Contemporary labour migration and talent management in the global hotel industry

The hospitality industry is forecast to experience further growth, which will be particularly evident in terms of the development and expansion of major hotel chains. However, with a growing concern over skills and labour shortages across both developed and developing countries, there is the question of how these shortages can be addressed, and some of the increasingly utilised solutions are the use of migrant labour as well as the concept of Talent Management. This research explores the practices used by a global hotel organisation for employing migrant labour across different countries and at different levels - from operational level through to senior management level. This research benefited from the assistance of a global hotel organisation. This unprecedented access was the opportunity to find out about the human resource practices of a global hotel organisation within different cultural contexts. The research draws on data collected through semi-structured interviews with senior managers above country level, and also hotel managers and employees from three different countries, including Russia, Turkey and the UK. Limitations include the scope of the research being restricted primarily to the capitals and large cities; small samples in case of each of the selected countries, and the restricted opportunity to conduct interviews with migrant workers in some of the cases. Findings reveal significant differences in the employment and perceptions of different groups or segments of migrant workers across the organisation, with the practices being influenced by a number of external and internal factors. Using the labour market theory, the research explains the variations in the use and subsequent treatment of different groups of migrant workers as well as how migrant workers can be used more effectively. Implications for practice are considered. The research makes the following key contributions. First, it combines two subject areas, including labour migration and the process of internationalisation in the global hotel industry. This adds to the understanding of how global hotel organisations manage their human resources, particularly in relation to migrant labour, across different countries. Second, the research uses the labour market theory to explain the current practices for using migrant labour. This contributes to the understanding of the differences in the use and subsequent treatment of varying categories of migrant labour. Third, the research provides a new definition of 'migrant worker' through the examination of the identified categories of migrant workers.