New to Hotel HR: What Are the Key Responsibilities I Should Know About?

It's my first time entering this kind of job, and I would really appreciate your help. I am working in a hotel and am curious about the responsibilities of an HR professional in a hotel. Can you please help me? 🌀

In the hotel, there are two major issues:

1) Retention of people, as many of the front office staff move to new jobs like BPO, cruise liners, etc.

2) Training: Since the hotel business is driven by people and the way they interact with other people (guests), training employees is crucial.

In the hotel HR, you are sure to get food for the tummy and also nourishment for your thoughts.

Thanks, arunskaimal. Do you work in the hotel industry as well? Yeah, I found out that my weight is increasing quite rapidly... 😂 😂 😂 😂 😉

I am studying at TISS in Mumbai. I have some understanding of the hotel industry. One other thing is legal compliance. In the service sector, overtime of workers is a critical issue. Contract labour is another area of concern.

As you are in the service industry, the HR role is very vital there because services are intangible and can't be measured. Therefore, it's important to train people from top to bottom line. We all know that the customer is no longer king but God. Whatever system you are following is reflected directly in front of the customer, so be very careful. I come from the automobile sector, so everything is managed in the back office. We are involved in production, just like hotels, airlines, and other service industries.

In a hotel, a higher percentage of staff face the customer for something or the other. Your workforce changes rapidly, and thus the stress on proper grooming, training, and customer-facing skills. Feedback from customers on service and customer-facing staff forms an essential criterion in performance management.

Motivation and staff-friendly policies need to be devised to keep your staff on top of their jobs. As the hotel industry is not always perennially busy, compensation management requires you to be very creative.

I have worked as an HR Manager with Holiday Inn and Taj Group of Hotels, and the responsibilities are manifold. In a nutshell, the main responsibilities of Hotel HR include:

1. Recruitment and Training

2. Performance Management

3. Statutory Compliance (including various aspects such as PF, ESI, Labour Department, Employment Exchange, contract labour, Trade Union Act, etc.)

4. Bargaining with Trade Union (if applicable)

5. Employee Engagement (involving town hall meetings, sports and games, employee suggestion schemes, etc.)

6. Managing the egos of HODs responsible for different departments like Housekeeping, FO, F&B, etc., as all consider themselves indispensable (this is not a formal part of the job but often occurs)

TISS refers to Tata Institute of Social Sciences, one of the top institutes offering courses on HR.

Yes, about those arrogant managers, what can I do to make them listen? I mean, I'm only 20, and they are probably old enough to be my grandfather, so I am having a hard time making them feel my presence. They can be really rude at times...

In my opinion, you need to set your personal feelings aside and begin to build credibility with those "arrogant" managers. Start small, look for and solve little problems, make small suggestions that will enhance their positions, not yours - remember you are there to serve them and as they begin to feel more confident about your abilities they will begin to rely on and trust you more.

In the meantime, develop a Plan of Action, what you believe should be changed - “critical success factors” for the organization and the managers - as well as underlying strategies as to how they can be accomplished. In the future when asked for opinions or proposals you will be prepared and have them ready. You will impress the managers with your foresight as well as insight.

Remember Newton's Law : A body in motion will continue in a straight line unless influenced by an outside force.” These “arrogant” managers “old enough to be my grandfather” have been doing their jobs, apparently successfully, backed by past experience, for many years. They have been successful and therefore are reluctant to change. They are annoyed, and at times intolerant of the “newbie” who doesn't understand the business, but who wants to make his/her presence felt.

You must be the “outside force” to overcome their belief that they have seen and done it all. To do that, find the time to get to know them; to listen to their philosophy of business, of their personal values; question them on their positions on various issues - old and new; learn from their experience, then add you own knowledge and experience. As you gain experience and insight into the workings of the industry and the HR profession, you'll be in a better position to challenge and debate the merits of proposed positive changes to the current policies and practices.

Then and only then will you be able to convince them that “good enough is not good enough anymore”.

I work in a Five-Star hotel. The work of HR in the Hotel industry includes manpower planning, recruitment & selection of employees, handling their joining & exit formalities, preparing various letters (appointment letters, offer memos, etc.), employee welfare activities (such as celebrating festivals, birthdays, farewells, etc.), salary preparation, managing statutory compliances (such as PF & ESI challans and returns), training & development of employees (focusing on behavioral aspects), overseeing the staff cafeteria, hotel staff vehicles & drivers, and preparing reports (HRMIS, leave balance reports, manpower reports, attrition reports, gate pass reports).