Human Resource Management 1

ABC

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT IN TOURISM AND
HOSPITALITY
F/506/1125

XYZ
[Pick the date]

For the third consecutive year, Marriott was

recognized as one of the Worlds Best
Multinational Workplaces by Great Place to
Work, the worlds largest annual study of
workplace excellence. Ranked seventh out of 25,
Marriott is the highest-ranked hotel company on
the list, building on its inclusion on Great Place
to Work lists in multiple countries around the world. (Marriott 2014)
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 2

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT IN TOURISM AND
HOSPITALITY

Human Resource Management is critical to achieving competitive advantage. It is a strategic

approach to managing relations between employees and employers and it emphasizes on

leveraging capabilities of people. The strategic significance of employees and an increasing

recognition of this significance is reflected in the modern terms human resources and human

capital. These terms normally refer to the personal characteristics and skills that people bring to

the organization, for instance intelligence, knowledge, an ability to learn, enthusiasm, and much

more. Organizations are branding employees more and more as a strategic resource and less and

less as an expensive necessity as they are the foundation of an organization with competitive

advantage. (http://www.accaglobal.com, 2014) Strategic HRM is regarded as a generic approach

to the strategic management of human resources according to the organizational intentions

regarding the future direction it wants to take. (Abu-Qayyas, 2007) Boxall et al. defined SHRM

as a continuous endeavor to align business strategy with personnel policies and practices of the

organization (2007). The significance of SHRM for several organizations is far from obvious

despite of the fact that the interest in SHRM as a model depicts an amplifying awareness that

human resources are the key to attainment of competitive advantage in organizations.

Furthermore, it has been argued by many that strategic human resources management is mostly

about adaptation and integration across departments. It is concerned with ensuring of full

integration of human resources management with the organizational culture and the strategic

requirements of the organization; secondly HR policies ought to fit together across hierarchies
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 3

and across policy areas equally; and guaranteeing that HR practices are accepted, accustomed

and applied by line managers and employees as normal routine of their everyday work (Hall et

al. 2009). Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is, and will always be one of the

most influential and powerful ideas that has developed in the field of business and management

in the past 20 years or so. (Salaman, Storey and Billsberry, 2005)

The tourism and hospitality industry has the same generic role of HRM like the other industries.

Having employees that are helpful and friendly in service industries such as hotels, restaurants

where employees are directly in contact with customers, has a great impact on how customers

perceive the business. The magnitude of the leisure industry and the tourism and hospitality and

is enormous. It has turned out to be the largest employer in the world and although the entire

world suffered from a severe financial crisis, UNWTO predicts that the decline in international

tourism arrivals may have bottomed out (United Nations World Tourism Organization, 2009). It

comprises of practically every culture and country. At present the industry has several

components and the industry jargons can be quite perplexing and has expanded into substantially

cosmic dimensions.

People 1st suggested 14 sub-sectors that make up the entire hospitality sector (Nickson, 2013):

hotels
restaurants
events;
pubs, bars and night-clubs;
membership clubs;
contract food service providers;
gambling;
visitor attractions;
youth hostels;
holiday parks;
travel services;
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 4

tourist services
hospitality services
self-catering accommodation

Furthermore there is considerable diversity in the kinds of jobs created in this broad

categorization of tourism and hospitality with regards to their demands of educational

requirements, technical skills, the type of person and terms and conditions that is likely to be

willing to get a job in them.

HRM in the hospitality industry is at a critical turning point where either fades away and will be

substituted by technology and outsourcing or HRM will grow, develop and adapt to turn more

vital for an organization. Furthermore it has been suggested that the kind of organization and the

work ethics that occurs will determine which of these two possibilities eventuates in every

organization (Woods 1999).

 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 5

(Marriott 2013)
The above infogram belongs to Marriott Hotels. Marriott started as a root beer shop, went on to

in flight catering to a humble 300 room hotel to major acquisitions and mergers and is a

mammoth in the hospitality and tourism industry boasting of quality, integrity and sustainability

at this point of time (Our History, 2014). The human resources have been recognized as a vital

aspect and a foundation stone by the top level and have always been given the top priority.

(Marriott, 2013)

LO 1. Understand the need for strategic human resources management in the

tourism and hospitality industry.

