Essential Generic Skills for Human Resources in Hospitality: A Literature Review

The Hospitality industry in India is undergoing a rapid growth. This brings in challenges to the Human Resource department to recruit staff with the right attitude, required skills and abilities. Generic skills play a major role in building the right attitude. The paper aims to examine the literature relating to generic skills required for human resources in the hospitality industry and also focuses on the approaches that can be used to enhance the delivery of these skills to sustain performance and meet the demands of the work place. A survey for the said research has been carried out through in-depth literature review. Essential generic skills identified for the human resources of hospitality industry are: Impression management skills, relaxation skills, motor skills, manual skills, communication skills, problem solving skills, decision making skills, social skills, people skills, mood management skills, stress management skills, goal management skills, time management skills, conflict management skills and leadership skills. All of these skills can be developed through continuous focused efforts by the employees and training carried out by the learning and development department in hospitality.