Managing labour shortage in the Singapore hotel industry

• Main Authors: Khoo, Eng Hui, Lim, Bee Choo, Yong, Yen Ling
• Other Authors: Irene Wong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management::Division of labor and specialization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63955
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The hotel industry in Singapore faces severe labour shortage problem in many areas. These areas include front office, housekeeping, kitchen, food and beverages and support department. This problem, in tum, adversely affects the economic growth of the hotel industry. In order to take remedial steps towards alleviating the labour shortage problem, an analysis is done to understand the main causes of labour shortage in Singapore, particularly in hotel industry. The main causes include decreasing growth rate of the population, higher school leaving age, monotonous job content, low female participation rate and different values of the younger generation. To gain an insight into the seriousness of the labour shortage problem, various consequences are also examined. These include higher wages, lower productivity, higher job stress, poor quality service, over reliance on foreign workers and adverse effects on discipline at the workplace. The methods which the hotels use to manage the problem are also included in the study. Managing labour both in terms of quality and quantity of workers in the hotel industry will emerge as a major challenge. The current measures adopted include a combination of job recruitment, employment of foreign workers, encouraging more housewives, retirees and students to work, utilizing computers and robotics equipment, extending the retirement age, training and skills upgrading, extrinsic motivation and flexible work schedule. However, in view of the current labour shortage, the above measures are deemed to be inexhaustive. Hence, other recommendations are made to combat the problem, including encouraging more part-timers, liberalising the foreign worker policy, investing more in research and development for robotics equipment, improving workers' quality of worklife, on-going training programmes, implementing flexible fringe benefits as well as increasing productivity. Labour shortage is inevitable in any expanding economy, like Singapore. This has caused fierce competition among the various industries, including the hotel industry. Making a more efficient use of the existing manpower is, hence, the key to managing labour shortage in the hotel industry.