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People Management in Hotel Industry

   The following paper will attempt to discover any possible issues that might arise in the hotel business as well as provide answers to the discovered questions.

   One of the most important steps in forming a successful team of professionals is recruiting manpower that you consider will form a great basis for your company’s development. Effective recruitment procedures are vital to maintain quality workforce. Recruiting can be done internally or externally. Many companies prefer to recruit candidates externally only for entry-level positions. These organisations look at qualified candidates within the organisation for managerial positions. Internal recruiting boosts the morale of promoted employees and leads to succession of promotions for higher positions. In other words, one promotion is essential to fill each job vacated by a previous promotion. These successions facilitate reinforcement of the organisations ‘internal career ladder’. External recruiting is not as cost-effective as internal recruiting, though it provides an opportunity to the organisation to take a peek at the outside world by communicating with applicants from rival companies. Recruitment agencies, job centres, advertising through newspapers and referrals are some of the most common methods of external recruiting. Cyberspace has also emerged as a popular recruitment option. For larger organisations like hotels, employing the services of a good recruitment agency can go a long way in finding professional and qualified candidates. For global recruitments, advertising through a newspaper can be a viable option to target overseas audience. Asking for referrals from friends and family can be useful to employ dedicated and reliable staff.

Employment Contractual Options
Many organisations employ staff on a contractual basis as opposed to full time positions to manage fluctuating work volumes. Due to rapid growth in the service industry, hotels are constantly on the look out for skilled staff in various fields. The employment is governed by a contract that includes the term of contract, salary and other benefits, if any. Permanent, as well as temporary staff, are on the payroll of the hotel. However, temporary staff has a fixed term of employment and it is totally at the discretion of the management to extend the contract. Many hotels prefer workers on a temporary contract, as they are not eligible for additional benefits. Temporary staff, which is often recruited on a fixed term contract, can be easily dismissed when there is less occupancy or during low season. Various contractors provide staff on a contract basis to cater to short time personnel requirements. This staff is on the payroll of the contractors who charge the hotel for their services. Casual staff is an ideal option for weekly tasks and can be paid on an hourly basis. Casual workers can also be hired to share the workload of permanent employees, thus saving on overtime expenses. A well-drawn contract is required for casual works that clearly state that work will be provided on ‘as required’ basis.

   Managers can assess the requirements of their hotel to determine the kind of workforce required. After evaluating these needs, it can be decided whether new staff is required on a temporary basis. Current temporary staff can also be escalated to the status of a ‘permanent employee’.

Hygiene and employee morale
Hygiene in the workplace is crucial for the well being of any organisation. Hygiene ensures lesser chances of illness leading to lower insurance costs and lesser worker’s compensation payments. Thus, hygiene indirectly boosts employee morale resulting in better productivity and higher profits. The hotel industry is a booming industry bringing diverse cultures together. In hotels, hygiene is not only required for good health but also to boost the image of the hotel. Hygiene is necessary to minimize contamination and spread of diseases. Food safety is a major concern in hotels, as poor storage of perishable items can causes fungus and bacterial growth leading to contamination and sickness.

Attention to working relationships
The success and growth of any organisation largely depends on the harmony among its employees. A great deal of attention is devoted to improve working relationships within an organisation. Poor working relationships often lead to conflicts, poor communication, lack of trust and loss of productivity. In hotels, attention to working relationships can ensure smooth and effective functioning and a more performance oriented staff. Peaceful and harmonious relations among hotel personnel also go a long way in strengthening relations with guests and clients. Clear lines of authority and different job roles influence performance positively with the major advantages being more efficiency, coordination, division of work, and proper utilization of available resources.

Delegation and Team work
Advantages of Delegation:
• It helps to develop and maintain a motivating group environment
• Better opportunities for the individual growth of employees
• It assists in developing a larger number of employees to handle leadership positions in future.
• Enhances productivity
• Time efficiency
Teamwork is an essential element of a successful organisation.
Advantages of teamwork
• better success rate
• enhanced creativity
• effective problem-solving
• minimizes conflicts
Performance Management
Performance management typically involves goal setting, monitoring, and appraisal. It helps managers to keep track of an employee’s progress and allows them to step in and suggest ways of improvement, if required, to ensure timely correction. Performance management helps managers achieve deadlines in the least amount of time thereby increasing productivity.

Managing Conflicts
Conflicts arise in an organisation for a number of reasons like communication problems, role ambiguity, individual differences and work relationships. There are five popular styles of managing conflicts namely, Avoidance, Accommodation, Competition, Mutual problem solving, and compromise. Managers can select a style depending on their individual levels of assertiveness and co-operation. Effective management of conflicts can result in quicker results, greater productivity and enhanced creativity.

Induction
Through an induction, an organisation takes its first step towards building a cordial relationship with its employees.
Benefits of induction:
• Provides an opportunity to new employees to get acquainted with the company and their new role in it.
• An employee is informed about his moral and professional duties in the organisation.
• Over time, effective induction can go a long way in retaining staff and reducing staff turnover.

Managing sub contractors
Sub contractors are generally recruited by organisations to take care of certain tasks that do not require their supervision. They outsource tasks to sub contractors to be completed by personnel on the pay roll of the sub contractor.

Theories of Motivation
According to research conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932, also referred to as the Hawthorne Studies, indicates that employees are not motivated by money alone. Behaviour of employees is linked to their attitudes (Dickson, 1973).

   Maslow's need-hierarchy theory – It states that the five levels of needs of employees namely, physiology, safety, social, ego, and self-actualising (Maslow, 1943) and the lower level needs are required to be satisfied before the next level would motivate employees.
Herzberg's two- factor theory – It divides motivation in two factors; motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). According to this theory, motivators (intrinsic factors) like recognition and achievement provide job satisfaction, while hygienes (extrinsic factors) like job security and pay produce job dissatisfaction.

   Vroom's expectancy theory – Vroom believed that employee effort leads to performance, which in turn leads to rewards, either positive or negative (Vroom, 1964). The level of motivation will be determined by how positive a reward is.

   Adams' equity theory – It states that employees are de-motivated when they feel that their inputs to their job are more than their outputs and struggle for equity between themselves and other employees (Adams, 1965).
Skinner's reinforcement theory.- According to this theory, employee behaviours leading to positive outcomes will be repeated, while those leading to negative outcomes will not be repeated. (Skinner, 1953)

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