The rate at which organizations’ employees are lost whereas others are employed is referred to as labor turnover. The hospitality industry is among the leading commercial services in the business sector. In this industry, this has led to the need of a large workforce that has created many employment opportunities to the people in the nations.
The waiters, waitresses, suppliers, departmental managers, and chief executive officers of the restaurants and hotels are some of the employees who get jobs in the hospitality industry. This is an indication of how hospitality industry is an important sector in the economy.
First, it creates a lot of employment opportunities, which help in making majority of the population productive. Secondly, hotels are huge producers in the economy as illustrated by the volume of resources required by hotels to provide their services. This gives the economy a boost through incentives such as taxation.
The advantages that come along with this industry being wide are not only seen in the economy, but the benefits also reach the entrepreneurs who invest in this sector. In business, the bigger industries pose more challenges to the firms operating them. Essentially, the labor turnover is one of the most pertinent problems facing this industry.
The big workforce attached to this sector of the economy makes the hotel industry one of the sectors affected by high labor turnover rates. The employees in hotels and other firms in the hospitality industry are able to move from one organization to the other more quickly due to the many operating hotels.
This has led to the high ratio of labor turnover in hotels. Some problems have been experienced due to this condition, which has tried to solve some tough situations in the hotels as discussed in this paper.
Classification of Labor Turnover
It is important to highlight the major types of labor turnover experienced in the national economy in order to discuss the many problems that have come along with labor turnover in hotels. Labor turnover can be put into various groups depending on the area which the employees in question relocate, or according to the employees’ own wish to terminate their employment.
According to the area in which an employee changes his or her area of employment, labor turnover can be classified as either internal or external employee turnover. The internal labor turnover is the one in which the employees change the positions that they held initially within the same organization. In the case of hotels, one can move from being a manager at the finance department to the catering department.
On the other hand, there is also external labor turnover which entails employees moving from one organization to another. This type of employee turnover affects the operations of firms in terms of productivity and efficiency because it reduces the labor force of the company.
External labor turnover also takes away some of the best-qualified employees of the company. A waiter or waitress can move to another hotel where he/she believes there are better working policies.
In terms of employees’ wishes to terminate their employment, labor turnover can be categorized as voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary labor turnover is a case where the employees move out of the organization without being asked by the management of the company to leave the organization. In this case, the labor turnover is caused by issues such as dissatisfaction in payments or terms of work.
On the contrary, involuntary labor turnover is pushed by the organization itself. In this case, the employer asks the employee to leave the firm due to some faults in order to find someone else who can replace the labor force that has left. This shows the difference between labor layout and labor turnout. The former does not require replacement of the employees relieved of their duties.
Problems of Labor Turnover in Hotels
There are series of problems attached to the high rates of labor turnover experienced in the hotel companies. Some of these challenges are not too serious, especially those caused by internal employee layout.
These are problems such as delays in projects started in the organization and consistent restructuring of the management. However, there are greater problems brought by labor turnover in hotels, particularly the external and involuntary labor turnovers.
Disruption of Projects
The hotels are like any other business firm, and they are bound to have set projects that they work on to help the growth of the organization. When a lot of employees in the hotels leave the firm or they are shifted internally, the progress of projects is disrupted. This disruption appears because the labor force that was employed initially had a specific role to play in the development of the projects.
The going away of employees from the firm can imply that the project will be dragged behind or even paused for a while. For the hotel to keep working towards implementing the projects and initiatives it possesses, it is forced to get new employees or tries to make the existing workers adapt to more working activities and keep the project moving.
Deterioration of Performance over Sometime
With the high rate of labor turnovers in hotels, the performance of these firms has been interfered with for a period of time.
This is mostly at that time when the company has most of its employees leaving their organization because the hotel will have a shortage of workforce, which would impact on the productivity of the firm. In short, the production levels and performance of the hotels keep fluctuating because of the high employee turnover rates.
