Category: Conversation

Compare and Contrast Russia and the United States in Terms of Global Wheat Exports

Wheat is one of the most important commodities that Russia and the United States export in the global trade market considering the fact that the world-wide production of wheat in growing. This is due to the fact that the world population is growing and the living standards in many developing countries are improving over time. Over the past two decades, Russia has been defined as one of the larger exporters of wheat because of the large areas used for planting, lower production costs, exploitation of mild winters, and a high quality of wheat production has increased demand for its commodity in the global market. The United States of America has been a traditional wheat exporter on foreign trade, but this position sometimes is fluctuated because of the global competition which has resulted in the wheat supply increase and price reduction. In this report, I will evaluate the absolute, comparative and factor endowment advantages of Russia and the United States regarding wheat export in the global market trade.

Absolute, Comparative and Factor Endowment Advantages Between Russia and the United States

Russia is estimated to be one of the leading exporters of wheat in global trade market, because of the transition from this commodity import to export in the last decades. This fact has increased the role of Europe in the global trade market, making this continent one of the largest wheat exporters in years 2016-2017. Russia has many advantages that help its leading position in exporting this commodity. It has a large plant area, with the appropriate climate conditions to produce wheat of a high quality, which is becoming a much-demanded commodity of various populations nowadays. Another advantage for Russia is the lower production cost, which has influenced a lot in positioning this country among the grain exporters.

In addition, Russia is orienting the process of wheat production from spring corps to winter ones, based on the fact that its climate is continental and subarctic according to its geographic locations. Using this advantage, nowadays, Russia is taking about 60% of harvests from the winter corps, unlike previous years, where it used mainly spring ones. This fact is helped also by the climate change trends, which are making winters milder, allowing the farmers to produce a large amount of wheat from winter corps. S&P Global Platts Analytics expects Russia to occupy 20% of total global exports in 2019-20, which is a very positive figure keeping in mind the growing competition in the wheat global trade.

Thus, this can help in increasing the total harvested area, but this can happen only if the winter climate conditions are favorable. What is observed in the last year is that weather conditions were not favorable for what harvest in this country, showing increasing figures comparing to the years 2017-2018. This disadvantage is mitigated by the increased quality of the corps, so the protein percentage of the wheat is increased to nearly 10% of total wheat production, so it became 80% compared to 70% in the previous year. Another disadvantage that can threaten its profits in Southeast Asia, Middle East and other regions, is the politics of International Marine Organization, which aims at cutting Sulphur oxide emissions from ships with the aim to improve air quality, thus protecting the environment and reducing negative effects in the human health. This is known also as the MARPOL Convention. Of course, that freight tariffs, in this regard, will impact even other competitors in the wheat market.

If we refer to the comparative advantages even with other major players of the wheat exports like Australia in Southeast Asia, Russia has offered lower and very competitive wheat price and has gain a very motivating market share in this region. This is also due to the climate change effects (increased drought and reduced production of wheat) that Australia is facing in the last years. If we refer to the raise in the freight tariffs because of the abovementioned politics, the wheat competition of Russia will be reduced in Southeast region, because Australia is closer to that region, as a result will have lower tariffs. In this regard, even Russia is more advantaged in exporting wheat for Middle East, South Asia and West and North Africa.

Another advantage of Russia is its ability to negotiate for wheat exports in the new markets, such as Saudi Arabia. This foreign economic politics enable this country to have a sustainable increase in the wheat production. Also, an agreement with Vietnam enabled Russia to won again the license rights for export in this country. Another target market, on which Russia wants to expand, is China, which has a very large population and food consumption as a result. This politics of exports’ expansion is related with the growing trend of imports. For example, USDA shows figures, such as: increase in the global wheat imports for Southeast Asia (15%), Middle East, North and West Africa (30%), making Russia exports of wheat very favorable in these markets, mainly because the competitive price it offers.

