Human Resource Management Issues Within Travel and Tourism

Human Resource Management Issues within Travel and Tourism

As have mentioned, travel tourism is considered as one of the most important industry in the world which offers wide range of jobs. Thus, it can affect the entire human resource planning of those firms in the travel and tourism industry, particularly during the process of HR planning.

One of the important issues which affect the HRM process of travel and tourism industry is the image of hospitality and tourism as employers. According the study of VistScotland/George Research (2002) showed that while a career in travel and tourism is generally considered as interesting (87%) and challenging (81%), it is also perceived as offering long working hours (56%) and low pay (54%). Aside from that, majority of the respondents stated that they don't have good understanding regarding the range of jobs and career opportunities available (cited in Littlejohn & Watson 2004). As a result, because most of the people are not aware of the different opportunities in the industry, and have negative perception regarding the industries, it will be hard to attract possible employees that will join the company and will help companies in the industry to achieve its objectives and goals. This factor is connected with another issue which focuses on the labor shortage in the industry which signifies insufficient qualified help. This affects the HRM process of the company particularly the amount of money and effort to be spent in the recruitment and training process. In addition, in the process of correcting defects which caused by the employees who don't care before they resign and by newly hired personnel who are concerned, but don't have a completed training in proper work procedures (Hayes & Ninemeier 2008). The labor turnover or the total number of leavers and stability rates or the proportion of the employees who stay for more than one year are considered as the two main problem in the industry. The Intern Labor Organization (ILO) reported that in 2001, the turnover rate for operation employees is 51.7% in the US, 30% in Asia and 42% in the UK (Kusluvan 2003). There are different factors which causes instability of employment and high staff turnover such as seasonality of the tourism demand, fluctuations in demand because of unforeseen and inevitable social, economic and political disruptions, internal opportunity for growth, poor working conditions and human resource practices, poor image of the industry, employment opportunities in other organizations or industries, small size of employers who offer even limited career advancement, intrinsically transient nature of part of the workforce and lack of career structure (Boella 2000; Kusluvan 2003).

Another important factor which affect the HRM process of the company, particularly during the process of training, mentoring and evaluating the performance of the