General Assessment of Human Resource Development in the Tourism Industry in Hanoi

2.3 General assessment of human resource development in the tourism industry in Hanoi

2.3.1 Achievements and causes

2.3.1.1 Achievements

It can be said that in recent years, Hanoi tourism has had some positive developments, especially in the development of human resources in the tourism industry, which has achieved positive results. Notably:

Firstly , in recent years, the city's tourism industry has seen rapid growth in quantity, while the quality of the tourism workforce has also improved significantly, partly meeting the needs of tourism businesses and the development requirements of the industry. The most notable thing is that the workforce in tourism businesses with foreign elements or joint ventures with reputable tourism companies has relatively high and consistent quality.

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Second , the training infrastructure system has initially received attention for investment and development with the establishment of tourism faculties in many universities, colleges, vocational schools, etc., creating a quality workforce to serve the tourism industry in particular and the socio-economic development of the city in general. New training work has been strengthened in terms of scale, quality and training capacity, retraining and human resource development have been given more attention; activities linking training and human resource development in tourism have been more closely.

Third , the state management of human resources development in the tourism industry is consolidated. The organization of the state management apparatus for human resources development in the tourism industry is gradually improved; legal documents on human resources management, education and training are concretized in the tourism industry; initially, the investigation and collection of information on human resources in the tourism industry is organized.

Fourth , human resources have developed rapidly in quantity and gradually improved in quality. The rate of workers assigned to the right profession, the rate of retrained workers, experienced workers, skilled workers, and foreign language proficiency tends to increase.

Over the years, Hanoi's tourism workforce is gradually being rejuvenated to suit the characteristics of the tourism industry and the development requirements of the whole country.

Fifth , the awareness of the importance of human resources for the effectiveness of tourism business activities of all levels, sectors and tourism enterprises has changed significantly. Tourism service enterprises, especially high-quality tourism service enterprises, have paid attention to investing in developing their human resources in many diverse and effective forms; international cooperation on developing the city's tourism human resources is increasingly developing; tourism workers are diligent, hard-working, friendly, enthusiastic, eager to learn,...[22]

2.4.1.2. Causes

Hanoi tourism industry has achieved many achievements in developing human resources in the tourism industry due to many different reasons, some of which can be mentioned as follows:

Firstly, the city's tourism industry has developed rapidly with many large-scale tourism businesses such as upgraded tourist areas with synchronous equipment, capable of providing high-quality tourism services, attracting a large number of workers with relatively high requirements for training and professional qualifications.

Second , the work of training human resources for tourism has received more attention from all levels, sectors and localities. Lecturers and teachers have proactively updated new knowledge to improve their teaching capacity; many enterprises have proactively placed orders for training facilities, helping tourism training work to approach social needs. The state's investment in tourism training facilities in the previous period has begun to show effectiveness.

Third, the state management of human resource development in the tourism industry has been strengthened, the team working on human resource development management in the tourism industry in management agencies is gradually being supplemented, quality improved and standardized; the system of policies on human resource development in the tourism industry is gradually being completed, creating a favorable legal corridor for human resource development in the tourism industry.

2.3.2 Limitations and causes:

2.3.2.1 Limitations

Besides the achievements that Hanoi tourism industry has achieved in developing tourism human resources, there are still some certain limitations. Specifically:

Firstly, the tourism industry's human resources have made progress but still cannot meet the requirements of rapid and sustainable development of the city's tourism industry.

+ The city's tourism labor force has uneven cultural and professional qualifications, limited in many aspects, especially in foreign languages and high technical expertise, the rate of laborers proficient in foreign languages is still low; there is a large difference in the quality of the tourism labor force in enterprises of different economic sectors and in different professional fields, the difference is not only reflected in the trained expertise but also in awareness and working attitude.

+ The distribution of tourism labor is uneven in the city. Tourism labor is mainly concentrated in the city, accounting for 57.62%, the remaining 42.38% is located outside the city.

+ There is not yet high stability in the workforce directly serving tourism. The rate of workers moving from one tourism enterprise to another or moving out of the industry tends to increase.

+ The quality of human resources in the tourism industry has not met the development requirements: workers have not been fully equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge for the jobs they undertake. Lack of additional skills related to serving tourists such as knowledge of tourists' psychology, communication skills, foreign languages, and the ability to handle situations.

+ Production and business activities in the industry are mostly organized by private enterprises and small and medium-sized business households, without foreign investment, and are not very efficient, leading to low wages for workers, thus not attracting workers with high technical and professional qualifications.

+ Management staff, especially senior management staff of many enterprises do not meet the standards, lack knowledge of tourism management, and lack professionalism. Enterprise management is mainly based on experience, solving problems on a case-by-case basis, lacking strategic vision. Many enterprises have not applied modern labor management methods, have not clearly defined the authority and tasks of each individual in each job position, work standards have not been established, subordinate employees lack initiative, creativity and confidence, and the qualities of employees have not been fully developed. This is the main reason why enterprises have not yet established quality standards or are not capable of maintaining the proposed service quality.

Second, training and fostering work still has many shortcomings. The need for training and fostering human resources in the tourism industry is very large, but the system of tourism training facilities has not yet met social needs.

+ The technical facilities of training facilities for human resources in the tourism industry still lack practice facilities - one of the important facilities for practicing necessary skills.

+ The teaching staff of schools and training facilities is still small; the quality of the teaching staff and teachers is uneven, and teaching methods still rely heavily on rote teaching methods, focusing on theory and lacking in practice.

+ There is still a large gap between the knowledge that training facilities provide to learners and the requirements of jobs at tourism businesses. Most businesses still have to retrain their employees before putting them into use.

