Strategic Human Resource Planning The Case Study of Intercontinental Hotel and Resorts and the Laying-Off Of Workers during Covid-19

ABSTRACT Covid-19 has adversely affected business operation of many businesses and institution all over Lusaka and Zambia as a whole. Because of this the Zambia economy has experienced slowdown in its economic activities due to lack of production and investment in the economy due to the impact of covid-19 which has affected a lot of international and local hotels companies in Zambia. According to Patrick and Wilson (2020) they have been a reduction in hospitality business in the country this is due to a reduction in the disposable income by consumers and global flight restrictions due to covid-19 in the last six months and this has negatively affected tourism which in turn has also affected hotels, lodges and casino businesses. As Ian and Lee (2020) noted that in order companies to protect themselves from financial distress, most hospitality companies have opted to reduce the numbers of workers by forced retirement and redundancy with the aim of protecting the business from closing down, and this has been the case with intercontinental hotels Lusaka Zambia. Research survey conducted by PWC (2020) indicated that 70% hospitality companies were partially closed while 25% of businesses were totally closed in Lusaka only and that only 5% reported to have maintained normal operations. The transport, catering, education, and accommodation sectors were also impacted by the covid-19 in Zambia. As the effects of COVID-19 spread across the entire world, the primary focus for human resource management is the safety of their people. Strategic human resource planning has help hotel industry to cope with the ever-changing landscape of traveler expectation and also good management of labor to avoid mishandling of labor related issues which can be a risk to the branding of the hotel chains (Davidson, 2015). Its cardinal that before going forward that we define some of these terms; According to Freddie (2014) defined Strategic human resource planning as an Integrating human resource management strategies and systems to achieve the overall mission, strategies, and success of the firm while meeting the needs of employees and other stakeholders. COVID-19 has been defined by World Health Organization (2020) as an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered strain of corona virus, a type of virus known to cause respiratory infections in humans. On the other hand Frankton and Michael (2020) supported and gave his view that, this new strain was unknown before December 2019, when an outbreak of a pneumonia of unidentified cause emerged in Wuhan, China on September 4, 2020. Key Words: Covid-19, Hospitality, Strategic Human ResourceBenjamin Musumal