The principal objectives of HRM may be listed thus:

To help the organization reach its goals: HR department like other departments in an
organization exists to achieve the goals of the organization first and if it does not meet
these purposes, HR department (or for that matter any other unit) will wither and die.

To employ the skills and abilities of the workforce efficiently: The primary purpose of
HRM is to make people’s strengths productive and to benefit customers, Stockholders
and employees.

To provide the organization with well trained and well motivated employees: HRM
requires that employees are motivated to exert their maximum efforts that their
performance be evaluated properly for results and that they be remunerated on the
basis of their contributions to the organizations.

To increase to the fullest the employee’s job satisfaction and self actualization: It tries to
prompt and stimulate every employee to realize his potential. To this end suitable
programs have to be designed aimed at improving the quality of work life (QWL).

To develop and maintain quality of work life: it makes employment in the organization a
desirable, personal and social situation. Without improvement in the quality of work life it
is difficult to improve organizational performance.

To communicate HR policies to all employees: It is the responsibility of HRM to

communicate in the fullest possible sense; tapping ideas, opinions and feelings of
customers non customers regulators and other external public as well as understanding
the views of internal human resources.

To be ethically and socially responsive to the needs of society: HRM must ensure that
organizations manage human resource in an ethical and socially responsible manner
through ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards.

People have always been central to organizations, but their strategic importance is
growing in today’s knowledge based industries. An organization’s success increasingly
depends on the knowledge skills and abilities (KSAs) of employees particularly as they
help establish a set of core competencies that distinguish an organization from its
competitors. With appropriate HR policies and practices an organization can hire
develop and utilizes best brains in the marketplace realize its professional goals and
deliver results better than others. Human resources management helps an organization
and its people to realize their respective goals thus:

At the enterprise levels:

1) Good human resource practices can help in attracting and retaining the best people
in the organization. Planning alerts the company to the types it will need in the short
medium and long run.

2) it helps in training people for challenging roles, developing right attitudes towards the
job and the company promoting team spirit among employees and developing loyalty
and commitment through appropriate reward schemes.

At the individual level: Effective management of human resources helps employees

thus:

1) it promotes team work and team spirit among employees.

2) It offers excellent growth opportunities to people who have the potential to rise.

3) It allows people to work with diligence and commitment.

At the society level: Society, as a whole is the major beneficiary of good human
resources practices

1) Employment opportunities multiply.

2) Scarce talents are put to best use. Companies that pay and treat people well always
race ahead of others and deliver excellent results

At the national level: Effective use of human resources helps in exploitation of natural,
physical and financial resources in a better way. People with right skills, proper attitudes
and appropriate values help the nation to get ahead and compete with the best in the
world leading to better standard.

Importance of HRM

Good HR practices help:

1) attract and retain talent

2) train people for challenging roles

3) develop skills and competencies

4) promote team spirit

5) develop loyalty and commitment

6) increase productivity and profits

7) improve job satisfaction

8) enhance standard of living

9) Generate employment opportunities.

