Word Count:3028

Human Resource
Hotel Case Study
Executive Summary:
S e b a s ti a a n N i j h u i s

Heikki McEvoy

Management
Report on the City Hotel regarding
D a v i don M
how
u rto
p deal
h y with the
hotels problem with Staffing, Structure plan, Employee
utilisation plan, Training & Development, Performance plan,
Appraisal plan, Reward plan, Employee Relations plan and
the hotels Communications plan and our recommendations
on what to do to achieve the best possible outcome.
 February 13,
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
2011

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1
Supply Plan 2
Organisation& Structure Plan 3
Employee Utilisation Plan 4
Training & Development & Performance Plan 5
Appraisal Plan 6
Reward Plan 7
Employee Relations Plan 9
Communications Plan 10
References 12

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Supply Plan:

The best way to keep costs down and

Staff Turnover keep standards up is to retain trained
26% staff. According to figures (note 9)
Staff Left the hotel currently has a 25.7%
Staff Staying
turnover rate. This means that 1 in
four staff members left the hotel. A
74% low staff turnover rate can be
achieved by keeping staff happy.
This is done by offering good wages,
work environment and promotion prospects.

In note 1 the hotel mentioned that they wanted to look into new forms of staff recruitment.
Maybe they can look into nearby high schools which make use of a “work experience”
program. Then students will work in the hotel and maybe even be persuaded to stay.

An incentive program could be implemented that rewards employees that bring new staff into
the business if they stay for longer than one year. This can be in the form of a monetary
bonus or free hotel stays.

A good work environment can be provided by involving staff with the business. This can be
achieved by holding staff parties for Christmas etc. or even by providing training so that staff
feels comfortable and able to work in the hotel.

Promotions should be available for all qualified and deserving staff members. Whenever a
new position becomes available the hotel should first try to fill it by offering it internally and
then if no suitable candidates are found be offered externally. This will reduce the cost for
advertising and travel expenses.
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The case study says that finding workers is hard due to the level of competition in the area.
To combat this, the hotel should try to communicate all the extra benefits staff receive to
potential workers and not get stuck on monetary pay. These benefits could be anything from
discounted taxi rates so workers can get to work or children’s crèches so that single parents or
young parents can go to work and not be worried about their children.

Organisation & Structure Plan

Matrix structures can be a very important part of any organisation because of the need to have
the right balance of skillsets to deal with problems, products and services. With the economic
downturn the need is even greater to remain competitive in present market conditions. Matrix
structures can bring an array of benefits. These include learning on the job type development
for members of the team so that they learn from another on how to approach their work.
Although the matrix structure brings many benefits it has minor setbacks. These include the
challenge to already existing authority, priorities and resources. Matrix structures, when
needed require the support of senior management. Particular attention needs to be given to
the selection, motivation and training of team leaders. (Rees 2004)

The hotel should restructure their organisation to a matrix structure to make better use of
staff, reduce bureaucracy and make the chain of command clearer. A Matrix structure splits
the staff into teams which are controlled by a supervisor which in turn reports to the head of
department. By splitting up staff into teams, staff will feel more included and be more loyal
to their team (the department). It might also cause some competition to occur which if
rewarded properly will increase work productivity. It can be controlled to turn it into a
positive thing by using a star system per week. In example the staff member with the most

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positive comment cards receiving a gold star. At the end of the month the staff member with
the most stars could get a reward.

As you can see in figure 1 there is a clear chain of command and all the departments are all in
separate teams. Although each department is separated from the other they should remember
that overall the whole hotel is one team. The main objective of this theory is to bond the staff
members together and to create loyalty. Hopefully this helps to retain staff which is one of
the hotels current problems.
Figure 1: Matrix Structure
Employee
utilisation Plan:

Delegation:

With the proposal of the Matrix structure the hotel should try to delegate some the
responsibility of higher management to lower management general staff. Delegation is the
handing of tasks from supervisors to subordinates (team members) who are then partly
responsible for the work they do. This makes staff feel part of the business and more involved
and it increases work efficiency as management isn’t bothered by every minor issue.

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with
their ingenuity."-General George Smith Patton, Jr. (1885-1945)

Employee Empowerment:

This is another ideology of the “Team” philosophy and on the same line as Delegation. It
shares some of the power from higher up management downwards to supervisory level and
simple team members. This allows staff to be part of the hotel and make decisions relating to

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their work area for which they are responsible. This again makes staff feel involved and be a
big part of staff retention.

Innovation&Intrapreneurship:

The hotel should try to motivate staff to become involved in bettering the business. This
should be done by having an Open door policy which allows staff to make appointments with
managements to discuss issues or suggestions. Intrapreneurship refers to employees of the
hotel being innovative and using their own initiative to undertake something new without
being asked to do so. This involves minor risk taking but may discover major cost cutting
breakthroughs in the hotel.

Training, Development and Performance Plan

Profit is an outcome of managing and developing people well. Without profits there would be
very little point in dedicating scarce resources to training and development, as the recourses
would not exist to do so. Therefore the effective training and development of the staff in The
City Hotel is critical to the further development of the Hotel as a whole.

