Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Human Resources in Hotels

A Valuable Means to Differentiate
From the Competition

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Contemporary Concerns for HR

The role HR plays in Lodging Operations
of the Future
Consequences of Turnover
Complying with Employment Laws
Boosting Employee Productivity

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

HR at the Crossroads
Two likely scenarios for the HR function in
hotels:
HR will evolve, adapt, and become more
important to lodging organizations.
HR in lodging organizations will be
outsourced using outside talent and
technology.

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Alternative 1: HR as a Leader
Organizations must look beyond cost
containment to get value from the HR function.
Difficulty with organizational structures is that HR is
not viewed as a profit center.
Useful ways to look at HR as a profit center

Reduction in employee loss time

Reduction in sick days
Reduction in Recruiting costs
Etc. Can you think of other ways to reduce the costs of
managing employees?

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

HR as a Leader
Another way to look at the cost effect of
HR other than cost reduction is
productivity
Improved employee productivity
Returning guests through employee-guest
interactions
Can you think of other ways that employee
productivity can be measured?

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Alternative 2: HR will Disappear

Positive side of this scenario:

Technology provides for a reduction of redundant functions
Employees processing HR information themselves
HR functions moving to a Central Location

Negative Side of this scenario

HR is the enemy causes operations extra work
HR is inefficient too many support staff that do not come in contact
with the guest
HR is out of touch they do not understand what it takes to take care
of the guest.

Current HR professionals in hotels must strive to reduce the negative

attributes often associated with the HR function and look for ways
to add value to the properties that make up the organization.

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Traditional Roles of HR

Recruitment
Hiring
Training
Wages and benefit management
Employee performance appraisal

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

HR as an Organizational Leader
Key concerns that HR must consider to become an
organizational leader:

Employee motivation
Jobs as careers
Job fatigue
Changing role of supervisor
Employees in the decision making process
Sharing management with other organizational stakeholders
Consequences of technology on jobs and organization
Cross cultural attitudes
Social responsibility of employees and organization

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Consequences of Turnover
Actual costs incurred by employee
separation
Cost of recruiting new employees
Inefficiencies of new employees in training
Disruption of guest service and employee
moral
Opportunities for diminished image, lost of
customer loyalty etc.

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Consequences of Turnover
A fine line between tenure and
performance
Organizations must constantly review policies
and practices to ensure that employees
productivity does not diminish as they reach
longer periods of tenure.
What are strategies that hotels can undertake to
reduce job fatigue and reduced productivity?

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Calculating Turnover
TO % = Number of new hires /
Total number of employees
For example:
75 employees when fully staffed
60 new employees hired during the period
= 60/75 or 66.6 %

Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Mentoring
An Important way to enhance:
Productivity
Moral
Retention

Positive effect on both mentor and protg

Stages of Mentoring

Initiation of the relationship

Cultivation of the relationship
Separation of the relationship
Redefinition of the relationship