HR Planning and Development Problems at Travelodge Hotels - Essay Example

Task Travelodge Hotels Travelodge is a low budget Hotel Chain and has approximately 20,000 rooms under its ownership. It is the second largest hotel chain in the UK and enjoys 25% of the market share (Caterer Search). HR Problems There have been reports of customer dissatisfaction as well as satisfaction in equal proportion. This is not a healthy sign and can deteriorate with competition geared up to do better. It is only exceptional service that can encourage customer flow and retention. They have the following practices which have not changed over the years. 1 There is no concept of training of the staff at Travelodge. They consider that as they are a budget hotel their concentration should be on providing low cost accommodation and hence need to provide adequate facility with usual cleaning services. 2 Catering is a secondary activity as they do not expect their customers to eat at the establishment. Therefore there are no catering facilities hence no staff to man such services except for breakfast. The reason behind this thinking is that their customers comprise of tourist families who are more into adventuring and exploring the surrounding areas and less likely to use the hotel facilities. 3 As a result the HR practice at Travelodge is restricted to hiring staff without much fuss and at the lowest rate possible. There is no room for incentives and rewards for better performance. Consequently training is not considered a priority for improving staff performance. Since Travelodge is a budget hotel, the management feels that it will always get newcomers to join it more easily. HR Practices Good Human Resource theories suggest that staff recruitment, training and retention are very important activities and should form the core of HR policies of the companies. Recruitment means that the selection process of employees has to be well defined according to requirement for the job. Training of the employees, both newcomers and existing ones, is a continuous exercise that must be undertaken to sharpen the performance levels of the staff. The most difficult part is retention of staff. For this it is suggested that the employees be rewarded. However, the level of performance of employees is not just a result of their skills but also the result of motivation each person exhibits. There are two sources of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. Since it is not always possible to have external rewards all the time for all activities the management has to promote intrinsic motivation that is the outcome of internal factors like self satisfaction or the pleasure of satisfactory performance (Hagedoorn and Van Yperen 2003). The intrinsic motivation is also preferable as in this environment the employee develops affinity with the organisation and considers the welfare of the organisation to be his wellbeing. This improves his productivity and performance since it will go along with his personal satisfaction. Such employees are also loyal to the company’s cause. In contrast the employee who looks for extrinsic motivation becomes greedy in anticipation and looks for alternatives to promote his own wellbeing. Empowerment The new work environment and work ethics need to give back some planning and decision making power back to the worker. This is the real way he can be motivated to perform better. This need is understood as the new methods of work need more skilled worker and such skills need planning and decisions even at the execution stage. By default such empowerment also raises the performance and it is conceded by management that strict deskilling has indeed killed performance. HR Theories Abraham Maslow (1954) described HR as a hierarchy, starting with human psychology, safety and security, belongingness, self esteem and finally self-actualization. According to Maslow, employees have a basic human need and a right to strive for self-actualisation, just as much as the corporate directors and owners do and, by this fulfilment, the organisation becomes stronger, more competitive and profitable. Amongst the many theorists of HR one outstanding contribution was that by McGregor (1960) that is still practiced today. Negative or Positive attitude of the management is explained by Douglas McGregor (1960) in his theory X and theory Y. According to him a negative attitude of the management, theory X, presupposes that workers are lazy, passive, without ambition, willing to be led and resist change. Hence management is through control, coercion, threats and punishment. This results in low productivity, antagonism, unionism and subtle sabotage. In contrast positive management, theory Y, believes that people are motivated, active and interested, ambitious, prefer to lead and are interested in change. Hence management is through open systems, communications, self-managing teams and peer controlled pay systems. The result is high productivity, bonhomie and care for the organization. Both these theories underpin the need to empower the employee for retention. Task 2 Diagnostic Models An organization can be examined from different perspectives. There are a number of diagnostic models that provide many different views, emphasizing a variety of aspects, but in the end a complete picture emerges. It is prudent to use more than one model in order that the culture and sub-culture of the organization are disclosed for the change managers to decide on which course of action should be taken to bring about the changes and to implement change plans. The most commonly used diagnostics are the PEST and SWOT analysis. They examine how the internal and external environments affect the performance of an organization. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological analysis (Armstrong. M. A 2006) which is essentially composed of external factors that affect a company. Normally, a company has no control over these events and has to adapt itself to these external circumstances (PEST). On the other hand, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses (internal), Opportunities and Threats (external), all of which are factors that can be and are controlled by the organization for optimum results (Dibbs, Simkins, & Lyndon,1996). A second set of models comprise of Weisbord’s (1978) Six-Box Model and Pascale and Athos’ (1981) 7S model. The Six-Box Model creates six boxes or areas and examines the associations and communications between these six elements of the organization. These are Purpose, Structure, Leadership, Rewards, Help and Relationships. Under this method, a major output or result is examined to determine the satisfaction or dissatisfaction levels of the customers and the bearing these six elements or