Essay on Main HR Issues in the Huntsman Hotel Plc Case

Giuseppe Salieri is the Managing Director of the Huntsman Hotels, a position that he got after he inherited the chain of hotels from his father in 2007. Giuseppe has ownership 51% shares of the entire chain of hotels, and this makes him the most influential individual in the enterprise with the power to hire and fire (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013).

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Nepotism is pronounced in the organization such that Giuseppe has placed members of his family the top managerial positions that define the leadership of the hotels. He does this by virtue of the fact that these family members own shares with the hotel, a mistake that makes the management less efficient. Besides, favoritism is evident in the organization because whenever anything goes wrong, all the blame is directed to the employees even when it is obvious that the management was responsible. This brings forth a disconnect between the employees and the management (Fee, 2014).

Shortage of managerial staff has also been a challenge to the Huntsman Hotel plc now that it has acquired a number of hotels not in the United Kingdom but in Marseille France. The lack of managerial staff will jeopardize the operations of the Huntsman Hotel Plc because any of the employees in the branches will be devoid of any oversight and may choose not to be accountable for their actions (Purce, 2014).

The language barrier has also been a challenge facing Giuseppe Salieri in that none of the managers he is looking to post to Marseille has knowledge of the French language. Language barriers will make a communication to be much of a challenge within the internal environment and the external environment. How would the management communicate with the employees? How would they communicate to customers?

There is no formalized wage structure for all the employees that work for Huntsman Hotels plc. All the raises made to employees are made on an ad-hoc basis and in a manner that is non-uniform. The imminent risk with this arrangement is that disgruntlement are bound to arise among employees. Some employees are bound to feel left out or belittled, more so when they discover they are getting less pay vis-a-vis a number of counterparts that have a similar job description as theirs (Cooke and Bartram, 2015).

Turnover is another challenge that Giuseppe Salieri and the rest of the Huntsmans Hotels leadership has been facing. The managing director is known to be a man who takes swift action whenever he believes there to be any laziness or underperformance; the problem is that there are a number of times that he is the wrong subject to misunderstandings and bad interpersonal relationships between the management and the organization. It is also worth mentioning that 70 percent of the employees in the acquired organizations left their jobs due to ill treatment of workers. This is detrimental because it will be very expensive, in terms of time and money, to find new staff and train them (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014).

Recommendations on Rewarding Employees

The main problem that makes Huntsman hotel less desirable to work in is bad leadership from the management which does not appreciate that employees are human beings first before they are workers. If the management of Huntsman Hotels plc would be considerate to employees, then there would be more success in the organization because employees would be more willing to work. To turn things around, Giuseppe Salieri and his management can come up with a number of strategies that would make employees more productive and company aims and goals.

For a start, the Huntsman group of hotels should strike a balance when it comes to matters revolving around remuneration. A formalized wage structure would bring an end to any manner of disgruntlement that exists within employees. Making raises on an ad-hoc basis is very random and depicts indifference in the welfare of employees. All the same, this process may be a bit expensive to the management as it would involve evening out all the salaries of the workers (Alfes, Shantz, Truss and Soane, 2013).

It is also worth mentioning that no employee working for Huntsman Hotels plc should feel like he or she is working in a sweatshop. For this reason, the management should see to it that the employees have a healthy work life balance at their disposition. When employees work for long hours and are not rewarded accordingly for overtime problems may ensue in that motivation may dip and productivity may be jeopardized (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013).

Good communication is a great way of motivating employees, and Giuseppe Salieri should follow suit. At the moment he is nothing more than a face on a newsletter and a name on an email. With such a disposition the employees find it very hard to meet the goals of the company. In addition to that, good communication methods will see to it that everyone in the firm will be able to make suggestions on how to better production. Communication will also help the management to affect warnings to any one employee that may be slacking in performance (Storey, 2014).

Creating opportunities for growth through methods like job rotation and promotion from within helps motivate employees. For instance, in the case of the Huntsman Hotels plc, Giuseppe Salieri ought to make employees be a part of the management. Reserving managerial positions to family members only subliminally sends a negative message to employees; that they can be nothing more than subordinates. Such makes everyone within an organization get discouraged; a lack of motivation ensues, and the level of productivity goes on a downward spiral.

Critical Evaluation

Proper management within an organizational setting involves the realization that human capital is the most important factor of production. Such a realization does not overlook the other factors of production such as capital and technology. Giuseppe Salieri ought to be aware of the fact that the human aspect of production is the most intelligent one and should be treated with respect for best results. The Huntsman Hotels plc ought to have a nonbiased Human Resource Management department that should be in charge of hiring or firing individuals purposed to work for the hotel. Another key management factor that will help better the performance of employees and the hotels at large is the disregarding of ranks and the introduction of knowledge management. When matters of ranks are disregarded, the management will be able to effectively realize information sharing and proper knowledge management at large. The issue of culture has also been disregarded subject to the acquisitions of the Huntsman Hotels plc in France. British managers cannot function 100% within a French setting if they have no knowledge of the language. Perhaps all the British managers Giuseppe has under his payroll should have French personal assistants to translate for them and educate them about the French culture. That considered, the company will at least rise from its present failures (Storey, 2014).

References

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.

Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.

Cooke, F.L. and Bartram, T., 2015. Guest Editors Introduction: Human Resource Management in Health Care and Elderly Care: Current Challenges and Toward a Research Agenda. Human Resource Management, 54(5), pp.711-735.

Fee, M.C., 2014. Human resources management.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), pp.1-14.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.