Unit 18 HRM for Service Industry Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 18 HRM for Service Industry Assignment
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

Human Resource department plays an important role in the working of every organisation whether it is service or business organisation. They have their own different roles and responsibilities to manage and handle the workforce. Their role starts with recruiting the manpower and handling them effectively by meeting their needs, contribute in their development and welfare. They also have to maintain peace in the organisation by understanding the needs and grievances of the employees. They have to manage the wages and salaries of the employees and their performance appraisal. There are different Employee laws in every country. Human resource department has to do its work according to them and try to safeguard and maintain the rights of the employees. Nowadays there are different new practices introduced by HR department to motivate the employees and handling the grievances because these days work-life balance has become a major problem for the employees of any organisation.

Task 1

1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service industry

There are many roles and responsibilities of Human Resource Department and one of the main responsibilities is to manage people, as human resource plays a major role in a service organization. Human Resource Department has to arrange recruitment drives for hiring manpower. Firstly they have to plan and then they should hire manpower from colleges, placement agencies, employee’s referral etc. as per their qualifications. After the recruitment of the manpower, they have to provide training to the manpower so that they can understand about their work, to make them capable of doing their work and to make them known to the organisation. Like in Hotel Hilton Stratford there are different facilities provided for the comfort of the guests like Baggage Storage, Barber Shop, Concierge Desk, Foreign Currency Exchange, Gift Shop, Laundry/Valet Service, Lounge, Multi-Lingual Staff, Parking Facility, Room Service, Safety Deposit Box etc. so, Human resource department has to hire those different people according to different talents.  It is not necessary that training can be provided to only new recruits; it can also be provided to existing employees to improve them, to enhance their skills or to make them capable of using a new technology like if any kitchen staff of Hotel Hilton Stratford wants to move to front desk office than he will be provided with the training according to that. They also have to support the human resource of the organisation to motivate them. (Ivancevich, 2004)

HR professionals have to work together so that they can manage everything in a collective manner and enhance the skills of the employees and they have to maintain relationship with the employees. They advise managers regarding assigning duties and roles to employees because they know well that which person can do which job in the best manner.  (Armstrong and Armstrong, 2011) Mostly in service industry, human resource recruitment is based on the skills and qualification of the manpower as its working depends on some technical aspects which can be done by professionals. (Heneman, 1999)

For example, In. Hotel industry, it is very important to recruit intelligent and pleasant people because for them their guests are everything and they should treat their guest in the best possible way. It is the responsibility of Human Resource department to recruit and train the hotel staff accordingly and enhance the basic skills within them like how to behave with the guests, keeping a positive attitude towards them. They have to ensure about the basic skills of every employee in the hotel because their behaviour and their attitude creates a great impact on guests and affects the goodwill of the hotel.

Purpose of Human Resource management in a service industry is classified in a broad way   :-

Human Resource Department is responsible for all the recruitments and hiring within the organisation. It is the most important task because an employee can destroy the organisation or make it successful and if we talk about Hotel Hilton Stratford, it is a big hotel in Stratford city and it is providing so many facilities to their guests that’s why they need a big staff for that too. (Joshi, Liao and Martocchio, 2011)

• They have to maintain relationship with the employees and help them whenever the need it and support them in every situation.
• They have to work for employee welfare, employee safety and safeguard the interest of the employees and ensure the safety at workplace.
• All the compensations are set by the Human Resource Department including bonus, incentives, salary etc.
• There are some laws for Employees and HR staff must be aware of these Laws as they are very useful in conflict management and misunderstandings.