boxes have had on this output or result. This will point to the need for change for the ultimate satisfaction of the customers. The 7S model actually raises questions in seven areas to arrive at a conclusion for this need or requirement. They are: Strategy, for establishing purpose of the business; Structure, for establishing division of work; Systems, which are various procedures for measurements of performance, communications etc.; Staff, for ascertaining demographics like age, education, ethnicity etc.; Style, for determining behavioural patterns; Shared Values, for ascertaining common goals and objectives; and Skills, for finding out core competencies of individuals. The answers to these questions assist the change managers to assess the needs and set the methods of change. Effectiveness of the Diagnostic Models Diagnosis is, however, an ongoing activity as situations always remain fluid and it is noteworthy that mid-term re-assessments and corrective actions are a norm and not an aberration. In the case of Travelodge the problems were manifold. A simple PEST reveals that politically with a stable government in place policies for hotel business are good and left largely untouched. Economically, the opportunity of expansions exists, and there was enough capital available for a growth industry. Socio-culturally, the habit of travel for both business and pleasure was well established and the technologically has advanced sufficiently to offer convenience to both the industry and consumers. A SWOT analysis shows that the strength of the company was in its expanding room capacities and the economic scene was generating more business travellers and tourists. On the other hand, the weakness was the inefficiency that had crept in due to its lacklustre management that was only profit-oriented and was riding on the excess of travellers over available room capacities that is likely to be affected in lean period after the London Olympics. Still the opportunity was the possibility of getting a larger share of the growing markets with large room capacities that it can continue to build up. The threat was the inefficient labour force and the short-sighted HR policies of the management. The Six-Box and the 7S models point to the inefficiencies due to both the lapses on the part of the management to show any leadership quality and a denial of the opportunities to those skilled workers who could contribute to the company’s efficient workings. The result was a callous attitude towards labour and inefficiencies all around. Part of these inefficiencies was being covered by using inefficient part time labour. All the models define the areas where Travelodge needs to work upon to improve its HR practices and are effective in underpinning the problems. Task 3 Human Resource Management Human Resource Management has become and integral part of Strategic Planning as the human capital is vital for the well being of an organization. While Human Resources were always a subject of debate, the emphasis was on how to control it. Traditionally HR was totally management oriented and controlled. Later it was understood that all stakeholders including labour were to be acknowledged as pillars of the organisation (Freeman 1994; Venkataraman 2002) and that brought empowerment to the labour. Empowerment Empowerment means offering flexibility to the worker. It also means power sharing, information sharing, upward problem solving, task autonomy, shaping of attitudes and self management (Wilkinson 1998). Legge (1995) sees it as a promoter of trust and collaboration between managers and workers. This relates to relationship between manager/worker as well as promotes motivation for improved performances. The perception of empowerment becomes meaningful only when it is perceived as an enabler by the worker. The psychological advantage is phenomenal as he perceives it as power, self-control, efficacy and competence (Psoinos and Smithson 2002). The four dimensions explained by Lee and Koh (2001) elucidate this concept further. Meaningfulness, competence, self determination and impact are the results and can bee seen as powerful measures to improve performance. The real test of the individual fitting the organization, or the person-organization fit, is tentative at best and has been defined as the similarity of patterns of the organizational values and individual values. These may be further defined as those things that the individual values in an organization, such as being team-oriented or innovative (Chatman, 1989). Values are fundamental building blocks in most definitions of organizational culture (Barley, Meyer, and Gash, 1988), and culture plays a key role in determining how well an individual fits into an organizational framework (Rousseau, 1990). When individual values and priorities match the values and priorities of a particular organization the individual is happier and more likely to maintain an association with that organization. Value systems offer detailed and comprehensive justifications both for suitable associate behaviour and for the activities and functions of the system (Enz 1988). Organizational values are often considered as a group or collective product (Schein 1985: 7), and while all members of the group may not hold the same values they will support a given value. A central value system exists when a number of key values concerning behaviours and the way things are done or are shared in an organization across units and levels. However, strong organizational values are those that are both intensely held and widely shared. There is however great disagreement on the level at which values are considered to be meaningful to individuals (Enz 1988). These values have been theoretically measured by Hofstede et al. (1990) at the subunit level and OReilly, Chatman, and Caldwell (1991) have done the same at the organization level. Within the organizational context, an individual has to understand that he has to uphold the organizational values and therefore these values guide his actions, attitudes and judgments beyond the immediate or distant goals (Rokeach, 1973: 18). Both the organizations and people influence each other’s behaviour and attitudes; the person-organization fit is a therefore a consequential way of evaluating the person-situation interaction. This then becomes the limiting factor of the worker’s empowerment. In other words the empowerment is organization led and oriented. If the organization culture is overpowering then the workers’ creativity is curbed and the organization will loose an opportunity to gain from it. This becomes relevant in creative jobs that abound today. Empowerment therefore becomes a subjective issue. Indeed it may be said that the worker is coerced into a