There are basically two approaches City hotel can take.

 Formal StructuredTraining Procedures

 Coaching and/or the Mentoring method

The best solution is to use a mix of both these procedures. Staff will be formally trained and
then mentored by a senior member of staff to guide and develop their skills. This will ensure
that staff realise that for instance “making beds” is only a means to an end and that the
fundamental requirement is the welfare of the guest and how the staff relate to that need. It
also allows senior members of staff to appraise, in a formal manner the performance of each
Trainee.

Based on the past performance, senior management will have a fundamental understanding of
the training needed and how it is assessed. The danger here could be the actual level of

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training given to the staff. Too much Training will result in an information overload, which
could put staff off and possibly give them the impetus to use their new skills to move to the
competition. In order to combat this, performance of the staff will have to be focused on the
specific the core needs of each department within The City Hotel. This will ensure that each
member of staff is clear about what they have to achieve. Unfortunately The City Hotel
business base demands certain flexibility in work rosters.

“The Hotel caters mainly for business trade during the week and for holiday trade during the
weekends and in the summer. In the summer and at weekends there is, therefore, a greater
demand for catering and waiting staff, as there is a greater demand for lunches. During the
same periods there is a lesser demand for housekeeping staff as the customers are mostly
longer-stay”. – Case Study

We suggest that staff is cross-trained in the Accommodation and Catering core areas. (I.e.
Accommodation staff can operate within the Catering section and vice versa, when required).
This will also have the advantage of giving the staff a more interesting workload and
allowing them to multi skill. A variable approach to working areas will also identify talented
staff that can thrive in multiple areas of the hotel or attain promotions.

If the Hotel is to improve its already established reputation for excellence in service then it
will have to establish its training needs early and come up with innovative and creative
training and technologies which will keep it ahead of the opposition and attract the type of
staff it will need to facilitate that drive.

All training should also include and compliment aspects of the Health and Safety Statement.
For instance, HAZOP training (Hazard and Operability Analysis) is based on a theory that
assumes that “risk events are caused by deviations from design or operating intentions” 1.
Safety in the kitchen, especially for unfamiliar staff is critical. HAZOP tells us that badly
trained, unsupervised staff can very easily fall into work habits that can not only be
dangerous to themselves but also for the staff around them, making it critical that procedures
are followed. This is where Mentoring can be important. Staff needs a reference point to
where they can refer if needed.

All new members of staff selected for training would receive the following:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

9.30 - 11.00 9.30 - 11.00 9.30 - 11.00 9.30 - 11.00

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Health &Safety HAZOP Accommodation Catering/Service

Figure 2: Training Schedule

Appraisal Plan

Managing employee performance is an important part of the Human Resource manager’s

workloads. It could be considered as important as managing financial resources because
employee performance, or the lack of it, has a specific effect on both the financial and on-
going management of any organization.

At the end of each month senior members sit down and assess the performance of the hotel. It
is at this meeting that each trainee is appraised in terms of how they performed their allotted
tasks and how the guests perceived them. Staff will be appraised on how they address the
following points:

 How they are observed by management and staff in dealing with customers
 How they are perceived by the clients
 How they execute their duties and how long it takes them to carry out those duties
 What their “Team Spirit” is like
 How they relate to management
 Time Keeping
 Taking initiatives
 Appearance

Staff Appraisal is a management tool, which offers a link between staff and management and
its primary benefits are:

 Give staff an idea of where they stand

 A basis for performance bonuses
 It reinforces team working
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 Management get feedback from staff on and on-going basis

Reward Plan

 “It is often said that what gets rewarded gets done” (Torrington 2008)

Rewards in an organization such as a hotel must relate to the job at hand.

For example, the more rooms serviced the higher the reward. The sole reason for this is to
keep the incentives based on the department work output to increase productivity.

 In relation to the City Hotel and their possible future developments,it is clear that the
implementation of reward plans for staff in all areas of the hotel would allow for greater
flexibility, higher staff satisfaction, retention and greater revenue. These incentives, bonuses
and added benefits would also attract potential new employees in conjunction with the
Human Resource plan already in place.

 As mentioned in Note 1, there have been issues with recruiting new staff in the kitchen,
restaurant and bar. This is due to competition and a new staff friendly transport system
implemented by the competition.

Putting in place a specific reward scheme for each department would allow for direct
performance based incentives rather than one general, non-direct strategy. This means
that staff in each department has a specific plan to follow that lead to rewards if done
properly. This could be the star system mentioned earlier.

 As seen in note 3 the hotel is researching valid ideas to improve customer service. They have
implemented their own reward scheme of £50 per successful suggestion. This allows the staff
to be innovativewith ideas that they may get from hands on experience from dealing with
customers.

This is very important seeing as the City Hotel want to become renowned in customer
service.

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 From note 6 we see that the hotel implemented flexitime for staff working both in
accommodation services and in the restaurant. This reduces overstaffing and increases work
output due to less idle time.

 For the plan the hotel must implement at best one reward scheme and incentives plan per
department. This will increase staff involvement and allow for interchange ability as well. As
a bonus the hotel should provide a free bus service to the local region for all staff members.

