Work-Life Balance in ASA Hotel - Case Study Example

Work-Life Balance in ASA Hotel Report Prepared for: Date: Group Title: ASA Group Class: Group Member No.1: Group Member No.2: Group Member No.3: Submission Date: Executive summary Our group Work-Life Balance (WLB) report endeavours to examine some of the basic work-life balance good practises that can be applied in the hotel and tourism industry. This study is primarily based on the probable WLB strategies that have been proposed to be successfully applied in the ASA group Hotel so as to mitigate the WLB crisis that can hinder the smooth running of the Hotel. The proposed WLB strategies that were believed to be fit for the ASA hotel comprise of: Work-life Balance Survey, Flexible working conditions, Work Life Balance Policy and the creation of awareness programmes and encourage supportive and corporative work environment. And to successfully implement these strategies, this report begin by identifying the current underlying strategic WLB issues in ASA hotel and examine the connection between these issues and the work-life issues in ASA hotel. Our findings reveal that work-life problems such as career advancement, turnover, workplace flexibility, and knowledge management are manipulated by the management style and work culture of the ASA Hotel. If these WLB strategies are implemented and evaluated, the ASA hotel employees will highly motivated, there will be less issues related to work stress, organisation turnover among other WLB related issues in the organisation. The hotel will also be able to attract and retain both current and future valued workforce. The implementation of these WLB strategies will also ensure the ASA hotel practices and policies are planned and executed in such a way that they blend with balancing the relationship between work and family responsibilities of their employees. The report findings further show that ASA hotel employee will achieve and adopt a comprehensive approach to WLB. Increased workplace flexibility for ASA hotel awareness for workplace flexibility will also be achieved. 1 Table of contents Contents Executive summary 2 1 Table of contents 3 2 Introduction 4 3 Research findings 5 3.1 Work-life strategies 5 3.1.1 Perform Work-life Balance Survey 5 3.1.2 Introduce Flexible working conditions 5 3.1.3 Introduce a Work Life Balance Policy 6 3.1.4 Create entitlement awareness programmes and encourage supportive and corporative work environment. 7 4 Implementation (how and when?) 7 5 Evaluation (how and when?) 10 6 Conclusions 12 7 Recommendations 12 8 References 13 9 Appendices 14 2 Introduction It is necessary for organizations to pursue for a competitive and sustainable advantage for their business by identifying the significance of their Human Resources Management (HRM), and the importance of their employees’ aspirations, creativity, innovation, and talents. The ASA Hotel located in Perth, Australia is one of those organizations that employ workers who work longer hours and get less time for their families and personal commitments. ASA Hotel operates under the hospitality industry such as food and drinks provision, and tourism services. Hence, the ASA Hotel should ensure that they experience less conflict with their employees, achieve staff morale, and lessen employee turnover and absenteeism by recognising that they work towards a win-win situation. Workers in the hotel and tourism industry work longer hours than their counterparts in other industries. This is because the hotel and tourism businesses continuously struggle to provide their customers with quality products and services (Cleveland, et al. 2007). These occurrences explain why these employees are most likely to lose job satisfaction, and some of their personal commitments such as financial life, family life, social life and leisure life. When employees experiences such kinds of problems, then they are most likely to surfer work stress related cases, work morale, absenteeism, burnout, and even loose trust with the company. In response to these WLB related issues, the hotel and tourism industry should strive to provide their employees with better quality of work-life so as to attract and retain them and minimise employee turnover. And as much as the attainment of a satisfactory life-work balance and minimising work-family conflict is a challenging affair for many organizations, it has become an escalating critical concern to the quality of life framework. However, it remains a very important aspect for the hotel and tourism industry to find a way of achieving a work-life balance so as to enable their employees to fulfil their needs, responsibilities, desires, and other life commitments. Some of the issues that are associated with the work-life balance also include poor working conditions, poor remunerations, and unfavourable working hours. The ASA Hotel can, therefore, achieve these kinds of work-life balance initiatives and experience benefits and advantages such as increased employee commitment and loyalty that will make them perform better which leads to increased productivity of for the organisation. The organisation will also experience lower employee turnover which results in reduced employee training, induction and recruitment costs (Clutterbuck, 2003). Employees will also be encouraged to share knowledge and ideas that benefit their organisation because they will be operating in a flexible and relaxed workplace culture. Issues such as sicknesses and its related costs will also be minimised. 3 Research findings Work-life balance strategies are the strategies used in balancing the jobs and personal life of employees in a manner that is both satisfactory and harmonious. 