HUMAN RESOURCES IN MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL

QUESTION

Case 1

‘Coopers & Lybrand (C&L), one of six world-wide professional service firms, is dedicated to client service. The company leaders believe that their advantage in the marketplace is their ability to anticipate and meet client needs more effectively than their competitors. At the same time, they know that their intellectual capital, represented by their employees’ competence and commitment, is their major resource for serving clients. Under the direction of Judith Rosenblum, vice chairman of learning, education, and human resources at that time, the company developed a strategy called Nexus to integrate the employee commitment and client-service initiatives. C&L based Nexus on two premises.

1. Our people are our customer’s most important asset.

2. We want to be the employer of choice of employees our customers would choose.

Rosenblum argued that a collaborative service firms meets professional requirements as a benchmark but does so collaboratively, so that both the engagement team (C&L employees dedicated to a particular client) and the client’s team share common values. Her work has led to a series of cross-organization workshops in which the C&L engagement team and the client team meet to identify common values and define behaviors that each can and should develop to serve the other; they then operationalize a new team structure that focuses on creating unity across traditional boundaries. From these workshops, collaborative networks of resources have been created through which C&L employees become more committed to serving clients, and clients are better able to use C&L employees’ talent.’ (Ulrich, 1997, p.55-56)

Inquiry Focus:

If you were Judith Rosenblum, how could you possibly integrate, as long as you find business appropriate and sensitive to do so, the best human resource practices including, staffing (including recruitment and selection), performance management, compensation, training and development etc to achieve the above success?

Case 2

‘Marriot International has about 3,000 lodging properties in the United States and 67 other countries and territories. The company operates and franchises hotels under the Marriot, JW Marriot, The Ritz-Calton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites, and Bulgaribrand names; operates Marriot Executive Apartments, provides furnished corporate housing through its Marriot Executive Stay division; and operates conference centers. The company is heaquartered in Bethesda, Md., and had approximately 151,000 employees at 2007 year-end. It has been ranked as the lodging industry’s most admired company and one of the best companies to work for by Fortune Magazine, and was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the 2007 Sustained Excellence Award and Partner of the Year in 2004. In fiscal year 2007, Marriot International reported sales from continuing operations of $13 billion. A key to Marriot’s success in each of their lines of businesses came from Marriot’s deserved reputation of providing outstanding service to guests and customers. As a result of their excellent service, the Marriot Corporation was considered by customers around the world of first when making lodging or food choices. Marriot’s goal for the first decade of the 21st century was a major emphasis on global expansion. Along with being the “provider of choice”, Marriot needed to become the “employer of choice”. (Bernardin, 2010, p. 567)

Inquiry Focus :

In your opinions, what best Human Resource Management practices that Marriot has and will have to pursued to create and sustain its goal to be the international “employer of choice”? How would you see the connection between the goal to be “employer of choice” and the “provider of choice”.

References

Bernadin, H. J. (2010). Human resource management – an experiential approach.5th edn. New York, N.Y.: McGraw Hill.

Ulrich, D. (1997) Human resource champions – The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, U.S.: Harvard Business School Press.

Instructions for Assignment

You have an option to write an individual essay on BOTH 2 cases. The guiding questions are listed to direct your focus of effort in the discussion. However, you are required to conduct further research data from secondary sources and apply relevant Human Resource Management theories and models learnt to help you generate critical insights in your analysis and support your arguments.

The assignment should be in a length of between 1500 words EACH case.

GUIDELINES TO CONTENT

 Introduction:

A short paragraph summarizes the key points in your essay.

 Body of Texts (NOT A PARAGRAH HEADING)

This is where you present your arguments to support your views in the inquiry. Paragraphs are to be organized into unified topical sections captioned by appropriate headings. These are the key to essay writing: clear topic sentence, relevant general statements, and detailed examples.

