Work-Life Balance: Challenges and Opportunities for the Hospitality Industry

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Heide, course: Human Resources Management, language: English, abstract: Table of contents 1. Introduction 4 1.1 Background and purpose of the topic 4 1.2 Methodology 5 2. Current Working Conditions in the hospitality industry 5 2.1 Issue statement 5 2.2 Special Working Environment and Conditions 6 2.3 Subsuming of the current situation 7 3. Description and Analysis of different Work-Life Balance methods and 8 instruments 8 3.1 Definition of Work-Life Balance 8 3.2 Importance of Work-Life Balance for the hospitality industry 10 3.3 Work-Life Balance methods and instruments 11 3.3.1 Flextime Work Arrangements 11 3.3.2 Family Services 13 3.3.3 Feedback Instruments 15 3.4 Validation of the WLB instruments for the hospitality industry 16 4. Best Practice of Delta Hotels: ¿Exceptional commitment to a flexible 20 Workplace¿ 20 5. Future Outlook and Conclusion 22 Overwork, stress, a high employee turnover and a minimum time for the social life are just some of the negative working conditions for the staff in the tourism and es-pecially in the hospitality industry. Human capital is a carrying pillar within every hospitality business. Employees have to be motivated to increase the customer satisfaction and ensure the economical aims of the enterprise. While the enquiry for the balance between social life and work has been recognized by various industries, the hospitality industry seems backward regarding the implementation of Work-Life Balance, later in the text also abbreviated as WLB, methods. Hospitality businesses have to realize, that the success of the business is no longer just based on natural conditions or advantages of the location or special tourism activities within a destination. The focus has to be more on the human capital. Therefore, the motivation and satisfaction of the employees should be a superior aim for the human resource management within the hospitality industry. (Lee-Ross and Pryce, 2010; Henschel, 2001) Unfortunately, the gap between work and the social life is growing and leads to an enormous enquiry for a balance between these two important points in life. The problems arising out of this current working situation are diverse and reaching from chronically time pressure to a decrease of birth-rates and working mothers. (Esslinger, 2007) Therefore, the importance of this topic shall be discussed for the hospitality industry. The overall purpose of this work shall be the finding of suitable opportunities and instruments for the implementation of Work-Life Balance methods for the hospitality industry.