The United States of America is another exporter of wheat in the global market trade. It has been a medium or a short-term exporter of smaller volumes than Russia in the European Union, Australia and China. A major competitor of the USA in this market and for this commodity is China, which has expanded the export market in the last two years more than the USA, including markets, such as Egypt, North & South Korea. The figures are not favorable for the USA in the wheat global exports. It is ranked in the fourth place regarding the largest wheat exporters in the last year, according to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). This is due to the increase in the global competition, which has resulted in the wheat supply increase and price reduction, favoring more countries with a competitive price, such as Russia. Higher exports volume from most competitors, can have a negative impact in US wheat exports, limiting it to export only in traditional markets such as Latin America and Asia. Also, another disadvantage for US wheat exports relies in the fact that the demand for their crops has decreased because of the dollar currency. For example, today 100 dollars are equal to 5900 rubles. Another comparative disadvantage of the US, for example in Mexico market is the fact of shipping costs. Even though the US have lowered its transportation costs, Russia is evaluated not only for traditional low shipping costs but also for a weaker ruble than dollar. Also, the USDA has predicted that US farmers will plant 10% fewer acres of wheat in the winter season, which is a decrease in the wheat production compared with Russia. These facts show that the competitive advantage of US regarding wheat exports has diminished. Advantages for US wheat exports can be the severe climate conditions of the other countries, as well as currencies differences with the existing ones. However, according to the USDA, the global wheat exports will increase by 5% in the current year. Both Black Sea grain production in increased by 6 percent during 2018/19 to 131 MMT but also US wheat production increased by 2 percent compared to 52.3 MMT in the previous year. In addition, exports to five of the top 10 US wheat markets have surpassed the previous years. For example, US wheat exports to Mexico have increased by 27 percent annually.

Russia and the USA are among the countries that have reached the highest net exports for wheat during 2018, but Russia has a superior competitive advantage for this commodity in the global trade market.

Porter’s Theory Applied in Russia and United States Wheat Production Export

Local Market Resources and Skills

Regarding local market resources and skills, Russia can significantly increase wheat production due to the high quality of existing lands. Currently, this country has 30423401.722 acres of agricultural land, and 105022912.46 workers engaged in the agricultural sector, which results in 36.32 workers / acre of land.

While the United States has an area of ​​899, 500,000 acres of agricultural land and a workforce of 629,000 workers, 0.0007 workers / acre of land. In terms of land factor and labor it turns out that the US has a much higher sufficiency than Russia in terms of land. On the other hand, in terms of labor the figures are higher for Russia. In terms of advances in natural resources, we can say that Russia’s climatic conditions for wheat cultivation are much better than those of the US, mainly for winter crops, which are gaining more attention in the latest years.

Local Market Demand Conditions

Regarding technological development and innovation and its impact on wheat production in Russia we can consider the lower use of fertilizers, which have started to be used only in recent years and because frequent changes in the legislation have occurred sporadically or not at a proper level. Such a problem directly affects the amount of harvest. Quite the opposite has happened in the US, where fertilizers have been widely used to accelerate the growth cycle of wheat. Moreover, in the US, the use of innovative technologies for the creation of hybrid seeds has already begun, which also has implications for crop yields.

Local Suppliers and Subsidiary Industries

Other constraints to Russia’s agricultural sector and particularly in wheat production are outdated rural infrastructure, low public and private investment in agricultural research and development, and significant shortages of skilled workers and farms managers. These restrictions reduce agricultural production stability and increase and adversely affect the investment behavior of Russian farms. The market transparency of US wheat market is generally high. There is a high exchange of information due to the high engagement of farmers and traders, in relation to commodity trading. US farmers and grain buyers regularly participate in future markets to mitigate price risk and detect market prices. As prospective commodity markets dominate US price discovery processes, market participants pursue this information regardless of their geographical distance.

Characteristics of the Local Firm

Regarding conservation of export quantities and export markets for wheat, Russia is currently focusing for wheat exports on countries such as Saudi Arabia. It has also signed agreements with the main importer in Vietnam to resume Russian grain shipments in October, after the latter urged Russia to ban grain export licenses because of quality concerns. Russia is also lobbying with China to increase its imports of wheat from Russia. While the major Southeast Asian countries are expected to account for 15% of total global wheat imports in 2019-20, the Middle East, North and West Africa, China and Bangladesh are estimated to account for over 30% of the global total of wheat importers. This is where Russian wheat would have a clear price competition advantage over the major wheat exporting regions. On the other hand, the USA is taking advantage of the problems facing Argentina and Australia in drought-producing wheat and is focusing on increasing exports to the Egyptian, Indonesian and Brazilian markets as the volume of wheat imported from these three countries is growing at 4% every year.

