Introduction
Hilton Hotels is a global chain of full-service resorts and hotels. The organization is among the market leaders within the hotel industry and is a distinguished name and well-known across U.S and worldwide. The organization started operations under Conrad Hilton leadership in 1919. In 1946, the corporation went public with a portfolio of fifteen properties in eleven states. The organisation concentrated on the domestic growth within the lodging segment and through diversification into vacation ownership and casinos in 1964 after spinning off the intercontinental unit. Hilton Hotels has essentially grown to become the most recognized and successful hotel company in the world.
For this reason, this paper starts by analysing the purpose and role of HRM at Hilton hotels as well as their supply and demand. The second section of the paper examines the current state of employment relations in Hilton Hotels and how the employment law affects their HRM. The third section discusses the role, responsibilities, and what the organization requires from their Directors of Hotel Operations and Assistant Night Managers, and then compares the selection process of Hilton Hotels and Papa John’s Pizza Restaurant. Finally, the last section of the paper assesses the significance of the development and training to the efficient operation of Hilton Hotels.
Role and purpose of human resource management
The role as well as the purpose of the human resource management is essentially the unique key point, which makes it possible for the organizations to realize their existing or future objectives. In particular, the HRM may develop the potentials of employees by the high performance, and increase the success of the organization. The organizations in the contemporary highly competitive market ought to have skilful employees for such organizations to remain successful players within the competitive game of their industries (Ahammad 2013, p.1). Training and development are among the main obstacles that occur within the workplace. Therefore, all firms should design and implement training and development so as to have a skilful workforce.
In Hilton Hotels, the human resource management has the role of planning, developing, and administering policies and programs, which are anticipated to make an expeditious utilization of their employees. The HRM department secures and develops employees’ talents and implements programs, which improve cooperation and communication between the individual employees in order to nurture the organizational development. Therefore, one of the objectives of Hilton Hotel’s HRM is the effective use of the human resources. The HRM ensures that the organisation uses their human resources in the most effective manner (Chen & Huang 2009, p.109). In addition, the organisation’s HRM ensures that there is a desirable working relationship among all the members working within the organisation. Besides, the HRM ensures maximum individual development through the training programs.
The primary functions of the Hilton Hotel’s HRM include planning and forecasting, job analysis and staffing, workforce organization and utilization, workforce performance measurement and appraisal, training and development, and workforce maintenance. With regards to employment planning and forecasting, the organization’s HRM estimates the number of workers needed, with corresponding skill requirements to meet the company’s objectives. In addition, the HRM offers information regarding the way in which the current human resources are employed, the skills that different job categories require, and HRM requirements in relation to the organisational objectives. With regards to job analysis and staffing, Hiltons Hotel’s HRM determines the nature as well as responsibilities of a range of employment positions. Therefore, the HRM determines the skills and experiences that employees should possess to perform adequately in a position, identifies job and industry trends, and anticipates the future skill requirements and employment levels. What’s more, the HRM manages the flow of workers within, out, and into the organization. When hiring new employees, Hilton Hotel’s HRM incurs time, resource, and monetary costs. Therefore, the HRM makes budget for hiring by first tracking all the expenditures, include the items for recruiting activities into the charts of accounts, and put a hiring section into their operating budget. They also plan for advertisement costs. After recruitment process, the HRM selects employees through interviews, job postings, and testing, among other tools.
Hilton Hotel’s HRM designs organizational frameworks, which maximize the employees’ utilization. In addition, the HRM establishes communications systems that assist the organisation function in a unified way. The other function of Hilton Hotel’s HRM is performance appraisal where they assess the worker job performance and offer feedback about both negative and positive performance aspects. Staff training and development is the other function of Hilton Hotel’s HRM. The company’s human resource researches the training needs of the organization besides initiating and evaluation personnel development programs that they design to address the needs. The HRM also maintains the organization’s workforce through employee welfare activities and motivation.
Demand and supply analysis
Current state of employment relation
The employment relation at Hilton Hotels is the underlying philosophy behind the motivation of its employees. The positive attitude toward work within the organization is hugely contributed by the quality employee and the management relation. Hilton has put in place measures that promote good relations between employees and management and other stakeholders.
Hilton Hotels initiated and funded the structures that provide a platform for engagement between the management and employees. It has put in place the Hilton Exchange forum which allows the entire team members to share ideas and be in touch within Hilton worldwide (Bohdanowicz & Zientara 2008, p. 282). Hilton Exchange works at the hotels level, and it has a channel by which staff liaison committee discuss crucial developments and decisions of the organization. Hilton Hotels recognize freedom of association and in the case where the law obliges; it allows its employees to participate freely in collective agreements and bargaining. For instance, the European Consultative Forum has above 28,000 team members from Hilton Hotels. European Consultative Forum is a platform with engages in a range of activities that impart knowledge and skills to its members on the issues affecting them.
