Effect of Employees’ Work Experience on Performance within Hotel Industry: A Case of Amber Hotel, Kenya.

A Research Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of prior work experience on employees at Amber Hotel. The research questions that guided the study are; what is the effect of employee work experience on efficiency and effectiveness? What is the effect of employee work experience on quality of products and services? What is the effect of employee work experience on job performance? And what is the effect of employee work experience on employee’s turnover? The research design adopted in the study was descriptive design. Further, the study population were 125 Amber Hotel employees from different departments who were selected using stratified sampling design. The final sample selected using this design were 76 employees who were to take part in the study. However, only 64 out of 76 questions were fully filled valid. The questions were prepared using questionnaire data collection techniques. Further, the fully filled information was gathered and analysed using the SPSS statistical tool. The findings from the study were further presented in the form of frequency tables and figures using percentages, mean, standard deviations and correlation analysis. The study investigated the effect of work experience on effectiveness and efficiency. From the study, The employee work experience was found to enhance the ability to create organisational which relies upon the ability of the organisation to acquire experienced employees who not only ensure efficiency in the processes but also ensure that they are effective in what they do at Amber Hotel. It was recommended that the management at Amber Hotel hire employees that are more experienced. Such employees are important in the organisation as they are motivated and are familiar with the tasks assigned. As such, it would be advised that amber hotels hire experienced employees. This would ensure that the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation is enhanced. The study also investigated the effect of work experience on quality of products and services. Further, hiring experienced employees helps improve the quality of services and products because they already know the desired results and ways in which to achieve the desired results which uses the learnt knowledge and skills in delivering quality services to the customers. In enhancing the quality of products and services as a result of work experience, Amber hotels management should help employees in realizing their skills learnt so that they can use them in the production process in the organisation. This is important because employee using the prior work experience feel it simple to perform the current tasks assigned without any problems, but they would also require being encouraged to use the prior experience in the present tasks. In addition, the study investigated the effect of work experience on job performance. There was to a great extent which experienced employees have internalised values, beliefs as well as job expectations and allows employees to efficiently perform their tasks without repeats or errors. Amber hotels management should coach its employees the importance of using work experience in performing their tasks. This is important because employee using the prior work experience feel it simple to perform the current tasks assigned without any problems, creating not only job satisfaction but also enhanced performance. Finally, the study established the effect of work experience on turn over. Employees had mixed reactions to the study questions relating to employees work experience. However, it disagreed that employees with lower levels of experience have the perception that they cannot be able to perform challenging tasks and thus would leave the organisation to look for satisfactory alternatives and employee experience is the one that creates job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Therefore, Amber hotel management should identify the areas of employees’ dissatisfaction, which would make them leave the organisation even with the high experience that they have. As such, this would make these experienced employees continue staying in the organisation