Training is a necessity for employees especially for Hotel industry, and it is the responsibility of HR department to train them in every possible way. (Mondy, Noe and Gowan, 2005)

1.2 Justify a human resources plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for a selected service industry business

Human Resource planning means to know the existing and future human resource requirements, fulfil the requirement by recruiting the suitable workforce, give them training, and manage them by doing proper monitoring. To know about the present and future human resource requirement, Human Resource department have to do proper forecasting of demand and supply by doing proper analysis so that they can only recruit only the required number of employees. They have to determine the required number of human resource in future by doing HR audit and by taking any number based on the results of analysis and projections as business industries need to do this according to the estimation of their sales figures. They need to consider the internal hirings which can be known by human resource audit.  While doing the forecasting of human resource requirement, Human resource department have to consider different things and these things are really important and play a major role. (Kimmel and Neubecker, 2007)

They have to recruit the workforce according to their planned budgets as there is a particular salary scale for every job and Human Resource department have to recruit the workforce according to the budget. They should also consider some other factors like turnovers due to resignations, transfers etc., new technology. We can say that hiring should be done with low cost and get best human resource out of that. Sometimes some people come for interview and they expect salary more than their qualifications so human resource department should avoid these kind of people.

Hotel Hilton is currently opening 50 rooms and for this, there must be sufficient employees so that they can take care of all the guests. Human Resource department has to consider employee turnover ratio as this affects a lot to an organisation. It involves loss to an organisation as it spends a lot of money in training and appointment of the employees. In Hotel Industry each type of training is given to new recruits.  There are so many reasons for employee turnover like resignations, terminations, transfers, retirements etc. There are two sources by which an organisation can forecast its demand and supply. (Mathis and Jackson, 2003)

First one is internal sources i.e. people working inside the organisation and second one is external resources i.e. people employed by the organisation but works outside the organisation. There are different factors which are considered at the time of forecasting supply within the organisation. These includes to know about the existing employees which needs to be promoted, to know about the employees who want to learn new things and who are comfortable in handling more than one task. They analyse the number of available resources in local, national and international market, population trends and the students enrolled in schools and colleges for the same industry or we can say for the same stream. (Noe, 2006)

Task 2

2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations for the Hotel industry.

Hotel industry is an industry based on human resource as it is not a capital intensive industry; it is a labour based industry. It works upon the human resource working in the industry. If we take an example of human resource industry then we can see that there are different departments in a hotel like finance, marketing, HR, kitchen, housekeeping, Front office etc. It is important to maintain industrial relationship as it is very important for an organisation. Industrial relations refer to a relationship between an employer and the management of the organisation which results in optimum utilization of resources and maximum output out of it. It can be defined in many ways like resolving conflicts ,to define social gains , difference between discipline and freedom etc. Employment relations are very important for hotel industry as they develop a good bonding and understanding between employer and employees. If they got some misconception or misunderstandings then it can solve easily if they have good employment relations. This also helps in fraud as they know each other very well and things are clear between them. (Dessler, 2000)

All these department work by human resource involve in it. Working conditions in this sector is totally different from other service industries as it works 24*7, hence there should be working human resource at each time to provide services to the guests. There are so many challenges to be faced in this sector like long and free working hours, health and safety at work, peak season working etc. so, there must be those human resource who are open to work in any condition.In hotel Industry, there are trade unions which are basically formed to develop relationship with the employer and their aim is to protect the rights and interests of the employees. Trade unions discuss about pay scales and negotiate the same on behalf of other employees. They discuss major changes about the workplace and provide education, legal and financial services to employees. Every employee in the organisation has the right to join trade union to safeguard their interests and rights. There is a very close relation with each other and there is a very open working environment. The culture of Hotel industry is also very good as they celebrate festivals and occasions together. (Rose, 2008) They have close bonding between them. They care about each Other’s sentiments and views as they have their different grievance procedures, discipline rules, consultations and participations. Employees are given a good status in hotel industry. They are considered as a valuable resource at their workplace. They have freedom to work according to them and they are free to give suggestions and advices for the betterment of the organisation. Due to all these things, they maintain their relationship with each other.

2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human resources for the Hilton Hotel as selected service industry business.

