STUDY OF VALUE ADDED BENEFITS OF WOMEN EMPLOYEE

INTRODUCTION:

Women first began working in the hospitality sector in large numbers during World War II. At the time women were rarely considered for management positions and even if they were lucky enough to land a senior role the pay was considerably lesser than their male counter parts. Fast forward to the present and fortunately, times have changed and Natalia Brick ford 2004 has mentioned in the report on women’s 1^st according to citehr.com

The hospitality industry has realized the potential of a women employee and the benefits that the organization can derive due to their presence. Behavior research concluded that the fair sex was better in socializing and interacting effectively with people. Women were found to have more commitment in their career. Companies also feel that women are more transparent and trust worthy and as a result established confidently in clients. The organizations feel that hiring women is much more profitable than men. Li and Leug 2001 in their study entitled “female manager in Asian Hotel further states that.

Tourist and hotel industry are human based sectors. The success of which depends more on their human capital than machineries. The human element presence promotes interest in hotel jobs and provides a challenge every employee who enters hotel industry gets a opportunity to learn about responsibilities for its product but also the satisfaction various attributes that are essential female seems to play a key role in client and situation handling. Women employees’ presences have contributed to success of a hotel operation. Moreover research as confirmed that the importance of female contribution female role in management, since it is presumed that the female role in management in future is considerable.

In terms of women and type of hotels, according to times and Davidson( 2005), the jobs in hand 5 star international hotel chains are shared almost equally between female and male counter parts. However things differ when it comes to managerial position, which are still dominated by (Wong and Chung, 2003, Timo & Davidson (2005 ) it was further also found by Ramas Rey Maquierica & Tugorores(2004) that there was not much gender difference in terms of receiving training conducted by large hotels, where as the difference in small and medium sized hotel was significant.

In spite of the women employee being prepared by the hotel, they do not reach the top management position, but tend to leave the job in mid way. The hotel tries to recruit more women train then equally in par to male employee then why that is they are not seen in the higher management position. To analyze and find out the reason for this it is the need of the hour to examine the factors and aid in their growth and constrains that come in between their development. Efforts must be made to identify the barriers that exist to women career development.

Life for a modern day women is highly demanding requiring her to multitasking as quoted in www.krahejacorp.com. Further Ghazali  et al (2012) add that women act differently from men in the development of their career. Additionally the succession of career behavior for women is far more complex than for men. This is due to women responsibility between education and career advancement in order to integrate work and family life. Further they also have to overcome obstacles such as gender discrimination and sex role stereotyping ironically we claim to live in the world which offer equal rights  between both genders however the old boys’ network and glass ceiling phenomenon are still existing especially in hospitality industry women behave differently from their counter parts is their career progression. The women have been constantly struggling between career and family to integrate between the personal and professional life.

All these reasons result in turnover of large number of women employees in hotels. This a huge loss for the organization which already prone to vocational mobility with employees actively seeking jobs for change & Baum (2007) human resource in tourism :still waiting for change. Tourism management 28,1383-1399 it is critical that we maximize opportunities to retain and develop the staff we have and clearly a lack of flexibility adversely affects more women than men, says Matalie Brickford, HR director UK And Ireland sodexo ltd and chair women 1^st retention has become a huge responsibility of the organization in hospitality industry, which is based on customer service and relationships. Customer relationships continue to become stronger if the staffs handling them have been dealing with was there in stability factor, customers can rely on the people trust with their performances.

Retention matters because high turnover creates high replacement cost and is clearly associated with low level of customer satisfaction customer loyalty and lost revenues. Retention is particularly challenging today due to an ageing work force and a growing imbalance in the supply and demand in the supply and demand of qualified personal ( Padram 2004).Annual turnover rates are as high as 50 percent remain the standard in the hospitality industry and many hotel operations have to chosen to simply accept this as a fact of doing business ( Levine 2005 )

In this continually changing global economy, business needs to understand and utilize key concepts concerning employee retention without adapting to potential problems organizations face debit acting accounts outcomes one of which is cost of turnover ( Panoch 2001)

The hotel industry has realized the need to rise to the issue to retention of employee. The hotel have developed their own program policies to retain employee but one needs to understand realize and wake up to the fact that a common blanket policy will not be effective to all the employee. A 1993 study by US department of labour on high performance work practices revealed that involving employee in the decision making goals and direction of an organization through participation in teams will help job satisfaction and reduce turn over (Mon Carz 2008).

The diversity of workforce that the hotel industry employee gives a bigger challenge of retentions, as the factor differs from individual due to, age religion, family background, gender.

