Introduction
Hospitality industries found in college towns across the United States live under constant threat of cost of labor, subnormal profits, stiff competition, escalating prices of food, and economic meltdown.
Not so many people have labored themselves to study the problems that hospitality businesses that are found in college towns especially restaurant go through despite the fact that massive resources have been spent in studies pertaining to hospitality businesses.
This study’s objectives were to answer questions touching on the extent to which shortage of labor affected restaurants found in college towns. If employee turnover was an issue to such enterprises, to what extent did it impact such businesses?
Finally, the study sought to establish other challenges that proprietors of small restaurant in college towns endured or succumbed to. Because of not so elaborate literature in this area of study researchers and stakeholders have been forced to contend with very harsh realities associated with coming up with amicable solutions to such scenarios.
The main objective of the study was to ventilate the possible problems that proprietors of restaurants in college towns face while trying to address the aforementioned challenges.
Literature Review
The major problem that hospitality industry faced was the difficulty associated with retention of employees coupled with high rate of employee turnover.
They had difficulty attracting, retaining and motivating their employees (Baron, 2008). Reasons that were attributed to high rate of employee turnover included the odd working hours, instability because of its seasonal nature, low remuneration, and the law status of jobs that hospitality businesses offer (Wildes, 2009).
Findings from contemporary hospitality studies emphasized the nobility of environmental studies. This depicted restaurants as barring employee retention (Dermody, 2002).
Studies also suggested that the working conditions and the employ fulfillment are very critical to employees so much so that payment was a distant third. A stable workforce translates into employee satisfaction, their motivation. This lifts their self-esteem. It was therefore imperative that proprietors of such business enterprises come up with employee training programme, nurture employee empowerment and their autonomy.
Such employees become consistent in their service delivery. Leadership skills, it was reported, could be positively used to tame high rate of employee turnover.
This put leadership at the helm of effective management of any business enterprise (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2006). Owners of restaurants failed to move to tame the high rate of employee turnover because of fear of incurring losses related to high wages and salaries (Enz, 2004).
This showed lack of leadership skills in such proprietors. Restaurants owners had a perception that their casual staff would not work for them in a protracted period. This was coupled with their monetary worries.
Basically, the inability of restaurant owners to treat their employees well is evident in the way the employees left such organizations (Taylor et al 2001). This impacted negatively on the quality of services offered and their market share.
An organization will try to put up a culture or their philosophy. However, this proves futile when there is a very high rate of employee turn over (Deery and Shaw, 1999). Many employees constantly sought for alternative jobs when they had a feeling that they were not given positions of responsibility.
However, when this issue is amicably addressed, it can lead to competitive advantage (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000). Proprietors of restaurants that are grappling with high rate of employee turnover should think about coming up with practical strategies that would curb the problem and strengthen the business market share.
This can be done inform of undertaking on-site training (Barrows, 2000). Satisfied customers mean a successful restaurant. The input of the staff here is very pivotal (Pratten, 2003).
The effectiveness of an organization is heavily impacted on by human resource outcomes (Koys, 2001). Cost-benefit analysis of training program, that many researchers recommend employees to undergo, asserts that managers should get money meant for training from reluctant owners of such restaurants (Clement and Josiam, 1995).
Moreover, it is cumbersome coming up with quantitative value of such costs (Simon and Hinkin, 2001). The literature basically addressed hospitality industry as a whole. It did not address hospitality industries that are found in college town. This formed the basis for doing this research.
Methodology
The research was qualitative because it tries to address why there is high rate of employee turnover and not how. The study that was conducted in November 2008 had 41 participants from hospitality industries in southern U.S.A. Small independently owned restaurants within six mile radius were preferred.
This was the exclusion criterion. Letters were sent to 39 enterprises highlighting the study objective. Proprietors were invited to participate in the study. Letters were used to ask for participants’ consent.
This ensured that none participated unwillingly which can be unethical. Data collection tools used face-to-face or telephone interview. 29 letters were dispatched to the owners where as 7 of them were left with the duty managers.
3 letters were put in the business mailbox. An additional restaurant was recruited into the study because of its small size, its popularity with the local people, and its proximity from the research university.
Telephone interviews were conducted with the 41 respondents at the time of their choice. However, day times were preferred as long as they never coincided with thanksgiving and Christmas.
After 34 owners had initially shown interest in participating only 21 did participate. This marked 51.2% response rate. Four interviews were conducted on face-to-face basis and 16 over the phone. Phones were convenient to many respondents. The 51.2% response rate proved the validity and reliability of the research.
The data was analyzed by first summarizing participating business characteristics. This involved tabulating age of operation and the number of businesses that fall in that category.
Findings of the research show that many restaurants found in college towns struggle to survive in the long term. The study also suggested that these businesses survive despite operating in very competitive set-up.
This is attributed to their successful strategy. The respondents said high rate of employ turnover in their business is because of desire by people to have long work hours.
Nature of environment in the location impacted on the industry because many of the students would live after graduating or will generally look for work elsewhere. High turnover was also attributed to employee unrealistic expectations. Some employees opt to move on because they are not capable of coping with work pressure. This is coupled with their inability to act professionally.
Conclusions, impacts, and areas which future research should focus on
Contemporary hospitality literature has turned deaf year to restaurants in college towns hence initiation of this study. Most businesses struggle to retain their employees and change their attitude towards work.
Most of the respondents in this study had no problem of picking their workers. They reckoned that their staff had issues with discipline and commitment. It is absurd that after going through all these problems, none of them has thought about coming up with strategies to curb high employee turnover.
The owners of these businesses should come up with ways with which to retain their employees because there may be employees who are actually looking for long-term employment.
Staffing issues has been singled out as a serious problem that restaurants in college towns grapple with. Areas that future research can delve into include identifications of initiatives these restaurants can use to minimize employ retention menace, customer dimension between restaurants that have integrated aspects of employee retention, and challenges proprietors face in relation to the current economic situation.
Reference List
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Barrows, C.W., 2000. An exploratory study of food and beverage training in private clubs. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 12 (3), 190–197.
Clements, C.J., Josiam, B.M., 1995. Training: quantifying the financial benefits. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 7 (1), 10–15.
Deery, M.A., Shaw, R.N., 1999. An investigation of the relationship between employee turnover and organizational culture. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 23 (4), 387–400.
Dermody, M.B., 2002. Recruitment and retention practices in independent and chain restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 3 (1), 107–117.
Enz, C.A., 2004. Issues of concern for restaurant owners and managers. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly, 45 (4), 315–332.
Erkutlu, H.V., Chafra, J., 2006. Relationship between leadership power bases and job stress of subordinates: example from boutique hotels. Management Research News, 29 (5), 285–297.
Hinkin, T.R., Tracey, J.B., 2000. The cost of turnover: putting a price on the learning curve. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 41, 14–21
Koys, D.J., 2001. The effects of employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviour, and turnover on organizational effectiveness: a unit-level, longitudinal study. Personnel Psychology 54, 101–114.
Pratten, J.D., 2003. The importance of waiting staff in restaurant service. British Food Journal 105 (11), 826–834.
Simons, T., Hinkin, T., 2001. The effect of employee turnover in hotel profits: a test across multiple hotels. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 42, 65–69.
Wildes, V.J., 2007. Attracting and retaining food servers: how internal service quality moderates occupational stigma. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26, 4–19.