CIPD Level 7 – Resources and Talent Management Assignment Sample – Summative Assessment (40572/20) 7RTM

This paper is for sample purpose only

Introduction

For businesses it is critical to ensure that they create an effective and comprehensive strategy for human resource management. The functions of human resources are associated with employee recruitment, selection, development and training of employees, compensations, benefits, employee relations and much more. An effective human resources plan can help in handling problems which may rise for the hotel and its employees (Stewart and Brown, 2019). This plan considers numerous factors such as culture and size of business, market competition, budget and financial resources of hotel. This report is aimed at analyzing and evaluating key features of employment market, recruitment, selection and induction practices, retention strategies, diversity management and flexible working initiatives.

Key Features of Employment Market

The content of labour market is complex as its functions are associated with market economy, economics, education and social nature. According to Atkinson and Storey (2016) Employment market functions involve distribution function of employment on industries, professions, sectors, territorial areas and qualifications, revenue sharing of economic operators, training function, through all these functions labour remuneration can be accomplished. The social function of employment market is associated with meeting supply and demand of labour, humanization of labour, improving conditions of labour, protecting the unemployed and retraining them. The training and education function includes information related to vocational training, education, work experience accumulation and reintegration of labour. Development and training opportunities will help hotel to retain employees. Political function is associated with reinforcing political and social stability. One of the most common features of employment market is that it is segmented which creates differences in supply and demand of labour. There are three levels of employment market which are primary, secondary and tertiary. The first level includes workers of the hotel who are at advantage of training and higher education. In this level there is employment and income stability and there are real professional growth chances. Rather than hiring new employees, hotel may consider filling vacancies through internal promotions. According to Piasna and Myant (2017) the secondary segment involves high staff turnover, low level of employee skills, wages are also low, there are less opportunities for promotion and professional growth prospects are few. This segment of employment market has less access to training and education.

Employment market is depends on jurisdiction, working schedule, duration of contract and location of labour. The employment market is inflexible and rigid, thus it may impact process of recruitment. Rigidity in labour market is natural due to legal and institutional aspects, geographical evolution, professional training and lifestyle. There are differences in salaries which exist within hotel industry. This is because inflation and unemployment rate may be high. Another factor of rigidity is minimum wage in employment market which may not leave any space for adjusting to market conditions. Study conducted by (Behrens, et. al, 2014) minimum wage may affect level of productivity and need for hiring new employees. If the productivity of employee is lower than the minimum wage, the hotel may decide whether it wants to dismiss or does not wants hiring of new personnel. In case, the minimum wage level is higher then negative outcomes related to employment and there are more individuals whose productivity is low like young generation who does not have education or experience, then they are not included in workforce market and they are performing duties without any legal documents. The hotel industry is dynamic and flexible which may lead employees to switch jobs quickly and create high quality workplace. This encourages employees to opt for better paid jobs and results in growth of employee’s number. Another major feature of employment market is flexibility. This flexibility promotes employment as well as atypical positions such as jobs that have variable work schedule, part-time jobs that have reduced work hours and self employment. The hotel is offering part-time jobs to employees which keep shifting day and night. This affects process of recruitment as not all employees may be willing to switch constantly between day and night shifts.

Regulations and laws are also a key feature of employment market. This feature of market is specifically associated with workforce and requirement for ensuring employee protection and loyal competition. The employment market legislation can help in improving fight against unemployment and effective management of employment population. Employment market is dynamic and determined by factors of education, training and demographic. Another major feature of employment market is that it is competitive. The competition in the market affects the process of recruitment and retention especially for managerial and reception roles. Employment market is growing more diverse and aggressive. This requires hotel to be more specific when selecting candidates for managerial and reception roles. In case hotel recruiters are unable to meet expectations of recruitment measures, it can affect hotel negatively. Study conducted by Dube, et. al, (2016) showed that the impacts include high development and training costs which deactivates high turnover rates and poor execution. Competition feature of employment market needs hotel to offer competitive benefits and compensation package. It requires hotel to assure that packages are remotely aggressive and reasonable. For minimizing the impact of competition on recruitment and retention, hotel can also offer candidates a decent employee referral program. As the hotel is running of budget, such referral program would be a cost effective method. Employee market trends can be tackled by making application simple that is through online platforms. Labour market trends require employers to build their image by using social networking sites. The people who are conducting the interview need to be well-trained so that they are able to find right people for the job. Hotel can opt for a hiring model which is elastic and consistent so that it can be adjusted according to the changing workloads and conditions. The labour market trends keep changing and impact recruitment and retention process which can be handled by hotel by adopting appropriate practices in recruitment, selection and induction.

Recruitment, Selection and Induction Practices

The process of human resources involves recruitment, selection and induction. This includes finding, hiring and training of employees. In today’s global market the talent pool is quite big and it is also competitive. According to (Hasoon, et. al, 2018) revealed that if there is no strategy in place for process of human resources then it might not be able to bring appropriate talent to the organization. This is often termed as full life-cycle recruiting. The hotel first needs to figure out what it needs in terms of knowledge, competencies, experience and budget for hiring. It is also to be ensured that this is aligned with recruitment, induction and corporate requirements.

