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US Hospitality Industry: Managing Hospitality Workforce
Introduction
The current trend in the global marketplace has led to the increase in capital mobility, people as well as an exchange of managerial information and ideas among the hospitality industry. In return, it has resulted to change in the employment trend in the United States. With improvements in technological advancement across the world, the hospitality industry in the United States has started relying on services from independent service providers outside their country. There has been an increase in the number of hospitality firms that are outsourcing their services from independent service providers leading to a reduction in the rate of employment in the industry. Employee turnover is one of the problems that challenge the hospitality industry (Brownell & Walsh 2008, p. 54). As a result; managers in the hospitality industry in the United States have a big challenge on how to manage this problem. This discussion will try to look at the methods being used by the managers in the US hospitality industry to curb this. These methods include employee empowerment and Proper use of human resources.
Changes in employment trend in the hospitality industry in the United States
Depending on changes in seasons in different countries, the United States experiences peaks and off-peaks in its hospitality industry. During the peak period, a lot of visitors come to the country leading to the great demand for services offered by the hospitality industry. As a result, the hospitality sector tends to employ a lot of casual workers during this period to facilitate in ensuring that they have enough staffs to provide efficient services to their customers. Most of these workers are young with female workers making the greatest percentage. Most of them are university students who prefer to combine professional studies with elastic working hours in the hospitality industry to supplement their pocket money. This marks as an entry point to the working environment for most young people. Flexibility in the working hours in the industry during this period also leads to most women being employed as they are capable of balancing their work with family duties (Brownell & Walsh 2008, p. 123).
Globalization has led to the introduction of technology in hospitality operations. There has been the introduction of new systems that combine customer relationship management with other tasks performed within the hospitality industry such as booking of rooms. This has eliminated instances of the breakdown of activities in the organizations. In addition, it has led to a reduction in the workforce and mostly on those involved with the front desk services in the hospitality sector. This is because with the advancement of technology these tasks have been computerized and easily done by one staff. The technology has also resulted in the need for specialized skills for staff to be able to efficiently work with these systems. Currently, for one to be employed in the hospitality industry in the U.S., he or she needs to have skills in operating these systems. Many hospitality firms are now installing personal computers in their guestrooms. The rate of visitors who travel with their portable computers is also increasing in the hospitality industry. This has led to the creation of new jobs in the industry. There has been the introduction of special employees referred to as concierges (Carbery, OBrien & McDonnell 2003, p. 649). Their role is helping guests in setting up their communication tools in the hotels, teaching on how to use the available in-room technology, and how to access internet services within the hotel. Increased installation of technological equipment in hospitality property has resulted in the need for maintenance and upgrading. As a result, people are being employed in these hospitality firms to offer these services.
Use of employee empowerment to reduce employee turnover
The success of every business organization depends heavily on its employees. This is the reason why organizations incur a huge cost in trying to train, recruit and maintain skilled employees in their organizations. In the hospitality industry, employee turnover constitutes approximately fifty percent of the organizations expenses. This makes many employers in the industry lose sleep as they try to look for methods of reducing this cost. Turnover has a direct effect on areas that require customer services in the hospitality industry. If a position is left vacant, it means that the rest of the employees have to have extra work to compensate for the vacant position. It is evident that most of the hospitality companies that have low employee turnover enjoy a high profit. To cater for employee turnover, hospitality companies in the United States employ employee empowerment (Christensen 2008, p. 234). Here, employees are given responsibilities within the company and the freedom to make decisions pertaining to exercising these responsibilities. In the day-to-day operations of their responsibilities, employees can learn various methods of improving their efficiency leading to an increase in their productivity as well as satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is one of the problems that organizations are unable to meet. Empowering employees in hospitality companies leads to their satisfaction thus helping the company retain them. This greatly reduces employee turnover as they do not have to incur an extra cost of training or recruiting new employees all the time (Christensen 2008, p. 238).
Employee empowerment in hospitality companies ensures that there is trust among employees and their employers. This helps in ensuring that employees are always in their best shape to conduct company duties. Lack of employee empowerment may result to conflicts among staffs and their employers within the hospitality companies. This may make it hard for employees to be productive making the company incur expenses of paying unproductive employees. Lack of trust among employees and their employer may also result in experienced employees quitting and looking for other companies where they will be able to trust their employers. This in return may make Hospitality Company incur a lot of cost in training and recruiting other employees to replace those who have left the company. Empowering employees results in their transformation making them believe in the mission and vision of the company. This makes them strive to attain these visions hence improving their productivity and reducing their turnover (DAnnunzio-Green 1997, p. 199). Giving employees the mandate to determine methods of operations in their areas within Hospitality Company also makes them feel comfortable with their activities. No one would like to work under pressure. Subjecting employees to pressure when working may lead to them being uncomfortable, consequently lowering their productivity. This might lead to most employees failing to attend to their duties regularly. Hospitality companies in United States struggle to empower their employees in bid to eliminate cases of employee absenteeism. Employees who feel valued in their organizations have low propensity of failing to attend their duties. With employees given the authority to set targets and completion period for their jobs, they are less susceptible to getting dissatisfied at work. This lowers employee turnover as rate of employee resignation is decreased (Furunes 2005, p. 236).