situation of compliance with the organizational demands. The Ground Realities Another way to look at HR is Hard and Soft HR. Hard HR looks at profit as the central need of the organization and Soft HR holds that human capital is more important. The management chooses either of these approaches when they are formalizing their strategies and work around one central focus and develop the other around it. Surprisingly practice does not match the theory. Legge (1995) finds that the focus of the enterprise is still profitability. She finds a gap between what she calls Rhetoric and Reality (1995) and fails to find empirical evidence to prove that the soft HR, or the people centric HR, is really being practiced. Indeed Legge (2005) finds that in actuality hard HR is still dominating soft HR which is facing slow diffusion or dispersal. In other words, the reality is that corporates are predominantly profit centric instead of people centric. Recommendations Travelodge need to develop a vision and mission. It must look beyond the London Olympics and plan for a future without it. This is and event that will eventually pass and later stable business is what will be required for sustenance. With that objective in mind the mission should be to plan for better performance. This needs a complete revamp of its HR policies. The new work environment and work ethics need to give back some planning and decision making power back to the worker. This is the real way he can be motivated to perform better. This need is understood as the new methods of work need more skilled worker and such skills need planning and decisions even at the execution stage. By default such empowerment also raises the performance and it is conceded by management that strict deskilling has indeed killed performance. While it has been proclaimed that empowerment is good there are some fundamental issues that will have to be dealt with first. Every organisation has some method of working called the culture of the organisation. This may be defined and planned or may come about through practices adopted over a period of time. This is an influential factor on the level and degree of empowerment. The individual worker has to fit in the organisation’s cultural pattern and the empowerment has to be within its confines. Therefore understanding the culture becomes important. The company must look at its employees as human capital and not as an expense. Once it considers them to be a vital part of the system it will look for better output and performance from them. This will lead to better appointments and better training facilities in order to get the best out of them. The employees in turn must get better facilities which will increase their output. They also need to be empowered so that they feel they belong to the organisation and owe to it to do well. HRM has assumed an important role today. Travelodge will be better off by establishing an organisational culture based on empowering the employees. HR planning and development is an important exercise for competitive advantage. The human capital of an organisation has acquired greater importance than its earlier envisaged role of inputs like materials. They contribute greatly to the excellence and competitiveness and cannot be ignored today. This requires them to be enabled through training and improved performers through motivation and empowerment for the ultimate benefit of the company. Bibliography Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Barley, Stephen R., Gordon W. Meyer, and Debra C. Gash., (1988), "Cultures of culture: Academics, practitioners, and the pragmatics of normative control." Administrative Science Quarterly, 33: 24-60. Caterer Search available at http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2007/03/08/312095/travelodge.html Chatman, Jennifer A., (1989), "Improving interactional organizational research: A model of person-organization fit." Academy of Management Review, 14: 333-349. Dibbs, S. & Simkins, L. (1996). The Market Segmentation Workbook, London: Thomson Edgar, F., (2003), Employee-Centered Human Resource Management Practices, New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 28,(3), 230 Enz, Cathy A., (1988), "The role of value congruity in intraorganizational power." Administrative Science Quarterly, 33: 284-304. Freeman, R. E., (1994). The politics of stakeholder theory. Bus. Ethics Quart. 4(4) 409–421. Hagedoom, M. & Van Yperen, N. (2003). Do high job demands increase intrinsic motivation or fatigue or both? The role of job control and job social support. Academy of Management Journal, 46(3), 339-349 Hofstede, Geert, Bram Neuijen, Denise Ohayv, and Gaert Sanders., (1990), "Measuring organizational cultures: A qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases." Administrative Science Quarterly, 35: 286-316. Lee, M. and Koh, J., (2001), Is Empowerment Really a New Concept?, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol 12, No 4, pp 684-695 Legge, K., (1995). ‘Rhetoric, reality and hidden agendas’. In J. Storey (ed.), Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. London: Routledge, 33-59. Legge, K., (2005). ‘Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities’. 10th anniversary edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Maslow, A., (1954). Motivation and Personality. (2nd ed., 1970). McGregor, D., (1960), The human side of organization. New York: McGraw Hill. O’Reilly, C., Chatman, J. & Caldwell, D., (1991), People and organizational culture: A Q-sort approach to assessing fit. Academy of Management Journal, 34: 487-516 Pascale, R. & Athos, A. (1981). The Art of Japanese Management. New York: Warner Books. Psoinos, A. and Smithson, S., (2002), Employee Empowerment in Manufacturing: A Study of Organisations in UK, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol 17 No 2, pp 132-148 Rokeach, Milton., (1973), The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press. Rothstein, M., and Daniel N. Jackson 1981 "Decision-making in the employment interview: An experimental approach." Journal of Applied Psychology, 65: 271-283. Rousseau, Denise M., (1990), "Quantitative assessment of organizational culture: The case for multiple measures." In Benjamin Schneider (ed.), Organizational Climate and Culture: 153-192. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Schein, Edgar H., (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Venkataraman, S. (2002) Stakeholder value equilibration and the entrepreneurial process. Weisbord, M.R. (1978), Organization Diagnosis; Six Places to Look for Trouble With or Without a Theory. Group and Organization Studies, December, pp. 430-47. Wilkinson, A., (1998), Empowerment: Theory and Practice, Personnel Review, Vol 27-1,pp 40-56 Read More