Conclusions

Unlike the United States, Russia started international trade operations only after the 1990s, so its position in export markets throughout the years has been steadily fluctuating This has happened due to policy issues related to agricultural development, outdated technology, infrastructure problems, and problems with transparency and price stability. At the other hand, in the year 2018, has been ranked as the most favorable country for the wheat production export in the world, which shows the optimal use of its competitive advantages in the global market. The USA has shown increase too in wheat exports, but at a lower rate than Russia. This is the reason why it is applying price strategies to overcome its competitors in the global wheat market.

References

1. Hutchins, C. (2019). USDA Forecast: World Wheat Production and U.S. Export Volume to Increase (Online). Available from: https://www.uswheat.org/wheatletter/usda-forecast-world-wheat-production-and-u-s-export-volume-to-increase/ (Accessed: 13.02.2020).
2. Elafany, K. (2019). Russia Dominates Global Wheat Trade. Will Its Exports Continue to Grow? S& P Global Platform (Online). Available from: https://blogs.platts.com/2019/12/27/russia-global-wheat-exports/ (Accessed: 13.02.2020).
3. Trading Economics (2020). Russia – Employment in Agriculture (Online). Available from: https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/employment-in-agriculture-percent-of-total-employment-wb-data.html (Accessed: 13.02.2020).

The Evolution of Informal Street Vending in Mexico City

In this essay, I will be exploring the evolution of informal street vending in Mexico City and its influential factors. This will occur on different scales from the urban to the smaller scales of the stalls and products of the market stalls themselves, in relation to the different case studies referenced. The first part of the essay will preface this by introducing the history and different types of street vending that occur and following that, tracing why the locals value the freedom of the appropriation of spaces throughout the city, which stem from reasons ranging from the financial to the cultural. Finally, to investigate the spatial and social impacts of the appropriation on the city, where I argue that these temporary spaces and events that take place can lead to permanent imprints of its physical surroundings.

Street vending in Mexico City has its history dating back to the pre-Hispanic era, where the government has since had difficulty in controlling it, and presently there is up to 200,000 street vendors within the city. The activity of street vending started as early as 1541, however only began proliferating in the 1970s in the city, where in 1993 the government began to take efforts to remove vendors from the streets through the construction of plazas comerciales to relocate and concentrate the stalls at controlled areas of the city. As such, vendors had to adhere to the same regulations and taxes as official retailers in order to continue their operation.

Street vending in Mexico City occur in varying manners, which include mobile markets or tianguis, which are markets that open only on certain days of the week and are supervised by city officials. Another form of market stalls which often occur in clusters within the city is referred to as ambulantes, where they are not as organized or officially managed as the previous example mentioned. Often these market stalls sell illegal or counterfeit goods, where the supply and distribution of such goods remain uncontrolled by the government.

Presently, these market stalls are still proliferating throughout the city because of a number of reasons – whether political, financial, social, or otherwise. Many street vendors set up market stalls as an alternative to their main job for additional income, especially in the lower income areas in the east and south of Mexico City. Additionally, to evade taxes, many street vendors tend to set up stalls without licenses. This is in tandem of the nature of the goods on sale, where the sale of illegal or counterfeit goods brought from China or the US (fayuca) is an additional reason why some street vendors prefer not to obtain a license for their stall. Some of the goods they sell also tend to be bartered beforehand among themselves, and as such go against the standard supply and distribution flow of the tianguis that are more officially managed.

Consumers still go to these tianguis for several reasons. Firstly, these street vendors usually appropriate spaces that are near their homes and provide as both a more convenient and cheaper alternative to the retailers that provide similar goods. Additionally, certain goods that the locals demand for are sometimes not legal or readily available in the official retailers (such as items related to religion), where the nature of these goods only available at vendors is very much intertwined with the traditions and beliefs of the locals in Mexico.

The following discussion will involve the different scales of appropriation within the city, and trace how, on each scale, the market stalls have adapted to the existing urban conditions. It will discuss why the markets have persisted in the form that they have over the years in relation to the type of products on sale, and in return, how it impacts the city during this temporary occupation of the street spaces.