High Replacement Costs
The hotels are faced with the challenge of replacing the employees, which leaves their firms trying to avoid being understaffed. This puts the hotels in a tricky situation where they are forced to employ new workers quickly and at high costs in a bid to maintain the company’s level of productivity.
The price of getting new employees is quite expensive, especially when it involves a huge number of employees who are also expected to be professionals as in the case of hospitality industry. Therefore, the hotels must use a lot of capital to do the recruitment, selection and training of the new employees in order to ensure that the quality of services remains good.
Company’s Time Wasted
Labor turnover in hotels makes the hospitality industry to be held behind with repeated activities of getting the best labor in the market. First, a lot of time dedicated on training and equipping of the employees with necessary skills required in offering services in the hotels is believed to have been wasted when the employees leave the company.
Most of these hotels organize the training programs for their employees costing them a lot of time that would rather be used in other activities. What makes the problem worse is the fact that labor turnover would force these hotels to put their new employees in training programs that cost the organizations more time.
Workplace Efficiency Affected
Every workplace has some working code of conduct in which the employees must comply with to maintain efficiency in the organization. The issue of a higher ratio on labor turnover affects the efficiency of the workplace by interfering with how employees abide by the code of conduct present in their job areas.
The moment a hotel has new workers employed after a short period, it becomes hard to keep all the workers operating fully according to the norms of the firm. This impacts the efficiency of the workers altogether as some employees might end up failing to reach the standards they are set by the hotel management.
A lot of Resources Required
Labor turnover pushes the hotels to start most of their employee acquisition processes which require a lot of resources. The firms put many resources and utilize a lot of money in this process starting with advertisements that inform on job opportunities to the final stage of training the new employees. Once a hotel has new workers at the management level and the subordinate staffs, more resources must be spent on them.
For instance, the waiters and waitresses would need uniforms while the new managers would require stationery. During the training process of these new workers, a lot of resources are also required to enhance the learning process and equip them with skills.
This again becomes a problem to the hotels when the employees leave their firms as all the resources used in training would be considered as waste. In one way, this discourages the hotel managements from investing in equipping their workers with skills through training.
With all these challenges, one would consider labor turnover in hotels to be unproductive and risky to the hospitality industry. If it is indeed dangerous to the sector, it is good to know what causes the employee turnover.
Cause of Labor Turnover in Hotels
Low Pay and Poor Compensation
One of the main reasons why employees move from one hotel to another is dissatisfaction on the payment they receive in the organization they are working. The workers might find out that the quality of service they offer to the firm has more value compared to the payment they get.
This pushes the workers to seek somewhere else where they think their services would be appreciated more by higher payments. The employees also seek work places where they are given better compensation offers. This has been a force behind the high labor turnover rates in hotels.
Poor Working Terms
The inconsistency experienced in the labor force is also caused by poor working terms in some of the hotels. Some hotels put their employees in working conditions that are not favorable like working without breaks or not providing reliable security when they work late at night. Nowadays, the employees move from these uncaring hotels to those related to their working conditions.
Lack of Employee Training and Development
Hospitality industry is one sector where the firms usually engage in the development of their employees. The employees’ skills are improved and given further training related to the hotel industry in fields.
Unfortunately, it is not all hotels that engage in these activities. Due to these, the employees who land in companies that do not have employee development programs are usually on the unstable while seeking other hotels offering these trainings.
Lack of Satisfaction with the Job-scope
In the hotel industry, the majority of employees are mostly people who do not have specific careers like waiters and waitresses. This makes them fit in many different forms of work as long as it is to be paid. Recently, there have been a big number of employees moving out of the hotel industry due to dissatisfaction with the jobs they are given in the hotels. This has contributed to the high rate of labor turnover in the hotels.
Pressure at Work
Everyone is not able to work under high pressure and therefore some employees can prefer to lose their job because of the strains in the workplace. This is also the reason why labor turnover in hotels is a common issue.
In most cases, the hotels put their workers under great pressure to offer the customers whatever they need at any time without considering the capabilities of these employees and the time they have. Some of these hotel employees are forced to leave their job since they cannot withstand the pressure they have to deliver.
