A study on Employee Engagement with respect to Hotels in Bangalore

Shivani Chaudhary, Research Scholar Bharthiar University

Dr. K H Anil Kumar, MSRIAP

Employee engagement refers to the positive, affective psychological work-related state of mind

that leads employees to actively express and invest themselves emotionally, cognitively, and

physically in their role performance (Catlette & Hadden, 2001; Rurkkhum, 2010; Schaufeli,

Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, & Bakker, 2002).According to Schaufeli Engagement is a positive,

fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption.

Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards

their organization and its values. Hewitt Associates (2006) defines employee engagement as

those who say speak positively about the organization, stay -desire to be an effective member

and strive -continue to perform beyond minimal requirements for the organization.

In an industry like hospitality where there is emphasis on intangible and greater reliance on

human resource as the guests experience is dependent to a large extent on the quality of service

delivered by the employees employee engagement gains further importance. An engaged

employees improve customer satisfaction and service level.

In this backdrop the paper tries to identify the drivers of employee engagement with respect to

employees of four and five star hotels in Bangalore. Primary data is collected through a survey of

employees of four and five star hotels in Bangalore

Key words” employee engagement drivers, hotel industry, Bangalore”

Introduction

Employee engagement is one of the important trends in managing people .It has great

significance and scope in the hospitality sector where the success of is primarily dependent on

the guest experience, which in turn is defined by their interaction with the employees . If the

hospitality sector is able to engage its employees the impact of this would be far reaching and

would result in aha moment for the guest, which in turn will translate into customer satisfaction.

In the hotel industry an engaged employees interaction with the guest would lead to guest

engaging with the hotel and coming back to the hotels leading to an increased revenue for the

business.

According to Deloittes 2015 Global human Capital trends report, which involved surveys and

interviews with more than 3,300 business and HR leaders’ from106 countries culture and

engagement has come across as one of the most important challenges faced by organizations

Hotel Industry in India

The hospitality sector of India is growing at an extremely fast pace. The country’s hospitality

industry is considered as one of the highly profitable industries, contributing significant amount

of foreign exchange to the economy. Hotels are extremely important component of tourism

industry and they contribute to the sector by offering services and facilities of extremely high

standard. The size of the hospitality sector of India is considered as a sum of market share of two

segments. The first segment is revenue obtained from travel businesses while second is revenues

acquired from hotel businesses.

Apart from domestic and foreign tourists fueling the growth of Indian hotel industry, a major

impetus for its growth can be attributed to the domestic and international business traveler .

Another trend that has now emerged in the various major markets is the growth of micro-markets

wherein business hotels are being developed in business and IT hubs of the city

Several foreign players have established their strong presence in the country’s hospitality spaces.

These foreign companies mainly include Accor, Starwood, Marriott, Premier Travel Inn (PTI),

Cabana Hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Hampton Inns, Banana Tree, Satinwoods, Amanda and many

more. Some reputed Indian companies leading in the hospitality sector include, ITC, East India

Hotels (EIH), Bharat Hotels, Hotel Leela Venture and, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL).

India is a fast growing market and sees a positive growth with respect to occupancy in hotels.

The Indian hoteliers are very optimistic and tourist inflow is expected to increase in future.

According to 2014 statistics shared by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, the

Indian hospitality sector has been growing at a cumulative annual growth rate of 14 per cent

every year, adding significant amounts of foreign exchange to the economy and according to

India. According to a report from HVS, the overall occupancy rates showed a marginal increase

in the 2013 to 2014 fiscal year with 58.9 percent occupancy, an increase of 1.9 per cent from the

previous year.

Karnataka as a state attracts both leisure travelers as well as corporate travelers. Bengaluru is one

of the top markets that are expected to witness significant incremental room supply by 2015

According to Cushman and Wakefield report Bengaluru has a total hotel inventory of

approximately 11,089 rooms; keys. During the last 4 years, Bengaluru saw the largest increase in

inventory during 2010, with 23%, with brands such as Lemon Tree, Vivanta By Taj, and Crowne

Plaza Electronics City etc.

Bengaluru currently has a total upcoming supply 6,978 keys by 2017; of which 27% is expected

to be in the budget segment and in the midscale segment,, 25% in the upscale segment, 17% in

upper upscale, and 4% in the luxury segment.

Literature Review

Kahn (1990:) defines employee engagement as “the harnessing of Organization members’ selves

to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically,

cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Rothbard has also defined engagement as

“a psychological presence along with : attention and absorption . Attention refers to the “ability

and the time employee spends thinking about a role”, while absorption refers to “being deeply

engrossed in work and the intensity with which the employee focuses on completion of the

work”.(Rothbard, 2001)

Saks (2006) argues that organizational commitment differs from engagement in that it refers to a

person’s attitude and attachment towards their organization, and it can be said that engagement is

not merely an attitude but it is the degree to which an individual is attentive to his work and

absorbed in his role (Sandeep Kular, October 2008).