In Mercado de Tepito, one of the largest tianguis to exist in the city, the market stalls occupy up to 30 streets in the city with up to 12000 merchants who set up business in this market. In this market, the appropriation of the spaces extends to the street where market stalls overtake existing roads, and is typically extremely crowded to the degree where cars and buses slow to a halt in order to safely meander through these streets, whilst being extremely close to the crowd and stalls.

The market is known for the sale of fayuca (counterfeit goods, especially audio or video products) for extremely low prices, ranging from clothing to electronics, or black-market items such guns, drugs and even stolen passports. The sale of fayuca only began and proliferated since the 1970s, where these goods were brought in from the United States and China and products such as DVDs are copied within the city for sales. Because of the introduction of these goods, many families became rich quickly and the majority of the community in the Tepito neighborhood began to depend on their livelihoods as street vendors.

Often, to advertise the video products, vendors illegally tap electricity to the cables along the streets. The existing system in place at this market – whether with regards to the supply and distribution of the video products or the existing infrastructure for electricity – has become an encouraging force at Mercado de Tepito and established it as a central commercial capital for the sale of these products. As a result of this illegal activity, the neighboring buildings often experience either shortages or interruptions of electricity as the market stalls are sporadically set up.

The sale of highly illegal black-market items such as guns and drugs has led to Mercado de Tepito gaining a reputation of crime and danger, and as such has become an area that local residents in the city tend to avoid.

As such, the city officials have found difficulty in controlling the sale of the goods in this market not only because of the large number of residents which depend on their jobs as merchants for a source of income, which is compounded by the fact that the merchants of this market have formed unions to deter any control from the police or political parties.

In contrast to Mercado de Tepito, Mercado de Sonora is an established market where the government built this market for stalls to occupy within a building in the 1950s. It primarily specializes in products such as medicine, items related to magic, party favors and pottery. It is one of the mercados publicos (public markets) that the government set up in an effort for better regulation and organization of commerce in the 1950s, with an adjacent parking area for vehicles.

Although it does not overtake the streets to the degree that Mercado de Tepito does, this market, however, has a similar impact on the traffic in its surrounding area where the market stalls have spilled beyond the building officially allocated for the market stalls, into the surrounding roads. Street vendors often appropriate the spaces around the building and the parking lot, and thereafter into the surrounding roads and infrastructure.

More often than not, locals tend to take taxis and stop in the middle of road lanes to purchase their goods, carry it to the cars and then shortly leave after. Those who take public transportation like the public bus often experience congestion at the perimeter of these market spaces, where the street once again becomes subsumed by the appropriation of the stalls.

Despite concerted efforts by the government to clear the streets of the vendors, street vendors have repeatedly set up their stalls and defied the attempts for regulation in this area because, similar to Mercado de Tepito, of the nature of the goods they sell. However, for Mercado Sonora, the demand for their goods comes from the avid tourism that occurs in this neighborhood, along with the locals’ demand for medicinal goods and items related to magic or the occult.

Mercado de Sonora is widely known for its sale of medicinal goods, and because of the locals’ culture and traditional beliefs that medicine is related to magic and religion, merchants tend to sell these two categories of products together. These market stalls still exist because its competitors, such as pharmacies that are officially set up in neighboring buildings and licensed by the government, do not provide products that relate to the local’s beliefs in religion, or that are illegal. For instance, before the 1990s when abortion was still illegal in the city, locals sought herbal remedies in this market that would allow this procedure to take place. Another example of which would be in the 2009 H1N1 epidemic, where most medicinal retailers in the city lost business, but these informal street vendors managed to maintain their sales because of a high demand for a ’10-herb blend’ and ‘Santa Muerte paraphernalia’ (associated with health and purity in religion), which only these informal market stalls provided.

Apart from the lack of provision by official retailers for certain products that locals seek, the proliferation of these market spaces are also because of how the government has failed to respond to the logic of the street vending, or the interests of the local community.

An additional reason as to why the appropriation of street spaces is so prominent in this area can also be attributed to the Housing Renovation Program in 1985 (after the earthquake) where a total of 46, 000 dwellings along with 2750 commercial boutiques were rebuilt. However, what proved problematic was that the Tepito community strongly believed that the streets and vecindades (a building containing several low-income housing units) could not be separated, which the housing program was attempting to do. After this reconstruction, property rights were handed over to residents, where residents had the ‘opportunistic idea’ that they were also legitimate owners of the sitting places on the streets. They then rented out their own houses as storage places and spaces on the streets to new coming street vendors.

