Human Resource Management For Service Industry : Hilton Hotel

Answer :

Introduction

The modern business market is becoming more and more competitive with the interjection of globalisation and perceptual development. Thus, the human resource management (HRM) of an organisation plays a pivotal role to incur uniqueness in the organisational practices to procure sustainable competitive edge in the market. In hospitality industry, the HRM practices designs the entire work process to enhance the service quality and staff performance. In this assignment, the HRM practices of Hilton Hotel Worldwide will be evaluated with sheer proficiency to identify the flaws and follies to implement betterment in customer service oriented organisational practices.

LO1. Understanding the management of human resource

1.1 Analysis of the purpose and role of human resource management in hospitality industry

As opined by Armstrong (2014, p.22), the major problems of hospitality industry are related to employees and their performances that perils the service quality of an organisation. The prolific human resource management is a vital key in securing apt quality in the hospitality sector through customer satisfaction. Hilton Hotel is no exception in the hospitality industry as they also need to perform the HRM duties perfectly to manoeuvre the concept gratifyingly in order to manage the employees in a tactical process for improving the service quality. The ultimate purpose of human resource management in hospitality industry is to provide coherent service quality to the customers for quenching their fluctuation and diversified aspirations. Hotel Hilton focuses on their performance in HRM to satisfy the customers with the luxurious and comfortable service quality to use the customer satisfaction for retention of the loyal visitors. Another purpose of HRM in hospitality industry is to aid the employees who are most valuable assets for an organisation that can help them to use an experienced and innovative workforce. The hotels and restaurants need to improve employee skills to improve the service quality for the customers (Bach, 2009, p.96).

Hilton Hotel plans and forecast a desirable organisational objective to analyse the demands in the workforce to fill the vacancy with skilled employees. The HRM department organises a recruitment process to choose potential candidates for gradual development of the service quality. HRM department also works simultaneously to procure a contractual agreement between Hilton Hotel authority and the employees to engage the working process in a systematic process. The HR department of Hotel Hilton continuously monitors the work process of the employees to consider the further actions of deployment and promotion (Beardwell et al. 2004, p.66). 

The human resource department of Hilton Hotel identifies the basic follies and shortcomings of the employees to train them properly with the chances of developing the traits to make the service process flawless. The HRM department of the hotel also helps the financial department through monitoring the budget expenditure to avoid any mismanaged expenses in the hotel sector. HRM department creates a cordial and integral relationship among all the employees to build a sustainable environment of team working to serve in a collaborative manner to satisfy the visitors. The HRM department of Hilton Hotel works as a bridge between the employees and the employer authority to help in creating a sustainable bond in the work process.

As opined by Bratton (2014, p.66), it is the duty of HRM department to check the adherence of the working process in Hilton Hotel with the labour law and employment acts of United Kingdom. This department serves as the representatives of the organisation to provide compensation and motivation to the employees to improve service performance in the hotel. The Hilton Hotel does not treat the employees as machinery and resources of the organisation like Hard HRM traits. Instead of it, this organisation practices Soft HRM to use the employees as respected and valuable assets to achieve competitive edge in the market of hospitality industry.

1.2 Justification of HR plan hinged on a supply and demand analysis in hospitality industry

As opined by Brewster (2012, p.20), the creation of a salient human resource plan is effective for hospitality industry to have a set of policies to implement in quick and flawless manner for performing the HR activities. A HR plan can presume the need of financial and human resources to continue the organisational activity with consistency in compliance with the organisational objectives. A perfect HR plan helps the hotels to transform the organisational practices with the change of market trend and customer aspirations. The HR plan can also be effective to recruit efficient employee as per the need of the organisation. The supply and demand analysis enables a hospitality organisation to develop the HR practices with effective utilization of the human and financial resources.

Figure 1: HR Plan of Hotel Hilton

(Source: As Created by Author)

Hilton Hotel analyses the demand of services from the visitors through their feedback and requirements to set a particular agenda of the required set of skills and purposes in the organisation. The HR department of Hotel Hilton to procure new and modified objectives of human resource management evaluates the trend of the market aspirations and employee performance for a specified set of time. The employee performance and organisational ability to fulfil the demands of the visitors are analysed to evaluate the degree of supply of adequate services. Thus, the demand and supply process is a vital perspective in the HRM practices of Hotel Hilton to procure an effective plan to address the shortcomings in the supply of the required demands from the visitors (Flamholtz, 2012, p.45). The internal factors like organisational flaws and the external factors like competitiveness are also accounted by the HR department to make a plan based on overall business environment of Hotel Hilton and the hospitality industry of United Kingdom. 

