This new web-based tool will help managers in all hospitality settings achieve the best possible staffing mix, especially in seasonal operations.

"The goal of this optimizer is to help managers find the mix of different types of employees that will give the best possible service at the least possible cost, including providing guidance about when, who, and how many people to hire," said Thompson, a professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.

"In developing this tool, I particularly addressed the challenges faced by managers of steeply seasonal operations, where the mix of full- and part-time employees makes it especially hard to optimize staffing levels."

The tool works as follows: managers specify the number of full-time-equivalent employees needed to meet forecast customer demand. Then the user inputs such information as employee types (usually full- and part-time or contract workers), productivity, attrition rates, and hiring and termination costs.

The optimizer then allows the user to create, evaluate, and save different scenarios of various employee mixes. The tool even includes a sample scenario so that users can see how the optimizer works without entering data.

The interactive tool, "Workforce Staffing Optimizer," developed by Gary Thompson, is available at no charge on the center's website, http://hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/tools