The Hilton worldwide has a code of conduct that gives guidelines on how Hilton and Team members must cooperate as a group to realize highest standards of ethics in the organization. The code of conduct applies to all Hilton worldwide employees as well as to all hotels owned and managed by Hilton international regardless of whether employed by the Hilton worldwide or not. All the employees irrespective of one’s position in the organization must observe the code of conduct related to the Hilton Hotel. The code of conduct symbolizes personal accountability, respect, and value diversity in the work environment and upholds a workplace without harassment. The code of conduct violation will subject a team member to disciplinary action, which may even involve work termination.
Hilton worldwide being an international organization collectively refers the people that constitute the Hilton family of hotels as team members. The culture of the team members is to support and encourage one another in their course of duties. Hilton hotels believe in inspiring, motivating, and engaging its employees. It’s committed to providing a work environment that is supportive and collaborative to its employees particularly, to its team members. Hilton hotels foster its team members to express their opinions through its channels such as the OnQ insider, Hilton global internal website, and its ethics hotline as well as the global team member engagement survey (Applegate Piccoli & Dev 2008, p.3). The team member engagement ensures the employees are always satisfied and provide the means of communicating their grievances. Further, the involvement of the team members ensures that they become proud of being associated with Hilton Hotels.
Hilton Hotels enhance their relation with the employees through investing in them. The organization founded the Hilton University in 2002 in order to give the Hilton people the chance to sharpen their skills and advance their careers, and thus, to enable the employees realize their full capacity. The University was primarily established due to the organization deep believe in the ability of its employees and thus, the need to support their team members by training them in their institution that covers various skills related to the hotel industry.
Employment laws and human resource management
Human resource management at Hilton is duly affected and shaped by the governments and federal laws related to employments. In fact, all the organization aspects are regulated by the employments laws in all the countries it operates. The human resource management at Hilton Hotel observes the labor laws in the recruitment, placement and compensation of its employees keenly.
The Hilton Hotels policies are obliged to carry out their activities in accordance to the requisition of the law. The team members are required to act in accordance with the laws and regulation that are exercised in different nations, localities, as well as societies it operates all over the world. Hilton Hotels fraternity must comply with all the lobbying rules and requirements. Essentially, all the lobbying engagements must be done according to the registration requirements as stipulated by the law. Further, the law demands that all the lobbying activities must be reported according to the law requisition and by following the due process. Hilton worldwide is, therefore, obliged to register its employees, and the failure to fulfill the above requirement subjects them to severe penalties including fines and other penalties.
The organization observes the laws and regulation that govern the manner in which companies carry out staffing both at the local and international levels keenly. Hilton Hotels provide an equal employment opportunity across the globe as required by the civil rights acts of 1964, which forbids employment discrimination on the ground of somebody’s color, race, religion, nationality, and sex. The organization established a diversity program that integrate diversity principles into the company’s business operations such as employment, purchasing, training and mentoring, ownership, and community support, among others. In addition, the company’s workforce across the world comprises of more than half the minorities and women in the managements posts.
The organization has adopted a code of conduct and ethics that govern the way business is done by their employees (Bohdanowicz & Zientara 2008 p.287). The code embodies the promotion of honesty and ethical conduct, supporting fair, accurate and timely disclosure, promotion of conformity to the laws and regulation and encourages faster reporting of the code violations. The code of conduct functions as a guideline that should be internalized and followed by the all the company’s employees when operating within the scope of their works.
The Hilton Hotels supports and encourages its employees to join labor unions. In fact, most of its employees are unionized workers. The labor union helps in agitating the rights of the workers, such as the unfair termination from work, pregnancy leave for women among others. It is very critical for employees to join the labor unions because sometimes employees may feel mistreated by the company management and hence the union aids in negotiating for their grievances. The labor union follows the prescribed steps by the Hilton code of conduct when negotiating for employees. The code of conduct elucidates the way concerns are reported within the organizations. Hilton worldwide has an agreement with the Unite Here Local 1 in which 1, 600 workers are covered. The agreement maintains pension and health care benefits of the workers, which entails an increment in wages and enhanced job stability terms. At Hilton worldwide, all the employees have a contract of employment with the company. The contract agreement states the employees’ employment conditions, rights, responsibilities of employees as well as their duties. Essentially, the contracts of employment ensure that both parties are binding, and mutual interest is served and no party should violate the contract.