LO2. Understanding the impact of employee relations and the employment law in service-oriented industry

2.1 Assessment of the current condition of employment relations in hospitality industry

The social and cultural demographics are vehement in creating a condition of a workplace through procuring effective employee relations. As opined by Folger (1197, p.55), the unionization is a critical aspect that influences the employee relations in an organisation of hospitality industry. The hospitality industry try to maintain a healthy relation between the employees to  incur the possibility of effective team working to foster immense quality and subtlety. The organisation structure controls the employee relations, as autocratic structure does not provide any room to form informal groups to strengthen the employee relationship. The social culture can be a viable aspect to tie the employee and employer in a firm relationship of unity to enhance the organisational performance.

The Hotel Hilton has a provision of collective bargaining as both the employer and the employees are free to bargain over a term that can influence the working environment positively. The Hotel Hilton maintains a win approach that provides profit to both the parties of the contractual employment agreement (Hendry, 2012, p.22). The democratic and transformational leadership styles of this hotel are reluctantly helpful to formulate sustainable employee relations through providing adequate freedom and empowerment to the employees. The employment contract and the workplace environment plays a crucial role in employee relations as Hotel Hilton manages to cast out discriminative practices in the workplace to formulate happy working environment and cordial employee relations. The work time regulations and employment rights are also crafted with diligence to formulate sustainable employee relations in the hotel. 

The HR department of Hotel Hilton provides the space of negotiation over a contract through consultation to provide importance to the employee according to the statutory rights. The grievance procedures performed by Hilton Hotel management and the disciplinary processes are helpful to procure critical and aesthetic employee relations to foster speed in the working process and hospitality service quality. The management of this hotel pay sincere attention towards the work pressure of the employees with incentives and promotional features. The HR team focuses on the comfort and satisfaction of the employees to satisfy them for procuring a subtle relation with them (Jiang et al. 2012, p.1290). Hilton Hotel has eradicated the corporate strategy and adapted the democratic approach to address the social, financial and psychological needs to of the employees through transparent administrative activities. Hotel Hilton tries to satisfy the employees with a happy and free workplace culture to incur improvement in service quality of the hotel.

2.2 Discussion on the impact of employment law on the HRM of Hilton Hotel

The employment legislations of United Kingdom are very impactful on the HRM practices of Hilton Hotel to stay lawful with the legal framework of the country. The hotel is liable to follow the guidelines of the constitutions to eradicate the illegal activities from the provision of human resource policies. The Employee Relations Act 2004 of UK parliament states regulatory guidelines about the rights of trade union through sustainable relationship among the employer and employees (Kramar, 2012, p.96). Hotel Hilton follows the section 59 of this act to formulate a healthy and respectful relation with the employee through providing them adequate remuneration according to the ethical work pressure. The Employment Rights Act 1996 of United Kingdom government has been monitoring the implementation of the employee laws and labour rights in the organisational purposes to ensure the existence of legal framework of work process. Hotel Hilton follows this act to procure an effective contractual agreement with the employee and they obeys the Contracts of Employment Act 1963 to formulate the written contract statements. The Employment Protection Act 1975 is followed by Hilton Hotel to safeguard the employees on duty through risk management (Saxena et al. 2012, p.600).

The HRM department has also come up with policies and insurances to provide a health assurance to the staffs. The Employee Rights Act 1996 is been evaluated by the HR department of the hotel to provide equal opportunities to everyone for sprouting their talents and development procedure. The agreement and termination process is also a part of the employee rights that is mentioned by the HR department to ensure the acknowledgement of the employees. The subsection 2(a) of the Employee Rights Act 1996 of UK is implemented by Hilton Hotel to be proficient in the redundancy policies of the organisation (Torrington, 2009, p.25). The ill health policies of the Contract Law of UK compel Hilton to arrange for voluntary retirements for weak employees with proper respect and compensation. The Maternity and Paternity Leave Regulation 1999 of UK government states the official and paid leave of would be parents needs to be ensured by the organisation to provide necessary rights to the employees to please them for appending motivational interjection (Hall, 2011, p.70). 

Hilton Hotel provides different application sheets for the tribunals and applications for parental leaves to maintain transparency in the entire human resource management process. The guidelines of ACAS are strictly maintained by the Hilton Hotel to maintain feasible relationship between the employees for economic growth and organisational success. The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 provides legal obligations for Hotel Hilton to remunerate the employees with a minimum fixed rate of wage based on the age of the employees (Acas.org.uk, 2016).

LO3. Understanding of the recruitment and selection process

3.1 Discussion of a job description and specification of person for hospitality industry job

Hotel Hilton has a vacancy in the receptionist post and the HR management have evaluated the basic requirements of a receptionist to procure a solemn job description to filter the potential candidates in initial stage. The job description and person specification helps Hotel Hilton to address specific candidates who can execute the aspiring traits with perfection. The job description can be helpful for both the fresher and experienced candidates to check the job credentials before appealing for it.

