Training and Retaining Quality Employees

Training and Retaining Quality Employees for the Hospitality Industry

There are very few duties and responsibilities that a human relations manager is accountable for that are more critical to the success of his or her venue than selecting high quality people for employment. How to accomplish that delicate, pivotal task is the point of this research paper. The purpose of this research is to critically evaluate the way in which human relations departments (and managers) in the hospitality business go about the process of hiring and retaining competent, creative talent. What are their selected strategies? What innovations and creative tactics are employed? Which strategy works the best and how do human relations managers craft systems that reduce the level of talent turnover in the hospitality business? These questions and issues will be reviewed and critiqued in this paper.

The Literature -- The Hiring Process

In Mary Tanke's book (Human Resources Management for the Hospitality Industry) the author advises future human resource managers that "due to the very high turnover ratios" in the hospitality industry, screening applicants correctly has taken on "a new importance" (Tanke, 2000, p. 119). Tanke, who is associate professor of Human Resources (HR) Management in the School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, insists that many hospitality employees that quit or were fired "should never have been hired in the first place" (119). Tanke makes that assertion because she believes "…poor selection methods are a major factor" in the high turnover among hospitality employees; a person is only an asset for a company if and when that individual performs his or her job "efficiently and in accordance with job standards" (120).

Part of any good selection process should include a carefully constructed employment application. This sounds simple and appears to be a no-brainer on first review; but Tanke insists that the application should be designed so "that only information pertinent to that particular job is obtained" (120). Many job applications have the same ubiquitous questions and fill-in-the-blanks sections, and are not job-specific, but Tanke objects to those kinds of applications. In order to be certain the application is not only job-specific but that it also follows all aspects of employment law, the author suggests that the HR department should, at all times, have an "open channel" of communication with the operations division of the hospitality company in question.

Key questions that should be on the application form in a hospitality environment include asking if the candidate will be available to work nights, weekends, or holidays. Also, the HR person that is well-prepared has spent time developing structured, pertinent questions to ask the candidate once the HR person has reviewed the application and has decided that this candidate has appropriate skills and experience to take the time for an interview. On page 135 Tanke insists that getting the candidate comfortable for the interview is important, since "a nervous applicant is not going to interview well"; hence, the HR person should institute practices that are designed to break the ice, so to speak.

This part of Tanke's presentation is absolutely vital and should be implemented by any competent hospitality industry human relations department. She offers interview icebreakers ("I see you're from New York originally. How do you like living in Florida?" And "Did you have any trouble getting here today?") and she quotes "industry expert" Bob Morrison on how the HR interviewer should behave as the candidate is initially brought into the interview room:

"I am a big fan of welcoming the job applicant to your place of business.

Thank them for coming in to interview with you. Thank them for their time. Begin the interview process in a positive way the minute they walk in the door. There are other hospitality companies with the same job openings you have. The way the job applicants are treated during the interview process could make all the difference in having them decide to work for you and not your competitor" (Tanke, 135).

A competently constructed employee application form -- and ice-breaking interview strategies -- are but two of the many tools that Tanke discusses in her book. She emphasizes how important it is for HR personnel to fully understand and comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (age discrimination law), with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with laws that protect veterans (the Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 and the veterans Reemployment Rights Act of 1994), and with other legislation related to hiring.

Another legal issue -- pointed out by authors David Hayes and Jack Ninemeier -- deals with undocumented workers in the United States. This is not just a problem for HR people in the hospitality industry, it is pervasive in the economy per se, and it is also a volatile political issue in the country. Sparks and accusations fly every time it is suggested that a hotel has hired "illegal aliens" (the most mean-spirited of definitions). Under current federal law, the fines for "knowingly employing undocumented workers can be severe" (Hayes, et al., 2008, p. 102). The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) requires, through the Justice Department's federal laws, that HR managers "… verify the authenticity of identification" shown them by prospective employees (102).

The information found in the previous paragraph is vitally important to HR departments because, as Hayes reports on page 102 -- and as has been obvious to travelers and hotel guests for many years in the United States -- "…immigrants make up a very large portion of the hospitality industry workforce." If the employees are not legal, and the INS makes an arrest in a hotel or restaurant environment, it gets into the newspapers and the hotel has a public relations disaster to contend with -- not to mention the hotel has a stiff fine to pay in the aftermath. Such an arrest also leads to a certain level of suspicion (and even paranoia) among the legal immigrants also working at that venue.

