Faculty & Research
The Job Compatibility Index: A New Approach to Defining the Hospitality Labor Market
Vol 9 No 1
By: Bill Carroll Ph.D. and Michael C. Sturman Ph.D.
Executive Summary: Both employers and employees usually look within the confines of their own industry when they are thinking about filling or taking a job. When the labor market is tight, however, hotel operators might be better off if they could consider workers from other industries who have skills that would fit them for hotel jobs. By the same token, when the job opportunities are rare, job seekers can look outside of their current industry for positions that match their skill set. (This would include unemployed hospitality workers, who could seek compatible jobs in other industries.) Because existing sources that give listings of comparable jobs do not explain how or why they match up various jobs, it makes sense to use a human-capital approach to comparing jobs. This means analyzing and matching the individual skills, knowledge, and abilities needed for each position. The Job Compatibility Index presented here provides a method for comparing jobs based on their component skills. The index compiles the compatibility score and importance rating of each of 35 skills for the job in question. To arrive at a single index score, the compatibility of each skill is weighted by its importance. By adding up the resulting scores one can see how a seemingly unrelated job is in fact a potential source of hospitality employees. Taking the example of a hotel front-desk clerk, the index identifies nine jobs that involve most of the same skills, only three of them in the hospitality industry, expanding the reach of the potential labor pool by ten-fold. Non-hospitality jobs that require skills similar to the front-desk job including personal and home-care aides, nursery workers, and life guards. Thus, the JCI identifies opportunities for both employers and workers.
Research made possible by a grant from job.travel, a senior partner of the Center for Hospitality Research.
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- The Job Compatibility Index: A New Approach to Defining the Hospitality Labor Market By: Bill Carroll Ph.D. and Michael C. Sturman Ph.D.
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About Bill Carroll Ph.D.
Bill Carroll is a senior lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration. He teaches courses in economics, yield management, pricing and marketing distribution. He is also CEO of Marketing Economics, a consulting firm specializing in travel industry pricing, distribution, yield management and strategic planning. For over 25 years Carroll held a variety of senior positions in the travel industry. He was division vice president for Global Marketing Planning at Hertz, where he was responsible for global pricing, yield management, marketing information systems, and counter sales. He implemented the first decentralized yield management system in the car rental industry and a comprehensive Executive Information System that gained national recognition. Carroll later served as the global vice president for Reed Elsevier’s Travel Group, overseeing Travel Weekly, the Hotel and Travel Index, the Official Hotel Guide, and the Official Meetings and Facilities Guide. As CEO of Marketing Economics, Carroll works with clients across the travel industry including global distribution systems, hotel service companies and travel intermediaries. He also works closely with PhoCusWright, Inc. a travel industry research, consulting and publishing company. In collaboration with PhoCusWright, Carroll writes often on the evolution of hotel distribution and its impact on major chains and intermediaries. He has also written numerous articles on economics and travel industry topics. Prior to his work in the travel industry, Carroll was an assistant professor of Economics at Drew University. He also served as a member of the economics staff at AT where he was an expert witness before state regulatory bodies and prepared filings on pricing and forecasting with the Federal Communications Commission. In addition to his business and academic career, Carroll is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and was a university lacrosse coach for over 10 years. Carroll holds a B.A. degree in economics from Rutgers, an M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in economics from Penn State.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=149
About Michael C. Sturman Ph.D.
Michael C. Sturman teaches undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses on human resource management, compensation and cost-benefit analysis. His research focuses on the prediction of individual job performance over time, the influence of compensation systems, and the impact of human resource management on organizational performance. He has published research articles in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Management. He has also published practitioner papers in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Lodging Magazine, Lodging HR, A.A.H.O.A. Hospitality, HR.Com, and The American Compensation Association Journal. Sturman is the Kenneth and Marjorie Blanchard Professor of Human Resources. He holds a PhD, MS, and BS from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and is a Senior Professional of Human Resources as certified by the Society for Human Resource Management.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=96
