0031.
Tsai, M.C., Cheng, C.C. and Chang, Y.Y., 2010. Drivers of hospitality industry employees'
job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. African Journal of
Business Management. 4(18). p.4118.
Walsh,E and et.al., 2014. Managing pain in prison: staff perspectives. International
Journal of Prisoner Health. 10: 3. Pp 198-208. doi: 10.1108/IJPH-08-2013-0037.