Strategic HRM in the hospitality industry

Strategic Human Resource management is crucial for the Hospitality industry because in this service sector industry the product or the revenue generator and human Resource or employees or associates are serving the guest. This means that the Human Resource is very important as well as crucial in the service sector industry.

The Strategic Human Resource Management in the hospitality industry is very well associated with the Human beings which is the asset of the organization to achieve its goals thus in simple language it is the backbone of the organization. To achieve its goals the associates have to be very well groomed for the organization to look upon the quality of the service and the customer care.

“Business or organization strategy may be defined as the attempt by those who an organization to find ways to position thus business/organization objective so they can exploit the planning environment and maximize the future use of the capital.”(Tyson S & York A., 2000)

HR department was initially called as employee relation department in the organisation. Employee relation was a blend of human resource and industrial relation.human resource evolved in mid 90’s as a separate department . In earlier daysThere was not much importance given to the personnel department .a famous management scholar peter drucker stated that”the job of a personnel department was partly a file clerk’s job, partly a house keeping job, partly a social worker job and partly firefighting, heading off union trouble”.But human resource fully evolved slowly and came to be separate profession.HRM is the management concerned with the recruitment,selection,training and development of an organization in order to retain the employee as well as motivate them to satisfy the organizational needs.the basic objective of HRM is to jell and move the organizational needs and employees need in same direction of vision and mission statement by implementing and evaluating various policies and programs.

Scott and others have defined HR as”It is an lateral extension or subdivision extending from the main part of a management which is responsible on a staff basis for focusing as those aspects of relationship of management to employees and employees to employees and with one department of the individual and the group. The objective is to attain maximum individual development,desirable relationship between employers and employees and effective moulding of human resources as contrasted with physical resources.” In 1965 institute of personnel management , london defines HR “Personnel management is that part of management concerned with people at work and with their relationship within an organization.its aims to bring together and develop into an effective organization to the men and women who make up an enterprise and having regard for the well being of the individual and of working groups, to enable them and to make their best contribution to its success” (Tailor,R.K. Agarwal,N.P.2009)

Todays HR not only do the basic functions like recruiting, selecting, training the human resources, they have move forward now HR managers are responsible for strategic planing.they think constantly and strategically which is very necessary for the organization to survive in this competitive world and for future success. To achieve strategic aim or objectives of an organization HRM make it easier for firms by attracting and maintaining employees and also to manage effectively . Human resource play an significant role to analyze the factor representing change. Changes that potentially affects survival, growth, efficiency and effectiveness as well as excellence, productivity and profitability in business. Globalization has increased business competition. In order to survive and operate now and in the near future, organization are planning strategies with the human resource so that the organisation performance can be increased and can survive for a long period of time.SHRM concept is not too old ,it started in 1990’s.this concept became popular an gained momentum due to strategic importance of human resource.business organization is existing in a very competitive environment where there is less of resources like physical, information, human. Jeffrey A. Mello defined SHRM as “strategic human resource management is the implication of business strategy for all HR systems within the firm by translating company objectives into specific people management systems.the specific approach and process utilized will vary from organization to organization, but the key concept is consistent, that is, essentially all HR programs and policies are integrated within larger framework helping achieve the firm’s objective.” Mathis and Jackson says that “strategic HR management refers to organizational use of employees to gain or keep a competitive advantage against competitors.it does so through the HR department formally contributing to company wide planning efforts, or by simply being knowledgeable about issues facing the organization.” (Tailor,R.K. Agarwal,N.P.2009)

The Human Resource which is one of the most important asset of the hotel industry in which more than 50% of the money is spend on the associates of the organization, so they need to be empowered, motivated and trained so that they help the organization to achieve the organization strategy, customer satisfaction and the quality of service. The training in each and every organization is to develop the employees to do something good to achieve organization long term and short term objectives.

Customer satisfaction is an external idea for company, while customer focus reflect the company’s internal move towards customers and communicate between company and its customers. Customer focus is necessary for long term customer relationships and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is directly connected to the customer service. Making real customer focus within a company requires energy and continues doing of work inspite of any trouble. To achieve long term goals, the training must be long term oriented. Different organization changes their corporate culture. This results that some organizations are more customer service oriented than the others. Customer focusing culture can be made through wide training. The hotels must be more open to their customers. In all the organization this had been changed to rash supervision manner to a more customer oriented requirements for changes in employee attitudes and behavior. To get top level of customer satisfaction, the management has to make sure the suitable behaviors of the front workers who in fact meet the customer and provides the service. The quality of service is directly associated with meeting the customer’s needs and opportunity.Skorstad E. 2009

