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Human Resource

Management

W o r d C o u n t : 3 0 2 8

S e b a s t i a a n N i j h u i s

H e i k k i M c E v o y

D a v i d M u r p h y

2 / 1 3 / 2 0 1 1

Hotel Case Study

Executive Summary:

Report on the City Hotel regarding on how to deal with

the hotels problem with Staffing, Structure plan,

Employee utilisation plan, Training & Development,

Performance plan, Appraisal plan, Reward plan,

Employee Relations plan and the hotels Communications

plan and our recommendations on what to do to achievethe best possible outcome.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 1

Supply Plan ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 2

Organisation& Structure Plan ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 3

Employee Utilisation Plan ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 4

Training & Development & Performance Plan ................................ ................................ .................. 5

Appraisal Plan ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 6

Reward Plan................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 7

Employee Relations Plan................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 9

Communications Plan ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 10

References ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 12

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Supply Plan:

The best way to keep costs down and keep standards up is to retain trained staff.According to

figures (note 9) the hotel currently has a 25.7% turnover rate. This means that 1 in four staff

members left the hotel. A low staff turnover rate can be achieved by keeping staff happy.This is done by offering good wages, work environment and promotion prospects.

In note 1 the hotel mentioned that they wanted to look into new forms of staff recruitment.

Maybe they can look into nearby high schools which make use of a work experience

program. Then students will work in the hotel and maybe even be persuaded to stay.

An incentive program could be implemented that rewards employees that bring new staff into

the business if they stay for longer than one year. This can be in the form of a monetary

bonus or free hotel stays.

A good work environment can be provided by involving staff with the business. This can be

achieved by holding staff parties for Christmasetc. or even by providing training so that staff

feels comfortable and able to work in the hotel.

Promotions should be available for all qualified and deserving staff members. Whenever a

new position becomes available the hotel should first try to fill it by offering it internallyand

then if no suitable candidates are found be offered externally. This will reduce the cost for

advertising and travel expenses.

The case study says that finding workers is hard due to the level of competition in the area.

To combat this, the hotel should try to communicate all the extra benefits staff receive to

potential workers and not get stuck on monetary pay. These benefits could be anything from

discounted taxi rates so workers can get towork or childrens crches so that single parents or

youngparents can go to work and not be worried about their children.

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Organisation & Structure Plan

Matrix structures can be a very important part of any organisation because of the need to have

the right balance of skillsets to deal with problems, products andservices. With the economic

downturn the need is even greater to remain competitive in present market conditions.Matrixstructures can bring an array of benefits. These include learning on the job type development

for members of the team so that they learn from another on how to approach their work.

Although the matrix structure brings many benefits it has minor setbacks. These include the

challenge to already existing authority, priorities and resources. Matrix structures, when

needed require the support of senior management. Particular attention needs to be given to

the selection, motivation and training of team leaders.(Rees 2004)

The hotel should restructure their organisation to a matrix structure to make better use of

staff, reduce bureaucracy and make the chain of command clearer.A Matrix structure splits

the staff into teams which are controlled by a supervisor which in turn reports to the head of

department. By splitting up staff into teams, staff will feel more included and be more loyal

to their team (the department). It might also cause some competition to occur which if

rewarded properly will increase work productivity. It can be controlled to turn it into a

positive thing by using a star system per week. In example the staff member with themost

positive comment cards receiving a gold star. At the end of the month the staff member with

the most stars could get a reward.

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Training, Developmentand erformance lan

Profit isanoutcomeofmanaginganddevelopingpeoplewell.Without profits therewouldbe

very littlepoint indedicatingscarceresources to traininganddevelopment as therecourses

wouldnot exist todoso. herefore theeffective traininganddevelopment ofthestaff in he

City Hotel iscritical to thefurtherdevelopment ofthe Hotel asawhole.

herearebasically twoapproachesCityhotel can take.

yFormal StructuredTrainingProceduresyCoachingand/orthe Mentoringmethod

Thebest solution is touseamixofboth theseprocedures. Staffwill beformally trainedand

thenmentoredbyaseniormemberofstafftoguideanddevelop theirskills.Thiswill ensure

that staff realise that for instance makingbeds is only a means to an end and that the

fundamental requirement is thewelfareof theguest andhow thestaffrelate to that need. t

alsoallowsseniormembersofstaff toappraise, inaformal manner theperformanceofeach

Trainee.

Basedon thepast performance,seniormanagement will haveafundamental understandingof

the training needed and how it is assessed.The danger here couldbe the actual level of

traininggiven to thestaff.ToomuchTrainingwill result inan informationoverload,which

couldput staffoffandpossiblygive them the impetus touse theirnewskills tomove to the

competition. norder tocombat this,performanceofthestaffwill have tobefocusedon the

specific thecoreneedsofeachdepartment withinThe City Hotel.Thiswill ensure that each

member of staff is clear about what they have to achieve. Unfortunately The City Hotel

businessbasedemandscertainflexibility inworkrosters.

