HR assignment essay on: Hard and Soft HRM in Tourism & Hospitality Industries
Human Resource Management is a strategic process of planning, structuring, creating and developing the values and culture, by matching the resources for the growth of an organization. Human Resource (HR) is defined as the workforce directed to achieve the goals of an organization efficiently and effectively. The Human Resources are being managed by the HR Department in any organization and separate budget is being sanctioned for the HR activities. It is the duty of the HR Department to manage the human resource by process of hiring, training, retaining and firing from the organization (Human Resource 2012). Companies have been creating the competitive edge with the help of human resource to grow their business in the age of globalization. These are two approaches of HR required in any organizations such as soft HR approach and the hard Hr approach. The hard HR is a way of treating the employees like machines and assets of an organization. It a way to get the work done by help of employee’s at any cost. The main activities related with the hard approach of HR are recruitment, and firing process of the employees. It is a rigid approach where the employee’s have minimum communication and the decisions are being flowed from the top to the bottom level. Employees are not being empowered by the employer’s and too much of delegation is required for the work to be done. The employees will be promoted on the basis of their performance and the appraisal which is made by reviewing the good and the bad aspects. It is applicable in the taller structure of organizations where the duties and the responsibilities of the employees are being fixed by the employer. The Hard approach of HR indicates the autocratic leadership style where the leaders want their employees to work as per the deadliness and be directive in nature. The hard approach is useful in the manufacturing industries where the productions of goods are being done on timely basis. The main aspect of Hard HR is to direct the employees for reducing the cost of human by minimizing the wastages. The disadvantages of hard HR are it creates more turnover, absenteeism and poor recruitment system (Alan Price and HRM Guide Network contributors 2012). The soft HR approach will be mostly found in the service industry where the employee’s are treated as one of the competitive edge to grow their business. The employee’s issues are treated individually and their needs are being satisfied. The soft approach of HR will help to train and develop the employees by rewarding, motivating and on the basis of their roles and responsibilities. The main objective of soft HR is to plan strategically for the long term goals of an organization. It ensures a two way communication process where the employee’s can participate in decision making process. It is being done by planning the competitive pay structure of the employees. The responsibility is being handled by empowering the employees and motivating them in a proper manner. The employee’s appraisal was made by training them and developing them for their career. It is applicable in the flatter organization where the employee’s and the leaders have to follow the participative and supportive styles for the benefits of the employees. It is related with the psychology of the employees dealing with attitudes, behaviors and their emotions. The main advantage of this approach is to provide more friendly approach and the benefits to the employees. It depends upon the organization how the both approaches are being selected on the basis of the business and the structure. It has been observed that the developing economies have been gaining lots of advantage with the help of tourism and the hospitality industries. The industry is being differentiated on the basis of quality of service being provided by their employees related with hard skill and the soft skill part. The fluctuations in the economic cycles also affect these types of hospitality and the tourism industries. It is a competitive and the challenging industry because more industries have been recently starting their business but giving severe competition to the old established industries. The better services by different companies have created huge customer traffic from across the world.
In this paragraph we will explain the sustainability factor to support the Soft HR and the Hard HR approaches in Hospitality and the tourism sector. Service is an activity held for particular period of time and it cannot be inventoried (Ezine Articles.com 2012). The soft HR will include the communication process being used by the employees and the employers. The timely delivery of the services is also required as a part of Soft HR. The employee’s attitude and behavior is treated very importantly by the management. Certain more soft HR are being required to grow and sustain the business with more soft skills such as honesty, courtesy, cooperation, reliability, eye contact, adaptability, positive working ethics, education and etc. The Hard HR is also required by this type of industry in form of managing the customers, handling the queries and the calls, producing the bills of the customers, maintaining the documents properly, handling the equipments, and maintaining hygiene & cleanliness (v-Bulletin Solutions, Inc 2012). These hard and soft HR can be taught by training them and linking it with their employee’s career. These types of industries can be started and sustained by planning certain HR polices. The employees who have a positive attitude and the behavior can be hired. Selection of employee’s can be done on aspects such as values, ethics, personality and problem solving attitude. The proper body language of the employees will create a confidence among the customers that their problems will be resolved in shorter duration of time. It should also highlight how the employees handle their job. The soft HR approach is considered more important that the Hard Hr approach because the employees will enjoy the service seeing the positive attitude and the behavior of the employee. The soft HR will help to retain the employees more because it will show that management is dealing with flexible approach and helping how to handle the customers. The HR department will arrange the training sessions related to the communication process and the timely delivery by the employees which will avoid the accidents and mistakes while handling the customers. The training is given to develop participate and supportive leadership qualities while handling the team of employees. The appraisal system should be made transparent by applying 3600 feedback. The goodwill of the hospitality and the Tourism based industries is marked by the touch points where the services are being improved every moment with the help of positive learning attitude of the employee’s (About.com 2012). It is said that mistakes while performing the work can be forgiven by the customer’s if the employees have an attitude to apologize. There is an example of British Airways which has improved its business and increased profits by valuing the employee’s soft skills and winning the customers. Hard HR is also required to sustain the business. Cross cultural training should be given to the employees to understand the customer’s