Every country has different Acts applicable for different things like there must be an Act for companies and it contains the rules and regulations to be followed by the companies. Likewise, there is an Act which is called as Employment Rights Act 1996. There are different rights of an employer as well as of an employee. Some rights are applicable to all the industries and some are just for a few industries. There is a contract of employment according to law which is separate for every employee and every employee needs to follow that. There are many things which are expressed in the contract like office timings, weekly offs etc. and there are some things which are not expressed like honesty, behave ethically etc., so that must be followed according to the law. (Hall, 2003)

Employment law affects the management of Hotel Hilton as there are some rules and regulations for hotel industry mention in the Employment law so, they also need to follow all these things like Hotel Hilton has provided some different services like gift shop and barber shop so, according to the law they have to maintain a contract for these shops and have to do everything accordingly like who bear the cost, who get how much profit etc. There is a thing named Data Protection. In Hilton Hotel also, they must have their confidential data which is open to the employees. Employees can’t leak that data and if they do so then the concerned person for Hotel Hilton may take action against him. There are separate rules and regulations mention in the Employment Laws which need to be follow by the employer like rules related to pay scale, working hours etc. No one can deny upon the things mention in Employment Laws. If some employee or employee wants to know about their rights and if they have some confusion about anything then they can get all these from the laws. (Carlson, 2001)

In some of the organisation, there are discrimination practices like different pays for equal jobs which comes under The Equal pay Act, to give more preference to the people of upper caste as per The Sex Discrimination Act  and restricts working hours for most of the employees as per The working Time Regulations. There are some rights for the employees too and they can use them to the fullest like they can keep the contract of employment with them, they have rights to work in a healthy and sound environment. They can get themselves trained in a proper way and have rights to ask any query. Every organisation has a trade union for safeguarding the interest of the employees and every employee has the right to join and become a part of the trade union and contribute efforts to it. They have rights to have access on their personal employment records and no one can stop them to do the same.In Hotel industry, the effect of employment laws is the same as on any other industry. They have to pay remuneration according to the laws. At the time of any disputes, they use to refer Employment laws and follow them. In Hotel industry they cannot treat men and women unequal, they cannot discriminate anyone according to their caste, colour, and religion. There must be proper sick leaves and maternity leaves. They all must me according to the Employment Laws. If the staffs of Hotel Hilton need to work in night shifts then it must be revealed in the contract of employment. This employment law helps both employee and employer and saves them from unnecessary disputes. (Schuler and Jackson, 2007)

Task 3

3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for a hotel industry job

There are different jobs in every organisation and every job need different tasks, different duties and different qualifications, abilities etc. So, to know about all these things related to a particular job, job analysis has to be done. Job analysis means to gather information about the job, to know about the job responsibilities, job requirements and job conditions so that the proper detailed description can be achieved about the job and it can be converted into job description. Job analysis includes so many things like to know about the basic qualification requirement of the job, to know about the skills and talent required for the job, to know about the selection methods of the job, to know about the training required by the job. At the time of hiring the personnel, all these things must be considered. : (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2005)

Person specification includes qualities, talent, knowledge, qualification of a candidate which is essential for the performance of a specific job. Every person cannot able to do each and every job so for each and every job there is a different person specification.

For the recruitment of front office staff, there are different qualities and traits which should be consider at the time of hiring. They are:

• There should be a person with pleasant personality as they have to work on front desk and they are responsible for face to face interaction with the guests.
• They should possess a good communication skill so that they can easily communicate with the guests and understand their problems.
• They should be polite enough because sometimes situation become worst with the guests and they have to be polite with the guests even if they are not behaving in a proper manner.
• They should know how to work in a team as they have to interact with each department so that they can provide all the facilities to the guests.
• They must be compatible with at least basic two- three languages so that they can easily interact with the guests.
• They must be able to do work in flexible working hours so that they can be available at the time of need.
• They must have self-confidence so that they can interact with the guest in a confident manner.
• They must have salesmanship within them so that they can convince the guests to use more facilities in the hotel.
• They must be an image builder as the guests see hotel image according to the way they were treated.
• They must have strong memory which helps him to recognise the names of the other staff members as well as the guests who visited hotel earlier.
• They must have quick decision making ability so that they never get confuse regarding anything and can make decisions quickly.
• They should have a smiling face so that they can greet the employees in a better way. (Stone, 2002)

3.2 Compare the selection process of different service industries businesses

There is different selection process for every industry as the requirements are different. The first thing which takes place in an interview process is the filling of the application form. Tis application form contains basic information about the candidate, educational background, past professional experiences, strength, weakness etc. These application forms are screened on the basis of the requirement of the job. After that many tests has been undertaken like aptitude test, technical test, psychological tests, group discussions, personal interviews etc. these tests are undertaken as per the qualification of the person like for an engineer or a technical person, this technical test is suitable. There are some other tests also like situation based test, psychometric tests etc.