Impacts of human resource in reduction of employee turnover
With increase in employee turnover in hospitality companies in United States, there is an increase in need for human resource personnel to assist control these expenses. Currently, human resource personnel are capable of evaluating employee turnover rates in any organization using a web-based evaluator. Human resource service providers are also able to predict the effects of reducing employee turnover in any organization. This facilitates in devising numerous models of varying scenarios to evaluate the effects of increasing various expenses incurred during employee training and recruitment. With human resource personnel having this kind of knowledge, many hospitality companies are in dire need of their services in bid to reduce employee turnover in their organizations. Cases of employee dissatisfaction in hospitality companies have led to most employees quitting their jobs or failing to attend to their duties (Furunes 2005, p. 245). This has been attributed to the inability of hospitality operators to cultivate employee satisfaction in their companies. This underlines the reason why most hospitality companies are contracting human resource personnel to train them on methods of ensuring employee satisfaction in their companies.
There are various considerations made by human resource personnel as they try to solve employee turnover problems in hospitality companies. One of their major considerations is the reasons that make employees quit from the company. They evaluate the effects of the working conditions on employee satisfaction to determine whether they contribute to employees leaving the company. Some of the factors that may lead to employees leaving a hospitality company and go to another is failure of the company to offer better salary, poor working conditions within the company and lack of opportunities for personal growth in the company. Human resource has various impacts in reducing employee turnover in hospitality companies. Some of the measures taken by human resource personnel to curb employee turnover include ensuring that they hire the right person for specific tasks in the company (International Labor Organization 2001, para. 2-4). This is attained by clearly setting out the qualifications required for one to be assigned a specific job. In so doing, companies are able to employ qualified personnel and avoid employing overqualified employees. Overqualified employees leave the company on first opportunity if they suspect that the company does not offer them the challenges they want. This leads to increase in employee turnover within the company.
Employee performance depends on the terms of payment offered by an organization. If employees are poorly paid, they are likely to perform poorly in their fields within the company. Human resource personnel helps hospitality companies in evaluating amount of work performed by every employee thus helping them set right salary for their employees. Paying employees according to their performance in the company helps hospitality companies retain their employees avoiding possibilities of having to recruit and train new employees. It also ensures that companies recruit qualified personnel thus not requiring training their employees after they recruit them. Acknowledging work done by employees within an organization leads to employee satisfaction (Kochan 2004, p. 134).This increases their productivity and loyalty to their employer. In organizations where employees are not acknowledged, they tend to look for excuses to absentee themselves from the company. This leads to increase in employee turnover as they are paid for work they have not done. Highlighting good things done by employees at work makes them motivated adding quality to their stay at the company.
Compensating employees depending on their performance in the company can not work alone in employee retention in hospitality companies. Despite employees being well compensated in hospitality companies, some have been found to still quit. Most of them complain of working conditions in the company. As a result, human resource personnel educate hospitality operators on how to ensure that they always maintain favorable working conditions in their companies (Kochan 2004, p. 140). Employees requires to work in an environment that gives them a chance to progress, places where their opinions are listened to and action taken, places where employers cultivate team work among employees as well as places where they are provided with the correct working materials. Before and after employees are recruited into a company, they assess their companies as well as their employers. If they feel not comfortable with the employer, they immediately leave the company. Human resource personnel encourage hospitality operators on the importance of building interest on employees to work in their companies. Encouraging people to work for a company increases their productivity leading to customer satisfaction (Laliberté 2006, para. 3).
Conclusion
Growth and development of hospitality companies in United States depends on good relationship between the employers and their employees. Employers who nurture a good relationship with their employees lead to their satisfaction. In addition, it makes them strive to attain companys goals. With employees being satisfied with working in a certain company, the company is able to save on employee turnover. Human resource personnel has helped hospitality operators reduce employee turnover by educating them on the need of ensuring that their employees are always satisfied when working in the company. Empowering employees also makes them remain in a company (Lucas 1995, p. 268).Giving them the freedom to make decision regarding their fields of operations makes them feel comfortable working with the company.
Reference
Brownell, J. & Walsh, K., 2008. Women in Hospitality. London: SAGE.
Carbery, R., OBrien, T. & McDonnell, J., 2003. Predicting hotel managers turnover cognitions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 18(7/8), p. 649.
Christensen, H., 2008. Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry. London: SAGE.
DAnnunzio-Green, N., 1997. Developing international managers in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9(5/6), p. 199.
Furunes, T., 2005. Training Paradox in the Hotel Industry. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality & Tourism, 5(3), pp. 231-48.
International Labor Organization, 2001. Human resources development, employment and globalization in the hotel, catering and tourism sector. Web.
Kochan, T.A., 2004. Restoring Trust in the Human Resource Management Profession. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 42(2), pp. 132-46.
Laliberté, M., 2006. Recruiting Tourism Workers: The Time Is Now! Web.
Lucas, R., 1995. Managing employee relations in the hotel and catering industry. New York: Cassell.
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