3.1 Work-life strategies Some of the common life-work balance strategies in the Australian organisations include: job sharing and work from home, part-time work, flexible starting and finishing time, and study leave (Deery, Jago & Stewart, 2008). But then the ASA Hotel needs to further conduct a survey or rather investigate its employees on the LWB issues so as to come up with a compressive LWB strategies that suites the organisation. In that case, the following LWB strategies were suggested for the ASA Hotel: 3.1.1 Perform Work-life Balance Survey LWB survey is usually conducted after a certain period to identify and review its LWB policies and accommodate its employee’s new life-work balance developments and even identify unresolved LWD issues (Jones, Burke & Westman, 2006; Deery & Jago, 2009). This exercise ensures that the new employee LWB needs such as latest working arrangements, new flexible working conditions, and personal life responsibilities are identified and entrenched in the organisation’s employee’s working schedule and human resources plan arrangements as per the individual, organisational needs (Xiao & O’Neill, 2010). Hence, it will be necessary for ASA hotel to consider its application for the purpose of solving its existing WLB issues. 3.1.2 Introduce Flexible working conditions The ASA Hotel should commit on providing flexible conditions for its overworked employees especially for female workers who most of the time have to rush home after a hard day work to end to school-going children and other house chores (Jones, Burke & Westman, 2006). Flexible working conditions will help the ASA Hotel employees as well as the supervisors and the senior management with flexible working leave arrangements, rosters, and hour’s programmes that will be able to recognise their personal and family duties devoid of disadvantages and even attracting consequences form the organisation (O’Brien-Smith & Rigby, 2010). The organisation will, therefore, show concern and respect to its employees by recognising their employees’ personal and family work duties by integrating them in their core value company and avowal plans (Özkan, Esitti, Köleoglu, 2014; Farrell, 2015), and the additional confirmation by the organisation’s work-life balance policy guidelines. Deery, Jago & Stewart, 2008 adjoins that organisations should craft clear policies to manage upcoming work hours for workers in the hospitality industry with a major focus on the night shift duties. Some employees find the night shift to be favourable for them, but some do not prefer working at night. Therefore, the supervisor should be responsible for planning the work hours roster and arrangement that would be acceptable for the entire the organisation workers. The employees who work at night shift would also be paid at extra rates as part of motivation and encouragement (Xiao & O’Neill, 2010). The night shift work should also be a rotational process with an efficient work roster. Some employees, especially the male employees, might, however, underutilise the WLB benefits because some of them might not be necessary to their demographic profiles. For example, workers without families or even children might not benefit from the child care support initiatives (Mohanty & Mohanty, 2014). And in some organisations, the workplace culture might act as a hindrance to LWB benefits for the employees. 3.1.3 Introduce a Work Life Balance Policy ASA Hotel should come up with a lucid policy statement steering clear of the work-life balance of its employees (Peshave & Gujarathi, 2014). This policy statement would read as “The ASA Hotel is steadfast in offering a flexible conducive workplace. An environment that enables its employees to balance both easily their duties at the workplace and home without compromising on their personal life responsibilities.” This statement will be integrated into the company’s corporate plans and also in its foundation value statements, and further supported by its strategy principles and further summarises its meaning in the workplace for its entire workforce (Farrell, 2015). The WLB policy will also provide for various work flexibilities such as job-sharing and part-time work programmes, and start and finish times where possible (Fine-Davis et al. 2006). Some disadvantages might also come up. This comprises of situations where some employees might not be able to understand the information regarding WLB benefits that are enshrined in the human resources procedures and policies. The commitment of employees utilising work-life programmes and policies might also be doubted, a condition that might even result in their lack of job promotions (Clutterbuck, 2003). 3.1.4 Create entitlement awareness programmes and encourage supportive and corporative work environment. The ASA Hotel should create entitlement awareness that will see employees access services and support that are unswervingly meant for them or even available through referrals as well as enjoy flexible working provisions (Clutterbuck, 2003). On the lower side, the company might, however, be slow in implementing this kind of initiative. Team building activities and social activities such as football matches and other game should be introduced as part of the supportive and corporative work environment. According to Deery & Jago (2009), equity in the workplace that will see the recognition of all genders, parents and non-parents, permanent and temporary staff, and junior & senior workers as well, should also be introduced as LWB initiative. 