Journal Critique - Staffing Issues Among Small Hospitality Businesses

In relation to hospitality and catering, the non-commercial or “public” sector exists in the form of hospitals and institutes of education. Organisations in the commercial sector are privately owned and exist solely to find a niche to exploit to make money. While money-making is still a factor in the private sector, it is not the main goal. With the primary goal, demographic and expectations of the target audience, along with location and budget, all taken into account, different areas of the hospitality and catering industry begin to differ widely.

High employee turnover, where workers frequently leave and must be replaced, leads to increased spending on recruitment and training and can indicate management problems. Employees often have good reasons for moving on but if too many are leaving an organisation, can be very disruptive.

Although the restaurant industry is perceived to have high risk of failure, the risk of a restaurant failing is not too different from other small businesses. Parsa et al. quantified the risk of failure at 26% in the first year and 57% by year 3. He also described several factors that can influence the risk of failure. Those include physical location, firm size, speed of growth, differentiation from other restaurants in the market, adapting to external trends, and management experience. In terms of location and differentiation, Paul’s bar will be located in a new development designed to attract affluent customers and with very few competitors. Paul’s small firm size increases risk because of barriers to attract partners (i.e. suppliers and bankers are prejudiced against smaller firms) and growth that may be too rapid to manage. On the other hand, Robert already has experience in the restaurant business and should know how to run the bar and subsequent restaurant. Their choice of a piano bar may be in response to local trends that favor success.

1. One reason for the high turnover rate of hospitality staff is the fact that many hospitality jobs do not pay well. Personnel usually begin at a lowest wage rate or below which does not fascinate top eminence long-term employees because these employees are always looking for a better paying position. Situations that pay below tiniest net depend entirely on customer satisfaction and liberality. “Tips”. Around the world, the average beginning wait staff personnel is paid $2.15 per hour by their employer. The rest of their revenue is based pay on the urge of their customers. Monetary turn-downs mean fewer consumers, which in turn shrinkage is wage potential. Add this to the fact that many hospitality positions are seasonal and it is not hard to see why hospitality staff turnover can reach high rates quickly.

Employee turnover and the retention of valued employees are major problems facing business in the U.S. The average turnover rate is hovering at 15%. The costs associated with that turnover can be high - generally 25 percent of the individual's annual salary. Unemployment in the United States is at a 24-year low. Employee loyalty is down. Never before has it been so critical to focus on strategies for keeping good employees. However finding a solution to high turnover is not easy.

Employee turnover is defined as the rate at which employers gain and lose their staff (Kysilka & Csaba, 2012). When an employee leaves a company, valuable skills and knowledge are lost and it could directly affect the guest. Moreover, finding new employees with similar performance levels as the ones you’ve lost is time consuming and not to mention, costly. Companies who actively find ways to retain employees gain a strong competitive advantage, especially in the hospitality industry (Kysilka & Csaba, 2012). Although a certain amount of turnover is necessary and healthy for an organization, a high amount can lead to excessive costs. Turnover is problematic for many companies because it is very costly for the employer, especially in jobs which offer higher education and extensive on-the-job training. High turnover is part of larger set of problems including reduced production and quality higher costs, low satisfaction with managers, work anxiety, absenteeism and work place accidents (Dipietro & Condly, 2007).

The turnover of key employees will mean loss in productivity, loss of customers, damaged morale, damaged organization image, destabilized business and incurring costs associated with separation, hiring and training, all which will affect the organization's overall performance. Powerful leaders know that the success of their company is built on the quality of their people (Cheryl Cran, http://www.cherylcran.com/). Thus retaining top or key performers is critical to the long term health and success of the business.

As a new employee and a business student, I was interested to find out what causes this high turnover. Therefore, I talked to some staff at a different level and concluded that the problem is due to different wages structures, the feelings of not being appreciated, and lack of communication. These are numerous reasons why employees in my workplace including me became discouraged and resigned regularly.

Serious disruption of day to day activities may occur as a result of insufficient man power, replacements with less developed job skills, or discontinuity in decision making. When employee turnover is high, goal accomplishment may become more difficult. To be successful, managers must develop strategies that will help them adapt to the difficult environment caused by an unstable workforce (Dan and William 1982).

It can have both desirable and undesirable effects (Reiß, 2008). The undesirable effects may include, for example, the failure to use expertise and experience gained by a leaving employee, development of unwanted features and approaches in other employees in the organization, disruption of the attitude to work and work morale, higher demands placed on other employees during the period of substitution, possible loss of other customers, increase of costs to recruit a replacement, his/her selection, training and adaptation (Armstrong, 2009; CIPD, 2005; Branham, 2007, Katcher, Snyder, 2007). On the contrary, desirable effects are that new recruits bring new inputs and ideas, there is no stagnation, a more suitable employee (with broader knowledge and experience) can be hired, an improved and less costly process of personnel planning, development management and succession management (Armstrong, 2009; Reiß, 2008; Somaya, Williamson, 2008; Stýblo, 1993). Employee turnover may also bring organizations certain benefits. For example, if a less productive employee is replaced by someone more efficient or if a retiring employee is replaced by “young blood”. A certain level of turnover may reduce the organization’s personnel cost (Milkovich, Boudreau,1993). For employers it is very important to monitor the volume of employees who leave the organization and how this factor influences the organization. That, of course, is dependent on the size of the organization, its

Most people have experienced the hospitality industry. The industry is vast, and constantly changing to meet customer expectations. It is also a very diverse industry, ranging from stays in a five-star hotel to meals in a fast-food outlet.

Employee turnover creates a significant economic impact when critical employees, especially given the knowledge that is lost with the employee’s departure (Ramlall, 2004). It can further be concluded that employees who remain with the company for longer periods of time contributes to the overall goal of the company and becomes an integral part of the team.

This research papers describes the various Industries of the hospitality industry. The three I discuss are Food service managers, Lodging managers, and Chefs and Head Cooks. The vibrant and rapidly growing industry has highly demanded positions across the world. The various tasks and responsibilities of each career field are detailed. Information regarding the salary and projected growth rates of these individual careers is listed. I discuss why a certain career worked for me and the how it will benefit me in my lifelong learning experience. After reading, this may influence you to possibly consider a career in hospitality management.

The hospitality industry is represented in every country in the world and is diverse and complex. It

According to research, the hospitality organizations in Harare have been facing a lot of challenges that have been affecting the way they operate as well as the way they deliver their services to customers. These challenges have caused them to lose