DPHRM - Case Study 02 [Capability Building & Enhancement [DPHRM-S17, S-18, S-19, S-20, S-21]]

Chartered Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (Inc.)

Chartered Qualification in Human Resource Management

Competency Batch Level

Capability Building &

DP-22-ON-E-132 DPHRM
Enhancement
Knowledge Management [DPHRM-S17]
Collaborative Working Environment [DPHRM-S18]
Subject Presentation Skills [DPHRM-S19]
Talent Management [DPHRM-S20]
Strategic Learning and Development [DPHRM-S21]

Assessment mode Case Study

Handing over date 28th March 2023
Submission Date 17th May 2023 at 5.00 pm
Word Count 1500 words

Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka during and post COVID 19

Knowledge and Talent Management Issues

Background
In early 2019 the Sri Lankan Leisure and Tourism industry looked like it was to take off, putting
the country as the number one tourist destination in the world as quoted by the “Lonely Planet.”
Sri Lanka was already beginning to see the arrivals increasing, giving much hope to the industry
in particular and every Sri Lankan citizen. Sri Lanka tourism set very ambitious projections
over the short and the medium term for tourist arrivals.

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Disaster Strikes
Then to the misery of everyone, disaster has to strike in April 2019 with the Easter Sunday
attacks, which sent shock waves across the country and all over the world, not only with grieve
but also causing uncertainty and fear about travel. However, people soon realised that this could
happen anywhere in the world, and travel started slowly but steadily, showing signs of
normalcy without much of a lapse.
However, the COVID 19 Pandemic that hit the world in the early parts of 2020 and started to
affect Sri Lanka around March 2020 undoubtedly came to stay for some time, crippling almost
every industry in the world. The impact was the worst for the Travel, Leisure and Hotel Industry
for obvious reasons, due to fear and travel restrictions. Today with the 3rd wave, we are not
even sure when this will end. While everyone sees some light end of the tunnel, no one knows
how long the tunnel is.

Sri Lankan Hotel Industry

The Sri Lankan Hotel Industry was affected very badly, with the hotel sector facing an
enormous challenge maintaining infrastructure and paying salaries to keep things going hoping
for the best soon. Functions, hotel stay and travel, was restricted or almost halted 100% in some
instances.
However, with Sri Lanka as a country managing the 1st wave and 2nd wave quite effectively,
the authorities began relaxing control measures and made the public more responsible for
controlling the spread of the virus. This made Sri Lankans travel more freely, motivated with
the hotels' attractive offers.
The authorities also decided to allow foreign travel from certain targeted countries with proper
controls in place to keep industry and economy going while having proper controls in place.

The current Situation

However, recently the Hotel Industry has taken a different turn.
With hospital infrastructure meeting its full capacity, hotels have been converted to quarantine
Centers. This has enabled hotels to operate and continue to maintain infrastructure and pay
salaries to keep things going. We have seen this with the military also in the past. The military
strength and skills were used for infrastructure development with the end of the 30-year war.

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The current challenge

While hotels are operating, the question is are they operating in their domain, their strengths,
knowledge, skills and expertise. This is causing some grave issues for the industry both today
and into the future:

Talent retention: With the issues in the hotel industry, skilled talent has started looking for
alternate employment and even entrepreneurship and their own startups. This has caused and
is bound to cause further loss of talent out of the industry.

Skill Deterioration: Although hotels are operational, the skill set they are using is very far
from their core skill set. They are not practicing their regular FB skills, culinary skills, front
office skills, or even their regular housekeeping skills etc. If this situation continues for too
long, there could be significant skill drain and deterioration, which could be detrimental for the
industry as a whole. Knowledge and skills need to be used, updated and kept relevant for today
and tomorrow, and this is a significant challenge the industry is facing today.

Threat of losing Tacit Knowledge: Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that is held with
industry veterans. Unfortunately, this is not owned by the organization and is often lost with
talented people leaving the organization. Senior talent leaving will mean that you will have a
lack of experienced talent for coaching, mentoring and developing your second line. We are
continuously seeing industry veterans moving into their own startups.

“Collaborative work environment concept” challenged: A collaborative work environment

is where employees contribute and support each other towards a shared vision. However, this
concept is challenged today with an environment of fire fitting rather than a more long term
commitment towards a shared vision. People are uncertain about their jobs, and stress is
mounting, resulting in a more self-centred attitude by employees instead of supporting each
other and working as a team.

Looking Ahead
There is no doubt that Sri Lanka will be looked upon as a preferred tour destination post
COVID, with the way the pandemic was managed, hopefully, if things go forward as well as
they did before. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, but yet we don’t know how long the
tunnel is.
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The leisure, tourism and hotel industry in Sri Lanka should retain their talent and see through
the bad times effectively. Investments should be made to keep developing talent and retain
them while creating a learning environment that keeps adding value to industry talent to keep
their confidence in the industry. It is inevitable that you will have to use the new technology to
keep people involved, motivated, and interested in continuous learning and development to
keep updated on their knowledge and skills.

Your Role
Imagine that you have been hired as a consultant to advice Sri Lanka tourism on the following:
a) How can industry talent be managed and keep them updated during the pandemic
b) What is the role of HR in each of the hotels to retain their talent and keep developing
them?
c) How to retain and keep developing domain skills using virtual learning
d) How to create and manage a collaborative work environment in the new norm

Questions

1) Identify the critical talent related issues the Sri Lankan Leisure, Tourism and Hotel
Industry is bound to face in the medium to long term with the effects of the current
Pandemic
(25 Marks)
2) Critically evaluate the importance of institutionalized knowledge and tacit knowledge
for the industry and its relevance for the sustenance and growth of the industry
(20 Marks)
3) Examine how each of the hotels and the industry as a whole, can manage and maintain
a collaborative work environment during this crisis period by working together
(25 Marks)
4) Recommend and justify a comprehensive talent management strategy for the industry,
to maintain, develop and sustain talent during the pandemic period and beyond.
(30 Marks)

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