CHAPTER 5

SERVICE STAFFING IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Introduction
This chapter discusses the process of selecting and screening employees that would fit the
requirements of the hospitality organization. Further, techniques about training, developing,
empowering, and equipping talents to fit into the culture of the organization shall be discussed as
well. This chapter explains the role of employee empowerment and how it can affect the services
provided by hospitality organizations. Moreover, this part of the book imparts the importance of having
the right mindset in the organization and how culture influences employee productivity in the
organization.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:
 understand the process of recruiting employees and be familiar with the approaches and
techniques of interview and screening of job candidates;
 understand the training and development techniques used by the tourism and hospitality
organizations:
 know how tourism and hospitality employees arc trained to provide outstanding guest services;
 know why hospitality organizations value their employees through empowerment; and
 understand the importance of managing and equipping employees of the right mindset as
being part of the organization.

BEATRIZE:
STAFFING FOR SERVICE
 Whenever there is a need for workforce requirement or there would be a position to fill in the
department, it is often referred to the human resource department or to the talent acquisition
division of the organization to find a suitable person for the spot. This is the correct and usual
process. But it is also important for a person, as a future manager, to study and understand
this process to facilitate efficiency and accuracy of finding the right person for the position in
his/her team or department
 When hiring employees for the department, it is best to look first at the requirements needed
for the position rather than looking at the applicants.
 Managers should be able to carefully study the needs of their department. To achieve the plan
or objective of the department, the manager must first have an inventory of the available
talents in the department. After which, analyze the workforce needs that would complete the
existing in order to meet the goats of the department.
 Applicants should have the right attitude and character, such as friendliness. grace under
pressure, integrity, and going the extra mile to be strongly considered by companies. Many
applicants have the right skills and credentials but very few possess the right attitude for the
job.
 In terms of recruitment, it is suggested that the values of the brand are clearly marketed or
advertised to internal customers right from the beginning of the hiring process. This would start
with very clearly written job descriptions to address job- specific requirements, and then more
broadly to familiarize potential employees with the values and mission of the organization (Kim,
Kim, Kim, & Kruesi, 2019).
 In the service organization, specifically in the hospitality and tourism, it is a must that front
liners must possess extraordinary traits that are not common among all employees of the
organization. These traits should be embodied by the employees since they are always in
constant contact with the guests.
 After defining the required profile of the employee, the organization can now proceed to
recruitment.

Internal Hiring
Many organizations favor internal hiring because they see a lot of advantages more than hiring
from outside of the organization. Although hiring from within is not the only solution or foolproof
strategy in staffing the departments, the obvious benefits outweigh the others.
Information About the Applicant
 Data about applicants from within the organization can be easily accessed and are more
accurate compared to the information submitted by an external applicant. Since internal
applicants have been with the organization, the previous evaluations about the employee's
performance, work ethics, habits, strengths, and weaknesses are recorded or observed.
 The limited information from an external candidate may result in hiring mistakes. There are
some external applicants that are good on “paper" or curriculum vitae; others are excellent
during interviews; and some are simply impressive in their looks but eventually lead to wrong
decisions.

Fairness of the Company

 Internal hiring for positions with qualified applicants from within the organization is an objective
strategy that would be received well by the employees.
 Hospitality organizations are rich in employees who have varied backgrounds and highly
competent in terms of training and education.
 These employees would somehow feel unfair if the positions they applied for are given to an
outsider despite their efforts and hard work to help the organization succeed.

Knowledge and Experience Within the Organization

 Organizations favor hiring from within because some believe that employees who have been
with the organization are already familiar with the organization's functions, values, and culture.
 Organizations favor promoting employees who have started from entry-level position moving
them up the corporate ladder. This strategy may look good for the tourism and hospitality
organizations but there are two sides from the supply side of labor.
 To non-college graduates, this is an opportunity for them to have a higher position in the
organization and better compensation. But to degree holder applicants, they would either settle
for a position lower than what they actually deserve or find a job in other industries
 The point is promoting an employee would guarantee that his/ her experiences and knowledge
of the organization make him/her a better choice to keep the organization working.

