Literature Review on Challenges of Recruitment in Hospitality Sector

This literature review examines the significant challenges faced by the hospitality industry in its recruitment processes. It highlights the critical role of effective human resource management (HRM) in this sector, which offers intangible services and products. The review addresses issues such as economic uncertainty, difficulties in hiring qualified candidates, and the lack of proper HR planning. High employee turnover, attributed to seasonal work and poor compensation, is a central concern. The study also discusses the impact of long working hours, inadequate management direction, and the need for soft skills among leaders. The review further explores problems related to role allocation, internal recruitment limitations, and the lack of harassment policies. It emphasizes the necessity for HR departments to understand industry demands, implement effective recruitment strategies, and address employee turnover through policy and training. The importance of employee motivation and incentives is also highlighted, stressing the need for a strategic approach to recruitment to ensure a skilled and stable workforce within the hospitality sector.

Literature Review on
Challenges of Recruitment
processes in Hospitality
Industry

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Hospitality industry is one of the sector of economy who has played a crucial in giving boost to
economic development all over the globe. From last 40 years this segment has risen up and the
businesses which are part of this offers intangible services and products, effective human resources
management (HRM) especially recruitment is critical to the success of the stated industry. There are
certain changes which are faced by businesses of hospitality sector and recruitment is the first and
foremost issue which has to be considered because its role is to create a positive impression about the
employers of the job market. For the success of any business it is necessary that staff which are part of
that organisation should have right skills and abilities. This literature will be focusing on the certain
issues faced by the recruiters of hospitality segment.
Main Body
As stated by Boella and Goss-Turner (2013) ,economic market is uncertain, recruiters are
finding it difficult to hire the best hospitality candidates. Hospitality segment is doing well in the last
decades. The owners of restaurants and hotel owners and managers are giving their effort to ensure that
they have the employees which can perform their according to the objectives and aims set by the
company. For this they have to recruit people who can adapt according to the working condition.
According to Nickson (2013), most of the organisation which are part of this sector while
recruiting people does not follow a proper HR planning. This term is quite wide as this has certain
aspects which has to be followed by the company. HR planning includes that the department should
know that how much employees are needed in company and what kind of staff they needed. Other than
this they should have an awareness about the job vacancy which has to be offered.
As observed by Laudon and Traver (2013), turnover in the hospitality industry is quite high and
this is increasing every time and the reason behind this is the seasonal nature of industry and poor
compensation packages offered by the hotel. The working hours in the industry is on an average is 9
hours but due to work load they this time span increases to 11 to 12 years. But from years they are not
getting proper wages according to the working hours. The department managers and supervisors fail to
provide clear direction to the staff. It is required that leaders should have soft skills to convince people
who part of this and they should know staffs problems are resolved in time. They should set a platform
where the staff can put forward their issue in front of the management. To make sure that before going
to the recruitment process they should build a plan which acts as a outline of the activities which has to
be performed in the all process. It is required that each of them should be aware about their role and set

the target that they have to recruit the right person.
According to Richardson (2010), there are many reasons for high employee turnover the one is
proper allocation of the roles and responsibilities. It has been seen that a single person is performing
different tasks thus it can be said that the work load makes them depressed. The HR department finds it
difficult to make who is the right person who can be flexible to work according to needs of hotel or
restaurants. They make mistakes in the selection decision and the fact that mangers generally give little
thought to the nature of decisions. They don't know which selection process is right for them and will
suite their purpose. Most of the organisation in business environment try to adopt the internal
recruitment process as they are aware that this will decrease their recruitment costs but normally in
hospitality sector this process is hardly adopted as employees are specialised in particular one field
only.
As analysed by Guchait, and Cho (2010), the employees who are working in the sector from
decades does not coordinate with the new staff. This makes the new one to leave the job thus increase
in the staff turn over takes place. There are no harassment policy at the work place which helps the staff
to make sure that whatever inequality and discrimination is there can be addressed by this problem.
Because of no proper training employees are not able to perform according to the demands of the
industry. This is the industry which requires staff who should have expertise in any of the segment
Food and Beverages, food production , housekeeping, front office, security, engineering, sales and
marketing, human resource department, accounts and etc. are some of the department which requires
the person to be expert so that they can attain the goals and objectives of the hotel. Every hotel wants
that they should give services to the guests so that they can gain visits the hotel so for that they should
have staff which are flexible in handling any kind of situation thus fulfilling the demands of those
guests. To come over the issue faced by the hospitably industry it is required that the HR department
should have the people who know what kind of people will help the organisation to maintain the
efficiency in the working of hotel. They need the people who understands that if they are performing
well they will get incentives and they will be motivated thus hotel giving them promotion.
As stated Bengisu and Balta (2011), the HR department who is responsible for recruitment and
selection have to make sure that whatever things are going in the organisation should be noted by them.
They should make sure that to solve the issue of employee turnover they should make a policy that
which will ensure that any issue coming in the process are resolved through certain tools and
techniques. The HR department should know that recruitment is the key function of HRM. They have
set the criteria for the recruitment which has to be followed by them so that they have right employees

and who can stay longer in the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boella, M. and Goss-Turner, S., 2013. Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A
guide to best practice. Routledge.
Nickson, D., 2013. Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.
Laudon, K. C. and Traver, C. G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.
Richardson, S., 2010. Generation Y's perceptions and attitudes towards a career in tourism and
hospitality. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. 9(2). pp.179-199.
Guchait, P. and Cho, S., 2010. The impact of human resource management practices on intention to
leave of employees in the service industry in India: the mediating role of organizational
commitment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management.21(8). pp.1228-1247.
Bengisu, M. and Balta, S., 2011. Employment of the workforce with disabilities in the hospitality
industry. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 19(1). pp.35-57.