HUMAN RESOURCE PART -1

HUMAN RESOURCE PART -1

Employee Recruitment

          Employee recruitment is a central feature of any comprehensive HRM strategy and plan for it implementation. This area is frequently the practical and professional domain of the human recourse or personnel department within a company.  As such, this department has primary responsibility for recruiting and hiring all full-time, permanent employees. How ever, operational areas, such as banqueting department in hotels, may have the authority to manage their own part-time and casual work force recruitment.

            Demographic and other labour market pressures have resulted in major changes to both recruitment methods used in the level of investment in recruitment within the hospitality and tourism industry. 

            Employee recruitment has a number of divers applications for the formulation of the HRM strategies. These include:

• The extent to which a company chooses either to invest in the development of relatively untrained recruits or to attract skilled, and consequently, more expensive, entrants has an impact on training needs. Selecting relatively unskilled staff, of course, requires a compensatory investment in training.
• The potential for promotion opportunities within a firm should influence whom the company targets for recruitment. If the company is small or family owned or managed, for example, opportunities for advancement may be limited and ambitious high – flyers may well leave after a short period. To avoid this early turnover that results from inappropriate hiring decisions, policies addressing in – company, mobility and promotion must be clearly defined prior to establishing recruitment priorities.
• Recruitment strategies might be influenced by other organisational policies for example, choices regarding whom to recruit and hire maybe promoted by a company’s affirmatives action policies. These sorts of policies often require a company to achieve and maintain an appropriate ratio of, say, male/female or Asians-Blacks-Caucasians-Hispanics among its employees.
• Knowledge of the local labour market can influence chooses regarding whom to recruit and how to go about this recruitment. Effective employee recruitment depends on complete and accurate information about the labour markets a company proposes to tap. For example, if a company defines its labour market ‘all hospitality and tourism colleagues on a nation wide basis’, it would be important to have information about courses, level, and the quality of gratuities at the various institutions. In other instances, where the labour market is confined to the immediate geographic vicinities, it might be important for a company to have information regarding the local education, training, and employment environment, or any of the following considerations:

·         Local school and college programme provision.

·         Local employment and unemployment situations.

·         Local demographic matters. For example some tourist destinations are also popular retirement areas (Florida, Spain and south coast of England) this could effect the priority give to recruiting specific groups.

Collection of such information requires an element of research so that strategy planning can be based on complete and accurate labour market data.

02   

 Manpower Planning

            HR is the main asset of the work organisation, especially in the hospitality industry. The high level of staff turnover, the needs for trained and experienced staff, the need for management development draw attention to the importance of effective manpower planning. It is understandable, therefore, that in recent years greater recognition has been given to the importance of planning manpower recourses as well as other economic resources.

            A recent survey of steps taken to over come manpower problems in 92 organisations concludes that greater priority will need to be given to manpower planning and human resource management as the availability of people an skills becomes more critical. Employers will have to continue to identify the skills need to achieve objectives and to restructure to make best use of the skills available. In addition they will need to device human resource policies aimed at maintaining competitiveness in the labour market and to meting employees aspirations.

The importance of manpower planning has been emphasised by the hotels and catering EDC. The industry produces a service provided by people in face-to-face relationships with the customer. Manpower planning should be adopted to ensure that employment [policies from an integral part of general company policy. The type of manpower planning advocated is one, which stresses the way in which action and policy should be brought together.

A broad approach to manpower planning  

Manpower planning should not be viewed in isolation but as an integral part of the broader process of strategic planning. Manpower planning is linked to the development of the organisation as a whole and should take account of external environmental factors, for example demographic changes, patterns of employment such as part-time, female or order workers, developments in the educational system, the level of competition, government initiatives on employment and training or employment legislation, and developments in information technology and automation. It will be necessary to clarify the extent and scope of the manpower plan, the target date and the length of the forecasts are to be made, and the amount to information and detail operational activities, in the case of a hotel for example, the number of cleaning staff to the number of rooms, or the number of waiting staff to the number of covers in the restaurant.

Main stages in manpower planning

Whatever the nature and scope of the manpower plan, it is possible to identify four main stages:

(i)                 An analysis of present staffing resources;

(ii)               An estimation of likely changes by the target date –this determines the manpower supply;

(iii)             A forecast of staffing requirements for the target date-this determines the manpower demand;

(iv)             Measures to ensure the required staffing recourses are available as and when required.

The reconciliation of supply and demand is the basis of the manpower plan and a personnel management action programme.

Manpower supply forecast

In order to determine an accurate forecast of manpower supply, it is necessary to have an effective staffing inventory and system of personnel records including details of occupational structure and staff turnover. It is important what the record system is kept up to record system should be able to indicate readily both more basic details, such as the age able to converse in a foreign language.

