Harbor Rocks Hotel
Recruitment is the process of hiring the employees into an organization. Companies may seek to employ staff to fill positions of those people who had left the team for some reasons or may also be to fill new positions that have not been existing. Recruitment is a very critical human resource aspect of the business that to which every organization must pay attention. This is because it brings new people on board who will lead the business in the future thus determining the market direction (Klerck, 2009).
There are various challenges associated with recruitment which hinders its effectiveness. Every business industry faces recruitment challenges, thus affecting the efficiency of the exercise. If not well handled, these problems can adversely affect the activity and therefore, make the organization fail to recruit people rightly. Harbor Rocks Hotel is one of the players in the tourism and hotel industry that faces similar challenges in recruitment. These problems are discussed below with the situation of Harbor Rocks Hotel as the case study.
Harbor Rocks Hotel is located in the area of The Rocks in Sydney, Australia. Since 1989, the hotel has been rated four stars for its services. This hotel also owns the Lanes Restaurant and bar which mostly offers the outdoor terrace to its customers. The business is active in the tourism and hotel industry that provides meals to its clients, the bed, conferences and the general accommodation services. The hotel is committed to offering the best services serving many visitors from Australia and also from many other parts of the world. Harbor Rocks Hotel has also made efforts to improve customer experience through online reservation system among other improvements (Harbour Rocks Hotel, n.d).
Harbor Rocks Hotel as a player in the tourism and hospitality industry needs a sufficient number of qualified employees to achieve its course. This is because the industry is service-oriented and also human intensive thus, primarily needs an efficient workforce to offer the best services to the customers. The staff should be people who can provide the best service in transportation, venues, accommodation and dining. Therefore, the human resource for the players in the industry have a task of motivating the job applicants with the best-required skills, and then carefully selecting those are who are likely to add value to the business, especially given the fact that the industry has many new challenges all the time (Parveen, 2008).
Tourism and hospitality industry is growing fast in the entire world because it has been noted to influence the GDP of most countries continuously. This being a service sector, it requires a high level of professionalism and efficiency in its operation (Huda et al., 2012). This has presented a challenging task to the human resource sections of the businesses in the industry to recruit the potential people who can offer the best services to the guests who come to the hotel, both domestic and international visitors. Some of these recruitment challenges are discussed below.
Recruitment in Tourism and Hotel Industry
Labor supply and demand balance are currently a hiring concern featuring in the entire world. The job market mostly controls labor supply. Getting a sufficient pipeline of the right skills and talent that is enough for the market demand especially for the roles of management and leadership is a critical problem in the industry. This is mostly attributed to a continuous aggressive change of the operational strategies by the industry players. This, therefore, shows that there is a lot of competition to get employees. Also, the tourism and hospitality industry find it hard to get the experienced workers. This being a service oriented industry, it requires highly experienced employees to deliver the best to the guests (Klerck, 2009).
Also, tourism and hotel industry faces a shortage of talents. Given the fact that this industry offers service, there is a lot emphasis on the skill and experience in some areas such as the front office general inquiries, transactions, and needs, events and dining among many others. This talent is mostly found in the young generation (Minchington, 2010). On the contrary, the young potential employees put a lot of emphasis on the self-actualization and have high expectations for their career growth thus presenting a recruitment challenge to the human resource (Srivastava, 2008). Various factors have contributed to the lack labor supply and demand in the hospitality industry as discussed below
Retention. Retention entails the ability of the human resource to keep the productive workers for a long time. Competitors are always seeking for better skills and talents thus retaining these employees is challenging. Also, employee retention problems are attributed to the bad image that has been created by the public regarding the hospitality industry. Companies find difficulties retaining talented and skilled workers who are always wishing to move out of this stereotyped sector (Rapidbi, 2007).
Language And Soft Skills. Tourism and hotel industry being as a service sector, offer services to different people with diverse backgrounds. This means that most companies are likely to be speaking different languages, thus need for multi-lingual workers yet it is not easy to find people who are fluent in more than three languages, thus a challenge to the recruitment process. Also, Harbor Rocks Hotel also finds problems getting the employees with soft –skills which are necessary for better customer oriented service.
Training Models And Skills Certification. The tourism and hotel industry does not have consistent training standards or certifications in these skills. Lack of standardized skill certifications makes it difficult for the human resource to track the best employees with skills for the industry. Most organizations run their training programs which cannot provide standard capabilities for the entire industry (Rahaman, 2008).
Challenges In Recruiting Workforce For The Tourism And Hotel Industry
Most demographic factors are linked to various potential employees and have a significant influence on the recruitment process by human resource sections in these companies. Some of these demographic factors include age, occupation, literacy level, their profession, gender, and economic status among many other aspects. These aspects have different effects and influences on the smooth recruitment process. For example, gender, there is a need for women participation in the hotel industry, also age, there are job positions in the hospitality industry that requires energetic young people thus influencing the recruitment process by the human resource sector (Mark, 2014).
