The Impact of Skills Shortage in the UK Hotel Industry
on the Services Provided by Hilton Hotels
Introduction
Hospitality industry in UK that is continuously growing in the 21st century. This industry encompasses hotels and other accommodations, restaurants, fast food retail, bars, and catering. It has been characterized in recent decades by the development of an increasing range of highly segmented products and services. Overlapping tourism and leisure services, with a growing business services component, it is a highly competitive global industry (Rowley et al, 2003, 9). Hospitality is a major force in the economy, creating growth and jobs. It employs 1.8 million people in nearly 300,000 establishments and has a total turnover exceeding £64 billion (BHA, 2002). Hospitality and tourism has become one of the world’s most fiercely competitive businesses. The hotel industry is the linchpin of the United Kingdom’s leisure-related service sector: a big business with enormous growth potential. It also contributes to the country’s attractiveness as an international business destination (Lovegrove et al, 1994).
However, the other side of this picture is the reality that it is not effectively coping up with the changes posed by the need to enhance the skills of workers. The hotel industry remains a low skill area of employment where skills are increasingly required to adapt to changes in technology, product range and the social, legal and commercial environment (Rowley et al, 2003, 9). Moreover, the sector has a record of suffering from a chronic shortage of recruits with food preparation skills, wastage from the sector of those with vocational skills and qualifications. Likewise there is a widespread evidence of vacancies which are hard to fill. Britain receives some 25 million overseas visitors a year, spending nearly £13 billion, but these numbers have been broadly static for several years, revealing problems of competitiveness which government and the industry need to address (BHA, 2002).
But it does not mean that the industry is doing nothing. According to the British Hospitality Association (2002), with the support from the government, it is discussing the skills shortage problem through a number of routes, including the annual Careers Festival and special schemes under New Deal. It is a prime contributor to social inclusion and widening participation. Moreover, it urges hotels to concentrate on funding mechanisms. The funding of vocational education in hospitality, especially in further education colleges, must be increased to reflect the fact that the industry is producing jobs of the future; the simplification of the qualifications structure for hospitality must be addresses; and the knowledge of food and practical cooking skills should be a requirement of all stages of the National Curriculum (BHA, 2002)
According to Teixeira and Mishel (1993) “If we build the workers, jobs will come” (69) That means that improving the skills of the work force will produce high-performance workplaces, substantial increases in productivity, high-wage economic growth, and so on. This study shall then examine how skills shortage in the UK hotel industry affects the services provided by the hotels. For this research, the Hilton Hotels shall be presented as the case study.
Background of the Study
Senior representatives from Europe’s leading hotels have concluded that one of the biggest challenges currently facing the hospitality industry comes from recruiting and retaining skilled employees if the sector is to avoid a serious skills shortage in the next few. Recruitment, retention and career development are among the most serious issues facing the hotel business (Andersen, 2000). Moreover, staff turnover in the hotel industry rise over the past few years and suggested that the appeal of a career within the hotel industry is declining for many young individuals as it competes with opportunities in newer, fast-moving industries (Andersen, 2000).
Changes in how workers obtain qualifications is evolving and, perhaps, is rising skill requirements (Bowers & Swaim, 1994, 82). The shift in the mix of qualifying skills toward those learned in school or formal company programs suggests that demands shifted toward more general and cognitive skills. More educated workers are much more likely to hold jobs requiring qualifications than are less educated workers. In large part, this result merely reflects the importance of educational credentials for professions and other occupations requiring college degrees. But the link between schooling and job qualifications is more pervasive. Workers with a high school diploma or college are more likely than less educated workers to learn qualifying skills through enterprise-based training after leaving school (Bowers & Swaim, 1994, 82).
As skills in workplace are significant to any industries, the British Hospitality Association (BHA) identifies business-related variables that drives changes in skills requirements (Rowley et al, 2003, 10). It falls into four main categories–changes in the customer base, increased competition, concern with sustainability, and change in production processes.
Furthermore, the BHA sets skills requirement to employees. The vocational skills requires expertise in food production and preparation, stock management, and cost control; the generic skills cover the managerial skills, particularly small business management, communication, problem-solving, selling skills, literacy and foreign language competence; and the competence deriving from attitude to work such as enthusiasm, commitment, and the will to learn (Gill et al, 2003, 11).
