Reference no: EM133005479

Empyrean Hotel is a 550 room hotel located in the heart of downtown adjacent to the local convention center, of mid-sized Midwestern metropolitan area. Empyrean is the largest hotel in the city and is a full-service hotel with restaurants, bars, meeting rooms, and the ability to host convention attendees, local business organizations in need of meeting space, weddings and receptions. It is also commonly used by out of town visitors who come for the graduation ceremonies and home football games of the major college located nearby, as well as those that frequent the new casino that opened just three miles from downtown.

All of the major hotels in this city are unionized, including the Empyrean, but the Empyrean being the largest hotel in the area is often used by the Union to set the marketplace for salary and benefit concessions. The current, agreement between the Empyrean employees and management is set to expire in thirty days, right before the start of the next college football season with the hotel fully booked for the home football weekends that will be commencing shortly.

The economy has been steadily growing since the last time a labor agreement was reached five years ago on the heels of a recession. Unemployment is low, and future economic growth is expected to be positive and steady, though far from booming.

Two years ago the current union leader of the local Empyrean Hotel union was elected to a four-year term. Much of the support for the new union leader came from single mothers whom the union leader won over by her pledge of obtaining daycare benefits and flexible scheduling, along with a fair raise in the upcoming negotiations with management. Because the economy was weak five years ago when the last employee package was negotiated the Union then agreed to small wage increases and minimal benefits improvements. The Union leadership considers these rounds of negotiations to be important as they will lead the way for all others in the local industry as many other hotel agreements will come up for renegotiation shortly after the Empyrean negotiations.

The Empyrean Hotel management, however, believes that too much of the hotel profits are being eaten up by an overly-generous wage and benefit package for the rank and file. They are also worried about the growing threat of Airbnb listings growth in the local market and are concerned that occupancy rates and profits are likely to decline in the short and long term due to this increasing demand. Your job as the Executive Vice-President over Human Resources is to provide advice on how to respond to the Union demands for daycare benefits, flexible scheduling, and pay increases 3% above inflation each year for the next five years.

Preparing for this Assignment

Read through the scenario. Spend some time analyzing what actions you would recommend that the company take from your roles as the head of Human Resources.

Assignment Criteria

-You are the Executive Vice-President over Human Resources

-Read through the scenario.

-Outline your various alternatives in responding to the union demands

-Develop and support a specific recommended course of action to present to upper management.