Technological advancements and innovations
change the value of the hospitality industry. The appreciation of global
tourism stimulates growth in vertical markets such as transportation, restaurants,
lodging and accommodation, theme parks, cruise lines, cultural tours, and event
planning. Recent changes change the entire industry demanding hospitality
organizations to understand the needs and wants of customers to ensure delivery
of services, products and offerings.
The survival of the hospitality industry
relies heavily on “customer satisfaction which has a close relationship to
service quality in a service environment where interpersonal relationship
dominate many customer-oriented
processes (Lockyer, 2007).” The interpersonal relationship of employees is an
essential in the delivery of services and products within the industry. Thus,
employment selection process commands the greatest part on the success and
performance of hospitality organizations.
Pre-Employment Screening
At the top of the employment selection
process is pre-employment screening. Although hospitality organizations have
varied opinions and regard to this pre-screening stage, most agree that
employees must be tested properly with the aid of available standardized
screening tools. The main purpose of this stage is to ensure that applicants
meet the minimum requirements and specifications of the employment. Being the
first step evaluating applicants, pre-employment screening is simple compared
to the next steps or processes. Commonly-used tests cover skills, intelligence,
personality and integrity (Tanke, 2001).
Most managers use skills tests to screen
applicants of a vacant position. Skills tests, according to Barth (2008), “can
include activities such as typing test for office workers, computer application
tests, for those who use word processing or spreadsheet tools, or food
production tasks to test culinary artists.” In the hospitality industry, skills
are very important in the delivery of optimal services to customers. For
instance, if the organization needs someone who can be placed behind the bar, a
test on mixing drinks is a skill test that suits best (Tanke, 2001). The
manager can easily reject applicants who cannot mix drinks with a certain speed
and taste perfection.
There are several methods to test the
skills of a person. It could be that the person be tested according to the
demand or the need of the organization, as mentioned above. This scenario,
however, may placed the employment in isolation on that certain skill. To test
other capabilities of the applicant, the organization can ask for other
possible capabilities that can be showcased by the applicant. With this
approach, the manager can easily see the strength of the applicant and the
possible “usefulness” of the employee in the future, especially of the
organization needs reassignment of human resources.
Aside skills tests, another important
employment pre-screening test that should be considered is the aptitude or
intelligence evaluation. It measures “intelligence, reasoning, written and oral
comprehension” to ensure that employees know how to react properly when
situations arise in the service-oriented environment. There are standard mental
tests that are employed by most hospitality organizations, which include:
Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test, Differential Aptitude Test, Watson-Glaser
Critical Thinking Appraisal, Purdue Pegboard Test, and Wonderlic Personnel Test
(Second, 2003; Tanke, 2001).
Job mismatch is a common problem faced by
organizations. Personality tests help to determine the characteristics of a
person and the match it with a task that will appreciate or enhance the
person's characteristics. These tests are aimed to understand the person's behavior
with regards to his or her work, to other members of the organization, the way
the person reacts to stress, and even how the person relates with customers.
Hospitality organizations need employee who don't lose their patience and
composure when dealt with stress. Otherwise, it would ruin the image of the
organization.
Personality and integrity tests may have
some similarities but they are distinct from each other. While personality test
checks the person's characteristics, integrity test evaluates the person's
level of honesty. Most of the thefts,
robberies, and other crimes within hospitality organizations can be traced to
the honesty of its employees. By hiring better people, these incidents can be
reduced, if not eliminated. Hospitality organizations, however, rely on written
integrity tests to determine the person's honesty.
According to Jones, et.al. (1991), “the
integrity test selected should meet all professional and legal standards for
test development, implementation, and general use.” The test, though it checks
the honesty of the person, must not evade the privacy of the person to avoid
prejudice and discrimination. Nonetheless, these tests should have a level of
Distortion Scale to evaluate if the person is being truthful or candid on all answers
provided in the written integrity test.
There are other pre-employment screening
tools or tests that are employed by hospitality organizations depending on
their need. It could be that the job position requires only the skills test and
not the intelligence test. Any combination of these tests, or any other tests
not mentioned, as long as it will yield the right evaluation for applicants,
can be utilized by hospitality organizations.
Application Form and
Resume Analysis
With few job openings and more people
looking for one, the human resources department of a hospitality organization
is usually bombarded with tremendous number of applicants hoping to fill the
vacancy. Resumes and application forms are valid sources of information for the
manager to get a picture of the person's skills, intelligence, personality or
integrity. It does not mean that a person does not need to take other tests,
but by merely looking at the resumes and application forms, the manager knows
who have the edge for the job (Bohlander & Snell, 2007).