+ The crisis of lack of good management workers, workers with professional expertise and high skills (tour guides, marketing staff, conference and entertainment service staff, chefs, bartenders, etc.) is a common concern of many tourism enterprises. Many newly established enterprises have difficulty in selecting directors and heads of other departments. The highest labor shortage in the hotel business sector is: Directors, general directors, supervisors, skilled workers, with professional qualifications and foreign language proficiency. For the group of workers who do not need training or semi-skilled workers, the shortage is not large and

easy to solve. That leads to the situation of transferring labor around between enterprises, no new factors appear. Therefore, service quality is difficult to improve.

Third, although attention has been paid to the management of human resources development in the tourism industry, there are still many limitations and shortcomings.

+ The State management apparatus for human resource development in the tourism industry is not strong enough at both the central and local levels. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism carries out management and human resource development activities, on the basis of inspecting and supervising the operations of tourism enterprises based on relevant legal documents. Due to the merger, the specialized department for human resource development in the tourism industry faces many difficulties.

+ The staff working in human resource development management in the tourism industry is very small, mainly working part-time, with limited capacity, so management efficiency and effectiveness are low.

+ There is a general orientation for training and fostering human resources in the tourism industry, but there is no specific orientation yet, so training and fostering facilities for human resources in the tourism industry operate spontaneously and have not been regularly inspected and rectified.

+ Lack of specific guidance documents from the State management agency on education and training and from the tourism industry for training and fostering human resources in the tourism industry; guidance documents on training and fostering policies for human resources in the tourism industry have not been issued in a timely manner and have not been well implemented.

+ There is overlap in the management of management entities for human resource development training activities. The state management entities for training and human resource development activities in the tourism industry include many ministries, branches, and localities under the assignment and decentralization of the government. Each training facility is affected by many agencies directly related to state management.

+ The role of local authorities at all levels has not been promoted; the development of human resources is mainly left to tourism businesses, while most tourism businesses do not have a strategy for developing human resources for themselves, both in the long and short term.

2.3.2.2 Causes

The development of Hanoi's tourism human resources is still limited due to the following main reasons:

Firstly , the city's tourism industry has grown too quickly, with a growth rate of 19.64%/year, causing the necessary factors for this growth to not keep up and not meet. The tourism industry's human resources require certain conditions and time to develop, so they have not kept up with the growth rate of the tourism industry.

The rapid growth also causes the demand for human resources in the tourism industry to increase. In addition, due to the rapid development in the number of tourism service establishments and the rapid increase in the number of tourists in many areas and tourist destinations, a large number of workers are required. Because the demand for human resources is greater than the supply, tourism enterprises are forced to use low-quality, untrained labor sources. These are the main reasons for the low and uneven quality of human resources in the tourism industry.

Second, training and development work has not met the requirements of society: There is a large gap between the scale, structure, and quality of training and the labor needs of tourism enterprises. Training programs at training facilities and universities are quite outdated, training is heavily theoretical, and innovation is quite slow due to lack of facilities and training funding.

The parties involved in training have not found a common voice and have not yet promoted their roles. Training is entrusted to training institutions, which are facing many limitations in capacity and ability to train tourism professionals.

Third, the state management work for human resource development in the tourism industry still has many shortcomings, the force is thin, there is a lack of specialized departments for human resource development in the tourism industry; strategies and policies for human resource development in the tourism industry have not been developed.

Fourth, many tourism enterprises do not have a human resource development strategy, and standards in the tourism industry are slow to be issued. Many enterprises do not have a team of human resource directors.

High professionalism in enterprises, not yet established work standards, not properly implemented the selection process, training and fostering human resources, not paying attention to properly resolving the relationship between using and fostering labor.

Fifth , there is a lack of appropriate policies to mobilize funding sources and a lack of close coordination among relevant partners to develop human resources in the tourism industry.

Sixth, the role of associations and professional organizations is not high in training and developing human resources in the tourism industry.

2.3.3 Urgent issues that need to be solved to develop human resources in the tourism industry in Hanoi

 Weaknesses

- Awareness of all levels and sectors about the position and role of the tourism industry in the overall economy is still inadequate. Even in the tourism industry, the role of human resources in tourism development is not highly appreciated. Enterprises and workers are not aware of tourism training and development.

- Lack of a general strategy for developing human resources for socio-economic development and for the development of the tourism industry. The issue of developing human resources is rarely mentioned or mentioned very vaguely in development plans and projects.

- There are no specific policies for developing human resources in the tourism industry for the city, from training, recruitment and development policies to policies for attracting and using tourism workers, so it has not attracted many workers with high professional expertise, management qualifications and good skills.

- The management apparatus, system of policies and tools have not really played their role in the development of human resources in the tourism industry; training facilities are small in scale, have low training capacity and low training quality.

- Production and business services activities in the industry are mostly organized by private enterprises and small and medium-sized business households. Their operations are not very efficient, leading to low wages for workers, thus failing to attract workers with high technical and professional qualifications.

 Challenges

- Although there is a tourism development orientation for the city, there is still a lack of orientation for developing human resources in the tourism industry. The projects and plans for tourism development for the city only stop at general orientations, lacking applicable conditions.

- State management of human resource development in the tourism industry in Hanoi still has many shortcomings and cannot be overcome in the near future, significantly affecting the development of human resource development in the tourism industry.

- The scale and quality of human resource training in the tourism industry have not met development requirements.

- The role of tourism enterprises and tourism associations has not been promoted, most enterprises remain on the sidelines, do not participate in the human resource training process, and many enterprises do not even have their own human resource development strategy.

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