Generation Y also known as “Gen Y” or Millennials is the fastest growing generation that the world is facing, comprising of fifteen (15) to twenty-four (24) of global population. They compromise more than fifteen (15) percent of the global labour force and by twenty twenty-five (2025) would increase to twenty-five (25) percent (Catalyst, 2017). They are the largest labour force that enters any industry, including the Hotel industry. The hotel industry in Australia has a twenty-two (22) percent of total workforce that only compromise of Gen Y’s (Mccrindle, 2016). Gen Y’s are have experienced defining moments on their time from the creation of the World Wide Web to the digital frontier, they are raised in a culture where there are choices and information that can be known by a touch of their fingertips, with that being said Gen Y’s needs should not be ignored in business in a human resource management perspective.
The hotel Industry is known to be the “People Industry” due to the level of personal interaction with guest and colleagues that happens inside the hotel from a simple booking of rooms, from getting orders and serving food to giving other personal services, the hotel industry involve people in order to deliver this services (Poulston, 2009). Gen Y’s don’t find the hotel industry attractive because of their perceptions of career development, pay, promotion opportunities and working conditions in the hotel they want to work in (Richardson, 2010).
The crux of this essay is to determine and analyse the operational issues within the hotel industry that Gen Y’s find unattractive. These operational issues are; the hierarchical systems established in hotels (Brida, Esteban, Risso & Such Devesa, 2010), and the hotel industry pursuit of mostly training and not further developing staffs (Fok & Yeung, 2016; Rowland, Hall & Altarawneh, 2017) These issues would be discussed in detailed and would be supported with non-academic and academic journals in order to analyse and give a sound conclusion.
The hierarchical system established in hotels is created in order to segregate positions from the General Manager to a simple server; this system has been in the part of the hotel industry (Brida, Esteban, Risso & Such Devesa, 2010). This is an issue for Gen Y’s because it limits their ability to tap to the organisations network; this in turn makes Gen Y’s dismiss the idea of a hierarchical system. The purpose of tapping to the organisations network is to be able to gain non-limiting exchange of point of views, support and information that they could gain (Richardson, 2010). This is because Gen Y’s generation is when the World Wide Web, technological advancements, and social media was established and information is easy to access by searching and reading reviews online, and they expect to apply and extend this same process in the workplace, by thinking of innovative ideas to make their work efficient (Fok & Yeung, 2016; Hou, 2013) If a decision is needed to be made as soon as possible they will source it quickly with efficiency and in a simple manner, without being delayed by going through the hierarchal system established or having to go through a supervisor who’s unable to answer emails, and being confined in a small area in the hotel that doesn’t allow them to accomplish the answer they need to know (Brida, Esteban, Risso & Such Devesa, 2010;Rahman, Daud & Hassan, 2017). Gen Y’s idea of a system is a flat organisational structure, where they’re empowered with knowledge and training, has access to relevant people to converse with, whether it’s the General Manager or the Kitchen Hand in order to arrive to an ideal solution (Hou, 2013; Richardson, 2010).
Gen Y’s view themselves as equal to those in senior employees in the organisation. They believe that the contribution that able to give in the organisation is as valuable as anyone else’s regardless of the experience accumulated by others (Richardson, 2010). They will not see doing a job that has a particular task just because they are new in the establishment. They generally dislike jobs that they need to “pay their dues concept” or the grunt jobs from the beginning. This generation seeks challenging work from the very beginning that will allow them to push themselves to be better and gain more valuable knowledge (Rahman, Daud & Hassan, 2017). However, this is where the challenges within the hotel industry starts to show in attracting Gen Y’s because the nature of this industry is to pay their dues in order to move onward and upward to a higher positions.
Gen Y’s candidates will already pursue information and clarity from the beginning of the recruitment process. They would want more collaboration, creativity and in the culture of their company and will seek out direct relationships with their managers and anyone above them (Chacko, Williams & Schaffer, 2012). Gen Y would also seek out clarity in their performance management, salary, promotion, and bonuses amongst the other concerns they have in an organisation. This further inline their vision and motivation of a flat organisational structure where everything and everyone is on equal footing (Richardson, 2010). The notion of the organisation hierarchy feels redundant for Gen Y’s due to the fact they grew up in an environment where it’s non-competitive. This kind of outlook is often seen by other generations as disrespectful.
According to Hou (2013), In China, the Gen Y’s are demanding, impatient, focused on lifestyle, and are less respectful of the hierarchical system but they are concerned of their advancements and achievements than that of a team. This kind of mentality is considered to be individualistic, and would clash with the traditional mentality of being collectivistic within a team (Chen & Jing, 2012). This would contrast with the Gen Y’s senior colleagues in their workplace, insinuating that the Gen Y generation doesn’t care about others, including the team they are working with. This would create a strain all workplace relationships due to the misalignment of values showed.
