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Abstract
Due to the continuous growth of the hotel industry, Canada's highest employment rate since the 1980s boom, an aging labour pool, and shortages in talent across a range of key economic sectors, hotel organisations could face strong competition from other industries for skilled labour. In light of these potential labour shortages, persons with disabilities could represent an important under-utilised labour source for hotel organisations if the latter provide appropriate accommodating measurements and supporting human resources policies and programmes. This case study provides a snapshot of current human resource practices affecting the employment of persons with disabilities within a small number of Toronto hotels. The complexity of defining people with disabilities, the limitations of Canada's legal framework and the limited awareness, understanding, and communication between persons without a disability and people with a disability within the case study organisations seems to enforce a reactive approach. Changes and shifts in areas such as communication, awareness, and education might lead the participating hotel organisations to proactively recruit and integrate a highly motivated and committed group of employees. Despite the inability to generalize the findings across and to be representative of Canada's hotel industry, this study could be seen as a starting point for further research in the exploration of human resource practices and challenges affecting the employment of persons with disabilities in hotel organisations in Toronto and across Canada.
