Challenges faced by the Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Attracting and Retaining Key Personnel
Hospitality and tourism business is a blooming industry that requires a huge number of workforces. In order to maintain long-term sustenance and growth, these organizations need a huge and efficient supply of workforce. However, in hospitality and tourism industry is facing serious problems while retaining the workforce. According to researches, the number of annual turnover in the hospitality industry is at an alarming rate. In this regard, it can be said that employee retention is a critical problem for the leaders of the hospitality industry. Compared to the other industries, the tourism and hospitality industries are witnessing the lowest rates of employee retention. In this regard, the primary issues faced by the hospitality and tourism industries are to be analyzed. The major challenges and the possible strategies to overcome these problems are also to be analyzed. Moreover, it can be noticed that the organizations operating in the hospitality and tourism industry are often involved in high competition regarding acquiring efficient workforces and retaining them. Hence, the strategies of employing efficient employees and their retention is also to be analyzed.
As pointed out by Blomme, Van Rheede & Tromp, (2009), the primary challenges faced by the human resource management of this industry include high turnover of employees, low wage issues, recruitment of unskilled labor and workforce issues. The hospitality and tourism industry is considered as one of the most stressful one. The longer working hours and work pressure are the prominent reasons behind the high turnover of the employees. The long working hours and work pressure is affecting the social life of the employees. As the hospitality and tourism industry demands for work related pressure it is noticed that the employees are prone to burn outs and stress. According to Hughes & Rog, (2008), job elated stress and longer working hours are also the reasons behind the volatile nature amongst the employees of this sector. It has been noticed that a significant number of employees are working in the hospitality sectors are unskilled labors and are working in order to gather experiences. This has emerged as one of the major issues regarding the low employee loyalty.
According to Eisenberger et al., (2002), several wage theft issues are also affecting the hospitality industry to a great extent. As a result of the high demand of workforce, employers in this sector often chose to employ high number of unskilled and inexperienced labors. As a result of this, the organizations also tend to pay meager compensation to the employees. This meager compensation clubbed with the longer and stressful working hours are playing influential role in employee turnover. As opined by Rehman & Mubashar, (2017), the tourism and hospitality industry has a very low and unstructured award system. It has been monitored that these employees often need to work under immense stress and that too for a long span, hence; they are losing their morale to work efficiently. The lack of awarding system in this industry is aggravating the matter greatly. As opined by Prathiba (2016), the wage structure in the hospitality and the tourism industry is significantly low. This is affecting the efficiency and willingness of the employees to perform. In addition to this, these organizations operating in the hospitality and tourism industry have no proper rules and regulations regarding extra working hours. It has been noticed that the organizations operating in the hospitality industry do not pay extra compensation for the extra working hours. In addition to this, Barron (2008), has pointed out that the hospitality industry primarily deals in customer satisfaction. Hence, the organizations have come up with huge penalty for the poor performance of the employees. This is aggravating the matter largely.
Major Challenges Faced by the Hospitality and Tourism Industries
Dermody, Young & Taylor (2004), have also pointed out that tourism as well as the hospitality industry is primarily dependent on the unskilled labor. This is raising significant issues regarding the performance of the employees and customer satisfaction. In addition to this, it has been noticed that these organizations employ workforce mostly on the basis of contracts. Hence, the employees are not provided with any job security. This is affecting the loyalty of the consumers to a great extent. In addition to this, AlBattat, Som & Helalat, (2014) have mentioned that the tourism and hospitality industry is getting affected due to multiple issues regarding the workforces. It has been noticed that employment of aging workforces is an important issue in the tourism and hospitality industry. As the industry demands for working under intense pressure and for a longer hour of time, aging employees are often unable to cope up with the stress (Deery, & Jago, 2015). This is also aggravating high employee turnover of the employees. It has also been noticed that the aging employees often are unable to understand the needs of the customers. As opined by Prathiba (2016), the primary reason behind this is the generation gaps between the employees and the customers. Hence, it can be said that the organizations need to focus on employing younger workforces that will be capable of working for a longer span as well as understanding the needs of the consumers.
As opined by Kim (2014), employees in every sector evaluate their job experiences based upon the expectations that they had prior to joining the employment. In this regard, it can be said that the organizations need to come up with strategies to attract people in order to increase their desirability within the potential workforce. This will provide the organizations a competitive edge over other organizations in order to attract skilled and efficient employees. Moreover, taking up these strategies will be helpful in the process of retaining the efficient workforce. To elaborate it furthermore, reference of the research of Zopiatis, Constanti & Theocharous (2014) can be taken, where the authors have pointed out that the hospitality and tourism industry needs to come up with regulations that ensure satisfactory payment of the employees. In addition to this, award programs are also important in order to attract the efficient and skilled workforce. () has mentioned that the leadership programs and promotion of industrial position also helps the organizations in attracting the skilled candidates.