Recruitment Practices

The process of recruitment involves identifying needs of the organization for employing people to the extent that application forms arrive in the organization. Two kinds of recruitment practices can take place which include internal recruitment and external recruitment. Internal recruitment can results in lots of savings for the hotel. The employers already know very well how business operations would require training and time for new employees in order to fit in. Thus, they look for people from within the organization. For the hotel this strategy can work in form of promotion. Internal promotion act can also help in incentivizing staff to work harder. Hotel can also use following recruitment practices for employing people in managerial and reception roles:

1. The very first best practice of recruitment is associated with process of recruiting. Dany and Torchy (2017) study asserted that there needs to be well-planned process for recruitment. The recruitment process can be adjusted according to the needs and size of the organization.
2. Another important practice is investment. Hotel can invest in highly-skilled recruiters and train them. Training, growth and development of recruiters would make them more efficient in fulfillment of their duties and recruit quality talent.
3. Sales function can be treated as an important part of recruitment as the only difference is that recruiter is not selling a product and are trying to sell a candidate or an idea. Recruiters are also better able to gauge needs of employee and client and ensure that they are fitting each other.
4. Managers can be hired for recruitment process. A consultative and strong relationship needs to be established with hiring managers. These managers are under constant pressure for filling out the vacant positions. These managers provide recruiters with a short time frame and basic information. The recruiters need to work with hiring managers for recruiting best candidate for the position. According to Johnson, et. al, (2014) this hiring manager is a trusted advisor on whose expertise and advice an organization lies.
5. Another good practice in process of recruitment is service level agreements. The agreements between recruiters and hiring managers estimate responsibilities and timeframes which are realistic. Such agreements also make communication easier, help in building good hiring manager relationships and improve results. Other good examples of recruitment process include candidate pools, referrals, data driven and assessments

Selection Practices

The search and hiring of right talent can be difficult. There is skills shortage, tough market competition and diversity in candidates’ expectations of jobs which has complicated the process of recruitment and selection for HR managers. The selection process provides an opportunity to HR to hire best candidates. The HR managers of the hotel are under constant pressure for cost savings and they need to work keeping in mind budget constraints. Selection of right people for business can be done by adopting following practices:

1. Study conducted by Bender, et. al, (2018) emphasized on culture of the company and developing a strong employer branding strategy would help job seekers to understand what the hotel operations are like. The culture of the company can be leveraged and used as a significant tool for attracting talent.
2. Hotel can use information applicant tracking which provides valuable database of potential candidates and make sure that organization saves its time and money.
3. Another practice of selection is to leverage social media platforms. These social media platforms of the hotel can attract talent and has a larger reach to new talent.
4. Adopting agile hiring methods can also help in selection and recruitment process. The workforce today is increasingly mobile which provide broader chance for capturing talent candidates.
5. According to Mohapatra and Sahu, (2017) optimizing the recruitment funnel can help in selection process as it can determine how many applications have been received, how many people are to be interviewed and other such questions that would establish benchmarks for comparing and contrasting.

Induction Practices

The new hires of the company are provided with induction programmes that allow them to meet other workers and skills are shown to them that they must learn. The initial days at the work involve observing and an experienced worker teaching some basic skills to new hire for performing the job. Large firms arrange detailed training scheme which is done in-house while the hotel can also arrange a small session of induction. The best practices of induction include following:

1. It may take long time for employees to adjust with existing employees and culture of company for working in full-momentum. Salau, et. al, (2014) revealed that for employee induction, consistency and preparation are most vital components. Once a process has been developed it is important to keep it consistent.
2. Getting feedback on employee induction programme is quite critical. Hotel can get opinion of the new staff members when they get settled and ask for their opinion. This will allow hotel to ask feedback of new employees and make appropriate changes.
3. Another strategy that can be used after induction program has been completed is mentoring program. Mentor can guide the new hire about the policies of the hotel so that new employees are kept on track of goals and benefit performance review process by checking progress of employees.
4. According to Saks and Gruman (2014) one of the best practices for employee engagement is to make employees feel that they are welcomed by the organization. When an employee accepts a job offer, a welcome message is send. This message can include a link to online resources which provide information about the hotel to the new employee.

Hotel can adopt these recruitment, selection and abduction practices for effective management in critical times.

Retention Strategies, Diversity Management and Flexible Working Initiatives

The hotel chain is experiencing high turnover as most of the female employees are leaving both managerial and reception roles and only male employees are left which has given rise discrimination cases. This may be because company does not have right retention strategies, the management of diversity is bad and employees are not being provided with flexible working hours. Following are some recommended initiatives which can be used by hotel chain for dealing with issues.

