Communication, Leadership and Specialization

DANIA - Danish Academy of Business and Technology

 

 

Communication, Leadership and Specialization

 

Learning activity 8 (LA8)

 

 

 

Tutor: Lars Jørgensen

 

Dovaine Eidukaite

Zivile Butkute

Olga Dudarjonoka

Judita Jazdauskaite

Evelina Karalune

 

 

06-12-2012

24.000 keystrokes

Contents

 

1.  Introduction 3

1.1 Introduction 3

1.2 Problem statement 3

1.3 Methodology 3

1.4 Delimitations 4

1.5 Source Criticism 4

2. Presentation of Artis Centrum Hotels 5

3.  The Human Resource management in the company 6

3.1 Recruitment and Selection 6

Recruitment 7

Selection 7

3.2 Employees motivation 8

3.3 Conflict handling between staff, communication in team 10

3.4 Leadership management and structure of the company 12

3.5 Employees training 13

4. PEST Analysis 15

5. SWOT analysis of Human resource management in the company 16

6. Suggestions and recommendations 19

1. Hire the right people 19

2. Enable your people 20

3. Motivate and energize your people 22

7. Conclusion 23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.  Introduction

1. Introduction

 

This report includes informative research of the present situation in Artis Centrum Hotels, concentrating within Human Recourse Management (HRM). In order to do that the main objectives of HR department, such as employees recruitment, motivation, training, conflict handling in the company and company itself will be described and analyzed.

 

The main goal of the report is to investigate how HRM is used in Artis Centrum Hotels and how it can be improved in the future. Moreover, development plan within HRM will be suggested.

1.2 Problem statement

 

The main idea of this research is to analyze and describe the present situation within Artis Centrum Hotels HRM area and give the suggestions as a plan for future development.

 

In order to answer the problem statement following points will be described:

• Brief presentation of the company;
• Present situation of HRM area in the Artis Centrum Hotels;
• Recommendations for future improvements.

1.3 Methodology

 

At first we had few companies to choose from which one we will analyze. After discussion we decided to choose Artis Centrum Hotels – because one of us did internship there so we were not only able to use some first-hand experience, but also we could contact the hotels‘manager about any questions we had in connection with project. As we were working in a group, we split up the parts and started our research.

 

We made both field and desk research:

• Field research – we have contacted one of the hotel managers to get relevant, not public information regarding HRM and the companies philosophy, mission and strategy;
• Desk research – information gathered from internet and books.

 

Moreover, we had two milestone meetings with our tutor, who pointed the main things which we have to focus on. Also, during the project writing process we had lectures about HRM which was very helpful to get new ideas for our analysis.

 

After analyzing the present situation in Artis Centrum Hotels within HRM, we compared it with theories and models and gave our suggestions and recommendations.

1.4 Delimitations

 

• Political and Technological facts from the PEST analysis are not relevant for this project, furthermore they were mentioned but not analyzed;
• A limited amount of available keystrokes (24.000);
• Deadline on 06.12.2012.

1.5 Source Criticism

 

The information for this report was taken in published web pages from the Internet, field research and study materials. A part of this information was found in foreign languages and afterwards been translated. In the process it was not possible to retain all the information as stated in the original source.

2. Presentation of Artis Centrum Hotels

 

Brief description of the company:

 

• Artis Centrum Hotels is a family-run four star luxury hotel located in the middle of old town of Vilnius, Lithuania's capital;
• It is one of the “Centrum” chain hotels which comprises of four luxury hotels;
• Artis Centrum Hotels was opened in 2001;
• It is a middle size hotel offering 108 rooms, two restaurants and a conference centre with 7 multifunctional halls;
• The target group is business clients;
• There are more than 50 employees.

 

Mission and strategy:

 

The mission of Artis Centrum Hotels is to be the best hotel for business people in Vilnius city center: to completely fulfill wants and needs of business clients by providing precise and attentive accommodation, catering and organizing business events.

 

In hotels business the hostmanship is most essential thing. Therefore the aim of Artis Centrum Hotels is to ensure that guests will find it cozy, warm and beautiful and will be attracted to come back and become loyal. Hotel Strategy will be explained in Enclosure 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  The HRM in the company

 

HR department is responsible for various tasks within the employees in the company. Even though that their main responsibility is the recruitment of right people to right position, department is also responsible for keeping employees satisfied, motivated and organized. The HR department is in charge of bringing out the best in their employees and thus contributes to the success of the company.¹  Therefore, in this chapter will be analyzed the most important HR department objectives: employees’ recruitment, motivation, and training, ability to handle the conflicts among the staff, leadership and companies’ management, in Artis Centrum Hotel.

3.1 Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment

Recruitment is defined as the process of generating a pool of candidates from which to select the appropriate person to fill a job vacancy.² The recruitment process includes five important stages: analyzing the requirements of a job, attracting employees to offered work position, screening and selecting applicants, hiring, and integrating the new employee to the organization in order for him/her to become a productive member.