Paragraphing should be done in accordance with key points of your discussion with a heading outstanding the topical idea you are trying to convey to your readers. Throughout your writing, you should demonstrate your ability in the following aspects:

oAnalysis & Discussion (NOT A PARAGRAH HEADING):

Analyze the topic of inquiry (with reference to relevant theories, models, concepts & practices). Your source of study should not be limited to textbook and lecture notes. Students are encouraged to search from Internet, books, journals or references from the textbook.

oPersonal Insights and Commentary (NOT A PARAGRAPH HEADING):

Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. It helps enhance your intellectual capabilities if practices more. You are encouraged to demonstrate your ability in critical thinking in your assignment. Please be prepared to support your argument with reference to relevant theories & concepts.

 Conclusion

What you say in your conclusion should match what you said when you introduced the essay. It should be a restatement (but not a mere repetition) of your writing, ideally in a way that shows more fully and clearly your arguments.

 References:

You must have at least ONE book and TWO academic articles to back up your analysis and writing in the final assignment. You need to list all the books, journals or websites capturing the articles you have referenced in your report. Harvard referencing style guide is required. You should refer to the Short Guide to Coventry University Harvard Reference Style that has been uploaded in HR Module Document at Blackboard.

Below writing serves as a quick revision on the format for “References:-

References should be shown in the text by giving the author’s last name followed by a comma and year of publication in round brackets, e.g. (Fox, 1994). At the end of your essay, there should be a reference list in alphabetical order as follows:

a) for books

Surname, Initials.Year of publication.Title.Publisher, Place of publication. SAMPLE: Casson, M. (1979). Alternatives to the Multinational Enterprise. Macmillan, London.

b) for chapter in edited book

Surname, Initials.Year of publication.“Title”. Editor’s Surname, Initials. (Ed [for single editor] or Eds [for multiple editors]) Title.Publisher. Place, pages. SAMPLE: Bessley, M. and Wilson, P. (1984). “Public policy and small firms in Britain”, in Levicki, C. (Ed).Small Business Theory and Policy.Croom Helm, London, pp. 111- 126.

C) for articles

Surname, Initials.Year of publication.“Title”. Journal, Volume, Number, Pages, e.g. Fox, S. (1994), “Empowerment as a catalyst for change: an example from the food industry”. Supply Chain Management, Vol 2 No 3, pp. 29-33.

 SOLUTION

Case study- 1

Introduction:

The given case is a piece of study in order to analyze the real approach of HR practices in present day world. Application of such new strategies and practices can not only accelerate production and profit maximization but also employee retention and brand value of the firm in the market. In the situation where Judith Rosenblum, vice chairman of learning, education, and human resources had to take decision on what kind of strategies to be implemented and practiced so as to merge the effects of customer satisfaction and employee productivity if I would have been there, I would have surely tried to implement some subtle and easy to adopt kind of policies so as to bring the necessary changes. I would have primarily dealt with employee engagement as a tool for creating employee branding in the organization and then would have worked on strategies to link employee branding to customer loyalty. Apart from this strategic recruitment could have helped even more and regular product training and HR counseling sessions so as to increase employee belongingness in the firm as well as tried to accelerate customer responsiveness by our employees in order to provide fast and better service. For all such things one of the most important strategies would have been high level of compensation and monetary rewards which I consider to be of great help in motivating employees as well as performance appraisal on serious note so as to make employees realize their real worth and would help them to realize their training needs. I would have implemented one of the most accelerating concepts nowadays i.e. employee branding which is being considered as a new and booming approach of effective management of employee motivation and its linkage with customer satisfaction as employee branding is all about direct link between employee of the firm and the valuable customers.

Starting with employee engagement techniques which motivate the employees to perform well and implement their creativity for goodness of the firm. For this to happen employee-employer strong bond and relationship would have been the first target for improvement. This could only be possible by quality time being spend in the office after heavy workloads in the evening through means of employee engagement games, free discussions on products and strategies  in which employees are free to speak about their viewpoints, management games and other delighting techniques. For this purpose the organization must hire employee engagement officer or talent management executive who can manage the engagement schedule with effectiveness and zeal. The need for such officer lies because any employee who has been designated for other job responsibility may not enjoy extra workload of creating and managing with daily games and delights which may decrease the effectiveness of the employee engagement program. Apart from this another technique of bringing employee effectiveness towards customer loyalty and service is by introducing monetary rewards and other non-monetary recognitions for good performance and high feedback points by customer for excellent service. Monetary rewards like bonus in year end and cash coupons, incentives and gift vouchers for good performance or achievement of target can fetch good level of motivation in employees to serve their customers well, a very nice common strategy for both the engagement team (C&L employees dedicated to a particular client) and the client’s team. Another platform for bringing together both factors of success is by having a strong feedback team for customer feedback so that employee performance could be directly monitored from customer service end.