Consultancy firm Towers Perrin defines engagement as reflecting employees” personal

satisfaction and sense of inspiration and affirmation they get from work and being a part of the

organization”(www.towersperrin.com) According to the Gallup Organization: “The

term employee engagement refers to an individual’s involvement and satisfaction with

as well as enthusiasm for work”

According to Aon Hewitt Employee Engagement is “The psychological state and behavioral

outcomes that lead to better performance “Engaged employees consistently demonstrate three

general behaviors. They: (1) Say -consistently speak positively about the organization to

coworkers, potential employees, and customers; (2) Stay -have an intense desire to be a member

of the organization despite opportunities to work elsewhere; (3) Strive exert extra time, effort,

and initiative to contribute to business success” (www.hewittassociates.com)

A number of studies have been conducted in the hospitality industry with reference to

engagement. The results of research studies in Chinese hotel industry reveal that the hotel

employee engagement is significantly different with professional characteristics in age,

education level, work position, length of service and salary. (Hui Zeng, Xiang Zhou, 2009) The

top drivers for employee engagement in Jamacian hotel industry were organizational benefits,

fairness and justice, good working conditions, developmental opportunities and job security

(Ala`a Nimer AbuKhalifeh Ahmad Puad Mat Som ,2013)

The present study studies the employee engagement with respect to hotel employees in four and

five star hotels in Bangalore

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To study employee engagement among hotel employees in five star hotels in Bangalore

1 .To study employee engagement with reference to gender among hotel employees in five star

hotels in Bangalore.

2. To study the correlation between work life balance and employee engagement among hotel

employees in five star hotels in Bangalore.

3. To study the correlation between work life balance and employee engagement among female

employees among hotel employees in five star hotels in Bangalore.

4. To study the correlation between work life balance and employee engagement among male

employees among hotel employees in five star hotels in Bangalore.

5. To study the correlation between opportunities and stay dimension of employee engagement

6. To study the correlation between reward and stay dimension of employee engagement

Limitation

1. The sample size was only 100.

2. The study was limited to employees of two five star hotel only.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Methodology- The present study is an empirical study and is based on primary data A structured

questionnaire was administered to 100 employees of two four and five star hotels in Bangalore

TOOLS :A self constructed questionnaire with 24items and five point likert scale was used to

collect data from the respondents. The questionnaire consisted of Part A and Part B.

Part A of the questionnaire collected data regarding demographic variables of the

study.

Part B of the questionnaire collected data regarding employee engagement.

Sample size: 100

Sampling Technique: Simple random sampling

Data Analysis: Percentage, Corelation and t test using Excel were used to analyze the data

DEFINITION OF TERM USED IN THE STUDY

For the purpose of this study researcher defines employee engagement as defined in Hewitt

Employee Engagement model using the say, stay and strive dimensions.

Say — speak positively about the organization to co-workers, potential employees and

customers

Stay — have an intense sense of belonging and desire to be a part of the organization

Strive — are motivated and exert effort toward success in their job and for the company

The drivers for employee engagement which are taken into consideration are quality of life,

work, people, opportunities, company practices, total rewards

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 74 74%

Female 26 26%

Age Frequency Percentage

Younger than 20 Years 7 7%

20-30 Years 62 62%

31-40 Years 27 27%

41-50 4 4%

PART-B

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DIMENSIONS

THREE DIMENSIONS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

39%

51%

10%

SAY

Strongly AgreeAgreeNeither AgreeDisagreeStronglydisagree

The say dimension refers to employees to “speak positively about the organization to coworkers,

potential employees and customers”. Question number 1,2 and 22 measured this dimension with

questions relating to telling great things about the workplace ,organization reputation,

recommending as a great place to work. Out of the total respondents surveyed 90% of the

respondents agreed on this dimension only 10% were disagreeing.

22%

40%

27%

11%

STAYStrongly Agree AgreeNeither Agree nor di-agree

Disagree

Stronglydisagree

The stay dimension refers to employee’s intense sense of belonging and desire to be a part of

the organization. Question no.8 and 24 measured this dimension by asking question on

employees intention to stay in the organization. Out of the respondents62% agreed,

27%neither agreed nor disagreed regarding this dimension and 11% disagreed that they

wanted to continue with the organization they were working for.

28%

60%

8%

4%

STRIVE

Strongly Agree AgreeNeither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly disgree

The strive dimension measures the motivation of employees and the extent to which they

exert effort towards success in their job and company and exert effort toward success in their

job and company .Question number7,20 and 23 measured this dimension by probing

employees motivation to contribute more to work, organization inspiring the employee to do

their best and feeling positive and energetic at work.78%of the respondents agreed that they

were motivated at work,8% neither agreed nor disagreed and4% disagreed toward this

dimension

29%

52%

11%8%

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENTStrongly Agree AgreeNeither Agree Nor Disagree

disagree

Strongly disagree

Employee engagement of the employees was calculated taking the say,stay and strive dimension

into consideration.81% of the respondents agreed that they were strongly engaged at work,11%

were neutral about their engagement at work and 8% disagreed that they experienced employee

engagement

Hypothesis

t test was used to to ascertain whether there is difference between male and female employee

with respect to engagement

H0: There is no difference between male and female employees with respect to employee

engagement.

