An Empirical Study of Selected South African Hotel Groups: Talent Management Strategies

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The world tourism industry is profitable and expanding. Also in South Africa, sustainable tourism has a major impact on the economy with almost eight and a half million international tourists visiting the country in 2006. During 2008, one of the coastal cities, Cape Town, was rated amongst one of the world’s top 10 holiday destinations. Tourism as a service industry, is highly people-intensive and in this context, the management of employees in this industry is a critical function. The success of any tourism organisation or destination is dependent on its employees’ contribution and commitment. While the tourism industry offers well qualified individuals such as graduates exciting and rewarding career opportunities, it also needs a vast number of operational staff. Low entry barriers and high turnover pose particular HR challenges to management in this area. The question that immediately comes to mind is “How can this important and vital asset be nurtured?” The answer lies in the relative new concept of Talent Management or Talent Relationship Management.(TRM)
According to the literature this concept can be broadly defined as: “a deliberate and structured company approach to the recruitment, retention and development of talented individuals who will consequently deliver superior performance.” This definition provides guidance as to what is involved in implementing a talent management strategy and will act as a framework for this paper. The focus of this investigation will be to establish to what extent selected hotel groups in South Africa apply the principles of talent management within these companies and to make recommendations in this regard. This is essential if South Africa is to expand its tourism industry in the future.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Hanneli Diedericks is a Lecturer in the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of South Africa. She holds a MCom in Industrial Psychology from UNISA. Her research interests include the integration of the well-being of employees with their optimum performance as well as the dynamic field of talent management.