The hotel industry is compromise of methods that are a combination of soft and hard Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices (Truss, 1999). The notion of a hierarchal system can be seen as a unitarist concept of an organisation, which is a hard HRM practice, wherein employees and employers have a one-track mind on how to be successful in the business and that conflict is an unnecessary factor that needs to be avoided. Gen Y’s already dislike this concept due to its limiting factor, in order to enable them to work efficiently within the hotel, a pluralist approach, which is a soft HRM approach, would suit them better, due to the mentality of an organisation made of different groups and individuals that creates conflict, where conflict is not necessary negative but presses for innovative solutions needed to achieve success (Truss, Gratton, Hope-Hailey, McGovern & Stiles, 1997). This would also tap into Gen Y’s individualistic nature, as it would allow them to contribute to the organisation, without being subjected to as being rude and disrespectful of others. This would also allow them to feel that they’re able to tap the organisations network of senior employees for mentoring, guidance and information acquisition.
This would be achieved with further development along with training needed in order for Gen Y’s to succeed in their workplace. However most hotels offer mostly training and development in an expense that would be something to think about and to be considered last (Chacko, Williams & Schaffer, 2012). In an survey conducted by an international school in Shanghai, regarding the range of key employer choices made by Gen Y’s that comes from their attitudes and choices. The top reason that came out was opportunities and recognition for continual development and learning would be the main reason for Gen Y’s to stay within the organisation. The key findings that Gen Y places greater value for opportunities and recognition for development than other generations. The survey also notes that Gen Y’s employees want to be praised not just for the results they have shown but also for their efforts, this would significant effects on performance management (Roches, 2012; Hou, 2013).
The notion for managers and supervisors to acknowledge their efforts and results would be still be connected to Gen Y’s need for clarity. When they are given recognition for their good performance at work, they find it healthy and feel positive about it, further motivating them to repeat their productive behaviour. If a performance review or feedback is given to Gen Y’s that show some areas that showcase their weak points, they would identify the need for training and self improvement that may not have been visible for them, it is only when they given the truth and clarity that can help them move forward in constructive direction in their workplace (Fok & Yeung, 2016; Richardson, 2010).
In the hotel industry, where recognition is desired even for unsuccessful work displayed, could result in some negative factors when its not recognized or received; this would increase the chance of demotivation of Gen Y’s if they went through a task that went unnoticed and has a improvements that they needed to work on. As a result would make Gen Y’s seek a position somewhere else and would imbalance the work agreement by magnifying the need to work overtime without pay. This would also affect the employee and employer relationship and create disturbances within the workplace. This would cause a loss of employees if Gen Y’s efforts further misaligned with the values and mission of the workplace (Rahman, Daud & Hassan, 2017; Kim, Knight & Crutsinger, 2009).
Gen Y’s seeks supports from mentors, which they can train, develops and gains knowledge from (Naim & Lenka, 2017). Unlike, the rest of the world some countries like China, Singapore, and other Asian countries, lack mentors that hinders growth of Gen Y’s in the hotel industry, this is due to the rapid growth of the economy. Gen Y’s foresee gaps between their job responsibilities and skills, their success expectancy and the ability to reach it, and the companies standard and their performance inside the organisation (Fok & Yeung, 2016). This would lead the perception of failure to be too high for most Gen Y’s, where their diligence to meet work expectations through failure is low (Hou, 2012).
In hotel recognition systems can be placed by using performance appraisal, which is an HRM performance management system, in order to evaluate, document and discuss employee performances that would lead to rewards or further development needed by an employee. This would be crucial for Gen Y’s are they have a need for clarity, although there’s a lot performance appraisal methods, the use of an Essay Scheme appraisal would be the most effective due to its nature to be more specific and personalise, in which Gen Y’s would feel more connected with their manager or supervisors and would feel the need to further develop their weak areas.
In conclusion Gen Y’s as employees in the hotel industry is needed, due to their characteristics that always wants to improve and develop in anything they do. This allows them to adapt quickly with any change that comes along within the industry. Change in a global, environment, and technological scale is already taking over the world faster with each passing year (Arndt & Tarp, 2017), the need to improve to become more efficient and effective in running a hotel is needed in order to stay competitive. The use of different HRM processes that will rely mostly with Soft HR methods like a pluralist approach in a hotel to allow Gen Y’s to tap into the organisations network in order solve a problem with ease and offering a lot more development and training that would make Gen Y’s be more efficient and effective at their workplace, would certainly attract Gen Y’s and would help the hotel industry be future proofed and be ready to adapt with any changes that is to come.