properly. The Hard Approach is also required and at times during recessions, because it is treated as an instrument to achieve the organizational goals of such sectors by reducing the different costs. They apply this approach to get competitive edge by using their control systems and reducing the employee’s cost by firing the average performances in such sectors. It is calculated and quantified by in terms of the resources being allocated to the employees. The soft HR will be related with humanistic approach required for the development. It can be related with trust, commitment, and productivity by motivating them. Organizations need to apply both the approaches in a balance manner to deal and handle the employees. The soft HR will help the employees to work in a team and also can link with better performance. This approach can be developed by the training the employees in a better manner. The soft and Hard HR has got its own significance and disadvantages. It is required by the companies to fill up the gaps in-terms of skills with the help of Soft and hard HR. In the era of globalization resources cannot be wasted in an organization because it creates a lot of loss. The soft and hard hr policies in hospitality and tourism sector will help to focus on getting the work done by the employees with the help of commitment, adaptability, and high quality service. Employees are treated as human assets but they have emotions and feeling which can be handled with the soft HR approach. The development and change in such sectors is rapid and it should be managed by training and focusing on human aspects. As per Legge the Hard HR will deal with the rigid policies, system and activities just to earn the profits at any cost. It can be explained in terms of serving the customer’s per day basis in hospitality and tourism sector. It represents that whatever is being invested upon the employee’s must give the output in multiple folds. It is a way to deploy the people at work and get maximum output. Soft Hr deals more with the soft human psychology. It deals with the motivation part in the service sector where the employees need to create willingness to perform their best at their workplace. Motivation can be provided in form of hygienic and motivating factor. The employee’s in the tourism and the hospitality sector can be motivated by providing them recognition, advancement, promotion and etc. If the employees are not treated well in this hospitality sector then in such case there will be higher rate of absenteeism and more turnovers. Hard skill will be taught well when the soft skills can be provided with the help of soft Hr part (Investopedia US 2012). Professional trainers are being hired by hospitality and the tourism sector to train the employees about how to welcome the guest, how to treat them with courtesy, how to understand their requirements, and how to differentiate their employees from the others in term of their quality of service. The job can be made interesting for the employees by applying the method of job enlargement and job enrichment. It will make the profile of employees interesting and reduce boredom by proper time management, team building, communication, and etc. The soft HR approach will help to create and develop relationship with the other employees and the client’s globally. It will help in learning the cross cultural activities when the employees come from the different diversity, and treat them equally. The on job training can be observed in such industries by linking the soft skill of the employees with the growth in their career. Business can be sustained in future and explored globally with the help of the employees. Tourism and the nature of Hospitality industry will link with restaurants travel agency, hotels, and etc. It is one of the fastest growing sectors. The employees join seeing the viability of the business of these industries. The employees who work in companies for a longer period of time are being offered the holiday packages by the companies to motivate them for better productivity (UNESCO 2010). This sector can run smoothly when the employees are available at the required destinations because this sector has got higher attrition too. The hard approach of HR is required to bring the tourist along with including the soft HR approach. Soft HR approach will create better customer relationships by meeting the expectations of the employee’s above their perception. This sector also faces the problems during recession and the Hard HR approach is applied for bringing and sustaining the business by reducing several costs and focusing on the profits. This sector grows well when the economies of different countries grow well, the spending power of the consumers is more, and people have zeal and ability to travel different destinations.
Organizations follow different structures such as taller and the flatter one. It depends upon the management of the organization to give preference to either the Hard or the Soft Hr approaches. The hospitality and the tourism industries should maintain a balance between Hard and Soft HR. The Hard HR will help the employees to clarify regarding systems, function, and process of these industries. The Soft HR part will focus on the cultural and the behaviouraial aspects to pacify the thing at workplace. In hospitality and the Tourism industries the hard part will be associated with matching the performance of the employees with the organizational growth. It is stated that hard HR is to focus on human side for delivering the output at any cost. The Soft HRM approach will deal with the Fredrick Herzberg theory of motivation to motivate the employees by training them with their soft skills. It will help to develop the long term relationship with effective communication, and better leadership styles. The Hard HRM in tourism and hospitality sector will help in human resource planning, identifying the careers, develop the career, and design the job. The soft HRM will help to develop long term trust, encourage at work, develop cohesiveness, appreciation, flexibility and etc. It has been observed that higher rate of turnover in such sector is creating problem in terms of cost related to recruitment, training and development, poor performance, and emotional issues (International Journal of Business and Social Science 2011). Soft HRM will help in involvement and participation of the employees with the help of effective communication process in hospitality and the tourism sector. The employees will perform well when they will get the flexible working conditions, will be empowered by the management, their decisions and the suggestions are being welcomed, grievances are being handled, and etc. The employee’s performance also gets hampered if they are treated as machines and being exploited at the workplace by the management. The goals of the organization can be achieved if both the hard and the soft HRM approach will be made clear to the employees. The customers can be satisfied if the employees are being satisfied by the management of these industries. Thus the best strategy to grow and sustain the business globally of Hospitality and Tourism sector is to create a strategic Human Resource management system dealing with both the hard and the soft approaches.
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