GOLD STARS FOR IRISH HOTELS

IHF announces 2020 Quality Employer award winners

Nine hotels across the country were recognised for excellence in human resource management last night at the Irish Hotels Federation’s national Quality Employers Awards 2020.

Awards were made in four categories, according to the size of the property, with hotels from Dublin, Cork, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick and Waterford taking the honours.  

Cork Airport Hotel, meanwhile, received the award of Distinction in Human Resource Management, which was open to hotels that had won category awards in previous years.  

The category winners were:

Large                                 Clayton Hotel Cardiff Lane, Dublin 2

Large                                   Limerick Strand Hotel

Intermediate                      Castlemartyr Resort, Co Cork

Intermediate                      Talbot Hotel Wexford

Medium                              Hayfield Manor, Co Cork

Medium                              Glenroyal Hotel & Leisure Club, Co Kildare

Small                                   Cliff House Hotel, Waterford

Small                                  Lough Rynn Castle Estate & Gardens, Co Leitrim

Chairman of the independent judging panel, Dr Tony Lenehan paid tribute to the category winning hotels on the excellent human resource practices and innovative employer initiatives within these hotels—across all grades, sizes and locations.

“The judging committee was of the opinion that these winners demonstrated continuous improvement and progression in people management and development and provide quality employment practices and opportunities for their employees. The priority given to innovation, employee benefits and welfare, career progression and development was very evident across all the submissions."

“The hotel sector has made huge progress in recent years and the successful and progressive hotels within the sector are now applying best practise employment standards that were previously only linked to the technology and manufacturing sectors in Ireland,” he said.

Congratulating the winners, Michael Lennon, IHF President, who presented the awards, said: “Irish hotels have a well-earned reputation for excellence as employers and are committed to best practice employment standards in looking after their employees.

Over 60,000 people are employed in the sector right across the country in a diverse and inclusive range of roles from entry level to highly skilled employment that provides great opportunities for advancement.

Acknowledging the considerable progress made in recent years, he said that hotels are focused on investing in their staff. “Our members are providing a wide range of training and education programmes and developing structured career paths for new and existing employees across all areas of their business that support professional development and advancement with skills that are transferrable internationally,” he said.

Tourism sector at a glance

• 10.9 million out of state visitors
• Tourism accounts for almost 4% of GNP
• Total tourism revenue of €9.2 billion in 2019
• Tourism industry has created over 90,000 new jobs since 2011. It now supports over 260,000 jobs, equivalent to 11% of total employment in Ireland with over 60,000 of these jobs in the hotel sector alone.
• €7.25 billion in foreign exchange earnings
• €1.96 billion in domestic tourism revenue in 2019
• Total of 62,897 hotel and guesthouse bedrooms in Ireland (2019)