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY sample essay

One of the most important indicators of a company’s performance is the level of

dedication of its employees. Despite of various resources and supplies a company
might require, human resource (HR) is the most important resource because without
labor force no business can be done (Milkovich 1997). People within a company design
and produce goods and services, control quality, allocate financial resources, market
the products, set overall strategies and objectives for the company, etc. So ultimately
human resource management (HRM) is an important part of nearly every organization.
In any customer driven business, HRM is vitally important. Especially it applies to
tourism and other hospitality businesses. So basically, HRM is a series of integrated
decisions that form the employment relationship (Milkovich 1997). Whether these
decisions are efficient and consistent with one another directly influences ability of the
company and its employees to achieve objectives. The entire HR mix includes the
following activities: staffing, training and development, compensation, employee
relations, and work structure (Goldsmith 1997). Each of these five in turn comprises
several sub-concepts.Managing personnel of hospitality related business is somewhat
different from that of another business. First of all, this kind of businesses is purely
customer driven. Hospitality businesses provide series of services and so employees
should take into account individual preferences of each customer. Unlike at barber’s
shop, for example, where most customers are local dwellers, hospitality businesses
deal primarily with tourists, people from distant lands, people with different language,
culture, religion, and other beliefs. There are many ways to boost personnel dedication
and overall performance in hospitality businesses. Some of these ways intersect with
general HRM concepts, while the rest is applicable to only tourism and hospitality
companies. Every qualified HR specialist would want to keep current employees (as
long as they meet company’s needs) in lieu of constantly hiring new ones. So holding
on to good, experienced, long-term employees saves time, money and effort, however
this method requires a knotty strategy that goes far beyond the pay. In the hotel
industry, for example, it is not an unusual case that the entire staff changes perpetually.
So HR managers would want to implement new series of ideas to boost personnel
internal motivation. One way to keep current experienced employees happy is to permit
flexible work schedule; not only arrange three of four shifts. This arrangement will allow
employees to choose the best time that fits them. Another very useful technique HR
manager might want to consider is to communicate much. In travelling companies like
Thomas Cook communication is the key. It is natural for people to be interested in how
well they are doing, as well as in the productivity of the entire company. So HR
specialist must provide this information via different mediums like newsletters, memos,
staff presentations, regular meetings, and Internet (or Intranet). Utilizing these channels
both up and down, HR managers should keep employees up to speed with the
company’s strategies, achievements, directions. This way people would feel they are
not separate, but rather inseparable links of a greater entity, and this felling of unity in
turn will entail greater internal motivation. Grievance boxes or other mediums that can
highlight grievances are also very important. Employees should without fear list
grievances, other they might simply leave the company without managers even knowing
why. This way resolving current employees’ complaints will reduce future
resignations.There are also several good practices that involve material incentives. It is
truly essential to note that people need money so one way to boost they motivation is to
provide them with monetary incentives. A very good practice would be to distribute a
certain percent of annual revenue (5-10%) to all the employees. By so doing, salaries of
the majority will rise up to 20%. Another effective incentive would be providing free
training courses and career development classes, which would make employees feel
involved, as well as valued (Jerris 1999). The role of human resource specialist in a big
travel company like Thomas Cook differs immensely from that of a small tour agency.
Larger businesses have to devote much more time to human resource; first, because
much more people are involved in the business, secondly, the more employees are
involved, the more effort is required to manage these employees. So it is a huge routine
system that requires clear division of labor, and establishing a human resource
department is a must in such organizations. Management of Hospitality businesses
requires strict order and at the same time ability to change corresponding to the
changes in business environment. On one hand, this kind of business is customer
driven, and managers have to make sure that everything flows according to the rules
and policies. In many cases, managers of large tourism companies have to travel to
other countries where their subsidiaries are located and train employees or supervise
training, especially if it is a new subsidiary. In such cases, managers’ main goal it to
make sure that employees in that particular subsidiary follow policies and rules of the
company as the rest of branches does. On the other hand, tourism businesses are in a
special market niche that is very prone to rapid change. Therefore, managers have to
be very quick in their decision making when it comes to adapting to new customer
tastes and contemporary fashion flows, as well as crises and accidents. The most
horrible vent that left a huge trace in hotel industry, as well as in all other spheres of life,
is the terrorist attack on September the 11th, 2001. September 11th has forced
consumers to travel less, which led the hotel managers to drop their room rates by 30%
to 40% on an average. Bjorn Hanson, head of global hotel practice says that the third
quarter of 2001 was the industries worst ever. Many people fear that another attack may
occur anywhere else such as the one that took place on September 11t. Those fears
along with the struggling economy have put a damper on the hotel industry. With no
tourist adventuring out to tourist spots such as beaches or big city’s such as London or
New York, the industry has had to cut costs in other ways such as downsizing,
increasing rates in order to meet monthly expenses, or even completely shutting down.
September 11th incident took a big chunk out of the economy, especially the hotel
industry.Political issues have also had an adverse effect on the industry as a whole.
After all, economists were looking for different ways to upstart the economy. One of the
ways individuals within the hotel industry was hoping for, were tax breaks for travelers.
Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott was “lobbying Congress for tax breaks for
travelers”. Thinking by adding another benefit to the already reduced prices, people
would begin to again venture out and the industry would start to pick up again.Before
actually hiring new employees, human resource managers in a hospitality industry have
to recruit them, or to test them and examine their performance. It is significantly
important for the employee in such an industry to be communicative and hospitable.
However HR managers should also consider another important characteristic as
performance. Performance reflects company’s success, so it is crucial to measure it
(Jerris 1999). Furthermore, employee performance is fundamental to other HR
activities, such as who to hire, promote, reward, and lay off. Employees’ performance
reflects mainly the efficiency objectives of the company, but equity objectives are also
key to diagnostic approach. A key measure of equity is employee work satisfaction and
commitment to the company. Low employee morale may signal future behavior
problems, so tracking employee attitudes is also related to efficiency. Performance
however as well as attendance, attitudes and opinions are only a few of the employee
characteristics that support human resource decisions. Skills and abilities are also
relevant to recruiting and hiring, while motivation is relevant to pay. In addition,
characteristics indicating family obligations, such as aging parents or small children, are
relevant to labor and employee relations.

Bibliography

1. Goldsmith, Alistair and Mickson, Dennis. Human Resource Management for

Hospitality Services. International Thomson Business Press, 1997.

2. Milkovich, George and Boudreau, John. Human Resource Management. Irwin

McGraw-Hill, 1997.