In Tepito, 3,176 dwellings were expropriated and then 5,553 were constructed in the same plots. In the central area of the city, a total of 44,437 dwellings were expropriated and 45,969 were constructed.

Other attempts by the city to rid the streets of vendors include mayors such as Federal District Major Manuel Camacho’s (1988-93) administration that sought to contrate market activities to controlled locations and purpose-built covered markets, where 10000 street traders that operated in 300 blocks were targeted. Also in 1993, 24 markets were designed by 16 private architect firms working in conjunction with the Public Works office and mandated to develop designs with facades which were in accord with the historic context of the area. However only half of the amrkets were successful, those of which faciliated walk-in traffic through the market and which, in effect, most closely replicated the traditional street-vending practice. Even in the successful cases, some vendors used the official market sites as store areas and continued to ply the streets as traders, which was later exacerbated by the recession and resistance under the Espinoza administration.

This has been a major source of conflict with local businesses that have been ‘complain[ing] vociferously’, as it takes trade away from them and causes disruption in front of their shops (Cámara Nacional 1993). Ironically, the city’s efforts to rebuild the neighborhood only led to a further development of these informal market stalls which was only aggravated by the introduction of issues such as fayuca or periods of economic crisis.

The failure of such efforts by governmental institutions to either build formal markets for the street vendors or to displace them is also to do with how these schemes tend to view cultural patrimony in purely physical terms: as objects rather than as processes. This is to say that the government generally ignores the rich cultural patrimony embedded in the local population, namely its social patrimony, where Tamayo argues that conservation schemes must seek to restore and maintain the physical fabric without displacing the population either directly through evictions, or indirectly through influencing the prevailing ideology of popular culture and the valuing of buildings and built environments such that they will embrace modernization projects and reject historic patrimony – as threatened to occur in Mexico City’s inner city.

Redevelopment schemes thus far have only managed to either displace the existing street vendors, or to concentrate them in certain locations of the city without a full understanding of the operation of the market to begin with and the context of the community, as mentioned in the earlier segment of the essay. As such, the response of the street vendors is not a cooperative one, where they tend to let the constructed formal markets to deteriorate continuously along with lack of sanitation, which in return has ‘ramifications upon tourism’. Consequently, the impacts on the surrounding areas of the informal street vendors are often adversely affected economically and spatially, where competitors often lose out to the market stalls and cannot afford to sustain the lease on the spaces, they use to run their businesses. As such, in the city, it is not rare to find empty units of spaces in the surrounding buildings of the markets. A further and more dire consequence of the activity of street vending includes the worsening of the existing traffic congestion within the city when these stalls take over the streets, as well as disrupting the circulation along sidewalks and access to formal businesses. In 1993, the government negotiated with the street vendors where ‘plazas’ were constructed to relocate the street vendors, however many of them were highly reluctant to cooperate with this move. Additionally, the consequence of this government intervention was a ‘disintegration’ of the residential community in Tepito as well, where not only people were not able to walk on the streets, play or organize a festival, but prices in local shops increased and locals had to do their shopping outside the neighborhood. The city government also failed to address the underlying issue of the market which was the illegal black-market activities that encouraged the sales of drugs and guns in the neighborhood, which only led to the increasing violence in Tepito. This result of this was also that up to 8600 residents moved out from 1950 to 1990.

The existing activity of street vending in Mexico City is both a large source of income for many residents who do not possess the skill sets to find jobs in the city, and also a source of tension between the vendors and its other competitors, and between the unions representing the street vendors and political parties and the government. There remains a difficulty in finding a resolution in attempting to remove or alleviate the drawbacks of street vending, whilst also maintaining and designing spaces that can both be controlled by the government, and also coalesce with the activity of street vending so that vendors do not suffer from a loss of sales once they relocate. While the issue of street vending may continue to persist in the city, perhaps the underlying issue that has hindered the success of the governments’ efforts is in the understanding of the cultural, social and economic processes that drive the forces of these informal market stalls, as opposed to coercing street vendors into relocating their businesses into locations they do not want to do operate in. Understanding the operation of these street vending activities extend beyond simply viewing them in a physical and spatial aspect, and require a more intricate study into why they appropriate certain locations in the city, and the relationships between the street vendors, residents and products that they sell at each location.

