Employee turnover remains as one of the most challenging issues for hospitality industry, worldwide. Consequences of employee turnover are related to financial implications including recruitment and training cost, talent attrition and decreased productivity (Loi et al., 2006). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics report (2015) the total separations, or employee turnover in hospitality and tourism industry was at 6.3% in April 2015, which rose from 5.7% in May 2014. These include voluntary turnover, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. In India, employee turnover rate in four star and higher category hotels was between 11 and 12 % in 2011 (Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, 2012). Ministry of Tourism (2012) report predicted the total employment in hotels to increase up to 7,600,000 by March, 2022. Subsequently, the manpower demand – supply gap in hospitality sector has arisen owing to lack of adequate training infrastructure, substantial growth in number of hotels and significant employee turnover rate. Considering the prompt developments in India’s hospitality industry and the growing demand for skilled employee, it is vital for the hotel employers to apprehend the employee’s perceptions and concerns about organizational practices (Mohsin et al., 2013). Employee turnover intention acts as a proxy for actual employee turnover, it is significant especially for labor-intensive industries to invest in proactive measures of employee retention rather than performing post-hoc check on employee turnover rates.

Frontline employees’ are the face of service industry and their direct interaction with customers contribute immensely to determine the competitive advantage of the business. In hospitality industry, employee turnover is high across non-managerial jobs (Poulston, 2008). Hotel industry is the largest employer in tourism; on the other hand the high employee mobility or turnover rate experienced within the industry is a common problem, worldwide (Collins, 2007; Solnet and Hood, 2008). Budhwar and Debrah (2004) indicated that there has been a remarkable development in human resource management orientation and research but little has been written about challenges and perspectives of developing economies. Especially, human resource management challenges in service industries like hospitality industry is unique with diverse workforce and dominant requirement of non-technical skill base. Therefore, there is a dearth for systemic studies examining the human resource practices in the hospitality industry, despite of the high employee turnover in the industry.