4 Implementation (how and when?) This study was conducted for the ASA Hotel, which falls under hospitality service industry of hotel and tourism. The hotel and tourism industry have a problem of finding employees with the right knowledge, skills and experience to work in that sector. It is also a sector that struggles to find and retain customers as well as the right kind of employees. Objectives The main objective of this project is to assist the employees of the employees of the ASA Hotel to realise successful WLB initiatives and also to uphold the name of the organisation. Setting The strategies suggested in this implementation phase were developed by the ASA group hotel in consultation with its group Hotel management. The results of the findings will be derived from the interviews and surveys conducted with the management of the ASA Hotel, and the following four major areas were suggested to be addressed: Timeframe The implementation of the suggested life-work balance will go for 13 months. However, there will be an overflow of the implementation of other strategies over ensuing stages. Objective One: Perform Work-Life Survey Actions Responsibility Target Date 10th May 2016 The ASA Hotel management that comprises of the human resources team will gather survey instruments to be used in conducting work-life balance survey, employ interviews that will help unravel employee needs on how they feel they can balance their family and career demands in the workplace. Arrange for discussion prompts that promote information sharing discussions on WLB problems. Encompass the desired behaviours and work responsibilities related to teamwork and good communication in the job descriptions. The management staff of ASA Group will carry a joint survey on the company employees on the target date for three months. Among the lined-up duties will be to investigate the current employee working arrangements and integrate the findings into the human resources plan and employee work arrangements plans. Objective Two: Introduce Flexible working conditions Actions Responsibility Target date Collect data on the kinds of responsibilities being undertaken by the ASA Hotel employees alongside their working team characteristics. Investigate the conditions under which these employees work in. Investigate the weaknesses and strengths of the existing working conditions with a purpose of sharing better working condition principles as per the required industry standards. The resulting data from the above will then be used to identify any further necessary actions that will be suitable The working conditions under which the ASA Hotel employees is evidently not favourable for their employees. Convene a meeting between the ASAhotel management, employees and stakeholders of the ASA Hotel. Suggest that WLB initiatives to be introduced in the organisation 20th July 2016 Objective Three: introduce a Work Life Balance Policy Actions Responsibility Target Date Check if there is any existing work-life policy in the organisation. If there is any, then the human resources team to be mandated to improve on it and introduce a new clause. But if it does not exist, then the human resources team to come together and craft one for the organisation. The HRM team to implement the policies and suggest a pilot study to recognise and resolve ineffective work practises that negatively affect the work-life balance of the employees. Create and execute the Work-Life Balance policy for the ASA Hotel staff members on the procedures of duty roster will work and on how they can better utilise it. Introduce and arrange for work-life balance issues in the management training curriculum together with the responsibilities of the supervisors and the managers as well in the implementation of the work-life balance policies. Expand the training on work-life information for the company managers. This responsibility will be solely left for the HRM team to organise, craft, Gazette, and implement for the ASA Hotel. 20th September 2016 Objective Four: Create entitlement awareness programmes and encourage supportive and corporative work environment. Actions Responsibility Target Date Create policies that give employees the right to access information such as their entitlement awareness. These policies will allow the employees to have the right to access the necessary services and assistance, flexible work arrangements, gender equality, and the right to access team building and social activities such as social and extracurricular games. Communicate the procedures and principles to the entire company staff, both juniors and seniors. Process sign-off developments and values, then implement them for the ASA Hotel. Initiate and execute programmes that promote pilot teams to recognize and resolve poor work performance that negative affect ASA Hotel employee WLB. Prepare and examine the development progress of the toolkit that helps the ASA Hotel management with regular annual leave training turnout planning, consequent backfilling, and leave planning. This responsibility will be conducted by the ASA hotel human resources department in conjunction with the employee welfare department. 10th December 2016 5 Evaluation (how and when?) Work-life balance effectiveness and success is determined by evaluating the work-life balance strategies by both the human resources team and the management as a whole. Before conducting the evaluation processes, the following aspects will be considered. The management team charged with conducting WLB evaluation will consider the necessary organisation culture of ASA Hotel, they will make sure the WLB strategies are in line with the organisational goals, are compressively utilised by company employees, are simple and concise, are effectively communicated to all employees, and that the feedback will be derived from the company customers, employees, and the management. The evaluation will be conducted by using both the survey tools and also conducting interviews with the company employees, the management, and the company customers. The evaluation of the WLB strategies will be conducted after these strategies have been implemented and are in force in the ASA Hotel. The following table depicts how a comprehensive evaluation on the ASA Hotel proposed WLB strategies will be conducted. The evaluation of Work-Life Balance and other related activities: Areas to be evaluated What to be evaluated and measured (How?) Method of measurement (When?) Target date The satisfaction of the work balance initiatives within the ASA Hotel The areas that will be measured and evaluated in this sections are: if at all the proposed WLB initiatives have enabled the employees to experience a flexible work environment if the employees and management are satisfied with the WLB, issues with WLB arrangements, and job wellness and satisfaction, This initiative will be measured using survey