 

However, none of this recruitment process in Artis Centrum Hotel is really being taken in count. It is a family-run hotel so it is common that the top positions are taken by the family members. Therefore, only basic positions, with not very wide amount of tasks, are being offered.

 

As a consequence of financial crises, Lithuania faces big unemployment rate and a huge competition in labor market. So hotel does not feel the need to promote, sell themselves by talking about the employees benefits or attractive work position they are suggesting. As a result really qualified specialist are not feeling interested, while company is not feeling the need to motivate and keep their employees, because they can always be easily replaced.

There are many ways of effective selections: curriculum vitae, oral interviews, written interviews. The Artis Centrum hotel is using the basic one - person applies for the position by sending the CV with the general information. In a lot of times is all what it takes to be selected, however, manager sometimes feels the need to invite a possible future employee for an interview, which will decide is he/she hired or not.

 

Poor processes of recruitment and selection in Artis Centrum Hotel are one of the biggest problems influencing hotels reputation and quality of service.

3.2 Employees motivation

 

Motivated people commonly show enthusiasm, energy and provide best quality service. They are crucial part of any hospitality business, so in order to explain motivation within Artis Centrum Hotels Two-Factors theory will be used.

 

This Herzberg’s theory states that there are two types of factors which can cause employees satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

 

Hygiene factors	Motivating factors
Salaries and other benefits Company policy and administration Good inter-personal relationship Quality of supervisor Job security Working conditions Work/life balance	Sense of personal achievement Status Recognition Challenging/ stimulating work Responsibility Opportunity for advancement Promotion Grow

 

Hygiene factors:

 

• Even though that salary is meant to be only basic hygiene factor, in Lithuania, which still faces economical difficulties after global economic crisis in 2007 paid on time wage is the factor encouraging employees to put the extra effort in their work. 
• Artis Centrum Hotels is a family owned business and can boast for having friendly and informal relationship among its staff. This type of relationship motivates employees to work more as a team, what helps to provide faster and more coordinated service.  
• Working conditions in Artis Centrum Hotels has negative and positive aspects. Even though that every employee is taken in count as a person, not just as a labor force it can be very hard to get holidays, which is one of the most beneficial times for hotels.

 

Motivating factors:

 

• Recognition and opportunity for advancement. Employees are attracted to work because of popular hotels name, four stars rating and location. Moreover, every year hotel hires interns with a possibility to show themselves and stay in hotel as a permanent employee.
• Artis Centrum Hotels employees are also being motivated by possibility to be recognized as “Employee of the month”. Even without taking in count small gift or entertainment for the winner, the “award” is important as it shows that he/she is noticed and evaluated.

 

Other motivation types in Artis Centrum Hotels:

 

• Negative feedback as long as it constructive and politely explained can be very useful for employees future improvement and professional growth. While positive feedback encourages person to keep on working and shows that his or hers effort was noticed and appreciated.
• Taking in count situation in Lithuanian labor market, the competition among the employees are in a high level and even though that the relationship among staff is friendly, every person is trying to show the best possible professional side with a purpose of promotion. Healthy competition gives the needed motivation to improve employees performance and productivity.

3.3 Conflict handling between staff, communication in team

 

In every place where people are working there are happening and handling a lot of conflicts. Organizations usually are having a high level of diversity in their teams. Some of them have variety in individual differences, such as personality, skills, competition, communication barrier or personal opinion. If these differences are particularly accentuated, this can be a cause of conflict in the team of a specific organization.

 

Concerning to Artis Centrum Hotels there can be given one example of conflict, when employees are changing very often and most of them have not gained skills that are needed and they will start to make a lot of mistakes in their work position. Therefore it can lead to the conflict between the employees. But because of Artis Centrum Hotel has “Family business” all conflicts that may accrue are managed in nice, calm and peaceful way.

3.4 Leadership management and structure of the company

 

Leaders are the ones, who can inspire others in order to achieve organization's goals and they are supposed to influence members of their team, needs to focus on developing a nice work placement atmosphere that workers would be satisfied to work in a company.

 

The number of leaders depends on how big the company is and how many different departments there are. Artis Centrum Hotels in total has more than 50 employees and 5 different departments but that does not mean that there are 5 leaders. They are more managers than leaders. Management and leadership are close to each other but still there are some differences. The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate.³ In Artis Centrum Hotels usually employees are only said what tasks they need to do, on what they should focus on and than they are on their own. There are no such persons who could inspire them and motivate them.

