Assignment 1: Alignment of HRM and Business Strategies

Rachel McDonald

Dr. Jack Huddeston

HRM Strategic Human Resource Management

April 27, 2015

In 1927, J. Willard Marriott opened the nine-stool root beer stand that grew into the Hot Shoppes Restaurant chain and evolved into today’s Marriott International hotel company. For the next 58 years, he built the Marriott brand on a foundation of guiding principles that remain embedded in the company’s culture today (Proprietary, 2015). Marriott soon transformed that business into the Hot Shoppe by adding hot food items. He then started a chain of Hot Shoppes, which was positioned as drive-in family eateries, along the East Coast (Biography, 2015). Marriott also expanded his business in a new direction in 1937 by providing food for commercial airlines. Marriott eventually became head of the National Restaurant Association and opened the first of the Marriott hotels in 1959. Continuing to explore new business directions, Marriott opened his first hotel in 1957—the Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel located in Arlington, Virginia (Biography, 2015). In Marriott’s eyes the associates were the secret to his success. "Take care of associates and they'll take care of your customers," was what he always said to the managers of every location (Proprietary, 2015).
Marriott is the first and only hospitality company to successfully develop and implement a strategic account management strategy. This means deploying a proactive sales effort against top accounts to deliver total account needs, including managed corporate travel, complex groups, and nontraditional business solutions (International, 2015). Marriott places special emphasis on finding, attracting, and retaining high-value customers through integrated sales and marketing efforts involving eCommerce, revenue management, channel strategy and analysis, and stellar marketing support. Marriott’s global marketing resources are designed to build brand equity, generate demand, optimize revenue, and create loyalty and preference by delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time (International, 2015). Marriott’s strategic marketing alliances include partnerships with strong global consumer brands that increase awareness and trial for Marriott properties, drive incremental room nights and revenue, and increase share. Marriott designs high-impact campaigns and communications targeted to specific customer segments to generate room nights, increase revenue and brand awareness, and capture demand and market share (International, 2015).
Human resources (HR) is a general term meant to cover a wide range of activities. Some of the work that falls to HR professionals includes hiring and firing employees, creating organizational charts, and shaping corporate culture after a merger or acquisition, managing employee communications, settling employee disputes, creating benefits programs, navigating government regulations, dealing with legal issues such as sexual harassment and occupational safety, and setting up policy and programs for measuring performance, compensating, recognizing, and training employees (Editors, 2012). Marriott human resource job positions are: Human Resources Coordinator, Human Resources Manager, Assistant Training Manager (Casino), and Director-Personal Service. The Human Resources Coordinator supports the recruitment, administration, training, and care of all associates based on the company’s strategic goals, property’s overall objectives and mission statement. Depending on the task that is given to them, they can be responsible for processing, tracking, and administrating information that would be concerning associate’s recruiting, benefits, permits, orientation, training, payroll, and performance appraisals (Aruba, 2006). This should be done within a particular amount of time. The Human Resources Coordinator assists the Human Resources Management in coordinating and implementing the