Factors Contributing to Effective Workplaces in Travel and Tourism
In the presentation, we saw that the Department for Trade and Industry defines high performing organisations as having the following characteristics:
- Focus on people issues
- Focus on employee involvement
- Commitment to equality and a diverse workforce
- Variety of working patterns
- Investment in training and development
What Does This Mean in the Travel and Tourism Industry?
The industry is characterised by a focus on service. Organisations that harness the benefits of strong, flexible, motivated and highly skilled workforces can grow and develop quicker than those that do not.
The Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai is the world's only seven-star hotel. It's a safe bet to assume they maintain high standards within their workforce! Copyright: Syed Shuja, from stock.xchng.
The travel and tourism industry is well known for high levels of staff turnover. This is a problem because it is hard to get high and consistent levels of customer service if people do not stay long in their roles.
Organisations that have to replace staff on a consistent basis have higher recruitment and selection costs than those with better staff retention rates.
Examples From the Real World
A good way to look at what makes an effective travel and tourism workplace is to investigate organisations' human resource management. Travel and tourism organisations can lock in the benefits of effective human resource management through the Investors in People programme. Let's have a look at how this is achieved in practice in some different sectors of the industry:
- Hotels and Leisure:
- Special Interest Holidays:
- Holiday Parks:
- Corporate Travel:
- Countryside Holidays:
What Are the Rewards?
So, what are the benefits of producing an effective workplace? We have already identified some of these: lower staff turnover rates; higher levels of staff motivation; better customer service standards; higher revenue and profitability.
But there may also be rewards for organisations which promote the benefits of having effective workplaces.
The British Hospitality Association's Best Practice Forum encourages businesses in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry to boost their performance to world-class levels. They recognise outstanding performance at their Business Excellence Awards, an annual event held in London.
The event is supported by The Guardian newspaper group, which features the winning entries in a special supplement distributed in its Sunday publication, The Observer.
Take a look at the pack produced to promote the awards for 2006. (http://www.bisl.org/documents/BusinessExcellenceAwards2006.pdf)
Tasks
- Analyse the Investors in People organisations listed above
- Make notes on these organisations
- What problems did they face?
- How did meeting the Investor in People standard help them?
- Why should travel and tourism organisations enter the Best Practice Forum competition?
- How would you publicise your organisation's success in this award?
- What benefits could stem from being a successful entrant into the competition?
- What comments can you make about the links between the Investors in People system and the Best Practice Forum award?