Looking to the future means, taking care of your employee according to several panelist at the 70^th semiannual council of hotel restaurant trainers whether it is implementing an employee training program or utilizing survey to improve employee retention, hotel managers must find avenues that are creative and personal (Higley 2005)

In regards to women employee the key to reducing turnover seems to be finding out what motivates employees to have a job. The human resource managers must identify the reasons that make the women leaves the job what the reasons that make the women leave the job, what the reasons that are creating problems in her further advancement on continuity after realizing the issues of problem areas, the hotels have started working on women friendly policies, but not all hotels are working in these direction. To see women sucessiding in the industry and reaching the top management the hotel needs to take an in-depth insight into the women retention issues. Problem solving strategies in the hospitality industry are becoming critically important for organizational effectiveness (Agrus 4 Lena 2007). In a recent hospitality study, 91 percent of mangers who participated said retaining their skilled, solid performing employee is equally important as it was five years ago (Laff 2006). Ultimately, the success of any business rests in the hand of its employees from profitability and productivity to recruitment and retention (Honare 2009)

1.2   PURPOSE OF STUDY

Women employees form a substantial work force of any five Star Hotel which are the epitome of service provider. Today’s increasing economic activities and at the same line rapid growth of tourism and has given rise to demand of accommodation and food, so hotels have come up in a big way. Tourism and hospitality both definitely provide various entry point for women employment and opportunities for income generating activities. In fact taking an in depth into the nature of employees that are the need of the industries, the woman fits right into the bill. This is due to her inheriting qualities of patience, interpersonal skill etc, Yet women in managerial positions have to struggle to find ways to be effective in work culture where there authority and credibility are not traditionally the norm and organization have to cope with developing strategies and policies to handle these challenges effectively and fairly.

The research analyzes the benefits that an organization like 5 star hotel can get through their women employees. At the same time it takes an insight into the problems that an employee faces and becomes the reason for their hindrance in growth and development in their career. Many of service related position in hotels ranging from frontline levels such as receptionists, housekeepers and waitresses to management levels like housekeeping managers are considered suitable for women who are frequently hired to fill these positions.

The study intends to bring out the benefits of preference of why women are naturally geared for the service industry as they possess pleasant personality, persuasion and perception that is required to develop and maintain rapport with people from all walks of life.

In spite of these facts the reality is that very few reach the top managerial level and if they do so they struggle for their own survival. This research analyzes the various problems encountered by the women employee from the family point of view, their cause for their problem and their work culture of their own work place.

Further knowing the negative impact of attrition of a valuable employee, the researcher has made an attempt to find what will keep the women employee in the organization for a longer period rather than leaving their job in between, thus leading to retention of women employee. The researcher for this has examined various efforts put up the HR department presently to check the attrition rate of women employee. Although there are various motivational incentives offered to the employee of an organization, the researcher finds out what specific strategies would retain a women employee as the need of incentives, motivational factors differ due to demographical characteristic. A common retention practices will not satisfy all employees who differ in age, gender, education etc. Retention has become an important task of any organization as hiring, recruiting, training a new employee is much more costlier than small investment in retention.

Hotel industry is known for its hop skip and jump for further progress of an individual. But this affects the customer service, satisfaction and ultimately the profitability and goodwill of an organization. Thus the research holds much relevance in today’s context where practical thought process is influential in decision making. The hotel needs to identify the employees who with small flexible strategies would be retained, women being one of them. Identifying each type of employee need would control or reduce the high employee turnover benefitting one and all.

This calls for fresh look into the retention strategies that need to be designed in favour of women employee, helping them in their sustenance motivated as well as bring the organization too the number of benefits . This will help to retain them and they will become a valuable fixed asset to any five star organization.

This study hopes to provide an insight understanding into these women centric phenomenon of cause of their leaving job in their midst of their prime career and this study will definitely help the hotelier to react intelligently, this alarming conditions of women working in hotels and counteracts these problems with appropriate suitable actions. Also the findings of this study will add up to the body of knowledge of this issue which has very little work being carried out in this area. This study will further give directions for new studies.

1.3 AIM  AND OBJECTIVES

Aim:- To study value added benefit of women employee and formulating strategies for their retention in five star hotels of western Maharashtra.

Objective:- To gain the general demographic information of employees in 5 star hotels in regard with To study the reason of preference for women employee by the establishment by the HR Managers.

·         To study the growth and performance of women in hotel industry.

·         To critically analyze the problems and constrains faced by then in terms of pressure at work, career growth, family etc.

·         To find out the extent to which they have been successful in overcoming these problem

·         To access the motivating and de motivating factors for women working in hotels industry.

·         To provide various strategies based on the studies to hospitality units of five star category.

1.4  Hypothesis

·         Women Employee are preferred in hotel industry

·          Women Employee face problems due nature of  job

·         Women Employee needs special strategies for retention.

They are regular incentives and policies does not satisfy women employee