Following certain models of application, we can start with  performance appraisal or in which employee’s yearly performance is monitored and evaluated to find out the efficiency of the employee on the job, this is done by various means like field review technique, confidential report appraisal method adopted by senior officials, 360 degree appraisal where appraisal of an employee is done by his colleagues, employer, peers, juniors in order to find out the overall image of an employee within the organization. [Henskinki, 2006] If appraisal is being done then evaluation of the same is equally important in order to find out the actual worth of the employee and performance appraisal would have been the strategies of utmost importance and care which has to be done on time and with concern. By making performance appraisal or feedback of employees from customer’s mandatory the major purpose would have been to retain the highly qualitative employees in the firm and identifying training needs for non performing employees and working for their upliftment. [Miller et al, 2002] Apart from this another succeeding method would have been training and developing employees in accordance with the vision and goal of the company. I would have worked towards identifying the training areas and needs and then worked on them for betterment of workforce and increasing the productivity of non-productive employees as well. Training tolls can be used like on the job training, lecture mythology, demonstrations, discussions, behavioral modeling and role plays. [Macmillan, 2012]Another important thing followed by me would have been strategic recruitment technique which is a method of recruiting those people who match with the overall vision and goal of the firm and this kind of recruitment is possible by means of brining latest and modern methods of recruitment into action i.e. third party recruitment or outsourcing, hiring through consulting partners, identifying the exact job descriptions and specifications, transparent HR policies so that employee is well aware of all aspects and join the firm with full clarity and enthusiasm. Putting right people on the right job by adopting the strategies with compliment with the internal and external environment of the firm, new recruitment must be focused on customer satisfaction and high service delivery and quality of hire must be very high so as to decrease the cost of recruitment and increase the return on investment. Another method applied by me would have been HR counseling session of employees by human resource manager of the firm; their duty would have been to find out the level of satisfaction employees are having for the firm and their complaints regarding benefits and compensation, if any? This would have narrowed the gap between top management decision making and employee satisfaction and would have motivated employees for achievement of their goals and targets.

All those techniques and concepts majorly work towards bringing employee branding in the organization. Employee branding means the organization is giving unlimited platform for its employee to coordinate and bring personal relations with the customer on his own level of coordination and it’s not the employer who is a brand but the employee who will act as a brand for the customer. This is a very large concept which may need plenty of attention and excellent service to attain that reputation with his or her customers but if attained employee branding can bring unlimited success and productivity for the firm as well as the employee. For achievement of all those key parameters, it is equally important to have a separate body of people who will be committed towards achieving their values beyond the traditional approaches. For that I would have allotted a separate team of people who will be working with full dedication to achieve a continuous success in making the organization a better place to work in and also an organization with which customers would be happy to get associated and will continue for long on the basis of excellent service delivery, immediate customer support, customer loyalty, considering attention towards retaining customer equally important as that of making new customers and whose focus is profit optimization and not rigorous profit maximization.

Conclusion:

Thus it can be concluded that bringing together HR focus and client satisfaction is not a very difficult state to obtain but it can be easily obtained with few but effectively implemented policies and practices. What is of utmost importance is the implementation of effective strategies and not just making those strategies and not implementing it fully. There should be timely monitoring and feedback of all performance achieved by the employees so that they are aware of their progress as the year moves ahead as well as the employees must be given all those rewards and recognitions which were practiced to have been given. This will accelerate the motivation in employees to work and perform well in a promising and well organized organization. Apart from this organization must consider employees an equal important asset as they think customers to be and for that employee engagement and motivation programmes as mentioned above can fetch unimaginable results. All these things may be very small initiatives from organizational point of view but are highly motivating and rewarding for achievement of the desired outcome i.e. merging of customer satisfaction and employee motivation so that employer is having employee who are of the choice of customers. Planning for the future concept is very well accepted approach worldwide and if I would have been on place of MR. Judith Rosenblum, I would have surely adopted the above mentioned approaches to HR practices and worked towards achievement of my goal.

