The hotel industry has been dramatically driven by various factors during the past few decades. These factors have encompassed intensive global competition, customer satisfaction, creation of consumer loyalty, and production of standardized activities. The responsibility to manage the company appropriately is bestowed upon the human resource manager. The intent of this paper is to recognize the necessity of a strategic and operational change and develop, implement, and review the change in management strategies.
The first step towards strategic management is the identification of the weak areas of the company. Given that the company has numerous opportunities to embrace such as
- Dominate the primary market, that is in Asia
- The company is in a strong financial position for expansion
- Possible global expansion
- A competitive work force
The following are the reasons that outline possible needs for change formulated after reviewing of the company strategic, policies and procedures, and operational procedures;
- Challenges from price wars
- Low motivation in service providing
- High labor turnover in the finance department
- Difficulties in attracting a qualified stuff
- Over rigid management
- Old building constraints
- Changing customer needs
- Traditional tourist market decline
- Rigid recruitment strategies
However, after consulting with various managers heading different departments the following aspects were identified as the most significant in generating an effective strategic plan
- Improvement of recruitment and selection procedures
- Training of workers through small conferences
- Consistence work review process
A good strategic management plan must be formulated on the basis of various factors including cost analysis, risk analysis, and identification of potential barriers. The most significant change required in the International Hotel Group is the labor force and challenges in the market sector. The company utilizes 80% of its workers in service provision whereas only 20% of the workers are working in different supervision and manager positions. This makes the labor force one of the most significant aspects in the development of the company. Hiring of specialized and competent workers is a crucial step towards strategic management. However, different costs are incurred in the process. The labor force takes up 25% of the hotel total income which ranges from $ 12 to $16 million per month. Recruitment of staffs takes up 1% of the total income per month, whereas maintenance and improvement of stuff takes up 2% of the monthly income. The process of recruiting, maintaining, and improvement of the labor force including managers, supervisors, and the ordinary workers seems to be expensive, but the process is highly beneficial to the company welfare. A developed workforce ensures that the company moves progressively towards the attainment of set objectives. The workforce is the reason for the success of the business. Workers are crucial in growing the name of the business through the endowment excellent services, implementation of designed strategies, develop consumer retention, and loyalty. However, the labor force is faced by various obstacles. To maintain an effective workforce the company has to cope with the highly competitive employment markets, difficulties in attracting and retaining quality personnel’s, conducting training programs and biasness in recruiting and selecting workers.
The other aspect that requires change is the marketing strategy. As long as the business exists it ought to occupy a position in the market sector. Marketing takes up almost 10% of the total monthly income to advertise the services offered by the hotel through the newspapers, billboards, radio, and trade publications. The marketing sector faces difficulties in the recruiting of an effective market agent, research difficulties in the international market, and barriers to entry in the market such as competitors. However, effective marketing is significant in creating a positive image of the company, recognition of the company, and creation of good will from the consumers. However, the chief obstacle to effective marketing is the high cost of advertisement in the media centers.
The following is a timetable showing the key activities in response to changes in labor force and the marketing strategy.
Monthly Timetable Relating to Labor force and Marketing
These activities are a collaboration of exertion to achieve consistent monthly result, competitive labor force, market review strategies, and ensure customer satisfaction.
Labor being the most sensitive aspect in the management strategy requires proper implementation method of the changes discussed above. Workforce planning is a continuous process of planning for staffing needs and workforce that is capable of delivering organizational objectives now and in the future. Workforce planning needs to be integrated with strategic and operational planning process to ensure the alignment of strategies to continuously deliver the right people in the precise place at the appropriate stint. An important part of the labor force is the development and application of guidelines and performs to improve the effectiveness of the workforce. It is a dynamic process that requires frequent modifications. Implementation comprises of the risk analysis, allocation of works, formulation of a cost effective budget, and interconnection between various strategies. Monitoring the work force includes such aspects as portfolio budget statements, staff satisfaction level, labor force age profile, unscheduled absence rates, and resignations. Evaluation of the labor force depends on the information collected in the monitoring sector. Evaluation can be done by stipulating the acquired benefits in a certain time and through consulting various managers. Review of the work force involves follows after evaluation, and it involves making necessary adjustment to the implementation plans.
Conclusively, the International Hotel Group should consistently improve the various factors that are crucial to their realization of stipulated goals. The chief factor being making changes in the labor force and the market sector aimed at increasing the effectiveness in its operations.
Reference
Brotherton, B. ( 2012). International Hospitality Industry. New York: Routledge.
Green, N. D., & Watson, S. (2004). Human Resource Management: International Perspectives in Hospitality and Tourism. Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Lockyer, T. G. (2007). The International Hotel Industry: Sustainable Management. New York: Routledge.
