The New Zealand Hotel Industry-Vacancies Increase

This study was undertaken to identify employee recruitment and retention issues in the New Zealand hotel industry and how and if Strategic Human Resource Management(SHRM) took place. Questionnaires were sent to 67 human resource managers of hotels who maintained hotels in excess of 75 rooms and had associated food and beverage operations. In total this involved 4,886 rooms and 2,163 equivalent fulltime employees, geographicallyspread throughout New Zealand. While more hotel jobs are being created, results indicate the number of applicants to jobs and caliber of applicants is dropping. Housekeeping and food and beverage positions are the highest turnover positions while qualified chefs are difficult to find. Strategic human resource planning is only undertaken by 59% of hotels and the image of the hotel industry appears negative to the external labour market.