  The supply forecast must also take account of changes, additions and losses, incremental improvements in staff experience and training, and current programmes of management development.

Application of manpower planning

The underlying concepts of manpower planning are basically straightforward. Although there are a number of sophisticated quantitative techniques and computer programmes available, these should be applied only when really necessary and most probably only in the larger units. Manpower planning can take a number of different forms in different organisations. In smaller hotels for example, it can be undertaken at a move basic level. The important points is the recognition of the need for an effective system of manpower planning appropriate to the demands and requirements of the particular hospitality organisation.

Potential benefits

The use of manpower planning offers many potential benefits. An effective manpower plan will provide:

·         Links between objectives and organisation structure, and clarification of personnel policies;

·         Information on staffing requirements for forward planning at both the strategic level, for example a major extension to a hotel, and at the day-to-day operational level;

·         Indication of trends and likely changes in staffing recourses in order to anticipate potential future difficulties while there is still a choice of action;

·         A trigger for the development of effective personnel strategies and procedures, and a personnel management action programme for such activities as recruitment and selection, training and retraining, wage/salary levels, management development, transfers and redeployment, early retirements and accommodation requirements.

Manpower planning involves considerable uncertainty and mistakes are bound to occur. Forward planning is particularly difficult in the hospitality industry, which is susceptible to changes in the external environment and customer tastes, and seasonal patterns of demands. But manpower planning is therefore even more important. Coupled with good communications and meaningful participation, effective manpower planning will help to alleviate effects, which are potentially harmful to members of staff or to organisational performance.

Staff recruitment and selection

The nature of the hospitality industry and its pattern of staffing are such that most managers are likely to be faced frequently with the need to recruit and select For example, the recent HCTC study has forecast that the hotel and catering industry will need to recruit an average of 13.000 new staff with 3,000 of these skilled supervisory and management levels. The need is for effective methods and procedures of recruitment and selection. It is questionable, however, to what extent performance matches the ideal .A major report by the hotels and catering EDC was highly critical of recruitment and selection methods. According to the report, selection methods are unsophisticated and lacking in objectivity. Managers should adopt more systematic problem-solving methods for determining their recruitment policy. Although the report was published some years ago, it appears that improvements still need to be made. From a recent study of the management of human recourses is four large hotel groups Crony found that:

The recruitment and selection process tended to be ad hoc and informal in the majority of the groups, and even where formal procedures existed implementation

At the unit level tended to be informal. Such an approach runs contrary to the ‘human recourses management’ approach because a key feature of ‘human recourses management’ is the importance attributed towards having sophisticated and effective recruitment and selection procedures.

·         Recognise the importance of a planned and systematic approach to recruitment and selection;

·         Assess the effectiveness of present policies and design new procedures as necessary and

·         Review the methods, skills and techniques of staff selection.

A planned and systematic approach

It is possible to identify five basic stages in planned and systematic approach to recruitment and selection.

Stage 1 – The need to know about the job to be filled

Is the job really necessary, or can it be covered adequately by reorganising or reallocating other jobs? If the job is necessary, what does it entail? What are the duties and responsibilities attached to the job?

       

Stage 2- The need to know about the type of person to do the job

What qualities and attributes are required for a person to perform the job?  

effectively?

    

Stage 3-The need to know likely means of attracting applicants

It is necessary to recruit outside? If so where are suitable applicants most likely                

to be found? Which are the best sources of labour and methods of recruitment?    

      

Stage 4- The need to know how best to access the candidates likely suitability for the job.

How best should information be collected about the candidates? How should the selection process be planned?

Stage5-The need for induction and follow-up

How best should the socialisation process be undertaken? How should new members of staff be introduced to the `policies, procedures and working practise?

Degree and application

In the smaller hospitality units an elaborate selection procedure may be neither readily practicable nor appropriate, but there is still the need for a planned and systematic approach. This provides a framework and set of principles, which should underline all recruitment and selection. Between the larger and the smaller unit there is the difference only of degree and application.

             

Underlying considerations

            

Whatever the procedures for the selection of staff there are 3 fundamental considerations, which should underlie recruitment policy.

·         Recruitment and selection should not be considered in isolation, i.e. simply finding someone to do a particular job, but in the context of the overall manpower plan and personnel management action programme. It maybe necessarily to consider, for example, the potential for training and future promotion, and adaptability to possible future changes in working practices.

·         There is a need to consider not just technical competence and the ability to perform certain tasks, but also sociability. In the hospitality industry it is especially important to consider how new members of staff are likely to fit into the social structure and membership of work groups.

·         Recruitment must comply fully with all legal requirements related to employment and follow recommended codes of practice. It is important to ensure justice and fair treatment to all applicants, and the exercise of ’social’ responsibilities, for example the employment registered disabled people and ethnic minorities.