The Hotel caters mainly for business trade during the week and for holiday trade during the

weekends and in the summer. In the summer and at weekends there is, therefore, a greater

demand for catering and waiting staff, as there is a greater demand for lunches. During the

same periods there is a lesser demand for housekeeping staff as the customers are mostly

longer-stay. Case Study

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We suggest that staff is cross-trained in theAccommodation and Catering core areas. .e.

Accommodationstaffcanoperatewithin the Cateringsectionandviceversa,whenrequired).

This will also have the advantage of giving the staff a more interesting workload and

allowing them tomulti skill.Avariableapproach toworkingareaswill also identify talented

staffthat can thrive inmultipleareasofthehotel orattainpromotions.

f the Hotel is to improve itsalreadyestablished reputationforexcellence inservice then it

will have to establish its training needs early and come up with innovative and creative

trainingand technologieswhichwill keep it aheadof theoppositionandattract the typeof

staffit will need tofacilitate that drive.

All trainingshouldalso includeandcompliment aspectsof the Healthand Safety Statement.

For instance, HAZOP training Hazardand OperabilityAnalysis) isbasedona theory that

assumes that risk events are caused by deviations from design or operating intentions1.

Safety in the kitchen, especially for unfamiliar staff is critical. HAZOP tells us that badly

trained, unsupervised staff can very easily fall into work habits that can not only be

dangerous to themselvesbut alsoforthestaffaround them,making it critical that procedures

are followed.This is where Mentoring canbe important. Staff needs a referencepoint to

where theycanreferifneeded.

All newmembersofstaffselectedfortrainingwouldreceive thefollowing:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

.30- .00 .30- .00 .30- .00 .30- .00

Health &Safety HAZOP Accommodation Catering/Service

Figure 2: Training Schedule

Apprai al lan

Managing employeeperformance is an important part of the Human Resource managers

workloads. t couldbe considered as important as managing financial resourcesbecause

employeeperformance,or the lackof it,hasaspecific effect onboth the financial andon-

goingmanagement ofanyorganization.

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At theendofeachmonthseniormemberssit downandassess theperformanceofthehotel. t

isat thismeeting that each trainee isappraised in termsofhow theyperformed theirallotted

tasksandhow theguestsperceived them. Staffwill beappraisedonhow they address the

followingpoints:

yHow theyareobservedbymanagement andstaffindealingwithcustomersyHow theyareperceivedby theclientsyHow theyexecute theirdutiesandhow long it takes them tocarryout thosedutiesyWhat their Team Spirit is likeyHow theyrelate tomanagementyTime KeepingyTaking initiativesyAppearance

StaffAppraisal isamanagement tool,whichoffersa linkbetweenstaffandmanagement and

itsprimarybenefitsare:

yGivestaffan ideaofwhere theystandyAbasisforperformancebonusesyIt reinforces teamworkingyManagement get feedbackfromstaffonandon-goingbasis

Reward lan

It is often said that what gets rewarded gets done Torrington 008)

Rewards inanorganizationsuchasahotel must relate to the jobat hand.

For example, themore roomsserviced thehigher the reward.The sole reason for this is to

keep the incentivesbasedon thedepartment workoutput to increaseproductivity.

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In relation to the City Hotel and their possible future developments,it is clear that the

implementation of rewardplans for staff in all areas of the hotel would allow for greater

flexibility,higherstaffsatisfaction, retentionandgreaterrevenue.These incentives,bonuses

and added benefits would also attract potential new employees in conjunction with the

Human Resourceplanalready inplace.

As mentioned in Note , there havebeen issueswith recruiting new staff in the kitchen,

restaurant and bar.This is due to competition and a newstaff friendly transport system

implementedby thecompetition.

Putting in place a specific reward scheme for each department would allow fordirect

performance based incentives rather than one general, non-direct strategy. This means

that staff in each department hasa specific plan to follow that lead to rewards if done

properly.Thiscouldbe thestarsystemmentionedearlier.

Asseen innote3 thehotel isresearchingvalid ideas to improvecustomerservice.Theyhave

implemented theirownrewardschemeof 0persuccessful suggestion.Thisallows thestaff

tobe innovativewith ideas that theymay get from handson experience from dealingwith

customers.

This is very important seeing as the City Hotel want tobecome renowned in customer

service.

From note 6 we see that the hotel implemented flexitime for staff working both in

accommodationservicesand in therestaurant.Thisreducesoverstaffingand increaseswork

output due to less idle time.

For theplan the hotel must implement at best one reward scheme and incentivesplanper

department.Thiswill increasestaff involvement andallowfor interchangeabilityaswell.As

abonus thehotel shouldprovideafreebusservice to the local regionforall staffmembers.

The incentives should not be over complicated though for the staff either. Something

challengingbut still achievable suchas an extraquota for room servicingwould earn you

points towardsareward.

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The implementation of a rewardplanwithin the City Hotel is an opportunity toboost staff

utilization,flexibilityandstaffretentionand to increaserevenueat thesame time.Thehotel

isexpandingandnow isagood time tomaximizeutilizationby themeansofrewardplans

and incentives.

Employee Relations lan

The primary concern for organizations operating in the competitive environment is to

maximize organizational performance and generate satisfactory returns for the owners and

stakeholders of the enterprise. (Wallace 004).