The incentives should not be over complicated though for the staff either. Something
challenging but still achievable such as an extra quota for room servicing would earn you
points towards a reward.

 
•The implementation of a reward plan within the City Hotel is an opportunity to boost staff
utilization, flexibility and staff retention and to increase revenue at the same time. The hotel
is expanding and now is a good time to maximize utilization by the means of reward plans
and incentives.

 Employee Relations Plan

 “The primary concern for organizations operating in the competitive environment is to

maximize organizational performance and generate satisfactory returns for the owners and
stakeholders of the enterprise”. (Wallace 2004).

These returns are usually expressed in terms of cost effectiveness and for the commercial
organization in profitability. This means that management’s main goal is to co-ordinate
factors of production including labour, to achieve these objectives.

Employee relations focus on the trade unions, government and organized employee bodies
within the enterprise.

The main aspects that employee relations practice are collective bargaining, grievance
handling, disciplinary actions and employee participation.

 As we see from note 1, the hotel has had issues with recruiting new staff.

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This could be a sign that either the hotel has a bad reputation for staff relations or that pay has
not been high enough.

It is very important in an organization to be staff friendly and to be able to attract the right

skill level at the right price.

 We can see from the data that the City Hotel partakes in some level of staff relations. In note
7 the employers asked staff which areas of the hotel would need servicing and what could be
improved. Things like over complicated paper work systems were discovered and shift times
were adjusted to help both the staff and the customer’s experience.

 In notes 9 and 10 we come across a slight problem within the hotel.

In the last year alone the hotel had lost 18 employees. This is a very big number and
amounted to 25.7%labour turnover index.

This meant that the hotel then had to find and recruit 18 new employees, which takes time
and resources and ended up costing the hotel more in overtime pay for the other staff.

In note 10 we notice that out of the 18 new staff, 3 of the jobs went for one kitchen assistant’s
position and 2 went to another similar post. This shows that for some reason staff both old
and new don’t like working in that assistant post in the kitchen. This is where staff relations
should come and investigate what exactly is going wrong, why staff aren’t staying. Is
the position under paid, it is too much work or are assistants lacking training. All of these
issues must be investigated by the HR Manager.

 As figure 3.1 shows, a majority of leavers are short-term employees, most of whom have less
than six months of employment.

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•Employee relations are concerned with maximizing the organizations performance, revenue

and cost effectiveness. Analysing the labour force is one of the main ways to achieve these
goals. Keeping a good relationship with the staff and relevant trade unions is vital for smooth
running of the City Hotel.

 Communications Plan

 There are many types of workplace communication. Many employees use e-mail, social
networking, phones, intranets, IM, meetings and presentations.

City hotel is a hotel with no real communication between staff and management or heads of
department which results in miss communication.

The level of communication within the City Hotel seems quite mixed.

From research done on the Supply plan we see that last year the hotel lost 18 (26%)
employees, something that could have been avoided if there was enough communication
between department heads and the HR Manager.

This is especially the case when the hotel plans on implementing the staff flexibility plan.
Communication is vital to allow for smooth operation and switching from one department to
the next.

 In note 7 we see that the management do make the effort of interviewing the staff regarding
issues or concerns for improvement within the hotel, this could be reinforced by the
previously mentioned open door policy. This is a good way of keeping in contact with the
staff and making them feel respected and part of the organization.

 As standard the hotel should have telephones in each department, heads of department,
supervisors and the duty manager should always carry a portable phone to be able to keep in
contact. Staff comment cards should always be available to allow staff to make anonymous
comments regarding problems they might be having. These issues must always be tackled by
the HR Manager and relevant department heads to keep a healthy level of communication and
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relationship with the staff. As mentioned earlier if comment cards are unavailable the
proposed open door system should be introduced allowing staff to meet with upper
management.

 •Having a communication plan within an organization is extremely vital and useful for both
management and service staff alike. Information is easily accessible and problems can be
relayed quickly.

The other form of communication is at a personal level where management must feel
comfortable with the staff and be able to interact without problem from both sides.
As distinct from a formal Appraisal, Training and Performance Plans are intrinsically linked.
Training leads to Performance and Performance can lead back to Training. It is a fluid on-
going process, which will eventually lead back to Appraisal. Appraisal on the other hand
needs to be set aside from the day-to-day operations and discussed in a formal environment.
To this end we have merged the titles of Training and Performance.

References:

 PQRI Manufacturing Technology Committee – Risk Management Working Group -

Risk Management Training Guides
(http://www.pqri.org/pdfs/MTC/HAZOP_Training_Guide.pdf)
 Human Resource Management - Seventh Edition – Laura Hall, Derek Torrington &
Stephen Taylor. Published by: FT Prentice Hall
 Rees, D. (2004) "Matrix structure & the training implications" Industrial and
Commercial Training (vol 36 number 5)
 Patton, George S (1885-1945) “US Army General”
 Human Resource Management in Ireland – Third Edition – Patrick Gunnigle, Noreen
Heraty, Michael j. Morley. Published by:Gill& Macmillan (2006)

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