Portman Hotel Case Study

The major issuer of this case deals is how the Portman Hotel’s human resource policies are inconsistent with its strategies of implementation, causing many problems within the hotel, namely low employee morale.

One of the major problems of the Portman Hotel was that in order to implement their new idea of Personal Valets, which are standard in Asian hotels, in the United States, management needed to make sure that those hired to be Personal Valets (PVs) understood what the job actually consisted of. In order to make sure of this, management should have conducted a better job analysis and provided future employees with a much more detailed job description. I believe that if the prospective employees had a better idea of the job they were applying for, they would have a better understanding of what they were getting themselves into and the turnover rate would be much smaller.

Another reason why the turnover rate was so high was because of the hotel’s poor recruiting strategies. It says in the case that many of the PVs were people who were looking to make money to support their life goals to be musicians, artists, writers, and entrepreneurs to name a few. If the employees recruited had more of an interest in the job they would be performing at the hotel, they would be much more willing and apt to adjust to the demands of the job. Also, another problem with recruiting was that management was looking for employees who were “friendly.” They did not care about experience, and would rather have someone with “talent.” However, I believe that because the jobs of the PVs are so important to the core of the company, they should be looking for employees that are more than friendly and talented. The role of the PV is similar to that of a butler, in the sense that PVs are there to make sure the clients’ needs are all met. With that in mind, it is important to make sure you hire people who are experienced in the hospitality industry, can multitask well, and still display a...