Today, retaining a good team of employees is a top priority in all types of food service operations. Given the current shortage of hospitality workers worldwide and the continuous boom and growth, no longer is the message "you should feel lucky to have a job, ok", ever an option.
Executives are quick to point out that there is a price to pay for each employee that exits. Loosing one member of a team can destroy morale and customer service efficiency, for example. Building a new relationship, whether with a new staff or management member, takes time. Losses are both in relation to human impact, and of course finance - It costs to recruit again, re-train and spend time introducing a new member of staff. Then there is that period of time when the vacancy is left open and everyone has to work to back-fill.
To assist in reducing losses, managers are currently focussing on two thoughts: what can I do for employees? – (What can we do to make the work place rewarding and help employees really understand it and integrate?). Secondly, what can I do for employees? – such as enhancing their role, position and most importantly, work satisfaction.
Setting up the systems and internal culture that support success have become paramount. People want to come to work and do a good job. Employees need the equipment, training, communication channels, support and means to make a difference. Staff prioritises are often different to each others, not always as you would perceive and frequently unrelated to finance. The importance of internal relations and shared experiences is coming to the forefront of operations management. For example, rivalry and rifts between staff are notorious, sometimes humours and a light banter, however, at other times they are fuelled with miscommunication and heated disarray.
Each member of staff has a vital role in a department, that is interdependent with another department. More frequently than not, the success of the hotel relies heavily on each team operating to it's maximum potential and the staff being recognised for doing so. Staff teams make a difference even if it is not always visible. Giving feedback from guests and having on going recognition tactics assist and encourage the building of successful teams that will stay and work.
Exit interviews – The reasons people leave can give a good indication of the weaknesses in the business. Exit interviews, either conducted orally or written, give a clear indication why a member of staff is moving on. If there is an offer of a life time (opportunities overseas, for example) then leaving is accepted. However, honest information can legitimately expose better employment offer elsewhere (a good time to evaluate whether a member of staff has been over looked in terms of ability, conditions request or pay scale). Noted to date that the most frequent reason an employee will move on, if unhappy, is because they feel the need to work somewhere where they are listened to.
SpotLight is the weekly column exclusively written for 4Hoteliers.com by Sarah Muxlow, it is highlighting the challenges and issues which the global hospitality is facing today.
Sarah is writing for hotel and restaurant owners, hotel chain managers, producers/growers/sellers of food & beverage, restaurant associations, governing bodies and hotel schools. She is looking at the problems they face...competition, trends of branding, staff shortages, unskilled staff, turning out students who are looking for good in-house management training schemes with hotel chains, what makes a good quality training course at a hotel school and more...
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