Question

Hilton Hotel Vs Mariott Hotel

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (Hilton), a global class hotel operating out of 113 countries and
territories as of 2018, had a portfolio of 16 world class brands consisting of 5,000 properties. The
debate continues on whether Hilton can survive and thrive in the new age of travel and the
growing trend of e-commerce in the world. Hilton was able to differentiate itself from other
global hotels because of its unique employee centric HR practices like their recruitment, on
boarding, and training processes.
The leadership at Hilton believed in attracting, hiring, and retaining employees. This made
business sense because these employees would service their guests better. Over the years, the
company created a culture of high engagement of employees who went out of their way to
delight customers. Hilton employed a truly diverse workforce across a variety of positions in its
hierarchical structure ranging from valet to cleaning personnel, restaurant servers, concierge
providers, and managers which were recruited using global recruiters who were able to recruit a
large number of talented employees. The management kept its focus on the human aspect in
order to become profitable. The hotel was successful because it gave each its employee a special
work culture about caring for each other. The management felt that its continued focus on HR
policies and practices had acted as a competitive advantage for them...
Marriott, a hospitality giant, had a huge association with social media which generated a huge
response from its followers. Using a team structure and empowered self-managed teams,
Marriott was able to respond to global changes and to increase its flexibility by attracting on line
customers.

The Facebook page of Marriott attracted 1,874,121 likes and 4,041,532 visits while its Twitter
account was followed by 171,842 people as on March 2015. Its major move into gamification
came when it introduced a game on Facebook in 2011 for recruiting people, a game called ‘My
Marriott Hotel' as part of its recruitment gamification strategy on its Facebook jobs and careers
page. Mariott had earlier released a game named ‘Xplor' which gave players a virtual experience
of touring five gateway cities and solving challenges which led to their earning rewards that
could be redeemed against their stay in Marriott hotels. The company also tried its hand at
different apps like ‘Red Coat Direct', ‘Workspace on Demand', and ‘The Perfect Travel
Companion' in order to provide fast and convenient services at the customer's fingertips. Players
were then directed to Marriott's official recruiting page where they could submit their resumes
for a suitable position.

1-What HR Practice helped Hilton Hotel overcome the Globalization challenge?
2- How is Hilton hotel differentiating itself globally?
3-In your opinion, which hotel is applying a prospector strategy and why?
4-Clearly identify the recruitment sources used by Hilton hotel and Marriott hotel and why in
your opinion they are using them?

Answer 1

1. As per the case the major globalization challenge that the organization faces in the current business environment is the high turnover ratio. In the business environment, the candidates or the employees have lots of opportunities so that they can choose their career of choice. The HR practices that supported the organization HH to overcome this challenge are their employee engagement and retention program. Their employee centric leadership approach, proper training and development motivate the employees and will make them loyal towards the organization. A happy employee can certainly make the customers also happy.

2. The organization HH is differentiating itself globally through formulating the HR policies and procedures that are employee centric. It has enabled a diverse work force in their hotels that enabled the sharing of skills and abilities. The management focuses on the human aspects in order to make profits. They developed and implemented a work culture that focused on caring for each other.

3. A prospector strategy is a competitive strategy followed by an organization through which it search for new opportunities, product innovation etc. When considering the given case the organization M is the prospector organization. The organization M focuses on developing new innovative steps like the gamification, face book pages etc in order to grab the attention of the talented candidates and also of the public. The organization HH focuses on managing and maintaining the employee, focuses on talent retention etc which cannot be categorized under the prospector strategy.

4. The recruitment sources utilized by organization HH focused on the global recruiters so that they can hire talented employees for their organizations. They make use of this option because, they believe that in order to serve the customers better, the candidates has to be attracted, selected and trained effectively. They fully believe in the potential of the candidates for their success in the industry.

The organization M makes use of gamification, an online self assisted recruitment process. They focus on this method as they believe that they can attract more number of candidates for recruitment through this approach.