Harbor Rocks Hotel has faced challenges with industry image. Thepublic view of the industry always determines the quality and quantity of people who desire to work with the sector. The tourism and hotel industry is stereotyped. Most people perceive the industry as low paying sector and also that it doesn’t have opportunities for career advancement. This perception is misleading and has made many youths in the world to lack understanding of the range of career opportunities that exist in this sector. The perception is, therefore, a hindrance to the efficient recruitment process in the industry (Paauwe & Boon, 2009).
Harbor Rocks Hotel operates in the business environment and thus factors within the context affect the recruitment process. Various laws and regulations influence free decision of the human resource sections of this industry. These include legal policies such as gender balance employment rule, consideration of the disabled among many others. These legal laws have a direct effect on the recruitment practices of a given organization. Thus they limit the freedom of these companies to recruit whom they think are best employees because they must consider these current legal expectations regardless of what they want (Darling, 2007). This has, therefore, been a challenge Harbor Rocks Hotel recruitment process and even the entire hospitality industry.
Harbor Rocks Hotel does not operate alone in the tourism and hotel industry but has many other competitors in the section. Competitors are always looking for the best ways that will help them gain a competitive advantage over other players in the industry thus, for this reason, they keep changing the strategies and policies that they use. This presents a challenge to freedom of Harbor Rocks Hotel human resource because the organization is forced to change their recruitment policies and therefore follow what the competitors are doing. Competition, therefore, significantly influences the free operation and decision of the human resource sections of these organizations (Athanasios, 2012).
Labor Demand And Supply
The general hospitality industry is stereotyped, and therefore, most people perceive the industry is negatively attributing it to low pay and slow career growth. For this reason, players in the industry should make a lot of efforts to ensure that the organization’s image is lifted higher. An organization with a good brand name will not only attract customers but also attract the best industry skill and talent thus able thus benefiting the organization. Harbor Rocks Hotel should, therefore, work towards boosting the brand name which in turn helps to solve its recruitment challenges (Barrow & Mosley, 2011).
Retention is one of the critical challenges facing the tourism and hotel industry. Employee retention programs is a modern way of retaining the employees in at the present business environment. This majorly entails attaining employee satisfaction which will make them spread a positive word about the company. Retention programs also involve coming up with financial security strategies and plans on post-employment such as insurance, profit sharing schemes, and pension programs. Also, the company should consider offering both short-term and long-term financial incentives as a retention strategy. Harbor Rocks Hotel should, therefore, consider investing more into the programs and incentives that will retain its employees thus overcoming recruitment challenges (Conaty et al., 2011).
The process and procedure of job application significantly influence the effectiveness of the hiring process. The process should be easy and flexible to make most applicants apply. Currently, it is a good idea to incorporate E-recruitment process which will help the process to be more straightforward and simplified. E-recruitment is efficient, saves time and is convenient to many people since they can apply directly to the company from wherever they are. Harbor Rocks Hotel should draft a detailed job description for the potential employees to see and understand what is required. An improved application process and procedure helps the organization to overcome most of the recruitment challenges (Johnson & Guetal, 2012).
Also, there is the need for businesses to ensure information reaches the potential employees. Some organizations fail to get the desired skills and talent just because the qualified people did not access the information. Adequate advertisement for the job positions should do to reach many people. The application process should be enhanced through working with companies that have a better social network to reach many people with desirable skills and talent. Besides, Harbor Rocks Hotel should also incorporate media sources to spread the word. This can be through television, radio, newspapers, print adverts and also online web adverts. This will ensure that most people have access to the information and therefore, apply for these posts thus overcoming most recruitment challenges (Rahaman, 2013).
Demographics
Tourism and hotel industry can use prioritization recruitment as a human resource strategic tool for the company’s efficient operation. The company should continuously review staff needs and also prioritize the tasks to meet the market changes. The company can also use some of the valued customers as one of the employment sources and also use the existing staff by motivating them to find the best required skills. It is also important for the entire organization to have programs of appreciating the HR team. This will help them, as a motivation to help the organization get the best staff. This will assist the business enterprise to get best-required skills and talent (Collings & Wood, 2009).
Positioning is the practice that is conducted to attract the best skilled and talented employees to have a desire to work with the company. Harbor Rocks Hotel can perform positioning in many different ways. The human resource section of Harbor Rocks Hotel should try to advertise the benefits and also the service packages to the potential employees through promotional activities and other methods. Also, the section should continuously perform job evaluation to ensure that the employers competitive in the job market. They should also consider job opportunity advancement, some benefits and also better working conditions to position the organization to attract potential, able employees. Positioning will, therefore, help the organization to attract the desired skills and talent for its benefit (Farah. & Seo, 2012).
Conclusion
In conclusion, recruitment is a paramount aspect of human resource that every organization needs to ensure that it is conducted efficiently. Most companies in various industries face many challenges in doing this process which in some cases affect the accuracy and effectiveness of this process thus failing to get the best skills and talents. Some of these challenges emerge domestically in the organization while others are from the outside environment of the business. It is, therefore, companies should consider following the best recommendations for the successful exercise of recruitment for the benefit of the firm.
References
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