Organizational Culture and Values

 Employees chosen for a position that were hired internally would have a better time in
adjusting to the organization's culture and values.
 Internal employees are already familiar with the corporate values and need no further training.
 The organization's culture is expected to be embodied by the employees as well. With this
assumption, internal applicants need less time adjusting to their new positions since they are
expected to know how to get things done and what they are supposed to deliver.

Reduce Costs
 Hiring employees entails a lot of costs in different areas. These include advertising the
vacancy to major dailies or television, workforce and logistic expenses during exams
and interviews, some organizations incur travel expenses for applicants and human
resource personnel, training, and orientation among others.
 When an organization hires from within, these costs could be minimized. Costs in advertising
would be eliminated and the human resource department could just disseminate a memo for a
job position internally.
 Tasks of evaluating applicants would be focused on internal candidates, reducing time for
interview and examinations.
 qualified external candidate when already employed has a high tendency to leave or cause
employee turnover.
 With internal hiring, the organization tends to get employees who have proven their loyalty and
have the interest to improve with the organization.

External Hiring
Employees and organizations often favor internal hiring more than external. However, there
are situations where candidates should be sourced externally. Still. hiring employees from outside of
the organization is an option that every organization can choose in order to improve its operations. As
there are advantages when hiring from within, there are also very good reasons to take in employees
from outside of the organization.

Paradigm Shift and New Perspectives

 Some organizations, when they believe that the organization is not realizing its full potential,
hire people that would serve as catalysts for change. This is often evident among positions that
entail specific skills and important responsibilities.
 A fresh perspective may set the tone on how to improve the processes of the organization, or
in extreme cases, it could determine if there is a need for a re-organization.
 The desired culture of an organization may not always be the existing culture among
employees. If a change in organizational culture is required or the organization desires to
infuse a different mindset for its managers, then hiring from within should be taken for a
second look.

Education and Experience

 This strategy directly contradicts the idea "start your way up from the bottom and climb up to
the top."
 With the rapid pace of technological innovations applied to the tourism industry, the demand
for highly skilled and well-experienced workers makes organizations hire from outside the
organization.
 It would take time and higher costs for organizations to train and develop employees from
within as compared to hiring employees that are already trained and proficient with the job
required.

Diversity of Workforce
 Service-oriented organizations prefer diversity in the workforce since this provides a wider
perspective in doing business.
 The diversity of employees equips the organization in understanding the varied culture of
guests, preparing for the required services, and servicing the guests according to their
preferences.
 Organizations gain competitive advantage when they seek out the best employees regardless
of ethnicity, cultural background, faith, and color. Further, the labor force is represented by
types that include single parents, children with elderly responsibilities, dual-career employees,
differently abled persons, and members of the LGBT community.

