Human Resource Management in the Hotel and Catering Industry

M. J. Boella

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351970952
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book, first published in 1987, gives valuable insights into the characteristics of employment in the hotel and catering industry and useful guidance on personal techniques. It deals with fundamental issues, such as personnel policy, as well as with practical techniques.

Human Resource Management in the Hotel and Catering Industry has been written as an introductory text to human resource management in the hospitality industry. It is suitable reading for students, line managers and personnel managers in the many different sectors of the business.

chapter 1

A background to the industry’s workforce

Since the end of the Second World War the United Kingdom has seen many important developments and changes in society, the major one probably being the considerable improvement in the standard of living of the vast majority of working people. These improvements have come about as a result of many different factors including greater national productivity, the improved welfare state, more enlightened management and pressure from trade unions.

The contributions made by the hotel and catering industry to this general rise in standard of living are considerable and varied, providing essential and leisure services, employment and wealth creation. Tourism, of which the hotel and catering industry is a principal element, is now claimed to be the country’s fastest growing industry and also one of the leading earners of foreign currency. The fact that millions of people eat meals at or near their places of work or study, rather than at home, would not be possible without restaurants, cafés, public houses, fast food and take-away establishments, and ‘in-house’ catering facilities. Furthermore the improved standard of living enjoyed by most people has resulted in many more ordinary people being able to ‘enjoy a meal out’ for pleasure rather than necessity, and in spite of some reports hospital patients and school children, by and large, enjoy a better standard of food than ever before, thanks to a more efficient and professional body of catering officers.

Yet in spite of these improvements to the standard of living for the majority of the country’s population, and the technical improvements within the hotel and catering industry itself, the conditions of employment of large numbers of the industry’s staff have not even kept pace with those enjoyed by working people elsewhere. Admittedly at the top of the scale craftsmen, such as chefs who are in short supply, can command very high incomes, but at the other end of the scale kitchen porters, for example, may be lucky to earn a third of what they would earn for broadly similar work in many offices, factories and warehouses.

The reasons for the slow rate of improvement in the industry’s conditions of employment are considerable including an understandable reluctance on the part of many proprietors and managers to be among the first to charge higher prices for their services, particularly when Britain is reported to be already among the most expensive of tourist destinations. Another reason, however, is probably that the trade union movement exerts little influence in most sectors of the industry and the wages councils have certainly not been a substitute. A third reason is that the industry’s workforce consists largely of people drawn from the ‘secondary’ labour market, i.e. those people who use the industry on a short-term basis (such as students, housewives, school leavers) and who are prepared to accept low pay as they may not be the primary ‘bread winner’. Because of low pay, low union presence and the high proportion of staff drawn from the secondary labour market the industry has its own less obvious but very costly labour problems, including such things as a high labour turnover rate and ‘institutionalized pilfering’ and low standards in many establishments.

It is, of course, to be expected that some aspects of working in the hotel and catering industry are unattractive. There are the intrinsic problems which are unavoidable such as having to work evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Other problems, however, can certainly be reduced or eliminated by determined management action. These problems include unnecessary ‘split shift’ working, staff reliance on tips, ignorance of methods of calculating pay and distributing service charges, and management’s reluctance to ‘involve’ staff in matters that affect their working lives. A number of reports have highlighted these difficulties which, together with management attitudes, undoubtedly cause much of the industry’s labour difficulties. Even today for example many employers and managers expect their ordinary employees to be dedicated to their jobs, to have a ‘vocational’ attitude to their work, to sacrifice leisure time for pay that is not high by most standards. This attitude is not confined to the commercial and more entrepreneurial sectors of the industry but is found as a discordant element in many organizations. These same employers and managers fail to recognize that their own motivation to work is usually completely different from that of their staff, and that many work people throughout the community are becoming less work-orientated for various reasons. Employers in industry must reconcile themselves rapidly to the fact that the majority of potential staff are less likely to be vocationally committed unless ways and means are found to harness what some researchers claim is a natural motivation to work. And employers in the hotel and catering industry must recognize that. Instead, staff, if they are to stay, expect competitive conditions of employment and leisure, and unless these are offered the industry’s staffing problems will persist.

Even in the midst of high unemployment and a significant drop in labour turnover, many employers claim that they are unable to attract and retain competent and committed staff and they must ask themselves ‘why?’ It is interesting to note that the major sector in the industry, where there are the least, and in many cases no staff problems, is the institutional and industrial catering sector where leisure time and other conditions are generally more attractive than in many other sectors.

The hotel and catering industry and the British economy

The hotel and catering industry (see Figure 1.1) employs in excess of two million people, and in 1985 Britain was reported to be earning £20 billion in the hotel and catering industry (HCTB — Catering for Employment Seminar 1986). To do this owners, local authorities, management and employees within the industry provided for the needs of millions, including holidaymakers, business travellers, schoolchildren, students and hospital patients. The industry is now a vital part of our economy and is slowly but increasingly being recognized as such. In recognition of this importance, Mrs Sally Oppenheimer, Minister responsible for tourism in 1981 said, ‘… tourism must be accorded to its full status as an industry of absolutely major importance’ (British Travel News, 1981). Five years later Lord Young, Employment Minister, said ‘… tourism is already one of our largest employers … I therefore, want tourism to have a high profile’ (reported in Tourism in Action 1986).

