COVID-19, HR strategies, hoteliers, business sustainability, Ghana

The main objective underlying the study is to assess human resource strategies adopted by hoteliers in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic period and their sustainability.   The target population of the study was 725 and this comprises of 471 and 254 hotels from Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, respectively.  Using Guilford and Fruchter (1973) formula, a total sample size of 371 representing both regions was used for the study.  The study shows that employees’ lay off is considered as the main Human Resource (HR) strategy hoteliers in Ghana adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic period to salvage their businesses in terms of meeting employees wage bill though there were other HR strategies that could have been adopted.  Among other HR strategies include operationalizing established pandemic fund, reducing employees working hours, temporary converting employees’ full-time jobs to part time and re-training employees to use alternative means of doing business.

The study revealed that, the lack of interest for majority of hoteliers to pursue other HR strategies other than laying off their employees, was due to the absence of policies developed by the central government to support the implementation of the other HR strategies as pertains in countries such as Japan, Australia, Ireland, Canada, United States of America and France.  

The originality of the study was based on the novel nature of the COVID-19 and the fact that, research has not been conducted on how hoteliers in Ghana are surviving through the use of HR strategies to salvage their businesses.  The main limitation of the study was based on restrictive selection of only hotels in Ghana for the study though, there are different segments such as food and beverage, travel and tourism and recreation that completes the hospitality industry in Ghana.

Adu-Ampong, E. A. (2019). Historical trajectories of tourism development policies and planning in Ghana, 1957–2017. Tourism Planning and Development, 16(2), 124-141.

Agyeman, A. A., Laar, A., & Ofori‐Asenso, R. (2020). Will COVID‐19 be a litmus test for post‐Ebola Sub‐Saharan Africa?. Journal of Medical Virology.

Asiamah, V. K. (2018). Factors that influence labour turnover intentions in the hospitality industry in Ghana. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 7(1).

Barua, S. (2020). Understanding Coronanomics: The economic implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (No. 99693). University Library of Munich, Germany.

Davidson, P.K (2016).  Early retirement as strategy during pandemics, African Journal of Business and Management Research, 8(5)

Dewitt, S. (2017). Effects of pandemics on businesses: Europe perspective, Journal of Management Research, 2(3)

Forbes (2014). What Ebola means for businesses https://www.forbes.com/sites/riskmap/2014/08/ Accessed February 2020

Guildford, J.P. & Fruchter, B. (1973). Fundamental statistics in Psychology and Education, New York, McGraw-Hill

Investor’s Business Daily (2020). Dow Jones Today, Stocks Drop: Fed Stimulus; New York, California Lockdown; NYSE Floor Closes

Jamil, Z., Waheed, Y., & Durrani, T. Z. (2016). Zika virus, a pathway to new challenges. Asian Pacific journal of tropical medicine, 9(7), 626-629.

Jones, P. (Ed.). (2002). Introduction to hospitality operations: An indispensable guide to the industry. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Koh, D. (2020). Occupational risks for COVID-19 infection. Occupational Medicine (Oxford, England), 70(1), 3.

Kongoley-MIH, P. S. (2015). The Impact of Ebola on the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Sierra Leone. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(12), 542-550.

Mensah-Ansah, J. (2011). Small tourism accommodation businesses in Ghana: A barrier to strategic tourism development? (Doctoral dissertation, Sheffield Hallam University,).

Mensah-Ansah, et al (2014). Tourism trends in Ghana: The accommodation sector. Tourism Analysis, 16(2), 157-168.

Naktiyok, A. & Halis, M. (2002). Organizational Downsizing: Investigating Effects on Survivors, Proceedings of International Science Conference in Modern Societies, OSH State University, June 17-18, OSH, 104-115

Novak, P. (2020). Hospitality Net: Four segments of the hospitality industry, Accessed January 2020

Ottenbacher, M., Gnoth, J., & Jones, P. (2009). Identifying determinants of success in development of new high‐contact services. International Journal of Service Industry Management.

OCED (2020), Supporting people and companies to deal with the COVID-19 virus: Options for an immediate employment and social-policy response, Accessed 30 March 2020

Partington, S. N. (2016). Hospitality employment. The routledge handbook of hospitality studies, 207.

Preko, A. K. (2020). The impact of tour services on international tourist satisfaction in Elmina, Ghana. International Journal of Tourism Cities.

Roughan, G. (2020). Government support for businesses by country, Unleashed,

 https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/blog/COVID-19 Accessed April 2020

Sarkodie, N. A.,& Adom, K. (2015). Bridging the gap between hospitality/tourism education and hospitality/tourism industry in Ghana. International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies, 2(7), 114-120.

Shuaib et al (2014). Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak—Nigeria, July–September 2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 63 (39): 867–872

Shultz et al (1999). The Influence of Push and Pull Factors on Vocabulary and Involuntary Early Retirees' Retirement Decision and Adjustment, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 5(3)

Sirajudeen, M. S. (2020). Physical Therapy Management for Child with Generalized Joint Hypermobility. Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences, 8(1), 113-119.

Thunstrom et al (2020). The benefits and costs of flattening the curve for COVID-19. Available at SSRN 35619945.

Voykto, L. (2020). Coronavirus layoffs: Boeing lay off 6,770 workers amid pandemic, Forbes, Accessed April 2020

World Health Organization (2018). Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). Accessed on February 15th, 2020

Zehir, C., & Savi, F. Z. (2004). A field research about implications of organizational downsizing on employees working for Turkish Public Banks, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 5(1): 343-349

Zeng, B., Carter, R. W., & De Lacy, T. (2005). Short-term perturbations and tourism effects: The case of SARS in China. Current Issues in Tourism, 8(4), 306-322.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/business/economy. Accessed on the 16 April 2020