The increased interest in SHRM has grown basically due to several of the conventional sources

of competitive advantage that companies have been relying on, like the economies of scale,
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 6

patents, access to capital and market expansion, are being erased by the development of market

based competition (Wright et al., 2007; Nolan, 2002; Alleyne et al., 2008). The key resources for

competitiveness are capabilities and core competences of the employees. Therefore Kim et al.,

propose that their philosophies and values need to be guided by, and should be aligned with, the

strategies prevailing in the organization (2010). SHRM works on taking employees as a source of

human capital and make sure that this resource develops into a firm capability in turn generating

competitive advantage. The second challenge is to develop the HR initiatives and programs

creating the HR infrastructure of an organization to be a source of competitive advantage and

these are normally done by means of setting processes that enable the human capital of a firm to

grow in value. The third challenge is to comprehensively create an atmosphere to make sure that

a firm's HR initiatives can work in a manner to support the overall firm strategy. The companies

with high investments in their HR programs enjoy greater entire profitability (Becker & Huselid,

1998). These types of investments motivate employees to exert higher endeavors on behalf of

their organizations; train and encourage employees to enhance their knowledge, abilities and

skills to improve their overall competency. This can be done by empowerment programs, job

rotation schedules, several types of compensation strategies and the application of participative

decision making. It has been observed that the idea of competitive pay, intensive and extensive

training and promotion-from-within is the policies and initiatives that happen to have a deep

impact on human capital. HR programs are applied in an organization to enhance not only human

capital but its level of organizational and social capital as well (Wright et al., 2001). These

represent the making, transfer, and incorporation of knowledge, companywide. Consequently,

HR programs are the procedures by which a firm fabricates a mutual flow of knowledge that

depicts a rare, valuable, and unmatched competency. The real benefits can be extracted from
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 7

treating HR programs as self motivated approaches given shape by the overall strategy of the

organization. If an organizations HR programs are dynamic in nature and are company oriented

then it becomes difficult for competitors to copy those (Wright et al., 2001). Marriott initiated the

Esprit program and did wonders with the entire work force all over the world.

LO 2. Analyze the changing nature of the tourism and hospitality sectors and the
impact on strategic human resources management.

Unprecedented transformational changes have marred the hospitality industry since a couple of

decades and are likely to prevail in the future. There have been revolutionary changes concerning

the general trends of the industry. Customers have been transformed and a new breed of

customer has emerged this all is a result of rapidly developing e-commerce and e-tourism.

Contemporary hospitality industry is functioning under an extremely vigorous and

understandable environment that fabricates pressures to improve competitive strength and

demands further successful customer relations management via online relations, marketing and

dynamic service delivery. Likewise twenty first century witnessed swift revolutionary

transformations in the structure and nature of global markets. China, India, Russia and the Gulf

countries have proven to be extreme opportunities for the development of hospitality industry

and have been termed as emerging markets. Sustainable and responsible tourism are the new

values and ethics. The consumers are demanding certain kinds of tourism experiences and

products; an influence from the concept of responsible tourism. Worldwide institutions and like

the WTO, UNWTO, TRIPS, GATS, and TRIMS are now much more prominent and effective

than ever before. To top it all the contemporary customers are educated, well informed, and
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 8

consequently much more demanding as they are not inert service recipients anymore. Customers

are well versed with the hospitality services and facilities available at different tourism

destinations and they tend to compare the value they are getting for their money spent.

Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure, accounts for almost 11 percent of world GDP (Deloitte.com,

2014). This new trend of customers knowing and expecting service has particular implications. A

greater segmentation of hospitality services is a result of this new breed of customers; the

industry is shifting from service to individualized, tailor-made flexibilities for personal

experiences of these millennial customers and this in itself is a big challenge to the standardized

style of hospitality services. Economic concerns, rising costs and increased competition, plus

changes in consumer taste indicate the growing nature of the hospitality and tourism industry.

The companies in this sector need to maintain a strong grasp on revolutionizing consumer taste

and needs trends to continually fabricate products and services that fulfill a consumers demand.

Organizations in the industry are facing extensively multifaceted issues on operational

excellence, branding, asset ownership, growth and emerging technologies. Flatter organization

structures fueled by shorter product and business life cycles, and the churning of properties has

gien a new meaning to employment in this industry. The lifelong careers have been replaced by

portfolio careers. With its ever-developing array of products and services, the UK hospitality

industry, has grown considerably in recent years. According to the British Hospitality

Association, in 2010 and 2011, 276 new hotels adding 35,000 rooms to the hotel stock were

built. (Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013) The current operational challenges comprise of

consolidation, labor recruitment and retention, consumer safety, expansion and customer loyalty.
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 9

A major focus is brand awareness as travel and tourism industry looks for new opportunities to

generate excessive market share. Marriott has always made sure that they are ahead of their

competition in this regard by investing in the human capital. Marriotts workforce in nearly 80

countries includes almost 200,000 workers working at managed properties and corporate offices.