Kara et al., (2013), have pointed out that in order to decrease the issues related to wage theft, the companies can come up with policies of paid over time and justified penalty rates. Applying these policies will be helpful in grabbing attention of the skilled and efficient labors. It has been noticed that the employees working in the hospitality and tourism sectors are more willing to work in organizations that are able to provide them with proper compensations (Deery & Jago, 2015). Hence, coming up with employee friendly policies and providing ample scope of career growth will be helpful in attracting the employees to the organizations. Moreover, Robinson et al., (2014) have pointed out that the organizations should come up with policies that provide the employees job security. The organizations need to adopt policies where the efficient worker will have the opportunity to get promotions and full time contracts after showing proper performance. Adopting reward and recognition policies are highly effective way of attracting and encouraging the employees. Moreover, () have pointed out that coming up with a systematic roistering will be helpful in reducing the job related stress and situations of working for longer hours. In addition to this, Gin Choi, Kwon & Kim (2013) has pointed out that in order to attract the skilled workforce to the industry, providing them ample and significant career opportunities is to be considered of having highest importance. By adopting an efficient roistering system, the organizations will be able to maintain a parity between the working hours of the employees. It has been monitored that the training and development programs adopted by the organizations also play vital role in the gaining the attention of the candidates. Ciulu & DR?GAN, (2011) have mentioned that both the skilled as well as unskilled labors are willing to take up the developmental and training program. Hence, the organizations providing the opportunities to increase their skills and efficiencies will definitely be able to grab the attention of the candidates.
Strategies to Overcome the Challenges and Win the War for Talent
In addition to this, Prathiba, (2016) have mentioned that along with attracting the workforce to an organization, it is also important to retain the employees. As it is widely known that, the nature of the job in hospitality and tourism industry is highly demanding. Hence, the industry is prone to high employee turnover. In order to reduce the number of employee turnover, the organizations should come up with retention policies. As opined by Barron, (2008), one of the most important aspect of retaining the efficient and skilled workers is to prioritizing them. To explain it furthermore, it can be said that the organizations need to take up policies that are employee friendly and prioritize their efforts.
In addition to this, it has been mentioned by Kim, (2014), that in order to reduce the issues related to the employee turnover, the organizations need to focus on the process of wining the competition of acquiring skilled talents to the organizations. In this regard, it can be said that the organizations need to take up various strategies that can be helpful in the process. According to Rehman & Mubashar, (2017), taking up reward and recognition program is one of the most important strategies of employee retention.
Another important strategy, which has been pointed out by Prathiba, (2016), is that the organizations need to take up in order to retain the workforce is taking up flexible approach. The hospitality industry can consider flexible working hours for their employees. As the industry demands long working hours and handling job related stress, the organizations should take up flexible working hours. Adopting flexible working hours enables the employees to create a balance between their social and work life.
In addition to this, Prathiba, (2016) has pointed out that taking up approaches that enable the employees to obtain career opportunities will encourage the employees to stick to this industry. Moreover, it can be said that taking up proper training and skill building programs are helpful in order to retain the employees in the hospitality and tourism sector. Moreover, proper reward and recognition strategies are important for gaining a competitive edge over other organizations. In order to maintain a balance between the personal and working lives, it can be said that the organizations need to take up proper human resource policies that help the employees gaining benefits (Deery & Jago, 2015). Providing healthcare facilities, educational and medical expenses for their families are some of the strategies that can be taken up by the organizations in order to gain the attention of the employees.
To conclude, it can be said that the hospitality and tourism industries are volatile in terms of employee retention and attracting skilled candidates. Moreover, it has been noticed that these industries are prone to high turnover of employees and hence a competitive environment exists in amongst the organizations. The primary reasons behind the high employee turnover are the practice of employing huge number of unskilled candidates, long working hours and meager compensations. To overcome these issues the organizations dealing in the tourism and hospitality industry should take up strategies that are employee friendly. The longer working hours of the employees tend to hamper the social and personal lives of the employees working in these industries. Hence, the organizations should take up plans and strategies that support that provide job security to these employees. Moreover, it can be said that better human resource policies and better career prospects are some of the major strategies that can help an organization to attract talents as well retain them.
Reference
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