Hayes also offers a candid and innovative suggestion for the strategy to be used in the selection of a candidate applying for any of the following positions: "servers, dishwashers, kitchen cleaners, counter workers, food preparation specialists, cashiers, housekeepers, and front desk staff" (103). Hayes asserts that it is "common" and "even necessary" to hire workers who "do not come to the operation with readily applicable job skills" (103). This may sound like heresy, and it may go against the grain of old-school human relations departments' strategies, but Hayes as a cogent point when he insists that what the interviewer is really looking for is not a wealth of experience but "a sincere commitment to serve guests, a willingness to learn, and the work ethic" that this particular hospitality venue deems to be vital.

Hence, Hayes continues, the hospitality manager should be looking for an individual whose characteristics lead a seasoned manager to believe he or she will be "an excellent addition to the staff" -- notwithstanding a dearth of dishwashing skills, or maid-related experience (103). This also implies that the hospitality venue has adequate training tactics, in order to take a very enthusiastic, honest, intelligent new hire and train that person to be a cashier the way that particular company wants cashiers to be trained. It can be an advantage to have a talented person with no experience on the payroll because then the hotel can train that person fresh from the start, instituting the values and fundamental work-related specifics of that particular venue. To wit, a person who has worked for seven years as a cashier elsewhere, may bring some bad habits with her or him, or may not adjust to that hotel's style as fully as need be.

The Literature -- The Turnover Rate in Hospitality Venues

"…The planning of more informed strategic HRM approaches has potential to not only increase the effectiveness of the employee and employer relationship, but also recognize the welfare of employees is fundamental in the achievement of organisational objectives [in the management practices of hospitality providers on Phillip Island Victoria]" (Townsend, 2010).

Author Peter Harris reports that the turnover rate in hotels averages about "33% per annum, or one-third of the total workforce" (Harris, 1998, p. 72). Albeit his book is about 13 years old, Harris writes that the turnover in the hospitality industry is the highest of any industry. The research into this issue has not, as of the time Harris's book was published, determined as to whether or not high turnover in hotels is a good thing or a problem. Some argue that high turnover rates are "detrimental to the organization" because they can "adversely affect the quality of products and services" in the organization, Harris explains (72). Constantly training new staff as veteran staff members move on to other jobs can "induce dysfunctional behaviour amongst remaining employees," Harris continues. And this problem is laid in the hands of the HR manager, Harris explains; in other words, if a better job had been done vis-a-vis the hiring practices, the people that didn't stay long would not have been hired in the first place (72).

On the other hand, Harris suggests that some observers believe high turnover among employees is "not only inevitable, but also desirable… [because] employee mobility within the industry promotes workforce flexibility, allowing employees to acquire and develop new skills as they move through different organizations" (73). Harris takes it one step further when he reports that the "acquisition of transferable skills" has a powerful appeal to the "entrepreneurial aspirations of hospitality employees." Hence, Harris points out on page 73, "turnover is actively encouraged" by some leaders in the hospitality industry, along with ambitious workers, because this high turnover practice helps to "…create future managers for the industry." Moreover, turnover can be seen as a positive dynamic because "new ideas" are thus brought into the workplace -- as a way to "prevent stagnation in creativity" -- although in reality HR managers are often loathe to see highly energized, talented staff leave the fold for more money elsewhere (Harris, 73).

One group of employees that HR managers do not wish to see depart are the "knowledge workers" -- management employees -- because the loss of these employees "can incur considerable financial cost" related to the investment of time and money that went into recruiting, hiring and developing those employees (73). Looking at Harris's arguments from a practical standpoint, he is correct that some turnover is a good thing because it (in some cases) brings fresh, creative talent into a venue, talent that has experience in the hospitality and can bring existing staff members up a notch in terms of sophistication. However, turnover can also work the other way; a new hire can bring baggage with him or her and poison the atmosphere for otherwise competent, contented employees.

The job duties and responsibilities that an HR manager is accountable for in a hospitality context are certainly made more difficult and in some cases highly stressful because so many employees come and go. Professor Salih Kusluvan of the Nevsehir University Faculty of Tourism in Turkey points to International Labor Organization (ILO) statistics that show the turnover rate for "operational employees" is 51.7% in the United States (Kusluvan, 2003, p. 5). The author asserts that the turnover in hospitality venues is highest among operational level employees (which, as pointed out earlier, hurts hotels the most in terms of hiring and training new staff), and the lowest grades of employees. Those in the middle apparently stay longer in one place, if the ILO data is correct.