Marriott provides its working associates with loads of choices for personal and career growth by

means of professional development opportunities, skills training programs, other learning

experiences, and enhancement in the number of hotels. Every year associates at Marriott take

part in almost 10,000 training classes, out of these 4,500 are formal learning programs. More half

of Marriotts formal learning programs are eLearning, either instructor-led or blended programs.

Marriott boasts a number of ideas to motivate employees to do open dialogue like walk-around

management, Living Our Core Values/Living Our Employee Promise meetings, world tour town

hall meetings and daily stand-ups. Enhanced performance development is a result of continuous

conversations between Marriott managers and associates and annual reviews conducted with

every associate. A confidential Associate Engagement Survey is done worldwide every year by

Marriott. The managers are accountable for conducting feedback sessions, sharing survey results,

and generating action plans for further improvement. (Marriott, 2014)

LO 3. Be able to outline what makes a good strategic human resource manager.

The extensive expansion of HRM deep into strategic business policy matters and the entire

organizational performance is characterized by the business partnering model produced by

Ulrich and Brockbank (2005). Mathis and Jackson are of the view that strategic HR

management refers to organizational use of employees to gain or keep a competitive advantage

 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 10

against competitors. it does so through the HR department formally contributing to

companywide planning efforts, or by simply being knowledgeable about issues facing the

organization. (Tailor, R.K. Agarwal, 2009) As a result the modern HRM is presented by many

as an organizationally embedded function. The HR managers work alongside line managers, far

removed from the essential administrative role ordinarily perceived of the human management

department of the past and are supported by a range of extremely dedicated services closely

associated with business strategy and planning.

They say Quality begins on the inside... and then works its way out 1. A hospitality and tourism

business interacting with guests round the clock for the entire year has negligible prospective of

continued success lacking proper planning and execution of staffing and service. The

contemporary hospitality HR managers ought to be candid and forthright communicators with an

uncomplicated personality and should be able to perform under pressure as in this industry crises

is an everyday game. These crises range from accusations that need to be thoroughly

investigated, to staffing shortages to technology breaches and in order to thrive in such a multiple

priority environment the HR manager needs to stay on toes, literally and virtually.

Nevertheless, the basic role of the HR manager is to support and lead department heads and

senior management in each and every aspect of recruitment, employment issues, induction,

training and development, organizational development and staff relations. The HR manger must

be in constant touch with staff at every level to support the hotels commitment to service. It can

be enhancing the strengths of the staff and developing the skill set of the staff and at it can be

researching issues and examining situations cautiously. A hospitality HR manager sets up all

employment and recruiting activities for hourly positions and management equally on a timely

1 Bob Moawad (1941-2007) Founder and Former Chairman of Edge Learning Institute
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 11

basis. This also comprise of structured and organized procedures for interviewing, recruiting,

hiring and the retention of skilled staff. The manager coordinates organized initiation or for all

new staff as soon as they are inducted and wisely before they have their first guest contact. This

initial contact is the key to the strategic partnership of HR manager with the General Manager

and/or owner, in order to function and establish the value of HR management administration

through the entire hotel. This kind of functioning and administration is investment in "human

capital" and is critically essential for the hospitality business only because the turnover cost

incurred has been proved as a historical nightmare for this industry. The HR manager is the one

who administers the salary policies by overseeing salaries, billing and benefits enrollment

furthermore he is responsible for creating insurance programs and recommending annual

increment programs. Unfortunately, health or other insurance are not offered by all hospitality

businesses to their staff. A few national, or provincial or some other hospitality factions and even

a few major brands do offer some kinds of insurance options which should be evaluated semi-

annually. By means of a local wage surveys HR reviews and recommends salary ranges and

increments to owners or top management on a yearly basis. Another function a hospitality HR

manager performs is the need to stay abreast of each and every federal and state law and advise

management with regards to changes having value for operations and associates. The manager

directs and coordinates performance evaluations for even the employees hired on hourly and

non-exempt employees also. The HR is an extremely sensitive issue in the hospitality business

and HR manager should keep the function well organized in order to keep the communication

process efficient and impartial. (Hogan, 2009) The HR manager provides assistance to

management personnel of all other departments with regards to employee problems concerned

with administration and supervision. As there can be liability issues involved so particular
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 12

training for this needs to be maintained on a regular basis. The manager is the primary

communication liaison regarding changes in hotel and procedures as appropriate. The manager

directs and administers the' reward and recognition program for the employees. This may

comprise of a yearly employee attitude survey, reviewed by owners and corporate management.

