Recruiting and retaining the staff in the hotel industry

Introduction

One of the biggest issues in the hospitality sector has always been recruiting and retaining skilled staff. Quality staff is needed in every area of a hotel, including administration, maintenance, the kitchen, housekeeping, and the front desk. The lack of skills among educated young people leaving educational institutions is also causing significant difficulty for the hotel industry. Although, new hires are good as it means the organization is growing. Newly recruited employees can introduce fresh ideas and different ways of working for that drive organization forward. However, successful employee recruitment requires more than just placing a job posting on the relevant media platform. Finding and hiring the right people for your company requires diligent preparation, thorough execution, and a clear understanding of your hiring objectives.

According to Gusdorf (2008) recruitment is defined as the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers, and with appropriate qualifications, to apply for jobs with an organization. As such, the term retention can be defined as “…a systematic effort to create and foster an environment that encourages employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs” (Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State Government, 2005).  

Barrick and Zimmerman (2009) have stated that, the organizations historically use several criteria to decide whom to hire. Mainly, organizations have concentrated on identifying the job candidate who probably performs the best. On the other hand it has stated, organizations have begun to try to identify which candidates are most likely to stay with the organization as it gets harder to retain staff. Organizations can pick candidates with less effort if it is possible to identify characteristics that predict both performance and turnover (Barrick and Zimmerman, 2009).

Gusdorf (2008) says, even though hiring more people may be the first step in a more involved recruitment and selection process, it's not always the best way to find more labor. Instead of hiring traditional staff, it may be suitable for a company to look at alternatives to recruiting, such as outsourcing or contingent labor (Gusdorf, 2008). In the same article it has further emphasized that, the simplest option might be part-time work or overtime by current employees if this is a temporary change in the workload. As such, only after thorough assessment and only if the business anticipates a long-term need for extra workers may it hire more employees (Gusdorf, 2008).  Given that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, persons who routinely seek for new employment, as seen by the number of jobs they have held in the previous five years and the duration of their most recent employment, may continue to do so in the future (Barrick and Zimmerman, 2009).

On the word of Bidisha Lahkar Das (2013), any organization's capacity to retain its key staff is essential to its long-term profitability and viability. The capacity to retain the best people in any firm has a significant impact on achieving organizational goals. Employee retention refers to the process of encouraging them to stick around the organization for as long as possible or until the project is finished (Bidisha Lahkar Das, 2013). A company's ability to keep its staff has two ramifications. Companies that keep their top performers will almost certainly outperform their competitors and cut costs associated with advertising open positions, recruiting and hiring new employees, selecting and training them, and employee loss (Okioga, 2012).

According to (Bidisha Lahkar Das, 2013) compensation, reward and recognition, promotion and opportunity to grow, participation in decision-making, work-life balance, work environment, training and development, leadership, and job security are mainly affecting to employee retention.

 

 

References;

Barrick, M.R. and Zimmerman, R.D. (2009). Hiring for retention and performance. Human Resource Management, 48(2), pp.183–206. doi:10.1002/hrm.20275.‌

Bidisha Lahkar Das (2013). Employee Retention: A Review of Literature. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, [online] 14(2), pp.08-16. doi:10.9790/487x-1420816.

 

Gusdorf, M. (2008). Recruitment and Selection: Hiring the Right Person. Staffing Management instructor’s Manual, pp.1 to 19. Available at: www.shrm.org/hreducation [Accessed 28 Oct. 2022].

 

Okioga C.K. (2012). The Contribution of a Developed Reward System on Employee Retention: A Case of Kisii Bottlers Limited: Kenya. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(16), 9-21.

 

Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State Government. (2005). Employee retention. Retrieved July 1, 2010 from http://www.cs.state.ny.us/successionplanning/workgroups/Retention/employeeretentionreport.p df