Management Careers in the Industries
The hospitality industry presents a vast area of careers in management. Food and beverage management is one of the popular careers in the industry. It entails the management of catering companies, restaurants, and other entities that serve food. The main role of a food and beverage manager is to look into the quality of services offered to customers, manage inventory, and ensure finances are managed accordingly (DHI, 2009). Both industries have similar managerial positions because the roles of the professionals overlap. For instance, a hotel manager would still be charged with facilitating entertainment to tourists if he works at a resort.
Human resource management is also one of the popular management careers in both the lodging and food and beverage industries. The profession entails the development of human asset bases through recruitment, training, and delegating processes.
Both industries require human resource managers to be actively involved in harnessing talents and building competencies to enhance the quality of services offered to the customers. Lodging management is also one of the career paths available in the hospitality industry (DHI, 2009). This career is associated with the management of hotels, resorts, and motels, with a close focus on the provision of accommodation to tourists. Lodging managers may also be involved in marketing and budgeting processes in the facilities.
There are also other management fields such as casino management, which are not quite common in some facilities. Such careers are dependent on the legality of the associated activities. The tourism industry offers travel and tourism management as one of the major careers for managers. The managers coordinate efforts with travel agencies, cruise agencies, and tour managers to provide tourists with quality services.
Travel and tourism managers are also tasked with overseeing the delivery of entertainment packages to tourists and they also have to be involved in budgeting and marketing processes in their organizations (DHI, 2009). As the range of services in hospitality and tourism industries increase, there will be more management careers sprouting, and it is apparent that the roles of managers in the respective industries are on a convergent path.
General Manager Positions in the Industries
General Managers (GM) in the lodging industry and the food and beverage industry are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that various business processes within their organizations are running smoothly; hence, they always start their day by holding meetings with managers and other employees (Walker, 2016). The meetings are meant for GMs to interact with managers in different departments and employees to get a clear view of the direction of various processes and the challenges that might need immediate action from GMs.
GMs in the lodging industry has to maintain a close focus on global events if their entities operate internationally. This is because the international environment affects their business, and they have to constantly align their services by global trends. Food and beverage GMs, on the other hand, are normally not required to maintain an emphasis on the international environment because their primary focus is the guests in the facility and their respective needs. For instance, while a GM at an international hotel group has to spend the morning reviewing international news, the GM at a food and beverage facility would only spend time studying the day’s menu and ensuring that the facilities are prepared to serve customers (Stanford, 2013).
GMs in both lodging and food and beverage industries are also tasked with ensuring that talents in their various entities are enhanced. Their primary role in this area is to give incentives to managers and their employees. This is normally done by sending congratulatory messages or various rewards to the best performing entities while compelling other entities to enhance their performance. This is quite crucial in ensuring that there is constant growth in performance.
However, the GM in the lodging industry is not always associated with a hands-on approach toward managing the various business processes in the organization (Brotherton, 2015). His or her role is to provide oversight and facilitate the elimination of challenges in various projects. The GMs in the food and beverage industry must apply a hands-on approach toward managing their entities because their role is to keep pushing managers and employees to deliver specific objectives.
Growth in Employment Trends over the Next 10 Years
Job forecast agencies reveal that the lodging and food and beverage industries are going to see tremendous growth in the employment field over the next ten years. This is because the industries encompass numerous fields, including hotels, tour and travel agencies, restaurants, and other entities that are increasing in the market at an exponential rate. There will be an increase in job opportunities as these entities continue growing (Best Hospitality Degrees, 2017). However, the salary range will only favor careers in management because the professionals in careers will be handling more tasks.
Additionally, there will be higher competition within the management careers in the next decade because as companies expand, they will create more jobs at the lower levels and limited jobs in the management career. This implies that students aspiring to pursue careers in management in the two industries must focus on enhancing their academic qualifications. The current minimum requirement is a degree in management or a related field, but applicants in the future might have to apply with graduate and post-graduate qualifications (Best Hospitality Degrees, 2017). Event planning is the fastest-growing field in the industries; hence, students should focus on acquiring qualifications in this field.
Recommended Human Resource Practices
The respective industries require strategic recruiting approaches to ensure that they harness the appropriate talents in the management careers, and they also require strategies to retain the talents. The best strategy for recruiting is focusing on academic qualifications alongside the experience and personality traits of the applicants. The management careers in the two fields are associated with the need to employ managers with charismatic traits and exemplary people skills (Stanford, 2013).
This implies that the recruiters must engage the qualified applicants in a series of interactions to identify their strengths and weaknesses in the development of interpersonal relationships.
Retention of talents in the management career is a function of providing training and development programs that enhance the competence of the managers and increasing their compensation and benefits to keep them motivated. Companies in the two industries have demonstrated the willingness to enhance the satisfaction level of their managers to retain their talents because there is a high turnover rate caused by poaching (Stanford, 2013). Managers must also be given the freedom to run the entities by their informed judgments of the requirements for growth.
References
Best Hospitality Degrees. (2017). What is the empowerment outlook for the hospitality industry. Web.
Brotherton, B. (2015). Researching hospitality and tourism. Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Sage.
DHI. (2009). Career paths of a hospitality management student. Web.
Stanford, C. (2013). A day in the life of David Lindahl, general manager of daily diner Frogtown. Web.
Walker, J. R. (2016). Introduction to hospitality (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Higher Ed.