Human Resource Management Employee Retention Issues

Question: Discuss about the Human Resource Managementfor Employee Retention Issues. Answer: Introduction Employee retention is a significant process for an organization, so the employers must try to retain best employees in the organization for a long term. It works as a major challenge for an industry or organization, because people are their most valuable assets. This essay presents findings about employee retention issues, which the hotel and resorts industry in Asia and Australia are facing in the current business environment. This discussion includes the brief analysis of the hospitality industry in Asia and Australia. The major retention issues include; more job opportunities, influx of talent, increased pressure to perform, better salary or package, lack of motivation of career development low skilled and low paying work, job dissatisfaction, lack of career progression, labor intensive and problem in work-life balance. Furthermore, it includes the HRM strategies, which will assist the industry in retaining the staff for a long period, like; develop clear career opportunities, give value to the employees, establish better relationship, create employee centered working environment and implement good employment practices. It is the duty of Human Resource manager to make creative strategies. These effective methods can have a positive and significant impact on industrys turnover rate and resolve the discussed issues. The hotel and resort industry in both countries is growing rapidly and contributing to their economies. The industry in Asia Pacific reached to 12.8 billion in the year 2013. The region welcomed 5% more tourists in the first few months of the year 2014 (Business Vibes, 2015). There are so many international hotel groups, which are rapidly expanding their business into Asian hotel and resorts industry. Australian industry is spending a huge amount on providing best services to the customers. The industry is Australia is providing various employment opportunities to more than 270,000 employees (Newsroom, 2016). They expend around 70$ million yearly on training and development of employees. However, hotel and resort industry in both the countries is doing well and spending funds for managing its people, but still it is facing some issues related to employee retention. As we know that hospitality industry is extremely guest service oriented industry, in which the communication between gu ests and employees decide the success of the business. This can create some staff turnover issues in the organization (Martin, 2010). From all the issues, the most important issue in Asian countries is shortage of skilled and quality team at different levels. This industry is unsuccessful in retaining professionals. The organizations have to spend a huge amount on the training and development of the employees to enhance their skills and knowledge. Another reason for increasing turnover rate of the employees in India is increased job opportunities. People are switching to better jobs for their career progression. The Asian people are very conscious about their status, so they want a better job title (Ameto, 2015). The issue of career progression can be seen in the Australian workers. When they do not see the career advancement at the current employer in the hotel industry, then they think about moving on to other employer (Oliver, 2013). If they would have the clarity about their car eer opportunities, then they will be staying with their current employer. One of the important issues in Australian industry is job dissatisfaction among employees. The workers in Australia do not suggest their workplace to other. They are not satisfied with their job and package (Albattat, Mat Som, Helalat, 2014). Employee loyalty is very low and they think of leaving the organization. The major reasons to job satisfaction in Australian hotel industry include job security, payment, work-life balance issue and respect and appreciation at the workplace. This issue is generated from problem in work-life balance. In this industry, there is long working hours for the It creates stress from work-life imbalance and overwork. This stress can create the problems in work-life balance, which in turn leads the Australian employees to leave the organization (Davidson, Michael, Timo, Nils, Wang Ying, 2010). There are some other problems, which are common in both the countries, like; hotel and resort industry is a labor intensive industry, so it is a big problem that this industry in both the countries does not get enough employees. The people have to give more time and efforts to serve the guests. So, they wish to switch over to other jobs and industry. Moreover, it can be seen that money is always an important factor for the employees. In the hotels and resort industry, the salary of front line workers and hoteliers is not high. Employees are dissatisfied with the long working hours and they did not get adequate salary (Albattat, Mat Som Helalat, 2014). In this situation, they decide to change the job. Either they prefer to switch in same industry in other country or to other industry, like; transportation, education etc., which is paying more than hotel industry. Thus, using Low-low skilled and low paid policy in Australia is a disadvantage for its employment practices. Moreover, the Asian countries, like; Hong Kong, Singapore, India and China have attracted and appointed the employees from foreign and different cultures, languages and backgrounds to work collectively. In the hotel and resort industry, the management thinks that it will be beneficial for treating with their guests from different countries (Yam Raybould, 2011). But the differences in cultures and languages influence the communication, teamwork and collaboration and finally the job satisfaction in the employees. This increases employee turnover. There is a high competition with the entry of new leaders, products and services. The competition from other countries and adverse perceptions about Asian industry limits the growth of hospitality industry. The image of the countries is overrun by safety issues, poverty and