The manager is responsible for forecasting the annual budget for the Human Resource

department. This is extremely significant in terms of forecasting of training expenses and

benefits. The manger assesses the safety program and compensation Benefits of employees. The

manager maintains personnel records and HR files for the entire hotel ensuring confidentiality,

associate training and coordinating management development. This also entails the preparation a

list of top talent within the hotel with department heads and providing talent development plans.

However specific training program and protocols should remain the responsibility of the

department head, whereas training programs can be brand-specific and/or local focused training.

LO 4. Consider each of the key areas of human resources and discuss how
strategic management can be implemented.

Our Culture Of Inclusion Empowers All Associates To Discover What It Means To Find Your
World At MarriottFrom Meeting New People And Experiencing New Places To Seeking
Opportunities To Grow And Achieve. J.W. Marriott, Jr.

Organizational effectiveness and efficiency is no longer measured by the profits made by the

organization. Instead of that the extreme skill set depicted by the human capital the company

invests in, has turned out to be a major input in the cutthroat business environment leading to

high profits. (Nzonzo and Chipfuva, 2013) "It is particularly concerned with all the activities
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 13

that contribute to successfully attracting, developing, motivating and maintaining a high-

performing workforce that results in its success"( Sims,2007). More importantly, a greater part of

an organization relies on the HR department as without people those activities cannot exist; thus

forcing the rest of the organization to believe that HR operations add values to the organization

(Lengnick-Hall, et al., 1999). In the hospitality industry delivering good quality services to create

customers satisfaction is the point to ponder for the organization as an organization with a greater

number of satisfied customers is more successful and far more profitable. It is imperative for the

service sector to recognize that service quality and customer satisfaction play an essential role for

realization of organizational goals and more than that for survival in a competitive market. This

stands true particularly in the difficult situation of the market with the present recession in the

world, if an organization belonging to the tourism and hospitality industry can create a

competitive edge by means of the high quality services and it implies this particular organization

can give tough competition rather nightmares to other organizations belonging to the same field.

This all is achievable with a workforce which has to increase as the operations grow with a

growth in salaries, long term career developments, attachment with the organization which

happens to be a result of an intensive care by the organization and much more. Happy workforce

generates elated customers.

 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 14

(Marriott 2014)

J. Willard Marriott founder of Marriott International along with his son, Executive Chairman,

J.W. Marriott, Jr. have taught managers to take care of your associates and theyll take care of

your customers and the customers will come back. The cornerstone of organizational culture

and the foundation of the success and global growth of Marriott is this philosophy. Marriott is

dedicated to providing an atmosphere where the associates get every opportunity to achieve their

potential and are encouraged and inspired to deliver excellent guest service (Marriot 2014)

With a magnanimous worldwide growth scale, Marriott strives to identify, hire and work with

hospitable associates to serve the guests, especially expanding the hospitality culture via service

commitment to new properties in emerging markets. By the year 2050, almost half of Marriotts

new properties will be located in emerging markets like China, Brazil, India, Gulf countries and

Russia. These countries are the new hub for tourism with tailor made specific leisure activities in

turn creating new jobs and helping the country grow economically. Marriott is a avid technology
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 15

user and to make its presence more strong and to hire the best it uses mobile technology and

social media to ensure companys access to a worldwide hub of next-generation talent, along

with conventional recruiting via major nonprofit partners and universities. Training is a

fundamental means to maintain Marriotts distinguished culture with a focus on participative

management, associate commitment, and exceptional customer service. At Marriott everyone

believes that for further expansion and success, the associates ought to be dedicated to training

for their professional and personal advancement.

The management also believes in investing in a strong leadership channel in order to fulfill the

demands of a global growth at Marriott, this will in turn ensure that the associates are prepared to

take on leadership roles when and as required For this purpose Marriott launched in late 2013 a

Global Voyage program for university graduates. This is another one of a kind from Marriott.

The salient features of this 12 to 18 month global leadership development program are state of

the art virtual environment, discipline-specific training while on-the-job and intermingling with

senior leadership from around the globe by means of speaker series by selected executive

leadership. By June 2014, Marriott has already hired more than 540 Voyagers and have inducted

them in the program. These voyagers are from 30 different countries in the Asia Pacific, Europe

& Americas and Middle East & Africa. With successful graduation the Voyagers will be moved

to management positions in the various properties belonging to Marriott.

The efficiency of hospitality HR Management team of the present times relies on a good

relationship with department heads of each and every department. The HR manager is a self-

motivated individual, with an underlying desire to see the staff succeed. They are able to identify

potential in others and help in their development. Last but not the least, the managers are able to
 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 16

either do it themselves or lead a small team to focus on the desired results and changes needed

for continuous improvement.

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 Human Resource Management in Tourism and Hospitality 17

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