Challenges for HR Functionaries in Indian Hospitality Industry

CHALLENGES FOR HRFUNCTIONARIES ININDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Presented by:Nishant ChaturvediAbstractHuman Resource (HR) functionaries play a crucial role in organisational performance by contributing in the form hiring, training, development, and compensation design along maintaining disciplined and favourable culture in an organisation. However, restrained resources and ignorance of management tends to create ruckus in the organisation. Management seeks to acquire profits and is more task-oriented rather than people-oriented. This leads to reduced commitment and efficiency of employees which in turn is detrimental for the concerned organisation. People, in general, look for to joining hotels merely for job and fail to analyse the availability of long-term career in the industry. In other words, both management and employees/potential human capital are unable to conjoin and work with a short-term approach with the objective of self-interests only. It is the need of the HR professionals to adopt a collaborative approach to establish a permanent relationship between the organisational management and employees, which can certainly result higher outputs with citizenship in employees.IntroductionIndian Hospitality Industry has witnessed an exponential growth in recent years particularly for the Common Wealth Games held in 2010. The credit for the exemplary success goes not merely to the entrepreneurs, but the employees (workforce) as well. However, after 2010, it is challenging for the hotels to survive the competition. The very first idea that clicks with the top management is cost-cutting which has a direct influence on the existing employees and also, the employability of classified hotels in our country.

In India, as per 2014 records, the apex National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (Min. of Tourism, Govt. of India) alone has 21 central institutes, 16 state institutes and 14 private institutes affiliated with it with a capacity of 7,482 students in all for fresh-entrants. In fact, there are many more such institutions being run across the country with the approval of All India Council of Technical Education (Min. of HRD, Govt. of India), affiliated to their respective State Technical Universities. All of these institutes/colleges in totality, create a pool of thousands of fresh graduates / diploma-holders. Under such circumstances, the problem pops-up with the Human Resources Management teams designated specifically to cater to the needs of the industry in terms of providing qualified and skilled manpower. Moreover, the remuneration and other statutory provisions cannot be compromised on in lieu of the monetary control being kept by the top management of hotels. This becomes truly challenging for the concerned HR functionaries. Such challenges cannot be over-looked and need to be dealt with competently.

Guests room may be our product, but our associates caring attitude is our value. We cant measure it with statistics, and we cant manufacture it. We can deliver that value only if we can attract, retain and inspire the best people with what we call theSpirit to Serve.

J. W. Mariott Jr. CEO, Mariott InternationalObjectiveTo highlight the problems which HR Professionals face in Indian Hotels

To focus on the Measures for overcoming the aforesaid problemsReview of Literature1. According to Yang, Hui-O and Cherry, Nita (2008), there are three major challenges in the hospitality industry across the globe: Service Quality, Training and Development, and Recruitment and Selection. Top-level managers do accept these as challenges but are still focussed towards operational rather than strategic solutions. Although, HR has a key role to play in sustainable development, but management prioritizes operational areas of the industry more as compared to employee development.

2. Joyce Gioia, CEO, Employer of Choice, Inc. states that there are five major challenges in hospitality industry which are: Hiring Right, Bonding during the On-boarding Process, Engaging your long-tenured employees, Retention of valued employees and Succession planning and future proofing must be done appropriately which would certainly improve performance and better outcomes.

Contd3. Bharwani, Sonia and Butt, Neetu (2012), change management and intervention, effective training and development techniques, suitable engagement and motivational initiatives can bring out the best from the employees.

4. Nagar, Natwar (2009) emphasizes on the impact of Compensation and easy loans, Leadership and Role-models, New Talent building, effective general management to maintain balance in the hopes and the despairs of employees (hoteliers).

5. Macey and Schnieder (2008) developed a framework for understanding the elements of employee framework. They bifurcated the framework into trait engagement (proactive personality, trait positive affect and conscientiousness), state engagement (satisfaction, involvement, commitment and empowerment), and behavioural engagement (organisational citizenship, personal initiative, role expansion and adaptation) of employees.

Contd6. Mandal, Pulak and Gaurav, Vishal (2012), through their research on Attrition and Dissatisfaction among employees in Indian Hotels, they iterated on its main reasons being long working hours and low Career progression.

7. R. Aishwarya and Ganesh, M. P. (2013), through their research emphasized on the importance of recognition of Indian hoteliers for their job at their workplace. Also, personal accomplishments give a thrust in employees towards further job involvement and minimizes the possibilities of quitting from their respective jobs.

8. Hayes (2009) highlighted on technological challenges which must be managed efficiently with respect to latest machineries, equipments and emphasized on workforce towards accepting new developments in IT-use for hotels.

Contd9. Nikolis (2009) focussed on prioritizing recruitments, i.e., target-based recruitments to ensure adequate workforce without surplus and to invest on them sufficiently.

10. Halder (2009) says about effective Leadership development among the supervisory and managerial staff to motivate and mobilise the associates and front-line employees.

11. Karan (2009) highlighted the problems pertaining to retention of employees since people work for a short period of time and search for new ventures; however, under-performers are downsized.Contd12. Husain (2010), talked about strategies which must be adopted with respect to Job Design, Increased Independence, Extensive Training & Development and Worklife Balance.

13. Bohlander (2009), says that managing knowledge workers can certainly solve problems with HR since this set of employees are achievement-oriented and are able to analyse, synthesize and evaluate information towards solving problems.

14. Jean-Michael Casse, Sr. VP, Accor India, iterated on employee orientation and appreciation as key to homogenize customer experiences across chain hotelsResearch MethodologyResearch Type: Descriptive

Data Collection: SecondaryAnalysisUnawareness about Industry;Unclear Recruitment & Selection Patterns;Instability in Employment;Behavioural Issues and Improper Grievances Handling;Unhealthy Politics and Interferences;Problems with Employee Appraisal and faulty Reward Systems; andStagnation and lack of further Development.FindingsNeed for Positive Outlook and Gap Abridgement;Clearly defining Recruitment rules and Selection criteriaWell-designed Career Path and Succession Planning;Stringency on Discipline and Code of Conduct with measures for prevention and dispute settlement mechanismEmployee Engagement Techniques;Unbiased and Transparent Appraisal with justified Reward policies and frequent reinforcements and motivation for improvements; andTie-ups with International and National bodies for professional certifications and accreditationsSuggestionsIndustry-academic InterfaceIncorporation of specialized training in Academic InstitutionsSpecial workshops from industry specialists and educational up gradation programmesFrequent sessions on grievances redressing with justice-based approach (adhering to ethics)Monthly and annual awards both extrinsic and intrinsicLimiting work-timings and additional compensation for extra-work

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