Retention Strategies

The management of the hotel chain needs to implement retention strategies which will help in retaining employees for long period of time. When a hotel hires new employee, it invests its money and time on them for bringing him to level of existing employees. Employees are constantly looking for change thus they may leave the hotel if their needs and desires are not being fulfilled correctly. Therefore, hotel chain is required to implement following initiatives for retaining employees so that it does not have to invest in new employees:

1. Providing feedback to employee is very important. Employees can be encouraged by giving feedback on personal and skill development, other work-related topics and company issues. Open-door policy can be employed which helps workforce to feel that their opinion matters for organization. Suggestion box can be used for gathering employee ideas and providing credit to employees if hotel implements their ideas. This gives rise to interactive atmosphere among the staff that makes employees to feel that they are meaningful for the organization.
2. Another technique that can be used by Hotel chain is recognition. According to Aguenza and Som, (2018) recognizing and appreciating employee efforts can help in improving motivation levels. Incentive pay programs, recognition programs and enhancing employee salaries can encourage employees to perform more than their expected duties. It is suggested that all employees who have improved productivity can be appreciated instead of just one employee of the month.
3. Just paying competitive salaries is not enough for retaining employees instead hotel needs to give workers some personal time off along with sick and paid leaves. Deery and Jago, (2015) in their study showed that work-life balance is a great way of managing employee retention.
4. If workers feel that they are not being treated fairly, then they may leave organization. Hotel is recommended to create disciplinary policies which are fair and allow managing staff equally.

Diversity Management Initiatives

One of the basic problems hotel chain is facing is related to diversity. The hotel chain needs effective diversity management technique that will promote inclusion of employees from different backgrounds by incorporating new programs and policies. Adopting strategies of diversity management will allow to mitigating pending discrimination cases. Following practices of diversity management can be employed by the hotel:

1. Study conducted by Sabharwal (2014) senior executives who are responsible for formulating policy and promoting workplace diversity can help in implementing effective diversity strategies.
2. The management needs to employ fresh talents when high turnover is taking place. Usually hotel may use traditional new-employee sources for recruiting new talent yet it is recommended for the hotel that it must explore different talent pools. Hiring individuals who have diverse knowledge and skills would help in delivering improved quality services.
3. Diversity can be made a part of objectives of the company. This will allow hotel chain to incorporate diverse people belonging to different work backgrounds.
4. Hotel can also organize resource groups which encourage employees belonging to different backgrounds to connect and communicate. In case, people of minority group feel isolated then this can increase employee turnover. Hotel can create avenues for socializing, networking and mentoring for increasing performance levels and improving employee engagement.
5. Other practices include being realistic when setting objectives that is involve everyone who is responsible for diversity and is managing their expectations efficiently. Hotel also needs to build in metrics for measurement of diversity management that would include quantifiable short and long term and specific objectives (Holck, et. al, 2016). Moreover, managers must be provided with education of benefits of diversity. Employees can be coached, mentored and skills can be built for avoiding issues of diversity. Effective management of diversity will provide hotel chain with opportunities of success and diversity management principles will help in achieving business goals of hotel.

Flexible Working Initiatives

The developments in technology, communication systems and enhanced consideration related to work-life balance have increased importance of flexible working initiatives. Recent research conducted by Timewise claimed that in UK there are 87 percent full time workers who have flexible working hour. The flexible working policies were actually designed for assisting working mothers yet with time these practices are becoming a part of organization as employees are demanding more flexible hours. Flexible hour policies also let organization to retain employees. Hotel chain can implement flexible working initiatives which help them retain employees. Flexible working hours can be incorporated by adopting following practices:

1. Job sharing is one of the techniques that can help. Shagvaliyeva and Yazdanifard, (2014) study showed that job sharing involves two people to work on a same role on part-time basis, for example hotel can appoint two part-time employees and split a contract of full-time hours.
2. Employees may also utilize compressing hours. For instance, an employee may work full time hours that is 35 to 40 hours in a week yet this will get shortened to consecutive days which results in longer period of shifts.
3. The practice of flexi-time will allow employees to select when they will start working and when will the end according to limits that is 8 to 9 hours per day. This policy requires employees to be present at the office during core hours that is 10 am to 4 am. Hotel chain can use implement this policy.
4. There is a practice of annualized hours which gives workforce the freedom and flexibility to work within schedules and stipulates for how many hours staff will work. Similar to flexi-time, the policy of annualized hours also include core hours for which employees have to work regularly to achieve (Rubery, et. al, 2016).

Such policies of flexible working hours and diversity management will help in retention of employees.

Conclusion

Based on the analysis and evaluation conducted above related to employment market, recruitment and retention strategies, it can be concluded that hotel chain needs to remain competitive by enhancing diversity management and employee retention through flexible working initiatives. The issues of discrimination can be tackled by implementing policies of diversity management while issues of high turnover rate can be tackled by incorporating policies of flexible working.

References

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