References:

1. Helsinki, 2006,  handbook of performance management, ISBN 804-576-3, pg.-29-38, viewed on 7^th April, 2012, < http://www.vm.fi/vm/en/04_publications_and_documents/01_publications/10_governance_and_accountability/20050913Handbo/Handbook.pdf>
2. Janice A. Miller, SPHR and Diana M. Osinski, 2002, traning needs analysis, viewed on 7^th april, 2012, <http://www.ispi.org/pdf/suggestedReading/Miller_Osinski.pdf>
   1. Macmillan, 2012, training needs analysis,  doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4801023, viewed on 7^th April, 2012, < http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v190/n10/full/4801023a.html

Case-2:

Introduction:

Marriott international is a worldwide operator and franchisor of the most lucrative and profitable business of the world i.e. hotel and lodging. The given case study is based on the HR strategies followed by the respective organization which has enabled it to become an “employer of the choice” and also to analyze and find out its connection with being “provider of the choice”. The organization is a living example of HR excellence and strategic planning therefore truly deserves a thorough research on its organizational strategies. Marriott international would have pursued high goals and defined vision to become what it is now. The achievement of the title international employer of choice is not a single achievement but it is a convergence of high customer service, uniqueness in marketing strategies, prolonged vision and mission, low complaints, excellent service and motivated employees, proper training and development of employees on higher, middle and junior level. The study of HR policies and strategies which they possess and would have pursued for possessing can be a lighting factor for emergence of many hidden practices which Marriott may be following since long.

Starting with customer service delivery which is of utmost importance in hotel business, it can be said that for perfect customer service delivery, most important factor is perfect employee or perfectly trained employee which is the first advantage of Marriott international. The employees are highly trained and motivated towards achieving and discovering new attractions which have not yet been used in hotel industry. Such new ideas bring competitive advantage to the firm in comparison to its other competitors. [Bernadin, H. J., 2010] Marriott international owned Rawada international which was the first hotel which introduced the recipes without Tran’s fat in it. It also became popular for its most comfortable service delivery and luxury to clients and won many awards for service delivery and extravagant luxury. The key reasons for excellent market capture as well as people’s choice for job and to manage the balance between the opposite two factors is its far sighted vision and strategic HR decisions, one of them being strategic recruitment “targeted recruitment campaign” which it follows on core grounds and by means of which the earlier requirements are fully scrutinized and accordingly people are recruited in the firm which not only helps the organization to maintain quality people but also minimizes the extra cost involved in managing attrition problems. Marriott international works on the principle of choosing the best in the industry so that long term goals could be accomplished with every new person being recruited in the firm. The recruitment done by Marriott is based on many rounds involving psychometric check, personality check, personal interview, group discussion and also strict referral check. All these methods are said to be followed majorly in many organizations but Marriott international recruitment is based on both inner ability as well as personality dynamism.

