Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Entrepreneurship (JoSTE) ISSN: 2714-6480, Vol 1, No 4, 2020, 279-291 https://doi.org/10.35912/joste.v1i4.403 © 2020. This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Innovative human resources management: key competencies expected from hospitality graduates in Ghana Vida Commey 1* , Desere Kokt 2 , Johan Hattingh 3 Central University of Technology, South Africa 1,2 vicom3000@gmail.com 1* , koktd@cut.ac.za 2 , jhatting@cut.ac.za 3 Article History Received on 30 November 2020 1 st Revision on 8 January 2021 2 nd Revision on 26 January 2021 Accepted on 31 January 2021 Abstract Purpose: The study aimed to determine the key competencies required from hospitality graduates from the hospitality industry perspective. Research methodology: The study adopted a qualitative research approach. Overall, 43 hotel managers in the Ghanaian hospitality industry were conveniently sampled. Data were collected using a structured survey questionnaire. The study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 23 to analysed data collected. Results: Results from the study indicate that the “key competencies” required from hospitality graduates from the industry perspective include good inter-personal skills, innovation and ability to think of new ways of doing things, ability to maintain professional standards, customer-oriented, critical thinking ability, self-motivation, friendly and approachable, good communication skills. Limitation: The study focused only on hospitality employers in Ghana; therefore, findings from the study cannot be generalised to other hospitality employers in different country. Contribution: The study emphasises the need for hospitality educational institutions in Ghana to assess the tourism and hospitality industry's competencies to produce graduates who will fit in the job market. Keywords: Attributes, Employers, Knowledge, Skills How to cite: Commey, V., Kokt, D., & Hattingh, J. (2020). Innovative human resources management: key competencies expected from hospitality graduates in Ghana. Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Entrepreneurship, 1(4), 279-291. 1. Introduction Over the past three decades, the tourism and hospitality industry gained significant attention among governments across the globe, policy makers and researchers. The nexus between the industry’s global essence lies between its contribution to socio-economic development and livelihood empowerment. The multidimensional nature of tourism and hospitality make the industry one the world’s largest and fastest growing industries. As major component of the tourism industry, the hospitality sector is one of the largest contributors of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the global economy (Turner and Freiermuth 2017). According to United Nation's World Tourism Organization (UNWTO 2014), tourism thrives when there is enhanced global mobility and increased surplus income to spend on unsought products and services. A major disruption in these two elements suggests a major decline in tourism and hospitality demands. The sharp disruption of the global economy by the Covid-19 means that, international mass mobility is truncated, income earning propensities of individual are declined, people's intrinsic desire to travel for