Selection process in Hotel industry v/s airlines industry:-

In  Hilton hotel , there are two types of selection process, internal and external. In internal hiring, they select the candidates from inside the organisation. Sometimes there are some candidates who are willing to take more responsibilities for some benefit. With the help of this hiring, right skillset can be found in a low time and low cost. External selection will involves a recruitment process which takes a lot of time and money to choose the right candidate. There are placement agencies, college placements, recruitment drives by which they can hire candidates.

First round of this selection procedure is a written test which comprises of general knowledge, reasoning, aptitude and general mathematics. Available from Second round is group discussions which find outs the potential of the candidates and the last round is personal interview in which the thinking, knowledge and capabilities of the candidate has been judged. (Swift and Booker, 2003) With the help of personal interview, recruiters can find out the thinking, mentality, goals of the candidate. Selection would be made out of the total result i.e. judgement is on the basis of each round score. (Pollitt, 2007)

In Silverjet airlines, at the time of hiring they usually focus on the personality of the candidate. Firstly there is an interview in which the basic information about the candidates is asked. After that there is a reference check. The candidate has to give contact details about a known contact so that the recruiters can check that the reference is authentic or not. After reference check, there is a checking of background, that the candidate belongs to a clean background or not. Then there is a police verification in which the police verify that the information given by the candidate is true or not. They check the skill sets of the candidates and immigration capabilities that the candidate can easily travel to a place or not. There are some other tests too like psychometric test; in this test the psychology of the candidate has been tested. So, there is a lot of difference in the selection procedure of hotel industry and airlines industry because the requirements and the skill sets they both required are totally different. They both hire the candidates as per there suitable way of selection. (Vieth, 1998)

Task 4

4.1 you are required to assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of Hilton Hotel Stratford.

Training and development plays an important role in every organisation as hiring can be done by considering the qualification and theoretical knowledge of a person but for applying these theoretical aspects to practical environment is a bit difficult. So for removing these difficulties, training and development is necessary. It is not necessary that training is only given to new recruits; sometimes it is required by the existing employees also when any new technology has introduced or they face any problem in working some new tasks. Every organisation has its different training and development department who use to give training to new employees and make them familiar with the organisation. (Buckley and Caple, 2009)

There are different types of training:

• Induction training – This is the orientation program which takes place when a new person joins the organisation. This training helps the candidates to make familiar with the organisation and to understand the environment of the organisation. It also includes the formalities and procedures which takes place at the time of joining. This type of training is important at Hotel Hilton as there are big hotel staffs and it is necessary for new employees to know about each person and his roles and responsibilities. Job instruction training- This training takes place to provide the knowledge of job to the candidates and make them capable for doing the job. They can be evaluated after completion of this training and if required, the training period can be extended for them. (Dale, 2003)
• Vestibule training- This is the training in which the actual job task has been done by the employees but not on the actual work place but on some other place. (Terminology Of European Education And Training Policy) In Hotel Hilton, this training is given to employees by taking them to some hotel event at some other place.
• Refresher Training- This training helps an employee to grow more or to develop the skills of the employees. It takes place when there is some up gradation and that particular up gradation needs some training. This type of training can also be done for promoting an employee. (Cosby and Culbertson)
• Apprenticeship training- Apprenticeship training is given to an apprentice who spends a period of time in the job under the guidance of a supervisor. Buckley, R. and Caple, J. (2009)

Training and development, both are important in an organisation. Both things are not the same. Training helps an employee to develop his skills and knowledge to do the job while development means to develop the employees by an organised learns and grows activity. It is a self-assessment kind of activity. In Hotel Hilton, training is a necessity as there are different rules, regulation and culture in hotel industry so a candidate have to understand all these things with the help[p of training.