CLAIRE:
Approaches to Hiring External Employees
Organizations that consider hiring employees outside of the organization can choose different
options to promote the vacancies in their organization. These options can be traditional in nature or
may utilize state of the art methods depending on the preferences or possible expenses that the
organization is willing to commit. Traditional or not, the success of these approaches still depends on
how the organization handles the output of each strategy:
1. The Internet
 The Internet may be the greatest invention of today.
 Every aspect in our daily lives may have been directly and indirectly affected by the
world wide web.
 The ease of access made information gathering quickly that information are made
available in a snap of one's fingers.
 With these, people also used the Internet to find jobs that would best fit their profiles
and preferences.
 This facilitated the rise of job recruitment sites that posted job vacancies or open
positions of different companies. Also, it is not limited to a certain geographic location.
Sites posted vacancies even for international postings open for anybody interested.
Applications can be submitted online and job interviews are available online as welt.
2. Print Advertising
 Despite the popularity of the Internet in sourcing job advertisement and placement
engine, print media is still a common and an effective method in advertising job
 requirements of organizations. Applicants can still find ad placements for job openings
among major dailies and selected magazines.
3. Professional Linkages or Groups
 Associations or groups belonging to the same industry or sector form organizations or
clubs.
 Associations or groups belonging to the same industry or sector form organizations or
clubs.
4. Internship or Work and Travel Program
 This approach targets recent graduates or students who are about to take their on-the-
job trainings (OJT).
 Job recruitment companies offer programs that would provide the young people an
opportunity to earn and gain experience as they prepare for their professional careers.
 Recruitment organizations usually approach the universities to offer the program.
Students who are eligible to join the program shall be interviewed by the recruitment
organization and would-be employer.
 Qualified students can join the program and will be given credits by the university in
their OJT subject.
5. Referrals or Peer Recommendations
 A good employee is always sought after by organizations.
 Some go to the extent of offering better compensation package to rein in their target.
 Organizations ask their hardworking employees if they know of other people who are
interested to work with the organization as well.
 Good employees most often think of the welfare of the organization and themselves.
The tendency is to refer or talk to individuals who they think can help the organization
as they do or can be as talented as hardworking as they are.
6. Company's Image or Brand
 An organization with reputation such as the best place to work and that takes care of its
employees and values the members of its workforce is a magnet for a lot of applicants.
 Being known to be the best hospitality organization and knows how to take care of its
employees would help in attracting good applicants to join the organization.
7. Walk-in Application
 Applicants personally bring in their application forms to the organization.
 Walk-in application is still practiced by many.
 Walk-in applications are usually aimed at entry-level positions and are done by job
seekers who do not have enough work experience yet.
8. Headhunters
 Other organizations seek out the services of professional recruitment organizations
when they are looking for specific skills and particular talents that are vital in their
organizations.
 They are commonly called as headhunters because they specifically look for
professionals in the industry who are performing well in other organizations. These
headhunters usually talk to candidates and offer packages that elicit the prospects to
consider transferring.
9. Talent Pooling
 In the Philippine setting where there is an excess of workforce and not enough job
positions to fill in, it is common that companies maintain a list of candidates for a single
position.
 In this way, there would be candidates readily available to consider in cases where
another slot opens with similar requirements.

After the successful recruitment process, it is now up to the organization to select the
candidate that would best fit the requirement of the organization. A strict selection process is not a
guarantee that the employee would fit into the organization's expectation or whether the organization
has chosen well among the candidates available.
To aid in the selection of the best candidates, organizations must be able to gather as many
information as possible about the candidates. In gathering the information, there are several tools that
can be used:
1. Application Form
  Application forms are the most basic tool used to gather information during the
employment process.
 Aside from the curriculum vitae, resume, or bio-data. the application form contains
the pertinent data about the applicant.
 Through the years, application forms have evolved more so often we encounter
printout forms to be filled out manually. At present, application forms are now
available online and may be printed if necessary. Submissions can be accepted
anytime of the day and sometimes real-time.
2. Interview
 Candidates who qualified after the initial screening process shall be scheduled for an
interview.
 The interview is a process to confirm the information contained in the application
form and to seek.
 Interviews are done through face-to-face or through the aid of technology using the
Internet or video chat.
 Other interviews involve a panel of interviewers to one applicant; or vice versa, to
save time, multiple candidates are interviewed simultaneously by an interviewer or a
panel
 Some service-oriented organizations conduct interviews using situations or cases
where applicants are asked about how they would react to a situation. This style
would measure the behavior or predict future performance of the applicants.
3. Psychological Tests
 Often considered as just a part of the employment process, this particular tool
measures some of the most important factors considered when looking for
employees. This test evaluates mental soundness, intellectual capacities,
intelligence, logical reasoning, memory, and other cognitive functions of an
individual.
4. Background/References
 Other organizations call on references or persons mentioned by the applicant to
confirm the information about the applicant.
 Former employers are called through phones to verify or validate information and to
ask if they are recommending the applicant for employment.
 Drug tests and clearances from the police and National Bureau of Investigation are
checked to ensure that the criminal records of the applicants do not compromise the
safety and security of the company and, most especially, guests and clients.