Bibliography

1. Mendez, N. Gomez, “Redes Sociales y Comercio En Vía Pública En La Ciudad De México”.
2. John C. Cross, Ph.D. “Formalizing the Informal Economy: The case of Street Vendors in Mexico City”, The American University in Cairo, 1995.
3. Rico, Maite. “Reportaje | Tepito, Barrio Bravo De México”.
4. EL PAÍS, Síguenos En Síguenos En Twitter Síguenos En Facebook Síguenos En Twitter Síguenos En Instagram, 20 June 2006, http://elpais.com/diario/2006/06/21/internacional/1150840810_850215.html.
5. R., Oriard Colin L. “Street Vending and Its Ability to Produce Space: the Case of the Tepito Market in Mexico City Downtown Area”. University College London (University of London).
6. Ward, Peter M. Mexico City. Wiley, 1998.
7. Tejeda, C. “Program for the improvement of popular commerce in the historic center of Mexico City”, 1995.
8. Tamayo, S. “Identidad colectiva y patrmonio cultural en el centro histórico de la Ciudad de México”, 1995.
9. “Quitaran a ambulantes” [Evict street peddlers]. Reforma (in Spanish). Mexico City. December 4, 2002.
10. Delia Angelica Ortiz (July 28, 1998). “Nadie queda bien despues – Yerbera” [No one is well afterwards – Herbalism]. Reforma (in Spanish). Mexico City.
11. David Agren (May 5, 2009). “Seeking alternatives to ward off the flu”. McClatchy – Tribune Business News. Washington, D.C.

Human Resource Management in the Hotel Industry

It is observed that the HRM has a vital aspect of providing high quality service in the service sector. Employed staff will be responsible in providing excellent service so that the customer satisfaction is achieved by the hotels. In most service industries, it is HR that creates the goodwill, brand image, and popularity of the organization. When we glance in the past HRM was not in practice scientifically. Various theories developed implemented and redeveloped. Many hotels justify the absence or neglect of HRM functions with the size of the organization. Regardless of a hotel’s size, employees are vital assets.

It is also important to point out that the performance of every country’s economy is strongly linked to the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector – and SMEs rely heavily on their workforce and on their HRM practices for success.

There is generally a worldwide view that the hotel industry has a number of personnel related problems and poor employment practices and conditions.

History and Development of Human Resource Management (HRM)

If we focus on origins and historical development (Nankervis et al., 2008). HRM have been influenced by management theory, which has evolved as economic, social, political and industrial relation factors and management development of management theories impacted by technology and globalization. The base of HRM is employee welfare if employee is satisfied the organization is healthy (Carey, 1999), as first seen in the 1940s with the use of welfare officers in the organizations. The welfare and administration stage of HRM identifies a mechanistic of hire, pay, and fire. This is similar to the classical management approach that follows Taylor’s scientific management principles. In management theory the HR movement began to make a significant impact with the famous ‘Hawthorne experiment’ and the neo-HR approach of theorists that showed that the way in which employees were treated and consideration of their motivations were critical factors in achieving productivity (Nankervis et al., 2008).

Issues and Challenges Faced by Small and Medium Hotels

The above context we are focusing on the HR planning and practices for small, medium and large hotels and challenges they face while dealing with various human resources issues like hiring, training, retaining them. As per the size of the hotel the challenges will differ. We have focused on few of the challenges.

Smaller hotels with limited financial resources they don’t take interest in developing and implementing HR systems in comparison to larger hotels. Smaller hotels need to change HR practices compared to larger hotels because of the different manpower requirements and legalities. Specifically, they must focus on improving customer satisfaction and the quality of service through well-organized HR management. A small hotel’s survival may depend on its ability to recruit efficient, qualified people, while providing them with incentives so that they work at full capacity to maximize the property’s profits.

The manager or the owner play very important role in designing HR policies. The implementation of these policies is also a step to a successful entrepreneur. It is challenging for the owner to hire staff and make them efficient who will follow the quality and standards to achieve customer satisfaction.