HR professionals at Marriott international define the value of creativity and performance and they easily face the inevitable circumstances of stiff competition in the global market with emerging new hotels and old market pioneers as well. They have also succeeded to do acquisitions of some renowned hotel chains and have been successful in making them reach new standards.  The biggest achievement of the organization could be said to reach people i.e. customers beyond the cultural and geographical borders and compete for people and talent worldwide. People and talent in itself says “employer of choice” and “provider of choice” factor coming together. The major HR practice which they even speak of in their vision and mission as well is that they consider themselves to be an organization which works by its people majorly, it the people on the job who must be respected, honored, motivated and felt homely which in turn will motivate them as well to make the customers feel the same they are getting from their organization. This is majorly a way of motivating and making employees happy at work and this indirect motivation brings new vibrations in employees to serve their customers with grace and happiness making Marriott a better place to work as well as lodge at. Human resource team at Marriott international is extremely exclusive and talented to find out new opportunities and need for regular changes and development and the management supports each and every new strategy with utmost respect which is very important. The competitors of Marriott international are not very easily able to imitate its diversity because of the fact that the human resource team there is highly motivated and unique in terms of inventions and adoption of new techniques. The organization is having a committee called committee for excellence which works on diversity objectives and monitors progress at each and every level of organization. The committee has special team of people who work on regional diversity in local markets. The committee ensures diversity communication, leadership development programmes for local employees of the host country, strategic partnership and conferences to outreach the customer base all over the world.

Marriott internationals’ human resource policies that embraced their international expansions and global operations were long term commitment from employees and diversity management in global market. The retention rate is seen to be very high as compared to other competitors in market and they have a committed dynamic and diverse workforce who can speak more than 60 languages and belong to more than 66 countries out of which 61 percent are minorities and 51 percent are women workforce who are highly professional and see long term careers at Marriott. Marriott focuses a lot on training the employees on language proficiency specifically English language proficiency for which it has a “thirst for knowledge programme” being implemented since long  time which focuses on training employees on Spanish/English language system which brought high level of excellence of its employees in English language proficiency. Human resource is considered to be an asset of any organization but Marriott also considered its partners as people from the firm only and has a strong link with supplier chain and other vendors. They worked on achieving diversity in supplier chain as well which could be said because through company-wide supplier diversity programme they spent 15 percent with minority and women owned supplier and in order to reach this achievement, they worked on local, regional and national supplier markets. Their efforts to bring development in minority and women based small businesses helped them to grow and develop with the flow of the company. It also brings stability and growth in the firm’s prosperity as the company wants the stake owners and diversity partners to grow and prosper with them. [J.W. Marriott]

Conclusion:

It is a great achievement for the company Marriott international to have seen such a growing and prospering market which has provided it the “provider of the choice” and “employer of the choice” titles. Both the titles are  big achievements for the firm but the core crux behind all these successes is its wide and exclusive human resource workforce which continuously works in order to make the firm a pioneer in hotel industry. The key achievements of the company as discussed above gives it the base for succeeding and capturing the market globally and diversifying worldwide and gain more and more prosperity. [Ulrich, D., 1997] Excellent strategic recruitment through recruitment campaigns, supplier’s diversity programmes, training and development of employees, personality development programmes, English language proficiency programmes for employees and high level of monetary and non-monetary rewards help the employees to always remain motivated and that makes the firm “employer of the choice”. Apart from this excellent market capture, diversified and graceful workforce, perfect service delivery, time management, cultural and regional touch in international expansions and most importantly quality luxury and healthy facilities for lodging and eating makes the organization the “provider of the choice”. The balance between the two could be accomplished because the company pursued for excelled human resource team, highly motivated employees who could give positive energy to the customers and diverse workforce which will enhance the organization’s sense of belongingness even in international market. The balance could also be possible because of company’s strategy to use minorities and women also in its diversity management program and other social responsibilities which the organization is acknowledging. These things uplift the standard of the firm and make it globally acceptable and competitive even in stiff and adverse market conditions. The business of Marriott international is not limited to hotel business in US or nearby areas but is considered as pioneer of hotel industry and best known international chain of hotels for diversity management and among the top few companies who have worked in and for US globally and gave huge recognition worldwide by maintaining its integrity, profitability, social responsibility as well as fame and popularity.

References:

Bernadine, H. J. (2010), Human resource management – an experiential approach, 5th edition, New York, N.Y, McGraw Hill.

1. J.W. Marriott, diversity and inclusion, a global factsheet, viewed on 9^th April, 2012, < http://www.marriott.com/Multimedia/PDF/Corporate/DiversityFactSheet.pdf>
2. Ulrich, D. (1997) Human resource champions – The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, U.S.: Harvard Business School Press.

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