Resumes are submitted by the applicant
early in the process. However, the hospitality organization should not be
satisfied with the resume alone. Even if the resume is impressive and just in
every inch the best, it is essential for the organization to have a uniform
application form for everyone. Resumes may exaggerate the contents of the
resume to fit the qualifications set by the organization. Due to this fact, the
application form is used to evaluate what's in the resume or the other way
around.
Most hospitality organizations favor
application forms over resumes. Resumes are individualized and the information
written are only those the applicant wants the manager to know. Application
forms are uniform and give a quick overview on what managers really need to
know about the applicant. First, the application form evaluates the applicant
if he or she meets the minimum qualifications for the job. Second, it serves as
a written interview on the background and other basic information about the
applicant. Third, the application form provides the manager the necessary
references to know more about the applicant's work performance, education, and
personality.
Now how can these application forms be
analyzed? Basically, it is necessary for the manager to check relevant
information. The educational background of the person stands first among the
things that should be considered in an application form. Hospitality
organizations set a minimum limit of an employee's educational attainment. For
instance, the applicant must have at least a degree in hotel and restaurant
management, or any equivalent educational background. The manager looks at the
educational background written in the application form to understand the limits
of the person's knowledge on the job.
A minimum requirement on experience can
also be set by the hospitality organization to ensure that the employee already knows about the job and does
not need weeks of training. Managers of the hospitality organizations favors
those who have experience over those who don't have yet. Why? If employees
don't have the necessary experience for the job, the organization will be
spending for the training of the employee. Experienced employees know what to
and how to do things already which would reduce the number of hours in
orientation. Experience plays a big role especially when organizations need to
hire employees in a short notice to meet seasonal or occasional boom of the
hospitality industry in the region.
In consonant with hospitality
organization's aim to have the right person for the job who can be trusted and
who can promote integrity, it is necessary to analyze the person's arrest and
criminal convictions. Applicants will not disclose this kind of information in
the resume, and it is essential for the hospitality organizations' HR
department to draft this section of the application form carefully. A
miscalculated and wrong approach may have discrimination issues. In the same
manner, most organizations want to have an employee without a felony record,
but there are organizations that provide a leeway for those who have been
arrested for minor crimes, even major crimes, as a provision of opportunity for
convicted felons. It is the judgment of the HR manager on how to reconcile the desire
of the organization to have an honest employee and the intent of not
discriminating applicants.
An important part of the application form
or the resume that should be evaluated by the HR manager subjectively is the
reference section. Commonly, applicants need to list at least three references.
References are only useful if the applicant meets the requirement for
educational attainment, experience, or criminal history. Recommendations from
the references can be elicited by the HR manager to vouch the applicant.
In essence, the evaluation and analysis of
resumes and applications can be objective and subjective in nature. The HR
manager looks at what its written by the application for an objective judgment
on the person's fitness for the job. From the evaluation of the resume and
application, and the pre-employment screening, if the person passes, he or she
will proceed with the employment testing process.
Employment Testing
In the hospitality industry, employment
selection process is essential to avoid high employee turnover. Poor employment
testing methods result to turnover which hurt the service-oriented industry. As
much as hospitality organizations need the best person for the job to meet
demands and needs of customers at any given time, turnover creates vacancies on
some positions and additional burden of performance.
Some of the employment testing methods that
can be employed by the organization to further test the applicant include:
sample job tasks to test the person's capability to handle day to day activity
related to the job description, medical and mental health tests to ensure the
person's optimal capability to deliver high-level performance, or evaluative
week or the orientation week. These methods are usually used by hospitality organizations
to avoid high cost of hiring new employees and hurting the capability of the
organization to answer the demand of the industry.
Commonly, for hospitality organizations
simulations or sample job tasks play major role in determining the person's fitness
for the job position. A supervisor works closely with the person and tests the
person's knowledge on the job as to how he or she works within the real
workplace. In some instances, the organization may also do a series of
simulations based on the specific requirement of the job.
The ultimate aim of employment testing
methods is to hire the best person and avoid low-performing employees (Arthur,
2006). These methods determine the person's strength and weaknesses, potentials
and abilities and match these traits with the requirements of the job. HR
managers use employment testing methods to evaluate the desirable traits of a
person which are useful to the job; it also looks at the undesirable traits of
the person which may hamper the delivery of the job description. The job of the
HR manager is to ensure that only those who can deliver the best service will
be hired; the principle of the HR department of hospitality organizations is:
the best person equals the best service.
Negligent hiring results to ripple effects
within the hospitality organization. When a hotel hires the wrong people for
their housekeeping, they cannot provide the best service to their customers. It
hurts the performance of the hotel and its reputation or business image. To
remedy the problem, the HR fires these individuals to hire new employees.
