PROJECT OUTLINE – CASE STUDY
______________________________________________________________________________
Course Number
BBA6014
Course Title: HR Talent Management
Program: BBA Hospitality and/or BBA ESE
Assignment Type: Written Business Report
Assignment Name: Managing Talent for Organisational Success
Case Study:
BlueBird hotel is a small 4-star hotel situated in the Lake District in the UK. The hotel was established in 1999 and has remained under family ownership ever since. The hotel has 62 rooms. It employs 96 full-time and part-time employees and is open 365 days a year. The hotel caters towards families with young children and, thus, has been able to distinguish itself well from the competition in the area. The hotel offers two categories of rooms: The Rambler rooms are the standard rooms, with either twin beds or a double bed as well as bunk beds for children while the Summit rooms also have a separate living room with one sofa bed. All rooms have flat screen TVs, tea and coffee making facilities as well as a fridge. Games consoles are available upon request. In order to cater well to its target market, the hotel also has a swimming pool, a cinema, two games rooms as well as childcare facilities six days a week. While the hotel remains profitable, the recent economic downturn in the local economy has resulted in 14% fewer bookings compared to the same time last year. Furthermore, while the majority of the guests are British, the hotel has recently established strong connections with tourism offices in Limoux, Southern France and there is concern that the uncertainty surrounding Brexit will drive these customers away.
The current General Manager is due to retire in three months and although he is still involved in the business, he has handed down much of the responsibility for the day-to-day running of the
hotel to his daughter, the Assistant Manager. While the General Manager is much loved among his staff for his caring attitude and willingness to listen to the concerns of his employees, the Assistant Manager prefers to make her own decisions and to tell staff what to do. She has told both the Front Office Manager and the F&B Manager that discussions with employees are far too time consuming and often unnecessary and that the place would run more smoothly if everyone just got on with their jobs. She also prefers to take a hands-on approach and is keen to take a leading role in meetings and negotiations with vendors.
Although there is one full-time Human Resources Manager in the hotel, the Assistant Manager also likes to be involved in the HR business, particularly recruitment and selection. In recent months, the HR Manager has recommended the use of personality tests in the selection process, but the Assistant Manager has categorically rejected the proposal, commenting that she can tell a good candidate a mile off and doesn’t need any of that “pseudo-science” to tell her otherwise. As far as she is concerned, her gut instinct has never let her down.
Given the reduction in bookings in recent months, the Assistant Manager has initiated several cost-cutting programmes, recently announcing that there would be no pay rises this year and that the training budget would be reduced to 1.2% of payroll. Coaching sessions which had been scheduled for several of the junior managers have now been postponed indefinitely. The Assistant Manager has also begun to replace more expensive, experienced bar and waiting staff with cheaper employees, who have little or no experience. Other than induction sessions, and other mandatory training such as health and safety, there is no formal training for these employees as the Assistant Manager believes that “learning by doing” is the way to succeed at the job.
The hotel has always prided itself on an outstanding customer service and many of the hotel’s guests return year after year. Recent feedback from guests on TripAdvisor, however, gives cause for concern:
“There was only one staff member on duty when we arrived and he was busy helping the bar tender sort out a restaurant reservation. We had to wait more than 15 minutes before being checked in.”
“Very large and comfortable room, but staff seemed disinterested.”
“Great amenities and the food was good, but why can’t the waitresses smile?”
To make matters worse, in the last three months the absence rate has increased and three of the best employees have resigned. The General Manager has been told that many employees have become anxious about their future and that several other high performers are looking for jobs elsewhere. Your task is to write a report as per the guidelines provided in the project outline, highlighting three key issues facing the hotel in terms of its workforce and to make specific recommendations on how to overcome the issues in order to regain employee trust, retain high performers and improve profitability.
This section should provide details of the three main issues that have been identified in the case study attached below, ensuring that it is clear to the reader how the issues relate to the challenges faced and the effects these issues may be having on the organisation.
The 3 topics and the justifications are attached below, based it on those.
In order to show the relevance of the issues, specific points from the case study should be highlighted.
Note: In this section, actual words or phrases from the case study may be used.