Better Career Opportunities in Other Places
In the world, many people want to work in organizations that help them improve their careers. This need is attributed to the fact that the labor market has become so competitive, and employers are looking for workers who are going to bring a big positive impact in their organization.
As a result, the employees look for companies that can boost their careers to the best position. Many employees also seek an opportunity to advance their careers in hotels. This has been a force behind the many cases of labor turnover recorded in hotels as workers move to companies that can improve their careers.
Labor Turnover as a Solution to Problems
Despite the fact that many problems have come into the hospitality industry due to labor turnover in hotels, this condition has also helped to solve some challenges faced in it. The following subtitles have some of the ways in which labor turnover has proved to provide solutions to the difficulties in the hospitality industry.
Acquisition of Skills among Workers
The process of equipping employees with improved skills to enhance quality services has been so expensive for many hotels. This process involves setting up of training programs which the employees experience.
In fact, it also entails trips to be attended by the trainees. When all these are put together, they requires a lot of finances and resources which some hotels may find unnecessary to spend in such activities while others might not be able to afford the expenses.
Therefore, a few employees working in the privileged hotels get the opportunity to enjoy the programs for acquisition of skills. However, the workers move to different hotels in regard to labor turnover where they acquire better skills and improve their careers.
Introduction of New Ideas and Better Qualities
Coming up with new and unique ways of doing things in the hotels has always been a challenge to the hotel managements. Therefore, operating in a new strategy is one of the ways that smart entrepreneurs use to remain at the top despite the stiff competition.
This is also a technique of taking over the market which many companies use to gain monopoly power. The introduction of these new ideas after a short period is almost impossible as it requires a lot of investments and innovations which is so expensive.
However, the labor turnover has managed to help different hotels to get ideas that they had never tried before. As new employees come on board, they bring new strategies from the companies or hotels they used to work in. This shows how labor turnover gives managers a solution to what they might think is too expensive.
Increased Morale among Employees
Employers who want the best out of their workers try all means of getting the employees deliver quality goods and services for the business. One way of attaining this is through increasing the morale of the employees to work towards achieving the organization’s objectives and goals.
The morale of the employees can be boosted in many ways, which are preceded by appreciating the workers who do their best through things such as promotions and appraisals. The promotions can be made on salaries and working categories where the payments are either increased or an individual is given other roles in the hotel. In other cases, awards can be given to motivate the competitive workers.
Internal labor turnover helps the management to boost the workers’ morale as the employees can be moved from one department in an organization to another department at higher positions.
This gives the workers morale to do their best while working as there is an appreciation of quality work done. Therefore, labor turnover in hotels can make the employees work towards giving quality services as their morale may have been boosted. It also pushes the workers into working towards getting better work positions.
Conclusion
Generally, there are a lot of challenges brought by labor turnover in hotels, which is a solution to some problems at times. Initiating strategies to retain and identify the experienced workforce is paramount to the hospitality industry. This might lead to high achievements in terms of quality of services from these employees. However, some hotels make their projects disrupted, and record poor performance due to this.
Moreover, the employee turnover also gives the hotel managers a hard financial time due to the high costs of replacing the employees. A lot of resources are again used in the process, which proves how expensive and problematic labor turnover can turn out. However, there are also some few challenges that get their solutions from labor turnover in the hotel industry.
For instance, employees are able to acquire better and important skills from different hotel companies due to their ability in moving from one employer to another within the industry. Labor turnover has also helped managers get new ideas from the workers they employ. Therefore, it is true and precise to state that labor turnover in hotels is both a problem and a solution.
References
Davis, G. (2010). Staff Turnover in Hospitality. Inside Business360. Web.
Goff, L. M. (2013). How is Labor Turnover a Problem in the Hospitality Industry? A case study on international hotels into the aspects of labor turnover. HospitalityEducators. Web.
Mehta, A. (2005). Knowledge Flight: The Challenge of Hotel Employee Turnover. Hospitality Net. Web.