HR Talent Management
HR Talent Management
Written Business Report
Case Study:
Peak hotel is a small 4-star hotel situated in Fort William, Scotland. The hotel was established in 1998 and has remained under family ownership ever since. The hotel has 60 rooms. It employs 95 full-time and part-time employees and is open 365 days a year. The hotel caters towards families with young children and, thus, has been able to distinguish itself well from the competition in the area. The hotel offers two categories of rooms: The Jester rooms are the standard rooms, with either twin beds or a double bed as well as bunk beds for children while the Knight rooms also have a separate living room with one sofa bed. All rooms have tea and coffee making facilities as well as a fridge. In order to cater well to its target market, the hotel also has a swimming pool, a cinema, two games rooms as well as childcare facilities six days a week. While the hotel remains profitable, the recent economic downturn in the local economy has resulted in 15% fewer bookings compared to the same time last year.
The current General Manager is due to retire at the end of the year and although he is still involved in the business, he has handed down much of the responsibility for the day-to-day running of the hotel to his son, the Assistant Manager. While the General Manager is much loved among his staff for his caring attitude and willingness to listen to the concerns of his employees, the Assistant Manager prefers to make his own decisions and to tell staff what to do. He has told both the Front Office Manager and the F&B Manager that discussions with employees are far too time consuming and often unnecessary and that the place would run more smoothly if everyone just got on with their jobs. He also prefers to take a hands-on approach and is keen to take a leading role in meetings and negotiations with vendors.
Given the reduction in bookings in recent months, the Assistant Manager has initiated several cost cutting programmes, recently announcing that there would be no pay rises this year and that the training budget would be reduced to 1.5% of payroll. Over the past five years, employees have received an annual cash bonus for their loyalty to the organisation; £50 per year of service. Employees are now worried that this benefit will also be removed. The Assistant Manager has also begun to replace more expensive, experienced bar and waiting staff with cheaper employees, who have little or no experience. There is no formal training for these employees as the Assistant Manager believes that “learning by doing” is the way to succeed at the job.
The hotel has always prided itself on an outstanding customer service and many of the hotel’s guests return year after year. Recent feedback from guests on TripAdvisor, however, gives cause for concern:
“There was only one staff member on duty when we arrived and he was busy helping the bar tender sort out a restaurant reservation. We had to wait more than 15 minutes before being checked in.”
“Very large and comfortable room, but staff seemed disinterested.”
“Great amenities and the food was good, but why can’t the waitresses smile?”
To make matters worse, in the last three months the absence rate has increased and two of the best employees have resigned. The General Manager has been told that many employees have become anxious about their future and that several other high performers are looking for jobs elsewhere.
Your task is to write a report as per the guidelines provided in the project outline, highlighting three key issues facing the hotel in terms of its workforce and to make specific recommendations on how to overcome the issues in order to build team spirit and improve profitability.
Assignment overview:
In small groups of three, students will write a 3000-word business report demonstrating their ability to critically analyse a case study and apply theoretical concepts and research findings to help an organization tackle key HR talent management issues.
Overall aim:
Students will demonstrate their ability to analyse key issues facing an organization in relation to its workforce as well as to make recommendations to resolve these issues based on theory and practice in human resources and talent management practices.
Learning Outcomes and Transferable Skills
LO2 analyse core human resources and talent management practices which impact strategic growth and retention. LO3 examine key activities involved in facilitating learning and developing talent.
LO4 recommend practical solutions to talent management issues based on contemporary theory and business practice.
TS1 : Communication
TS3 : Information literacy
Resources Available:
Tasks, Organization and Grading:
For this assignment students are required to analyse a specific case study, highlighting three key issues that the organization currently. They will then research the three issues selected and make recommendations to the organisation on the actions it should take to resolve the issues. Students must use a minimum of nine academic references (emphasis on peer-reviewed journal articles); three academic resources per issue selected. For the recommendations section, students will also be expected to use business journals and industry related websites e.g. CIPD.
Structure or Task:
Issues Identified
This section should provide details of the three issues that have been identified, ensuring that it is clear to the reader how the issues relate to the challenges faced and the effects these issues may be having on the organisation.
In order to show the relevance of the issues, specific points from the case study should be highlighted.
Note: In this section, actual words or phrases from the case study may be used.
Theoretical Justification
This section should refer to both theories and research studies that are relevant to the issues identified. As you must analyse theory and research for each of the issues identified, there should be a minimum of three subsections. Each student must take responsibility for one of the three subsections (see special instructions for details). Consider the following:
Can the research/theory help to explain the current situation the organisation is facing?
Can the research/theory help to explain how the issue may be impacting organizational performance?
Can the research/theory help to explain how the issue may be resolved?
Can the research/theory help to explain how addressing the issue may improve organizational performance?
Include findings from recent research studies (i.e. last 5 years).
Recommendations for Improvement
In this section you should make specific recommendation to the organisation on how to resolve the issues you identified earlier. The recommendations must be logically and clearly related to your previous analysis of the case and the research/theories identified. You should highlight the rationale for your recommendations and include resources or data (or reference to resources/ data) you consider to be appropriate. All resources must be referenced appropriately. Example of resources or reference to resources could be any the following: statistics on employee turnover, average training budgets, employee satisfaction, salaries etc. as well as links to specific industry reports, assessment tools and training providers.
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
APA guidelines must be applied throughout.