Indeed, the UK hospitality industry is facing a growing shortage of qualified and long-term staff at all levels. People are a vital component to any service industry and the hospitality business, like others, must recognize and respond to factors which impact on the recruitment and retention of staff. Technology and the changing needs of customers have altered the business as well as the skills that are required to work within the sector. The successful hoteliers of the future are going to be those who recognize the importance of personal development, training and education as well as financial compensation to acquire skilled professionals who will add long-term value to their business.
Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this study is directed towards the determination of the impact of skills shortages in the UK hotel industry on the services provided by Hilton Hotels. To address this objective, the researcher will identify the current recruitment strategies of hotel, since literature shows that the hotel industry is having difficulties in their internal and external recruitments due to shortages in skills. Moreover, the researcher will discuss the skills requirements by hotel employers. This study will also examine the skills gaps and deficiencies and how these affect the performance of the hotel business. Likewise, it is necessary to study the current practices in company training and development that are supposed to contribute to the enhancement of the employees’ skills.
This study will also examine the state of services provided by the hotel industry in the UK. Here, customer satisfaction will be discussed. The researcher will find out if hotels are addressing the needs of its customers. This is necessary for the further understanding as to what extent these customers play significant role in designing strategies intended to improve the skills of the employer. The case study of Hilton Hotel will then come into picture.
Finally, and importantly, this research will provide recommendations on how to solve the problem of skills shortage.
Research Problems
This researcher finds the necessity for a study that specifically tackles how skills shortage affects the services provided by a company. Specifically, this study intends to explore the significant impact of this problem to Hilton Hotels. It will present the differences in terms of services provided by the Hilton Hotel before and during the spread of skills shortage in the industry. Moreover, this study will try to answer the following queries:
1. What are the internal and external factors that have contributed to the growing skills shortage in the hotel industry.
2. How do company training centers deal with this problem?
3. What are the effects of skills shortage in the performance of a business?
Overview of the Research Design
For this study, primary research and secondary research will be used. Primary research will be conducted using anonymous questionnaires that will be sent to selected employees of Hilton Hotel. The researcher will also be conducting focus group interview with managers and administrators. The questionnaires will be used to collect quantitative data and the interviews will be used to provide qualitative insights into the data collected.
As stated above, this research will partially base its findings through quantitative research methods because this permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allows investigation of important new issues about the acquisition and questions as they arise, and allows the investigator to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan. In a quantitative research design, associations between variables and causality are established. Thus the correlation between the skills shortage and the overall performance of Hilton Hotel will be determined.
This study will also employ qualitative research method because it intends to find and build theories that would explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements in research. Through this method, qualitative elements that do not have standard measures such as behavior, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs within Hilton Hotel will be analyzed. Furthermore qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.
The data collection instrument will be a structured questionnaire that will be based on Likert scale. A Likert Scale is a rating scale that requires the subject to indicate his or her degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement. By rating scale we mean the scales that are usually used to measure attitudes towards an object, the degree to which an object contains a particular attribute, (Like or dislike), toward some attribute, or the importance attached to an attribute. The focus group interview, on the other hand, will be conducted with the consent of the management of the Hilton Hotel.
The data will be analyzed and compiled for the correlation of the hypothesis. An indicator of the control group will be the individuals at the Hilton Hotel. The data will then be presented by means of graphical representations and illustration and the difference would be highlighted. A negative correlation between the variables would suggest that the hypothesis is null, that is, that the skills shortage has no impact to the services provided by the hotel.
Reference:
Andersen (2000). It’s a people business. Press Release. October 24. Available at [www.hotelbenchmark.com]. Accessed [04/09/03].
British Hospitality Association (2002) British Hospitality Association’s Chief Executive Industry Revies—2002. Accessed at [www.bha-online.org.UK]. Accessed on [04/09/03].
Bowers, N. & Swaim, P. (1994) Recent Trends in Job Training. Contemporary Economic Policy, Vol. XII.
Lovegrove, N. C. et al. (1998) Why is labor productivity in the United Kingdom so low?
The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 4.
Rowley, G. et al. (2003) Employers skill survey: Case study-Local and central government. Employment Studies Research Unit, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol.
Teixeira, R. A. & Mishel, L. (1993) Whose skills shortage – workers or management?
Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. 9, Summer.
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