Employment is an integral part of any business, especially in such a large industry as hospitality. There are many different areas to the hospitality industry but they all rely on workers in order for the business to keep operating. There has been an increase in the employment of students in the hospitality industry, many students find jobs in this industry as there are many jobs on offer with very little training needed and it also gives them an income while they are studying.
Students provide employers with a flexible workforce, they are usually employed on a part time or casual basis which gives the employer the right to increase or decrease hours and oven hire and fire staff depending on the amount of trade that they are receiving, they also offer another area of flexibility as employers can move them to other positions that they were not originally employed for. Lamont and Lucas (1999) found that students have other qualities and that employers view them as intelligent, good communicators, easy to train and willing to learn and follow instructions. Students also appear attractive to potential employers because they are cheap to hire and will accept lower levels of pay. However it may not always be wise to employ students as they can be unreliable and not be willing to follow instructions. They may also give little care and attention to their job and only do the bare minimum. Employers will also have to take the time to train students as some may have never worked in the hospitality industry before, this will cost the employer time and money and will use the time of another employee who will have to train them.
Buchanan (2004) found that students who are employed in such stressful environments such as hotels as well as trying to balance a full time academic workload were more likely to suffer from stress, affecting their academic work and their employed work. When employing students managers will have to consider their academic work and understand that there is a limit of shifts that they can work without affecting their work. This may mean that they have to employ more part time workers who all do a small number of shifts, however the manager will have to consider if this is economically viable and whether it would be cheaper to employ many part time workers or few full time workers.
Students provide employers with a flexible workforce, they are usually employed on a part time or casual basis which gives the employer the right to increase or decrease hours and oven hire and fire staff depending on the amount of trade that they are receiving, they also offer another area of flexibility as employers can move them to other positions that they were not originally employed for. Lamont and Lucas (1999) found that students have other qualities and that employers view them as intelligent, good communicators, easy to train and willing to learn and follow instructions. Students also appear attractive to potential employers because they are cheap to hire and will accept lower levels of pay. However it may not always be wise to employ students as they can be unreliable and not be willing to follow instructions. They may also give little care and attention to their job and only do the bare minimum. Employers will also have to take the time to train students as some may have never worked in the hospitality industry before, this will cost the employer time and money and will use the time of another employee who will have to train them.
Buchanan (2004) found that students who are employed in such stressful environments such as hotels as well as trying to balance a full time academic workload were more likely to suffer from stress, affecting their academic work and their employed work. When employing students managers will have to consider their academic work and understand that there is a limit of shifts that they can work without affecting their work. This may mean that they have to employ more part time workers who all do a small number of shifts, however the manager will have to consider if this is economically viable and whether it would be cheaper to employ many part time workers or few full time workers.