The issues are not different in medium size hotels. The manager or the hotel owner or the trust face almost the similar issues. The difference between HR policies of the small and medium sized hotels is the professional implementation of those policies. The medium sized hotels have professional approach towards human resource. Small and medium hotels play vital role in developing the economy of country as they generate employment. Hotel industry is labor intensive service industry. The success of these hotels depends upon the technical, social skills of employees. The attitude and social skills of employees are important aspect in making competitive image of the organization.

Steps Which Can Be Taken

Steps that small and medium hotels can take:

1. Change in view of handling human resource. The reality is that small independent hotels cannot be successful without the presence of an efficient HRM system. Hotel owners play the most important role in establishing such systems, and so they should be the starting point of changes.
2. Offering attractive pay packages.
3. Providing effective training. Formal training by larger organizations is generally provided to employees on a yearly basis and offer personal development opportunities. On the other hand, in a small hotel, training is often informal, costly, and done on a voluntary basis by other employees within the company or by the owners. Other options may include the use of student volunteers from local colleges/universities to provide important training and skills to employees. Some options for training may include inexpensive or free training, and advice from groups such as local business groups, or business communities. Some of the most popular tools are seminars/webinars, lectures, videos, and on-the-job training.
4. Motivating staff to acquire social, technical.
5. Adopting advanced technology.
6. Following right HR policies and practices. Small- and medium-size hotels may not function well without proper human resource management practices. There is a need for small/medium sized hotels to use HRM practices that are cost effective and less time consuming instead of the available sophisticated HRM systems. An effective human resources practice by SMEs has the potential to help boost their growth and increase their success.
7. Staffing. Staffing has been identified as SMEs’ weakest HRM practice. In fact, the most frequent staffing method by SMEs is word of mouth, as it is a low-cost option of attracting candidates. Small organizations can halve staffing through ‘campus recruitment’ as it is a relatively cheaper source of recruitment than recruiting through advertisement and private employment exchanges. Furthermore, new graduates from educational institutions may work with zeal and commitment. More experienced staff may be hired through walk-in interviews. Whatever method, cost-effective staffing requires the development of a clear job description.
8. Absenteeism is also rooted in poor pay and the lack of a professional approach on the part of superiors in dealing with workers. Small hotels should think of instituting positive measures like counselling, reward systems, improving the work environment, and training to deal with the issue of absenteeism.
9. Achieving customer satisfaction or fulfilling their expectations: the term ‘luxury’ does not associate the term ‘conservation’. Guests may not like to conserve or to think of green practices during their accommodation. The employee should be well versed in handling situations and provide excellent service to guests.
10. Follow practice of employee satisfaction survey. Anonymous yearly survey made by hotels to improve their HR policies and practices. Employee feedback act like a mirror which shows the factual figure of the HRM of particular organization.
11. Announcing feedback analysis. As a key part of the solution, announce survey results via the platform and take the pulse of your hotel workforce more consistently throughout the year. Announcing the results in this way creates transparency with employees and helps establish trust, which is not always easily accomplished between leadership and frontline employees.

In general, being transparent about their challenges makes employees feel heard and understood. If a hotel captures quarterly feedback related to a topic that scored low, it helps provide better visibility for leadership to make a change. On the other hand, it can also validate that employees have in fact felt an improvement. By the time you get to your next annual engagement survey, you are much more likely to improve results with this approach. This is why pulse surveys are increasing popularity amongst hoteliers.

Conclusion

HRM is a vital part of organization. HRM helps in absorbing effective manpower for the organization. When organization has skilled, self-motivated and professional staff then the success of the organization is confirmed. Any organization will not be able to achieve their vision, mission and objectives without human resource. So, to achieve that organization should invest in to provide effective training to the employees, to make them sustainable. Now a days we see advanced technology capturing space in the organization instead of human but if you see further machines will not be operative without human so even if machines are occupying space of human, human being or employee becomes an important aspect of the organization in this paper we have explained focused on the economy of the country and SME is related we have covered the small and medium hotels and their HR practices. The challenges and issues faced by these hotels and how they can overcome of all those challenges that is also put in this paper when guest is staying in a hotel, he might not like to conserve so luxury does not the term luxury does not associate with the term conservation the employee of the hotel should understand that and inculcate attitude accordingly.