These returns areusually expressed in terms of cost effectiveness and for the commercial

organization in profitability.This means that managements main goal is to co-ordinate

factorsofproduction including labour, toachieve theseobjectives.

Employee relations focuson the trade unions, government and organized employeebodies

within theenterprise.

The main aspects that employee relations practice are collective bargaining, grievance

handling,disciplinaryactionsandemployeeparticipation.

Asweseefromnote , thehotel hashad issueswithrecruitingnewstaff.

Thiscouldbeasign that eitherthehotel hasabadreputationforstaffrelationsorthat payhas

not beenhighenough.

It isvery important inanorganization tobestafffriendlyand tobeable toattract theright

skill level at theright price.

Wecanseefrom thedata that the City Hotel partakes insome level ofstaffrelations.Innote

theemployersaskedstaffwhichareasofthehotel wouldneedservicingandwhat couldbe

improved.Things likeovercomplicatedpaperworksystemswerediscoveredandshift times

wereadjusted tohelpboth thestaffand thecustomersexperience.

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Innotes and 0wecomeacrossaslight problemwithin thehotel.

In the last year alone the hotel had lost 8 employees. This is a very big number and

amounted to .7%labourturnover index.

Thismeant that thehotel thenhad to findandrecruit 8newemployees,which takes time

andresourcesandendedupcosting thehotel more inovertimepayfortheotherstaff.

Innote 0wenotice that out ofthe 8newstaff,3ofthe jobswent foronekitchenassistants

positionand went toanothersimilarpost.This shows that forsome reasonstaffbothold

andnewdont likeworking in that assistant post in thekitchen.This iswherestaffrelations

should come and investigate what exactly is going wrong, why staff arent staying.Is

theposition underpaid, it is toomuchwork or are assistants lacking training.All of these

issuesmust be investigatedby the HR Manager.

Asfigure3.1shows,amajorityofleaversareshort-termemployees,most ofwhomhave less

thansixmonthsofemployment.

Employee relations areconcerned with maximizing the organizationsperformance, revenue

andcost effectiveness.Analysing the labourforce isoneof themainways to achieve these

goals. Keepingagoodrelationshipwith thestaffandrelevant tradeunions isvital forsmooth

runningofthe City Hotel.

Communications lan

There are many types of workplace communication. Many employees use e-mail, social

networking,phones, intranets,IM,meetingsandpresentations.

Cityhotel isahotel withnoreal communicationbetweenstaffandmanagement orheadsof

department whichresults inmisscommunication.

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The level ofcommunicationwithin the City Hotel seemsquitemixed.

From research done on the Supply plan we see that last year the hotel lost 18 6%)

employees, something that could havebeen avoided if there was enough communication

betweendepartment headsand the HR Manager.

This is especially the casewhen thehotel planson implementing the staff flexibilityplan.

Communication isvital toallowforsmoothoperationandswitchingfromonedepartment to

thenext.

Innote7wesee that themanagement domake theeffort of interviewing thestaffregarding

issues or concerns for improvement within the hotel, this could be reinforced by the

previouslymentionedopendoorpolicy.This isagoodwayofkeeping in contact with the

staffandmaking themfeel respectedandpart oftheorganization.

As standard the hotel should have telephones in each department, heads of department,

supervisorsand thedutymanagershouldalwayscarryaportablephone tobeable tokeep in

contact. Staffcomment cardsshouldalwaysbeavailable toallowstaff tomakeanonymous

commentsregardingproblems theymight behaving.These issuesmust alwaysbe tackledby

the HR Managerandrelevant department heads tokeepahealthy level ofcommunicationand

relationship with the staff. As mentioned earlier if comment cards are unavailable the

proposed open door system should be introduced allowing staff to meet with upper

management.

Havingacommunicationplanwithinanorganization isextremelyvital anduseful forboth

management and service staff alike. Information is easily accessible andproblems canbe

relayedquickly.

The other form of communication is at a personal level where management must feel

comfortablewith thestaffandbeable to interact without problemfrombothsides.Asdistinct fromaformal Appraisal,TrainingandPerformancePlansare intrinsically linked.

Training leads toPerformanceandPerformancecan leadback toTraining. It isa fluidon-

goingprocess, which will eventually leadback to Appraisal. Appraisal on the other hand

needs tobeset asidefrom theday-to-dayoperationsanddiscussed inaformal environment.

To thisendwehavemerged the titlesofTrainingandPerformance.

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References:

yPQRI Manufacturing Technology Committee Risk Management Working Group -Risk Management Training Guides

(http://www.pqri.org/pdfs/MTC/HAZOP_Training_Guide.pdf)

yHuman Resource Management - Seventh Edition Laura Hall, Derek Torrington &Stephen Taylor. Published by: FT Prentice Hall

yRees, D. (2004) "Matrix structure & the training implications" Industrial andCommercial Training (vol 36 number 5)

yPatton, George S (1885-1945) US Army GeneralyHuman Resource Management in Ireland Third Edition Patrick Gunnigle, Noreen

Heraty, Michael j. Morley. Published by:Gill& Macmillan (2006)