The selection of candidates is crucial, especially in industries like tourism and hospitality where
behavior in challenging situations matters. Candidates must excel beyond basic requirements to be
hired. Retaining unsuccessful applicants’ profiles can save time for future applications. Proper
orientation is essential to make new hires feel welcome and reduce turnover. High turnover rates in
tourism and hospitality create opportunities for professionals to advance. Employee turnover, whether
voluntary or involuntary, can bring in fresh perspectives and promote internal growth within the
organization.

Training and Developing Employees to Serve

 Tourism and hospitality industry organizations would least likely want to hear or experience
complaints about the services they render.
 A misstep or an unattended request may result in a disappointed guest who may no longer
intend to return to the establishment, or worst, it can aggravate to deluge of negative
comments on social media.

JOCEL:
Training the Employees
 Hiring the most qualified and skillful staff does not mean that the service would turn into the
desired result of the organization. Whether the employee is a new member of the organization
or even the most veteran staff in the plantilla, alt require training to perform their jobs properly.
 The new employee needs to be trained how to deliver services and to perform tasks
consistently based on the values and practices of the organization. Veteran employees need to
be updated and reminded of the policies, practices, culture, and strategies of the organization.
  Each employee should be trained and made to understand the value of providing the best
guest experience. The training should also equip the employees with knowledge on proper
anticipation in order to provide for the customer's expectation and to figure out solutions on
situational problems that may arise spontaneously.
Trainings can be conducted in two ways:
External training is conducted by training organizations and training consultants who have the
expertise and resources to handle coaching. skills, needs, or any topics required by organizations.
Internal trainings, also known as in-house trainings, are often done by the department within
the organization involved with the training and development of human resources or talents

Training organizations employ different types of training depending on the required topic or
area of expertise. These trainings can be a long-term program where progress is evaluated
periodically or on a short-term basis where participants are expected to execute certain skills as part
of the culminating activity. Some of the common methods of training applied by tourism and
hospitality organizations are the following:
1. Personal Training
 There are several types of personal training that can be applied, but it usually refers
to a teacher and a student type of training or sometimes one-on-one training,
between a trainer and a trainee.
 Mentoring is the first of personal training wherein the one who educates or gives
advice is usually the more experienced or senior member of the team. This type of
training is done to help the newest member of the team learn the ropes and
techniques to improve their performance based on the experiences and expertise of
the colleague who was there before him/her.
 The next type is called coaching, this type of personal training is a function between
an expert focused on how to build the skills and competencies of a prodigy. Coaches
inform how the correct actions should be done and how to better apply skills to
become more efficient and productive.
 Lastly, apprenticeship is a training involving an experienced master guiding an
apprentice to learn a new craft through observation and hands-on experience
through a set period of time.
2. On-the-lob Training
 Also known as on-site training, it is a form of training where an individual learns the
job through actual experiences. Often, a supervisor or a senior staff member
oversees the performance of the trainee. This is to maximize their exposure to the
different possible tasks that they would encounter in the future.
3. Classroom Lecture
 Often referred to as the traditional teach and learn approach where the trainees
listen to the trainer about the knowledge and skills that an employee has to know.
 After the lecture, the trainees may be given exercises such as case studies as an
application of the topics learned.
4. Simulation
 In organizations where on-site training is not possible, a simulated
training area is set up for training.
 Trainees are made to practice their tasks in a controlled environment that
mirrors an actual scenario in the workplace.
5. Audiovisual Presentation
 Audiovisual materials are often used to aid in training sessions.
 Many big organizations create or commission a production of a standard training
video that could be used and viewed by their employees from the different branches
in varied locations.
6. Computer-aided Training
 The Internet of things phenomenon has somehow made things easier for all.
 Many skills and certification trainings in the hospitality industry are done with the aid
of computers.
 Instructions and exercises are done through computer programs. Trainers who
cannot be physically present can conduct trainings through the Internet even at a
remote location.
7. Do-lt-Yourself (DIY) Training
  It refers to a training through modules coupled with self- paced training method. An
employee learns the different segments of the course through self-study during the time
and place most convenient to the person.