The turnover rate in the UK is about 42% and in Asia it is lower, about 30% per year, the author explains on page 5. Reading Kusluvan's narrative, one could come to believe that turnover is just part of the work culture in the hospitality industry. No big deal at all, he implies, is the fact that the average job tenure in the United States hospitality industry is about one and a half years (6). In the United Kingdom the typical job tenure for hospitality workers is 18 months to two years; this is true "even among the best practice employers," Kusluvan continues (6). What are the factors in the hospitality industry (whether in the U.S. Or UK) that lead to these situations involving very short terms of employment? Kusluvan lists several key reasons: a) seasonal tourism fluctuations; b) unforeseen "social, economic and political disruptions"; c) internal opportunities within individual hotels for expansion; d) "poor working conditions and human resource practices (i.e. poor compensation and benefits, long working hours)"; e) the industry does not always convey an attractive image; f) employment opportunities in other industries that lure people away from hospitality; g) "lack of career structure"; and h) the "intrinsically transient nature of part of the workforce" (Kusluvan, 6).

On page 11 the author offers another reason for the turnover rate in hospitality, and that is the fact that "trade union membership in the tourism and hospitality industry has historically been low." In the past few years union membership in the UK dropped from 6 to 3%, and in the U.S. only about 14% of hospitality workers are unionized (or were, as of 2003). When a person is in a union, he or she is more apt to stay in one position because as a rule the union assures more stable benefits and security as well.

The hospitality industry turnover rate in the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan has, like other areas of the world been quite high, so a survey was conducted in the journal Research and Practice in Human Resource Management (Altarawneh, et al., 2010, p. 46). Two hundred and fifty hotel employees in Jordan took the survey, which was a self-administered structured questionnaire. The salient question asked in the survey was: "To what extent are organisational Human Resource (HR) practices in the HTL sector congruent with the expectations of employees?" (Altarawneh, 72). Once the data was analyzed, it was learned that over half of the participants "intended to leave their hotel employment in the near future"; however their interest in leaving was not related to age, Altarawneh explains.

Basically the survey demonstrated to researchers that graduates of hospitality colleges in Jordan (likely not that different from graduates in other countries) view their contract with hotels in "relational terms"; but in addition, the survey shows that HR managers have "underestimated or misunderstood" the expectations of the average graduate that is now an employee of a hotel (Altarawneh, 72). To wit, there appear to be "significant differences in expectations" between graduates and HR managers, the author continues on page 72. Graduate employees, having finished their training and having been recently hired into a field they dreamed of working in, are more concerned with "immediate and short-term issues of equity and job variety and HR practices linked to pay and conditions," Altarawneh explains. But HR management has its eye on "longer-term career development opportunities" for new employees, which puts the newly hired graduate and HR executives at odds, right from the start of their professional relationship.

The bottom line for this particular article and survey has applications for HR managers everywhere, not just in Jordan. And that is, as Altarawneh asserts, failure to develop HR strategies that zero in on what is important to graduates (and by implication, all new employees in positions of responsibility) may be "working against" relational contracts. Graduates just hired exploit the training and development strategies and shortly thereafter they leave for "better conditions and more interesting work elsewhere" (Altarawneh, 72).

How to reverse the high rate of turnover is the theme of an article in the journal Human Resources Management (Hausknecht, et al., 2009 p. 269). To find out "what makes employees stay" with any one particular hospitality venue this research paper developed a model of 12 retention factors and analyzed the "open-ended responses from 24,829 employees in the leisure and hospitality industry" (Hausknecht, 269).

The results of those 24,829 surveys were not the least bit surprising, but should be noted by HR managers in every corner of the world. The following reasons were given as to why employees stay on the job in the hospitality industry: "job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, constituent attachments, organizational commitment, and organizational prestige" (Hausknecht, 269). Employees in other fields could give these reasons, too. But moreover, it seems logical that if employees are not rewarded in at least some small way, and employees don't view that the hotel they work for as a prestigious venue, and don't feel like there is a commitment to making that hotel an excellent place, then why stay? The employees termed "high performers" and salaried (as opposed to hourly wage) employees were most likely to cite "advancement opportunities and organizational prestige as reasons for staying" (Hausknecht, 269).

The Literature -- Training Strategies in Hospitality Venues

"The 'wow' services are difficult to quality. The 'wow' service is really in the hands of service personnel who can exceed guest expectations by giving them quality service… [which] depends on the profile of the employee, his/her motivation and mood on a given day" (Andrews).