HR has focuses on the organizational aspects of human resource management. The organizational activities in managing the human resource of an organization giving training and development, motivating their staff, compensating their staff etc. carried out to achieve the corporate objectives. The role of SHRM is that of strategic business associate. Giving high quality of employee helping the business managers to strategically organize the role of human resource within the organization.HRM covers most of the employment practices, recruitment etc. Strategic human resource management gives more importance on human resource in the organization. SHRM looks after the managerial actions which affect behavior of their attempt and to create and execute organized strategies which helps them to attain objectives of the business and bring more worth to the organization. Strategic human resource management integrates the thought of organizational strategy. Strategy means to use the pattern of organizational moves and different management techniques to attain organizational objectives and the mission of the organization.HR person should have the consultation skills which include critical and behavioral skills enabling the manager to work with the other managers and come up with strategic solutions to the problems. Thus HR manager is in a superior position t give significance suggestions about the functioning of other departments, solve problems and deliver improve performance.

The organization must have a good understanding of their customers in order to understand their quality preferences and successfully implement service quality programs. The interaction with the customers is very important to understand service quality and how the organization is judged this can be done through customer feedback forms etc. These interactions given insight and have been termed as the moments of truth. These interaction and insights can be wrong if the staff does not have the capacity of dealing with the customers. By empowering the staff and encouraging customer interaction with staff and letting them to solve the problems can help to improve service quality and get positive customer feedback. (Kandampully.J. 2004),(Mok.C. 2004),(Sparks.B.,2004)

quality circles concept was started in japan.quality circles means group of 3-12 workers basically front line managers meet for 1 hour per week voluntary during working hours,where they discuss the problem and find a solution to it.Employees at the entry level are not very happy because they are paid very low,more of physical work,seniors does not treat them properly, poor conditions for working. If employees are paid adequately and fairly, given safe working conditions,social relevance of work is given,stress management, recreational facilities etc . Quality circle increase workers participation, involvement, commitment, job satisfaction.quality of work life helps for development of human resource.

When we talk about customer satisfaction and quality services . Employees should be given quality of work life balance. As discussed in the lecture QWL means balancing the personal and professional life.the basic concept of QWL is that job should not be job ,it should be the center of employees personal life. Employees should be given time to spend with their family and friends.

From the above essay I conclude that in order to maintain quality services and customer care HR has to involve the Staff or employees because they are the main resource of a any organization, A committed staff gives his 100% engagement to the organization. Organization needs to do follow many strategies to make and maintain an engaged staff in organization. That practices are we seen here. The organization not only understand the customer but understand the employee also when organization needs to give quality, care and satisfaction to the customer .only the brand name of organization or equipment in the organization cannot create any product, even the brand name is made by employees. A disengaged employee cannot give a best result. An organization needs to apply strategy in to satisfy the employee. The engagement of an employee achieved only with the help of strategies. Organization should give empowerment to the , so that he can bring out new ideas which will help the organization In achieving the goal. An engaged employee will recognize organization’s need and work to achieve the organizational objective as well as the individual goal. So that the employee engagement can give Quality and Customer care and can achieve the long term goal for orgaAll the organization today in order to sustain in the market is seeking ways to improve their performance in different ways. These strategies include Performance Related Pay (PRP) system empowerment, transformational leadership, quality management, quality circle etc. It is thus necessary for the supervisor to find some time from his work and examine the performance of his employees and subordinates, to give them performance appraisals. This is important so that the supervisor knows about the strength and weakness of his employees and the employees also understand where they stand in the organization. The employers according to the performance of the employees should encourage them by giving incentives and motivate them by giving them some awards etc. This encourages the employees to perform better and keep improving by them. (Sharma G.K 2007)

Empowerment means the liberty and freedom gives to the employee within the organization. Thais means the employee that employee should not misuse it in any other way. It is a HR strategy for winning the employee strategy and wining employee commitment. It is a managerial style which allows the non management staff to make decisions without the approval of the manager. There are some important methods to achieve employee empowerment. To start with quality circles it plays an important role for the group of workers and also for the front line staff. At the time of work the front line workers should meet for one hour in a week willingly and not by force. Second is the quality of work life balance which refers to the quality of being encouraging of a successful result of the work environment.

The organization is more dependent on their customers. The organization needs to keep in mind that the customer satisfaction is important for the growth of the organization. The , Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism and importance of the current customer base is vital. It is much easier and cheaper to keep the current customers satisfied and loyal, than acquire new customers to replace the ones that have started to use the rival’s products or services because of the unsatisfactory service or quality. This is where the strategy of human resource management comes into play. It is with the implementation of flexibility, empowerment, transformational leadership, employee commitment and empowerment, business context, employee relations, high quality service and customer satisfaction.