Future trends affecting the hotel, catering and leisure industries

As Mrs Oppenheimer said Britain is ‘moving into a different world — a world in which service industries are growing and tourism itself will become increasingly important as leisure time increases’ (ibid). Leisure is bound to increase as a result of several different technological and social forces such as increased productivity arising from the ‘microchip’ revolution, earlier retirement and more paid holidays.

The European Travel Commission forecast that by 1990 there will be a norm of eight weeks’ annual holiday in most Western European countries.* This is likely to result in a substantial increase in second and third holidays and also in extended weekend breaks.

Increased leisure has also resulted in a significant increase in the demand for action-centred recreation. Suppliers of leisure services are responding by increasing the range of leisure facilities offered. The tremendous boom in the provision of various sports facilities and cultural centres is an example of growth in the supply of leisure facilities which are basically meeting new demands. At the same time, some of the more traditional products are again in demand. For the first time in many years a number of luxury liners have been, or are in the process of being built.

The growth of tourism

The European Travel Commission also predicts a doubling in European tourism by 1990, with the creation of 6–8 million new jobs in Europe. Of these, the British Tourist Authority (BTA) predict there will be around 50,000 new jobs per year in Britain. The BTA predicts an increase of around 15 million overseas visitors in 1985 to around 20 million in 1990.

This anticipated expansion in demand for tourist facilities is likely to be felt across the full range of the leisure and hospitality industries. Hotels, tour operators, airlines, shipping lines, tourist site operators, promoters of events and various public sector organizations are all likely to be affected.

The growth in demand for conferences, exhibitions and short courses

A major feature of technologically advanced societies is the need for business men, professionals, administrators and others to meet in order to obtain and exchange information through attendance at exhibitions, conferences, seminars and short courses. The growth in this demand has been partially satisfied by the traditional hotel sector. Increasingly, however, the provision of specifically developed facilities such as exhibition and conference centres is necessary to satisfy the continued growth in this market. In the course of the planning of the majority of these developments the opportunity is also taken to provide for leisure, entertainment and hotel facilities.

The changing hotel and catering industry

Within the hotel and catering industry itself there are important developments which have long-term implications for the industry.

First, as hotel and catering groups become larger, and also as individual establishments become larger and more complex, there has been an expansion in the junior and middle management cadres. As an example one company which only increased its total room numbers marginally, found it necessary to increase its specialist managers in the areas of marketing, sales, training and personnel by some 300 per cent between 1976 and 1980.

Also during recent years hotel and catering organizations have become more market oriented. This has led to increased market segmentation. These developments have led to many of the larger companies establishing specialist subsidiary companies, which are concerned with a range of highly specialized products. This has involved, in some cases, considerable changes in products and managements, or the negotiation of franchise-type agreement with international branded names such as Wendy’s, Huckleberry’s and Dayvilles.

This last development is associated with the rapid growth of fast food outlets in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. The nature of such operations, dependent as they are on the maintenance of rigorous operational and quality standards, is altering the face of British popular catering and is putting many of the traditional operators in jeopardy.

Even some of the new entrants with considerable resources, it was reported, found fast food a difficult market. In spite of this, popular catering is still a relatively easy field to enter but nowadays success demands considerable expertise and promotional effort, which are increasingly becoming beyond the resources of the independent. The franchise side of the industry is growing therefore along with franchising generally.

Growth of the industry, however, has not been regularly distributed across the various sectors of the industry. Industrial catering, for example, has declined considerably losing over 100,000 employees between 1974 and 1982. Restaurants and cafés have also suffered a decline. On the other hand the fast food sector is now providing more opportunities for employment and rapid promotion. In particular it is providing openings for young people, with a significant proportion of the workforce aged under 21.

While the industry has established its importance from an economic point of view, it could be hoped that those employed in the industry would be reaping rewards that echo this increased importance. In many cases t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Foreword by Professor Philip Nailon
• Preface to the first edition
• Preface to the second edition
• Preface to the third edition
• Preface to the fourth edition
• 1  A background to the industry’s workforce
• 2  Human resource policies
• 3  Job design
• 4  Recruitment
• 5  Selection
• 6  Appointment and induction
• 7  Appraisal
• 8  Training
• 9  Management development
• 10  Job evaluation
• 11  The administration of wages and salaries
• 12  Incentives
• 13  Fringe benefits
• 14  Labour turnover and termination of employment
• 15  Industrial relations
• 16  Law of employment
• 17  Manpower planning, records and statistics
• 18  Organizing human resources
• 19  Labour costs and productivity
• 1  A review of personnel management in the private sector of the British hospitality industry
• 2  The IPM Code of Professional Practice in Personnel Management
• 3  The IPM Recruitment Code
• 4  Staff recruitment organizations
• 5  Training organizations
• 6  Salary administration, job evaluation and industrial relations
• 7  Effective staff training
• 8  Technology and employment in hotels and catering
• Bibliography
• Index