 

Structure of the Artis Centrum Hotels:

Organization structure is one of several key variables influencing how effectively the organization performs in relation to competitors and the attitudes and behavior of employees.⁴ The success of the management in the company depends on its structure. And it shows how all departments are connected, who is in charge there, who has more responsibilities. Artis Centrum Hotels is not a big company (more than 50 employees) and its structure is quite simple. Because it is family run business, the general manager is a son of the owner. He is responsible for 5 departments which are controlled by 5 managers and 2 of them are responsible for two other departments. It is multifunctional structure and the key feature is "specialization along functional lines, e.g. research and development, production".⁵ Every department has its functions is doing only these tasks which it needs to do and every employee knows particular work which he is responsible for. Every week there are meetings between general manager and departments managers where they have discussion what they have done during that week and what goals they have achieved. General manager gives feedback and sets some goals for the future. But in overall, for departments' managers he lets to work on their own and to take all responsibilities.

  3.5 Employees training

 

The period of new employees training in Artis Centrum Hotels is not strictly described. It may take from week to two, for the new employee to gain full understanding of the requirements in a work place and start to work individually.

 

The new member of the staff is shortly introduced to hotels facilities and his/hers co-workers, who will be responsible for introducing new employee to the work routines. However, new employee is not introduced to hotels mission, vision, values, strategy or any other type of philosophy

 

While employee is not able to work alone, he or she is wearing a badge “Student”, so the guests of hotel will know that the person is only learning to work in a certain position, can make mistakes according his/hers tasks and may give slower service.

 

The training process itself can be divided into two different parts: the first one, when there are no customers at the current moment. That is the best time, where new employee can be introduced to different computer programs which are used at work and get all the theory knowledge of what is expected to be done during the shift. And the second part is when employee has customers present, then is when new employee can see how the theory is being used in practice, which procedures he/she should follow, how to communicate with guests and how to act in different types of situations.  
 
However, not everything can be taught or showed in the training period. All the important spheres like conflict handling or ability to find the best way to communicate with different type of clients can be improved to perfection only with experience and right employees attitude.

 

4. PEST Analysis 
Due to the fact that only Economical and Sociological external factors are influencing HR  department activity directly, only these parts of PEST analysis will be shortly analyzed and explained in Enclosure 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. SWOT analysis of HRM in the company

 

 

Strengths:

• Informal relationship between staff. Workplace friendships improve employees' experiences of work, friendships are a valuable means of growth and support. Most of this type of relationship at Artis Centrum Hotels tend to have a comfortable working atmosphere that can make any employee willing to work even more successfully.
• In Artis Centrum Hotels managers has a close relationship with an employee that is built on a polite attitude and trust. A successful hospitality company should be based on employees empowerment on daily basis, respect and confidence that as a manager, he or she found the right person to complete the job correctly. 
• Employees of Artis Centrum Hotels are getting some sort of discount entering several clubs in Vilnius, using services of clothes cleaning company and taxi, as well as getting food in their workplace, cheaper than in local cafeterias. In this way management wants to show that is beneficial to be the part of “Artis family” and tries to increase employees loyalty.

 

Weaknesses:

• One of the main weaknesses in Artis Centrum Hotels is inefficient recruitment. Managers are looking for the employees among their friends or relatives. Which on one hand, creates informal working atmosphere, but on the other hand, employers loose qualified, educated and motivated employees to work in hospitality business.
• Lack of motivation decreases employees work capacity. They are not putting the needed effort into performing their general tasks, not even talking about extra services, what causes poor customer services. Not motivated and not satisfied employees in hospitality business usually mean not satisfied customers. 
• Lack of official trainings can be the reason of the mistakes made by employees. If he/she is not trained properly, then there is bigger possibility that employee will not be able to perform the quality service to the quests or work efficiently among his/hers co-workers. 
• When one of the main reasons for employees to choose work in Artis Centrum Hotels is wage, the low salary is a huge weakness. Most of the time employee is not attached or loyal to the hotel itself, but are looking at work only as at the temporary stage, until they will find higher paid work position. 

 

Opportunities:

• High percentage of young people with high education. Most of the young people in Lithuania feel the need to keep up with their studies and get a higher education. According to Lithuania’s data base, more than half, 56% of people between ages 20-24 are the students in professional colleges, general schools, colleges, vocational schools or universities in a year 2011. While 18, 4% of people of age 25-29 are getting further education.⁶ Young, educated people can be beneficial for the hotel business and bring new ideas as long as to them is given a chance to learn, however most of them are not being hired because their lack of experience.
• Lithuania has a high unemployment rate, which is helpful in order to find cheap labour force. Artis Centrum Hotels has a good image and it is known for paid on time salaries, good working conditions. Therefore it is possible to say there is always some sort of competition to get a workplace in this hotel, which could be used to find more motivated and educated employees. 

 

Threats:

• Emigration. Even though that looking at the total number of young people (age 20-29) emigrated from Lithuania in 2011 (5.6%) it seems that the numbers are not that high and there is no threat to hospitality business.⁷ Yet, almost half (42.8%) off all Lithuanian emigrants are people who belongs to this age category. What shows that young people are more likely to leave the country, get the education abroad and as well as stay to live or work there. Lithuania are losing not only work force, but young, innovative specialists.