H1: There is difference between male and female employees with respect to employee

engagement

Since the p value is0.65 we accept the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference

between male and female employees with respect to gender.

CORRELATION

Co relation between Employee Engagement and work Life Balance

Since the calculated value is 0.62 we can interpret there is a strong positive correlation between

employee engagement and work life balance

Correlation between Employee Engagement and work Life Balance-Female

Since the calculated value is 0.46 we can infer that there is moderately positive correlation

between employee engagement and worklife balance among female employees.

Correlation between Employee Engagement and work life balance –Male

Since the calculated value is 0.65 we can infer that there is a strong correlation between work life

balance and employee engagement among male employees

Correlation between opportunities and stay dimension of employee engagement

Since the calculated value is0.52 there is a moderately positive correlation between opportunities

and intention to stay.

Correlation between reward and stay dimension of employee engagement

Since calculated value is 0.57 there is a correlation between reward and stay dimension of

employee engagement

Drivers of engagement

1. Company policies-Question number 3,4,14 probed regarding company policies as

driver of employee engagement. 29% of the respondents totalyagreed,, 58%agreed and

only13%diagreed that organization policies were good.

2. Total Reward-Question number5 and 13and 17 looked at the total reward driver of

employee engagement23%of the respondents totally agreed,47%agreed,20%neither

agreed nor disagreed and 10% disagreed that the reward policies(regarding pay and

recognition were good in the organization).

3. People Dimension: Question number6,16,21 looked at the people dimension of

employee Out of the total respondents 21% strongly agreed,61%agreed,10% neither

agreed nor disagreed,8% disagreed regarding people dimension of employee

engagement.

4. Work Dimension. Question no10,11 identified the work driver of employee

engagement, Out of the total respondents32%stronglybagreed,50%agreed,10%neither

agreed nor disagreed,8%diagree regarding work dimension of employee engagement

5. Quality Of Life: Question number12 and 19 identified the quality of life driver of

employee engagement 30%respondents stronglyagreed,,40%agreed19%neither agreed

nor disagreed,11%diagree regarding quality of life dimension of employee

engagement dimension of employee engagement

6. Opportunities: Question no15 and 18 identified the opportunities driver of employee

engagement whether the organization provided opportunities for growth Out of the

total respondents40%strongly,agreed,42%agreed12%neither agreed nor

disagreed,5%diagree regarding opportunity dimension of employee engagement .

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

1. The study did not find any difference between male and female employees with respect to

employee engagement.

2. The study found there is a positive correlation between employee engagement and work

life balance.

3. The study found that there is positive strong correlation between work life balance and

employee engagement among male employees.

4. The study found that there is a positive correlation between reward and stay dimension

5. The study found that there is a positive correlation between opportunities and stay

dimension.

Conclusion

Majority of respondents surveyed for the purpose of this study exhibit characteristics pertaining

to engaged employees. Quality of work life which included work life balance, safety and security

are some of the areas of concern for the employees.

The findings about drivers of engagement and their impact on employee engagement can be used

to fine tune the employee engagement programs which are already run in the organization.

References

Schaufeli, W.B. (2013). What is engagement? In C. Truss, K. Alfes, R. Delbridge, A. Shantz, &

E. Soane(Eds.), Employee Engagement in Theory and Practce

M. Buckingham and C. Coffman, First, break all the rules, New York: Simon Schuster,

1999.

W.A. Kahn, ‘Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at

work’, Academy of Management Journal, 33, 1990, 692–724.

H.J. Kim, K.H. Shin and N. Swanger, ‘Burnout and engagement: A comparativeanalysis using

the Big Five personality dimensions’, International Journal ofHospitality Management, 28, 2009,

96-104.

Sandeep Kular, Mark Gatenby, Chris Rees, Emma Soane, Katie Truss ,Employee Engagement:

A Literature review,Kingston business school,Kingston university working series no19

Seijts, G.H and Crim, D. (2006) ‘What engages employees the most or, the ten C’s of employee

engagement’, Ivey Business Journal, March/April, pp1-5.

http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2014-trends-in-global-employee-

engagement-report.pdf

SHIVANI

RESEARCH SCHOLAR BHARTHIAR UNIVERSITY

Sahshivani@gmail.com

9980010518

DR KH ANIL KUMAR

MS RAMAIAH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE

DECLARATION

Paper has not been submitted for publication or published in any other journal.

Shivani

Dr. KH Anil Kumar