• Higher output- Training results in higher output as it increases the talent and skills of the employees and hence it increases both quality and quantity of the output. ( Edenborough, 2005)
• Economical operations- Trainings helps in economical operations as with the help of training, they know about the optimum utilisatio0n of resources. It results in low wastage and low cost of operations.
• Reduces supervision- Trainings helps a candidate to work by their own as they got developed via training and because of that they need less supervision by their supervisors.
• Systematic development of skills- Training enables a proper way of learning in which a candidate can learn things faster and it does not waste the time of the employees.
• Risk management- Training helps employees to manage some malpractices in the organisation like harassment, diversity training etc. (Gilley, 2009)

Role and need of training:

In hotel industry, training plays an important role as guests are important for them and guest dissatisfaction leads to negative review of the hotel. If guest does not found something good in the hotel, he just goes to the manager and complaint about it so, it just depend upon the employees that how they perform their job and what kind of behaviours is expected from them. Proper training also results in low employee turnover; as if the candidates are given proper training programme then they better know about how to perform their work and job dissatisfaction will never happen. Candidates must know that what is expected by them from their supervisors so that they can fulfil the expectations of the supervisors. (Sparrow, 2006) Training helps an employee to grow his lifelong career as in hotel industry, they don’t want their old generation employees to left the organisation because he became use to with the organisation and know about the working and atmosphere of the organization. For  example if a person from Finance department  wants to switch in HR department and wants to learn about the working of HR department so he will be given the training as in future if there will be any vacancy in HR department then they can get their own employee at this post. (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002)

Employees in the hospitality industry must be very presentable. They have to take care about their grooming part , their communication skills , their way of speaking, their way of responding because these things matters a lot in this industry. No mistake can be expected from the employees of Hotel Hilton as it directly affects the brand image of the hotel. For example, there is a chef in the kitchen department at Hotel Hilton, once mistakenly he put some extra salt in the food he prepared for a guest. Buckley, R. and Caple, J. (2009).  The result of this mistake will be very bad as they have to give some compensation to the guest and the guest will give bad reviews about the hotel and maybe in future he will never visit the hotel again. So, it creates a great impact on the image of the hotel. Training is a basic part of the recruitment for hotel industry as they can get better outcome by their employees only when the employees are given proper training. (Sibley, 1948)

Conclusion

There is a lot of importance of Human Resource department in Hilton hotel as it is a labour based organisation. It’s all operations are labour based. Human resource department is the one who is responsible for everything including selection, recruitment, training and development of the employees. It helps employees in their problems and support them at each and every level. It tries to make good  employee relationship  with the employees. Human resource department is responsible for training and development of the employees. Training and development is an important part of an organization as it can make employees enable of doing their job in an easy way and with the help of training; they can get maximum output out of them. Training should be done in the best manner so that employees can learn everything in a short time period and fulfil the expectations of the supervisors. 

References

Books

Armstrong, M. and Armstrong, M. (2011). Armstrong's handbook of strategic human resource management. London: Kogan Page.
Buckley, R. and Caple, J. (2009). The theory & practice of training. London: Kogan Page.
Couper, J. (2010). Chemical process equipment. Amsterdam
Dale, M. (2003). A manager's guide to recruitment & selection. London: Kogan Page.
Dessler, G. (2000). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Edenborough, R. (2005). Assessment methods in recruitment, selection, and performance. London: Kogan Page.
Gilley, A. (2009). The Praeger handbook of human resource management. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Hall, A. (2003). Managing people. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Ivancevich, J. (2004). Human resource management. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Joshi, A., Liao, H. and Martocchio, J. (2011). Research in personnel and human resources management. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.
Kimmel, E. and Neubecker, R. (2007). The top job. New York: Dutton Children's Books.
Mathis, R. and Jackson, J. (2003). Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-western.

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