Recruitment and retention in the European hospitality sector: a comparative study

This exploratory study documents recruitment practices and retention strategies of hospitality organisations that existed during the economic boom time drawing on data collected between 2004-2006 in 5 participating countries - Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia and the UK, with a follow up study in 2007. The results present data from 723 questionnaires received from 5 countries. The study revealed that generally speaking HRM practice within the hospitality industry was found to be neither strategic nor uniformly practiced. Larger hospitality enterprises are more likely to have a systematic approach to HRM. Recruitment practices within the hospitality sector in Ireland are variable. In the UK, for example interest in HRM in larger hospitality organisations is high, where the employment of specialist HR managers within the industry was becoming more common – however, knowledge of HR issues in smaller hospitality establishments remains poor. HRM in the Spanish hospitality sector has been influenced by two main factors: the rapid growth of the hospitality sector; the widening range of the services offered in some hotel chains and the larger number of small businesses or autonomous business-owners. Responsibility for recruitment was primarily the responsibility of the general manager. An average of 43.5% of respondents across all five European countries identified the general manager as having responsibility for recruitment and selection. The hotel owner was also identified by a large proportion of respondents (37.0%) as having responsibility for recruitment and selection. Surprisingly a low number of respondents (7.7%) placed responsibility for recruitment and selection with a specialist HR manager. This suggests that the hospitality industry has some way to go in making human resource issues a central priority. The range of staff retention strategies employed by hotel establishments across all five European countries was examined at the managerial, full-time and parttime staffing level. At the managerial level, the financing of formal training, provision of formal pension schemes and offering of career development opportunities were identified as the most common staff retention strategies. At the full-time staffing level, the financing of formal training, the offering of career development opportunities, provision of flexible hours and above average pay were identified as the most prominent strategies for staff retention.