focus groups among the company clients and employees. After the implementation of the four proposed WLB strategies for ASA Hotel. Staff retention Areas to be evaluated and investigated after the implementation of the WLB strategies include job recruitment costs, staff turnover, recruitments costs by the organisation, costs of replacing company workers, on-and-off job administration, and training costs, and job vacancy numbers. Survey tools Productivity The productivity and workload indicators of the employees will be measured Survey and interviews with employees. Initiatives costs Administration additional costs, additional paid leave costs provided for the employees, plus the costs of creating home-based work facilities (for the purpose of minimising office accommodation costs) will also be evaluated. Organisation finance management Staff attraction The number of job applicants for the available vacancies after the implementation of WLB strategies will also be measured. Recruitment and training and induction cost will also be evaluated. Company administration Absenteeism The frequency and number of sick leave taken by individual employees will also be assessed. Company human resources management. 6 Conclusions It is evident that workers in the hospitality sector are constantly subjected to longer working hours so as to improve the productivity of the respective organisations, which is not the case. This is because there is a difference between productivity and progress. It is imperative for these organisations to inculcate life-work balance if at all they genuinely want their employees to be productive. A good hotel management also endeavours to understand the plight of hotel staff and lead by example because one of their crucial roles is to support WLB initiatives. The hospitality industry is one of the biggest industry and hard to operate in, thus making WBL issues the most difficult to solve. Hence, the reforms not only involve the introduction of new workplace practices and policies but also involving the very core of how the industry operates, and transforming the hospitality industry culture inclusive of the organisations that operate within it. Equity for workers should be encouraged, and the legal requirements followed to the latter while pursuing efficient improvements because the sustainability of the hospitality industry depends on its people. All the four proposed WLB strategies should be implemented, evaluated and their subsequent benefits enjoyed by hotel workers and also their demerits managed so that balance is achieved between their advantage and disadvantages. 7 Recommendations The situation of WLB is greatly variable in different organisations and industry sectors. The ASA Hotel should, therefore, be steadfast in addressing employees’ WLB issues bearing in mind that it is imperative that the human resources management team is capable of doing more to improve the plight of their workers. The ASA Hotel senior managers bear the utmost responsibility for quality people management as well as listening to their professional advisers. The ASA Hotel workers should also be furnished with the necessary information regarding the demands that they are more likely to encounter. The hospitality industry should also be more realistic with its budget, which its client also have a portion of a significant role to play, which will see an achievement of a successful life-work balance programmes. The organisation should, therefore, find a way of providing incentives so that the employees can work smarter and not harder, alongside efficient supervision. 8 References Deery, M., Jago, L. & Stewart, M. (2008). Work-Life Balance in the Tourism Industry: Case Study. In: Where the “bloody hell” are we? Griffith University, pp. 1-3, Cause 2008 Conference. Mohanty. K. & Mohanty, M. (2014). An Empirical Study on the Employee Perception on Work-Life Balance in Hotel Industry with Special Reference to Odisha. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management. L(2), pp. 65-81. Peshave, M. A., & Gujarathi, R. (2014). An Analysis of Work-Life Balance (WLB) Situation of Employees and its Impact on Employee Productivity with Special Reference to the Indian Hotel Industry. Asian Journal Management, 5(1), pp. 69-74. Özkan, C., Esitti, B., Köleoglu, N. (2014). Work-Family Conflict in Hospitality Industry Employees: An Application in Izmir. Journal of Life Economics, pp. 75-88. Farrell, K. (2015). Work-life Balance Practices among Irish Hotel Employees and Implications for HRM. Dublin Institute of Technology, 3(13), pp. 1-28. Deery, M., & Jago, L. (2009). A framework for work – life balance practices: Addressing the needs of the tourism industry. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 9, 97 – 108. Xiao, Q., & O’Neill, J. W. (2010). Work–Family Balance as a Potential Strategic Advantage: A Hotel General Manager Perspective. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 34(4), pp. 415-439. Cleveland, J. N., O’Neill, J. W., Himelright, J. L., Harrison, M. M., Crouter, A. C., & Drago, R. (2007).Work And Family Issues In The Hospitality Industry: Perspectives Of Entrants, Managers, And Spouses. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 31(3), pp. 275-298. doi: 10.1177/1096348007299919 O’Brien-Smith, F., & Rigby, M. (2010). The work–life balance strategies of USDAW: mobilising collective voice. Industrial Relations Journal,41(3), pp. 206–217. Clutterbuck, D. (2003). Managing Work-life Balance: A Guide for HR in Achieving Organisational and Individual change. London: Chartered Institute of Development Change. Jones, F., Burke, R. J., & Westman, M. (2006).Work-Life Balance: A Psychological Perspective. New York: Tailor & Francis. Fine-Davis, M. Et al. (2006). Fathers and Mothers: Dilemmas of the Work-Life Balance: A Comparative Study in four European countries. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 9 Appendices Appendix A: Minutes of meetings (2 sets of consecutive fully completed minutes required) Appendix B: Team norms Read More