However, as the hotel waits for the new employees to be pooled, it suffers from
lack of employees to serve the guest. From a single problem of negligent
hiring, the hotel faces problems upon problems which can hurt its own business
operation and marketability.
However, it must also be noted that
employment testing in most hospitality organizations may stand supreme that
employment interviewing (which will be discussed in the latter part). Instead
of testing the person's character based on how he or she answers interviews,
the employment tests become the core of the selection process. The attempt of
the HR manager to predict who will do well in the job is clouded by the impact
of the employment testing. The intricate web of the tests covers the subjective
judgment of the HR manager.
At some respect, employment testing is
discriminatory. Instead of giving opportunity to qualified applicants who don't
fair well in employment tests, the HR department is locked up with the results.
It must be noted that in some instances the validity of the test can be subject
to questions due to factors such as the stability of the person's mindset in
taking the test. A graduate with a stellar record may not pass the employment
test because he or she is suffering from gastric problems. Yet, due to the
lock-up of the employment tests, the HR manager dismisses the applicant even if
the qualification records are impressive.
In the same manner, employment tests lock
the person on a certain job description only. Instead of testing the
suitability of the person on other task descriptions in the future, the HR
manager focuses only on the result of the test. With the aim of reducing the
training period, a person is placed in a pressurized environment which results
to lack of knowledge acquisition on the nature of the job itself. The person is
left to figure out what to do for the simple reason that he or she did well in
the test.
Employment Interview
As much as employment testing has its own
advantages, it also has disadvantages, and one of which is the disregard
for subjective selection through
interviews. By combining both employment testing and interviewing, the problem
can be fixed. The two can fused to eliminate the gap and to resolve issues on
judgment of the employment selection process.
Primarily, employment interviewing should
be given importance than just relying on employment tests in hiring employees
for hospitality organizations. The logic behind this priority is simple. The
hospitality industry engages with people, real people, who react and respond to
stimuli of the environment (Miller, 2006, p. 126). As such because of this
nature, it is necessary for employees of hospitality organization to have the right
interpersonal skills that can relate properly and effectively with customers.
Even if the person has a stellar employment tests results, his or her
interpersonal skills and capabilities still hold the most credit for the
employment selection – and this can only be determined through employment
interviewing.
According to Hellriegel & Slocum (2009,
p. 79), “misjudging the characteristics, abilities, or behaviors of an employee
during a performance appraisal review could result in an inaccurate assessment
of the employee's current and future value to the firm.” What holds true to the
appraisal review holds true to employment testing. It creates an impression
that lasts.
What employment interview aims is to erase
all other pictures of the person and to re-draw an impression of the applicant
based on the actual answers to the interview. Due to the fact that employment
tests are created prior to the interview, the manager or the interview already
has his or her view on the applicant and the interview process just serves as a
confirmation on those impressions (ibid.). With this problem, the interview
result of applicants within the hospitality organization may not have a strong
impact on the selection process.
Within the hospitality organization, an
employment interview works in three-fold: as a recruiting and screening tool,
as an information-gathering tool, and as a tool for socialization. Should the
hospitality organization HR department start with the interview process prior
to any tests or background check, the interview serves as a recruiting and
screening tool. In a short period of time, the manager must have an assessment
on the applicant's or “interviewee's
background, knowledge, motivation, communication skills, and personality
(Miller, 2009).” The interview process becomes the pre-screening tool used by
the organization to evaluate if the applicant meets the minimum requirements
for the job description.
The employment interview serves two-way,
both for the interviewer and the interviewee. For the interviewer or the HR
manager, it deepens the knowledge on the person. Usually this is the case with
hospitality organizations that utilize employment tests prior to interviews. It
works to cement the knowledge of the organization about the applicant. On the
other hand, it provides the applicant the opportunity to know more about the
organization or the job. At this stage (after the pre-screening and employment
tests), the applicant is already at 75% of hiring consideration. The interview
provides the applicant a good overview on what he or she will be doing and how
can that task be accomplished.
After simulations and sample task jobs are
accomplished and passed by the applicant, employment hiring is high. A final
interview is done to serve as a socialization tool for most hospitality
organizations. At this point, the HR department does not serve as a selection
committee, but as a welcome committee for the applicant or new employee. The
final interview fosters the idea on how well the communication network works
within the organization. It is at this stage that the interviewer makes an
impact by painting how the organization does the work to provide the best
customer-oriented service.
There are several ways on how an HR
department handles an interview – as much as it has the vantage point of using
it as a tool for the employment selection. The effectiveness of the interview
relies on how the interviewer asks questions to elicit answers from the
applicant. With respect to the job, the interview is the final acid test to
evaluate the interpersonal skills of the person.