Job description and selection process comparison
The process of recruitment and selection is imperative for both new and well-known organizations. Recruitment involves the process of recognizing that the business needs to hire a person up to the point where the application forms for the vacancy have reached the organization. The selection process involves choosing from the candidates a suitable applicant to fill a vacancy (Soliman & Spooner, 2000, p.339). One of the job categories at Hilton Hotels is Directors of Hotel Operations. The Directors of Hotel Operations are responsible for assisting the organization’s General Managers in overseeing the daily hotel functions. In addition, the Directors of Hotel Operations’ other responsibilities include recruiting, interviewing, and training the team members, and monitoring as well as developing the performance of team members. The Directors of Hotel Operations also identify operational performance, efficiency and productivity gaps, and put into practice measures to correct any deficiencies. Moreover, the Directors of Hotel Operations are required to show numerous values including integrity, teamwork, hospitality, and leadership. One is required to have a diploma or degree in the Hotel Management or equivalent, excellent management and leadership skills, good communication skills, and positive attitude, which is an essential criterion in the job specification. In addition, an individual should have previous experience in the hotel industry and knowledge of hotel property management systems, which is a desirable criterion in the job specification.
Another job category at Hilton Hotels is Assistant Night Managers. The Assistant Night Managers help during the night-hour managing of Front Office Team to make sure that the team members are well-informed and prepared to deliver guests an outstanding experience. The responsibilities of the Assistant Night Managers include completing night audit duties, serving as points of contact for important and regular guests, conduct safety and health checks and night walks, and maintain good status understanding of all hotel areas, among other responsibilities. The individuals looking for this post should have excellent grooming standards, excellent management and leadership skills, competent level of IT proficiency, and good communication skills and positive attitude. One is supposed to have experience within the hotel industry and cash handling and be able to work under pressure. The essential criterions in the job specification include good communication skills, competent level of IT proficiency, and excellent management and leadership skills. The desirable criterions in the job specification include experience within the hotel industry and previous experience with the Front Office Management Systems, and cash handling.
The employee selection process of Hilton Hotels and Papa John’s Pizza Restaurant are similar and different in some ways. The job application at the two organizations starts with the hiring process and after submitting the applications, the job applicants hear back from a hiring representatives in a couple of weeks. In addition, the job applicants in the two organizations may apply for jobs in person or online on career pages of their official websites. Moreover, both organizations face same barriers during the selection process. The barriers to effective selection that the two organizations experience include limited perceptual abilities, pressure, and discrimination on the basis of race and gender. The types of interviewing process used in the two organizations include panel interview, informational interview, and screening interview. However, there is a difference in the interviewing process between the two organizations. The prospective Hilton workers may encounter numerous rounds of interviews during the selection process whereas the interview process at Papa John’s starts with the applicants submitting their credentials, and it is done only once or twice.
Training and development activities contribution
One can boldly state that training and development activities at Hilton Hotels have contributed positively to the persistent success of the business. The initiative has enhanced the effectiveness of the human resource and improved the profits of the organization.
Training and learning is an integral part at Hilton hotels, and it is the company’s strategy to stay competitive in the hotel industry. Training at Hilton worldwide accrued benefits both to the company and the employees (Ahammad 2013, p.5). The current objectives of the organization are to foster a continuous development and provide a training approach that is reliable and available at all locations and for the team members at all levels. The Hilton Worldwide University ensures that all the employees of the company directly access the learning they so much need to enrich their talent and growth.
Consequently, the development program bore fruits in the sense that the team members became more professional and knowledgeable in handling guests and thus better services and enjoyment of clients’ loyalty. In addition, the program nurtured talents that are instrumental in the business as well as providing mentoring and leadership within the organization (Applegate, Piccoli & Dev, 2008, p5). General improvement in the level of productivity and increment in profitability are some of the benefits that accrued to Hilton Worldwide as an organization. Employee's benefits were realized through the increases in job satisfaction within the organization, more skills and knowledge in conducting work, as well as experience.
Training and development at the Hilton Worldwide has played a very imperative role in terms of educating the company staffs to pursue the Hilton’s brand quality and mission. In addition, training and development update the staff with the policy changes and boost morale of the team members. Due to the training and development program, the workforce had gained more skills and the productivity level in the company improved significantly (Ahammad 2013, p.3). Moreover, the training and development program at Hilton hotels encourage employees to be more creative and learning to cope up with new and ever-changing work environment. In essence, the programs have been imperative in the attainment of the company goals.
Hilton worldwide via its university offers over 2,500 diverse courses that are provided through numerous methods. For one, classroom training is mainly designed for employees who are near and can access the university physically. E-learning is another method for delivering training for the employees online. Other types of training methods include the webinars, e-books, on the job development experiences, social learning as well as live and taped programs. Hilton worldwide believes in career development of its team members. In addition, it also believes in providing the best of services to its guests. The drive for employees’ career advancement and quest to offer high-quality services principally determines the need for training for team members at Hilton worldwide.
Reference list
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