Chapter 5 Labour markets in tourism and hospitality

HRM in practice 5.1

Consideration of the skills required in recruitment and selection is an intrinsically useful exercise in considering the range of skills and competencies required by managers in the process. Beyond this obvious point, it is also useful to illustrate the potential involvement of line managers in a crucial part of the HRM cycle. In that sense as either HR or line managers students may not necessarily be expected to be involved in all aspects listed in HRM in practice 5.1 but they will almost certainly be involved in at least some of these activities, most obviously interviewing.

Review and reflect question 1 and HRM in practice 5.2

What are the types of skills that tourism and hospitality organizations are likely to seek in their front line staff? How can these skills be discerned in the recruitment and selection process?

The question and illustrative example of aesthetic labour in Glasgow allows for reinforcement of a number of the issues which have been covered in Chapters 1, 3 and 4. In this sense it again allows students to reflect on the manner in which organizations are increasingly seeking the ‘right’ kind of people, attitudinally and also potentially in terms of their appearance. Some of the ethical issues attendant on this point are also discussed at the following links:

Beyond allowing for a reminder for a number of the issues addressed by the likes of HRM in practice 4.3 and 4.4, it also allows for the issue to be extended to the specific issue of recruitment and selection. In that sense a key theme in the chapter is the ultimately subjective nature of recruitment and selection; and this issue is especially resonant in considering emotional and aesthetic skills. This issue is particularly exemplified by HRM in practice 5.2 and students could be usefully engaged in debates about the practical and ethical considerations in attempting to train soft skills. For example, when news first broke about the aesthetic skills training provided by the Wise Group (who were the intermediate labour market organization in Glasgow providing the training) there was a front page spread on the Scottish Sun entitled ‘You’re too grubby to get a job: Glasgow’s unemployed told to wash’. Clearly this is a very simplistic reading of the situation. Nevertheless, it does serve to illustrate some of the concerns people might have in terms of ‘social engineering’ and employability training for front line service jobs.

The discussion surrounding the very subjective nature of skills can be linked to later discussion in the chapter of the variety of techniques available to organizations in selecting front line staff. Here especially the example of HRM in practice 5.7 is good in illustrating how in the airline industry some companies are using sophisticated approaches to selection for front line staff, as well as graduate and managerial level staff, in attempting to alleviate the subjectivity inherent in the selection process.

HRM in practice 5.3

This example allows for further discussion about how organizations can extend their potential supply of labour and the approach adopted by Jurys Inns to a tight labour market situation. Clearly the approach by Jurys is not wholly philanthropic and pre-employment schemes of this type can also be seen as organizations simply responding to the exigencies of the prevailing labour market situation. Another recent example of this approach has been Travelodge’s employment partnership scheme with JobCentre Plus and details of this initiative can be found at the following links:

Review and reflect question 2

Using the above criteria attempt to find a job advertisement for a tourism and hospitality organization which exemplifies at least some of these aspects and briefly describe why these aspects makes a job look attractive.

This activity allows students to think about what makes a good job advert. In that sense the CIPD/IPA criteria is useful to allow for consideration of things like the between the use of language and the balance text and imagery, for example (and see . There are some obvious sources for students to undertake this task, such as Caterer and Hotelkeeper. See also

HRM in practice 5.4

This example is useful in illustrating a contingent approach to recruitment and selection. For organizations such as Tiger Tiger (and the TGI Friday example in the chapter) there is an expectation that staff are able to create a particular type of service encounter, which is heavily reliant on staff being willing to be extrovert. Open days in that sense are a good opportunity for them to sample the atmosphere. In addition to the example discussed in HRM in practice 5.4 there is also a very good description of TGI Fridays approach to HRM in Lashley (2000).

HRM in practice 5.5

This example is useful for students in demonstrating both the growing use of the internet in recruiting and potentially providing a first career move. For those students that are interested in exploring in more detail the Elevator programme it can be found at:

Figure 5.1

A key point in the chapter is the need for organizations to adopt a cost-effective approach to recruitment. Figure 5.1 serves to strongly reinforce this point in considering the various sources of recruitment.

HRM in practice 5.6

This example is particularly useful in again demonstrating the importance of ensuring applicants are fully aware of what their job is likely to entail. It also illustrates the wide variety of opportunities available to students. To consider the issues more fully there are several interesting short pieces which illustrate some of the attractive and no so attractive aspects of an employee’s life on board a cruise ship (and see also Gibson, 2008):

Review and reflect question 2

Think about an employment interview that you have attended and whether you felt it was a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ interview and what influenced your judgement, either positive or negative.

This question allows students to draw on their own experience in considering good and bad interview practice. It may also be helpful in terms of getting students to think about how to prepare for a job interview and to facilitate discussion on this issue the web links below might be helpful.

HRM in practice 5.7

As with review and reflect question 2 this example can serve two purposes. At one level it serves as a basis for discussion of how organizations are developing increasingly sophisticated processes to minimise mistakes in the selection process. Equally though it can also be a useful learning tool for students in terms of beginning the process of preparing to attend assessment centres as part of their job searching. For the latter aspect there are also a huge number of web pages which consider assessment centres, including those listed below.

References

Gibson, P. (2008) ‘Cruising in the 21st century: who works while others play?’, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27, 1, 42-52.

Lashley, C. (2000) ‘Empowerment through involvement: a case study of TGI Fridays restaurant’, Personnel Review, 29, 6, 791-815.