Background Investigations
or References
Hiring a person without consulting the
background and references would yield to hire employee turnover. It is beyond
doubt that there are applicants who would plainly lie on their resumes or their
application forms. To resolve this issue, hospitality organizations, or any
other business organization, conduct a background check of the applicants
(Arthur, 2006). It is necessary to know what others can say about the
applicant. In fact, reference individuals can vouch or make recommendations for
the applicant.
Although references filled in most
application forms are useful, most organizations hire an outside agent to do a
thorough check on applicants, especially for high-level job positions (Mathis
& Jackson, 2010, p. 236). For the case of the hospitality industry, most HR
managers would call the references listed to have an external or third-party
evaluation of the applicant. With the aid of the evaluation or report from
these references, HR managers can make decisions on hiring a person or not.
With the acknowledgment of the importance
of background investigations and references check, there are still issues that
must be sorted out. Of course, the manager should be both subjective and
objective in creating judgment on hiring the applicant, but the reference check
or background investigation plays a major role. If the HR manager sees the
person fit for the housekeeping job, but a former employer provides a bad
report or feedback, the HR manager must be willing to explore each sides.
Otherwise, the hospitality organization may suffer from high employee turnover
or may face discrimination and legal issues.
Background investigation and reference
check have two distinct roles only. First, it seeks to verify the accuracy and
truthfulness of the information provided by the applicant (Caruth, et.al.,
2008). This way the HR manager will be sure that what he or she is reading is
right and correct without perjured data. Second, these checks and
investigations are used to uncover any criminal record or such. In hospitality
organization that provides transportation services, background investigation
uncovers any driving history of the person. Simply, the background check seeks
to protect the hospitality organization from any harm on its performance and
customer service brought about by hiring the wrong person.
According to Arthur (2006), there should be
guidelines to be followed by any organization to ensure legal and moral
ascendancy of the background investigations and reference check. Former
employers may not provide a succinct and detailed report on the former employee
(the applicant in this case) to avoid legal issues such as invasion of privacy
and defamation of character. As much as the HR department wants to get
information on the applicant, it must be understood that reports may not be
played by the books.
In this stage of employment selection
process, exchange of information is protected by the qualified privilege
premise. For instance, a former employer can provide information on the
punctuality of the former employee. However, it cannot provide or offer any
explanation on this behavior of the former employee; the personal life of the
person should not be covered in any report to avoid putting a cap on this
premise of qualified privilege.
Hospitality organizations should be careful
in following good faith references doctrine, the relationship between negligent
hiring and references, and other reports. These premises and doctrines must be
given proper consideration to ensure that the background investigation and
reference check are conducted in good faith.
Drug & Generic Testing
The final stage of the employment selection
process covers drug and generic testing. As emphasized in this paper,
hospitality organizations focus on services and customer satisfaction which is
directly related and dependent on the optimal capability of the employee. Every
year, hospitality organizations lose millions of investments due to the failure
of the employee to attend work, the number of times they should take leave or
be absent from work. The sudden inability of the employee to attend to work
results to a series of effects which are not beneficial to the business operation.
With the aid of the complete medical and
health tests on employees, illnesses and diseases can be determined and a
proper prognosis can be made even before they occur (Jackson, et.al., 2011).
The test can help HR managers get an
overview on the number of days the employee will be out of work due to health
leave. For instance, employees with communicable diseases are likely to be
rejected or dismissed by the HR manager. The principle of the hospitality
industry is to provide the best care and attention to customers without causing
any indirect or direct harms.
Drug testing can be done before or after
the employment process. Pre-employment drug testing is allowed to check the
person's potential liability in the future (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2008).
However, this process can be discriminatory; most organizations do ask for drug
testing only at the end of the employment selection process. After the
employment process, the HR manager may ask applicants to undergo a drug test.
This process is commonly-used by hospitality organizations to avoid any legal
and ethical implication.
With the aid of the drug test, hospitality
organizations can screen potential employees to avoid hiring a anybody who is
dependent or addicted on a certain illegal drug. This is a form of protection
against workplace crimes and harms. Externally, it ensures that all members of
the hospitality organization can provide optimal service and avoid harassment
or such incidents toward customers which can be damaging to the credibility and
reputation of the organization. Although, drug addiction may not be harmful in
its shape, its effects, which most of the times hidden and done in secret, may
blow the organization's future.
A hospitality organization depends on its
employees in building its brand image, reputation, and credibility. A single
mistake may ruin what has been built for years and a scandal may ruin the
organization's history. Hiring the best person for the job is essential in
ensuring the organization's performance. The human resources department of an
organization plays a tremendous role in keeping the organization's health in
check. Proper employment selection process focuses on getting the best person
for the job without crossing ethical, legal and moral norms.
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