3. Jerris, Linda. Human Resource Management for Hospitality. Pearson Education,

1999

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HRM in the hospitality and tourism industry

The Harvard model of HRM, the flexible firm, hard and soft versions of HRM and the HR
categories outlined above all have resonance in the hospitality and tourism industry. To
understand the nature of HRM in the hospitality industry, it is important to understand
the situational factors of hospitality work and different stakeholder points of view. In
terms of the main situational factors, the sensitivity and vulnerability of hospitality and
tourism markets due to varying economic, political, seasonal, and meteorological
factors, lead to employment structures that rely heavily (and none more so than the
restaurant sector) on a combination of core staff and large numbers of temporary
employees who are often students, young and/or female. Young employees are often
the predominant labor market in the fast food and club sectors of the industry. From the
perspective of hospitality employees, work can have a number of negative features:

. It is typically low paid and of relatively low status

. It has variable and unsocial hours

. It has unpredictable levels

. It can be stressful due to (physical) workloads, workplace violence, and dealing with
customers. Many jobs are part time and casual, and subject to the hard version of HRM.
Full-time, core jobs often involve very long working hours, especially for managers.
More positively, hospitality work offers:

. Job variety

. Low levels of supervision

. Personal incentives

. Teamwork

. Interaction with people

. Wide choices in the number of types of employer

. Pleasant work surroundings.

From the employer’s point of view hospitality work:

. Is an important component in the sales mix

. Represents a high proportion of operating costs due to the labor intensity of hospitality
service offerings

. Extends up to 24/7, in that work can be done 24 hours a day, seven days per week

. Has high levels of staff turnover

. Has a high proportion of female, young, and international staff, especially in the
peripheral groups of staff

. Is market-sensitive

. Can be subject to intense competition.

Above all, for both employees and employers, hospitality work is characterized by the
provision of service and the need for quality service. Many hospitality organizations, for
example Hilton International, seek differentiation and competitive advantage though
quality service, especially in mature marketplaces. Yet hospitality jobs are often
demanding and generally not well rewarded, hence employees may not be too
motivated to consistently deliver the necessary quality service. The primary role of HRM
can then become to mediate between the business and employee needs in order to
encourage and facilitate quality service. In the absence of substantial financial rewards,
for example, more intangible and intrinsic rewards such as teamwork and training can
be offered. The range and balance of HRM policies and practices in hospitality
organizations can have a significant impact on service quality. Second, HRM policies
and practices will influence the leadership and management style. of line managers that
have an effect on employee service delivery. Third, the HRM philosophy and principles
adopted by hospitality organizations contribute to an organization’s culture which can
play a large part in influencing service delivery. Despite the heightened need for HRM in
hospitality, the function has apparently not achieved its full potential around the world. In
Australia, for example, a study of 483 hospitality firms indicates that service quality and
staff commitment could be enhanced by human resource practices like performance
appraisal and remuneration strategies in addition to training (Davies et al., 2001). In the
UK, the reputation of the hotel and catering industry generally as an employer is poor. In
the small to medium-sized enterprises, which individually employ fewer than 250 people
but comprise 97% of the UK tourism and hospitality workforce, HRM is acknowledged
as having more potential than realization (Lee-Ross, 2000). In developing economies
HRM evidently needs to be utilized more. In Russia, for instance, one of the main
challenges in its fast-expanding lodging industry lies in HRM (Swerdlow and Cummings,
2000). While in Latin America it is reported that under-developed employee
performance, in respect of skills and motivation, is inhibiting the travel and tourism
industry through poor standards of service (Pizam, 1999). Similarly, China has an
expanding but under-developed tourism industry that has significant employee training
and education needs in a country where the concept of customer service is not widely
understood (Hanqin et al., 2001). And in the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the rate of growth of the tourism industry has outstripped training and
development efforts, reducing the industry’s competitiveness (Sadi and Bartels, 1999).
In contrast, evidence of good and best HRM practice in employee resourcing,
development, and relations can be found in the hospitality industry. For example, in
North America’s largest luxury hotel chain, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts which employs
around 30,000 staff, strategic HRM has been the basis for developing a service culture
that ‘consistently delivers top service’ (Langlois, 2001, p. 19). And Sodexho, an
American-owned institutional catering firm employing 212,000 staff across the world,
has executive coaching to improve management leadership skills. Overall, the potential
of HRM in the quality staff dependent hospitality industry has apparently not yet been
fully realized. Generally, adoption of HRM seems patchy. While there is evidence of
HRM approaches and practices, particularly in large organizations and in organizations
operating in competitive labor markets, the challenge remains for hospitality businesses
to equate HRM with business performance.

References
Armstrong, M. (2001) A Handbook of Personnel

Management Practice, 8th edn. London and

Milford, CT: Kogan Page.

Davies, D., Taylor, R., and Savery, L. (2001) The

role of appraisal, remuneration and training

in improving staff relations in the Western

Australian accommodation industry: a comparative

study. Journal of European Industrial

Training, 25 (6/7), 366–374.

Guest, D.E. (1987) Human resource management

and industrial relations. Journal of Management

Studies, 21 (1), 503–521, quoted in Legge, K.

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