The Impact of Covid-19 On Job Security in The Nigeria Hotel Sector

This research is a post-COVID-19 pandemic study that centers around job security in the Nigerian hotel organizations. The substantial threat faced by businesses around the world in the wake of COVID-19 disease outbreak cannot be overemphasized and to a greater extent hotel businesses and employees have been affected due various changes that occurred in the immediate environment of these organizations. With a 42 percent reduction in the global workforce reported during the height of the pandemic and taking into consideration the renowned high employee turnover rate in the hotel industry, as well as how these factors can contribute to job insecurity level, this research set out to investigate the impact COVID-19 has had on the employees’ job security in Nigerian hotels. To achieve this, a positivist research philosophy was adopted and a quantitative research methodology which enables cross-sectional survey study to be conducted was followed. The study, which was conducted in the selected locality of Surulere LGA, Lagos State Metropolis, Nigeria involved employees who were working in different hotels in this region and were administered with survey instrument (α=0.873) which was adapted from other studies. 120 questionnaires were administered to employees who were classified as frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic and are still in employment after the pandemic. Of the 120 questionnaires administered to respondents, 87 were successfully collected giving overall valid response rate of 72.5 percent). In term of age distribution, respondents aged between 20 to 24, 25 to 29 and 30 and above accounted for 13.8 percent, 43.7 percent and 42.5 percent in that order. Most of the respondents engaged in the survey are skilled workers as 70.1 percent possessed a degree certificate or higher. It was found out that COVID-19 pandemic contributed to heightened level of perceived job insecurity as well as induce a significant stress level in the majority of employees surveyed and hence enabling the assertion that job security level in the Nigerian hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic was low While there was heightened level of COVID-19 induced stress level in employees. Sets of regression analysis were carried out to access the impact of job insecurity level, COVID-19 induced stress level as well as job satisfaction level on the employee job performance level during the pandemic as well as the impact of job insecurity level on employee loyalty. The first regression analysis was statistically significant, and the model classified 56 percent of the variance (R2 =.560, F (3, 79) =7.836, P˂0.01). Job insecurity (β= .788, t= 3.391, p˂0.05) and COVID-19 induced stress level (CID) (β= .729, t= 2.734, p˂0.05) were found to have significant impact on job performance and organization support was found to significantly (p˂0.05) moderate between these predictors and the outcome variable. Furthermore, in another regression analysis ((R2 =.406, F (3, 79) =10.071, P˂0.01) which classified 40.6 percent of the variance in employee loyalty, job insecurity (β=1.108, t= 4.894, p˂0.05) was found to have significant impact on hotel employees’ loyalty to their organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Support policies inform of honest relationship (β= -.539, t= -4.694, p˂0.01) management maintained with employees during COVID-19 was found to significantly moderate between job insecurity and employees’ loyalty. Based on all the findings made, the theoretical and practical implications of the study were also established along with recommendations for future studies