Job description and specification:-

The HR department of Hotel Hilton follows systematic steps for job description and person specifications to avoid flaws. The department collects background information and select the positions of the representatives for generating ability to collect the relevant data of job analysis. This information helps the organisation to develop a description of the job of receptionist that works as a catalyst to figure out the specifications of the job to search for efficient and credible candidates. Hotel Hilton has provided online and newspaper advertisements to recruit efficient candidates as per the requirement of the post in the organisation. The influencing factors of the labour market are evaluated in comparison with the organisational needs to provide a solemn vacancy announcement to recruit a receptionist.

3.2 Comparison of the selection processes between different businesses of service oriented industry

The HR department of Hotel Hilton thrives for selecting the most appropriate candidate for the position of receptionist through efficient selection and recruitment processes. The HR officials systematically analyses the reliability of selection techniques to ensure the selection of efficient employee to fulfil the organisational objectives. Hotel Hilton follows a systematic step to recruit efficient employees that starts from the analysis of organisational needs to dispatch a advertisement of recruitment (Hall, 2011, p.70).

Figure 2: Selection Process of Hotel Hilton

(Source: As Created by Author)

This hotel takes initial interviews of the candidates to select the matching applications for screening tests. The screening test eradicates the unworthy candidates to provide them with application blank forms to acknowledge their qualifications and whereabouts. In the next step, the shortlisted candidates are evaluated with written exam and the qualified applicants are appeared in front of interview board to test their strength of managing pressure as a receptionist. The interview board works as the final evaluation stage to pick the competent applicants to suit the job descriptions of the receptionist stage. The selected candidates are run through a medical test and the background information of the applicants helps the Hilton Hotel to ensure that there is not any criminal record in the career of the applicant. After all these steps, the HR manager provides an appointment letter to the most suitable person for joining io the post of receptionist (Torrington, 2009, p.25).

On the other hand, the Springdale Care Home of London follows telephonic and online interview process to select suitable applicants for the post of care workers to ensure the enhancement of care service quality. This service care home also uses the psychometric test to select the candidates by analysing their ability to serve a care user with innovative aptitude and dynamic caring personality. This care home has introduced work sample evaluation to recruit efficient and experienced employees through watching their presentations for judging the competence factor. The selection process of service oriented organisations are different based on their requirements and organisational objectives of the sectors to select appropriate candidates to use for incurring supreme excellence in service quality (Jiang et al. 2012, p.1290).

LO4. Understanding development and training in the business of service industry

4.1 Preparation of a presentation of training and development in Hilton Hotel

Different types of training

• Technical training can be an effective process of allowing the employees of Hotel Hilton to advance their technological knowledge.
• The Quality training can help to increase the service quality of Hotel Hilton to acquire competitive edge (Flamholtz, 2012, p.33). 
• Skill development training can be the most prolific type of training that will develop the traits and attributes of the employees of Hotel Hilton.
• The professional training and team training are quite effective in teaching the employees to work collaboratively and proficiently to meet the organisational objectives of the Hilton Hotel.

Difference between training and development

• Training is a short-term process while development is a long-term process.
• Training focuses on present objectives while development stresses on future aspirations.
• Training process improves the job performance but development strives for improvement in the career,
• Training can be acquired from an expert while the development process is dependent on the self-efforts (Folger et al. 1998, p.55).
• Hilton provides training to improve the workability of the employees while the development chances are feasible for preparing the staffs for challenges in the upcoming future.
• The objective of training is related with job description whereas the development process is related with the conceptual skills and knowledge.

Benefits and effectiveness of training

• It helps the employees to act in compliance with the fluctuating market changes.
• The latest technical advancements can be accounted and implemented through training process (Hendry, 2012, p.11)
• Training can provide a competitive edge through improvement in service quality.
• The training process can attract potential talents and increase the satisfaction of the employees of the hotel.

The role and need of training

• Training improves the satisfaction, confidence and morale of service staffs of Hotel Hilton.
• The efficiently trained employees can work more freely under less monitoring.
• Training process can eradicate the chances of accidents and unwanted circumstances (Jiang et al. 2012, p.1290).
• Training process can improve the service quality by  redeeming the shortcomings.

Conclusion

The HRM practices are the most pivotal key of success to Hotel Hilton to control the entire organisation process of hospitality services and employee welfare. The HR department needs to be more prolific in following the employee management legislations to motivate the workforce for procuring betterment in the service provision. It can be helpful to make a HR plan to improve service performance for employee satisfaction to get competitive edge.