Motivating Employees to Provide Exceptional Service

The hospitality staff 'who are in Contact with the guests must not only be equipped with proper
training and knowledge about the tasks ahead, but must also be motivated to render the expectations
of the customers.
Most common belief is that when employees are well-compensated, it immediately equates to
being motivated. Employees may be motivated to join and be with the organization because the staff
saw the opportunity to fulfill their dreams and meet their needs. People may join particular
organizations in the tourism industry, to sustain the different kinds of people's needs:
1. Compensation (economic needs) is one of the primary reasons that influence employees to
choose a particular organization. Financial incentives and rewards can be a good motivator for
employees to stay with the chosen company.
2. Other employees choose to stay and work with an organization because they work well with
co-employees and have a sense of belongingness (social needs)
3. Others are with the organization because they see the opportunity to contribute and share their
expertise (achievement needs)
4. And some feel that they are appreciated and valued (recognition needs) by the organization.
Having known the different kinds of needs of employees, the company can develop programs
to address these needs. These programs can be financial and nonfinancial in nature. Financial
rewards can either be wages, incentives (group or individual) bonuses, company stocks, or
commissions. Nonfinancial rewards can come in different forms:
Performance recognition, fun and enjoyment in the workplace, and minimizing stress. Performance
recognition usually goes with financial rewards. But in some cases, simple programs are organized to
highlight the accomplishments of the employees.

Empowerment
 Another aspect in order to encourage employees to perform better and develop into
becoming role models in the organization is to provide them opportunities to make
decisions in relation to the performance of their Jobs.
 Giving them the responsibility to make decisions that can influence the outcomes enables
the employees to better understand and appreciate the value of performing well in their
jobs and being recognized as trusted members of the organization.
 Empowerment goes beyond allowing the employees to make decisions, organizations
should make sure that employees have the proper tools to effectively execute their
decision-making choices.
 Rewarding employees who made the right decisions shows that the company recognizes
their efforts. It also strengthens the resolve of employees that when they utilize
empowerment properly, then their efforts are worthy.
 Empowerment can only be effective if it serves the right purpose. Not in all situations can
we say empowerment is effective.

Culture
 A culture in the organization is often referred to as the values, way of life, or philosophies
embodied by each member of the organization.
 Culture is an action or an attitude on how employees should perform and think in the
performance of their jobs.
 Culture may change through time depending on the direction set by the organization.
Sometimes. influences by new members from their past work experiences can create
changes in the organization.
 New employees should be taught the cultural beliefs and assumptions of the organization
even before they start in their new jobs. It is very important for tourism and hospitality
organizations to establish their culture firmly in order to provide consistent service to their
respective clients
 Culture should be properly communicated among the members of the organization to affirm
and reinforce the shared beliefs, values, and ' norms.
Tourism and hospitality organizations communicate culture through a number of ways:
1. Company policies and rules - employees are explicitly informed of what the organization
expects them to do and the penalties involved in case these are not followed
2. Role models or model employees - these are people that employees can look up to,
emulate, and be inspired by
3. Ceremonial activities or rites - these give off a feeling of belongingness, rite of passage, and
strong sense of affiliation to become a part of the organization
4. symbols - wearing a pin or a cap or holding an office in a higher floor connotes an
understanding of certain hierarchy within the organization
5. Linguistics - oftentimes, groups formulate their own ways of communicating with each other
by using jargons or words in context, thereby forming an exclusive form of language not
common to those outside of the group.