political issues (Myo Aung, 2015). It discourages the employees in staying for long run. Thus, these issues can set the barriers in the way of growth of industry in Asia and Australia and high employee turnover can be bad for the industry and it raises the costs of recruitment and training. So, the employers implement some Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies to overcome these issues. The strategies for retaining best talent have many positive impacts for the industry. Retention strategies are the fundamental part of organizational strategy (Yam Raybould, 2011). For dealing with the issue of short-skilled employees, the players in the industry must implement some effective employment practices. The focus of employment practices should be placed on the strategies to keep the staff motivated and generate satisfaction among them. The organizations must emphasize on communication, flexible employment policies, effective work policies, training and development programs, employee well-being programs and social practices. Along with this, there should be clear career opportunities for the employees. It can be like an incentive for the career-oriented employees to retain with the industry. It is not necessary that career opportunity includes the promotion (Myo, Aung, 2015). It could include providing additional opportunity or responsibility to work with another departme nt or supervise the employees. It will develop their interest in jobs. For enhancing job satisfaction in the employees, the managers should understand that Employees are very important for success of hotel industry. They should try to create an employee centered working environment. If they modify the culture of organization to fulfill the requirements of workers, then they incline to stay with the organization for a long term (McCooey, 2009). Management has the responsibility to establish good working environment, which inspire the employees to attain satisfactory outcomes and organizational objectives. Fulfilling the non-working needs of the employees could assist in attracting the retaining the best talent in the industry. This industry is customer centered and labor demanding. The players in the industry must value the employees. Management can identify the value of employees by their level of productivity. The organization can measure the value of employees by analyzing their performance and behaviors at job. The people in this industry in both the countries are dissatisfied with their salary. To resolving the issues related to wages and salary, the firms should provide some no-performance benefits and perks to enhance the loyalty in existing employees (Yam Raybould, 2011). In this industry, the firms could offer the subsidized or free food to the employees. They can provide the accommodation to workers and their families at reduced prices. This will be beneficial for the industry for employee retention. There are some other strategies, which the managers can use to retain the employees (Bhatia, 2006). If the employees in the organization will have better relationships at work, then they are more likely to retain with it and they will feel engaged with their job. Therefore, the employers require emphasizing on how they communicate, understand and create better relationships with the employees. For hotel and resort industry, it is the best idea to talk to the employees for their ideas and opinions on engagements aspects, like; feedback on performance, career advancement, conducting survey for employee opinions and reviews on regular basis (Bharwani Butt, 2012). This will engage the employees in employment activities and they will work with enthusiasm and happiness. The people are switching from the job because of long working hours and poor scheduling. The managers should follow the workforce scheduling process for engaging the employees effectively. The work should be assigned among the workers properly. For dealing with cultural diversity, the employers should support this and provide training and development of different languages and conduct the events, so the employees can become familiar with each and resolve the language and cultural differences. Human resource management should try to resolve the communication issues among all the levels of organization. In order to overcome the challenges, Human Resource managers can play an important role. The team leaders should try to create motivating environments to keep the members together for a long time. They can motivate the employees by arranging the talk with the senior manager on the career opportunities. The workers, who join these events, they likely to remain more motivated and engaged to their job. Thus, the organization should understand the issues of the employee retention. First the company must identify the employee turnover rates within a particular time period (McCooey, 2009). After that, they should identify the reason that why the employees are leaving organization. After recognizing the reasons, they should implement the above-mentioned strategies to retain them. Conclusion As discussed above, the hotel and resort industry is stressful place to perform. There are various issues, which can lead the employees to leave their jobs or they think to quit the whole industry. This is true that this industry mainly reliable on the employees, especially, front line staff, who have to build good relationships with the guests or customers. Thus, the essay states that employee retention is the biggest issue in the hotel and resort industry. Both the continents, Asia and Australia are facing different issues in retaining the employees in hotels and resort industry. The major issues are related to the job satisfaction, because of working conditions, package and their jobs. The organization is losing the loyalty of employees due to these reasons. Furthermore, the discussion includes various strategies of human resource management, which should be implemented by the firms in the industry to overcome the problems of staff retention. These strategies will be effective for hospitality industry in both the continents. 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