How Can Hoteliers Strengthen Their Staff With Effective Management Tools?
Hoteliers can improve the efficiency and management of their staff multi-folds by using employee efficiency and management tools in the right way.
Whenever someone put a foot in the foyer of a luxurious hotel, then immediately they will be treated as a royal personality and all their wishes become command for the hotel staff. From the grand lobbies to majestic rooms, everything in the hotels is larger than life. It just feels like guests are floating in the dreamland where every member of the staff is putting 100% of their efforts to make your stay memorable with them.
But, no one here pay attention on the hard work and efforts put by the Hoteliers in making their business so grand and highly functional. Hospital industry is one of the challenging industry which works round the clock. It is very hard hotel employees to create the perfect ambience for their guests.
Structure of Hotel from Other Side
If anyone put on the goggles of a hotel business owner, then they will see an exotic hotel into a new light where micromanaging every last detail is the most crucial point. Running a hotel is similar to a corporate organization where everything is divided into different departments and sub-departments which are managed by separate floor managers and general managers.
Mainly, the departmental structure of a hotel depends upon its size. But, if we talk about a multifunctional five or seven-star hotel, then the operation of the entire hotel is broadly divided into following departments -
1. Housekeeping Department - This department has responsibility for managing the rooms for the stay of guests and clean the public areas of the hotel. The role of the housekeeping department is very important to keep the hotel flawless and offer luxurious rooms to the guests.
2. Front Desk - The front office has the responsibility to welcome the guests into the hotel and make sure that their rooms are ready. This office makes sure that the stay of the guests at the hotel remains peaceful and they are 24*7 address issues of the guests and serve them.
3. Kitchen Department - This department is the heart of the hotel where all the delicious meals are prepared to pamper the guests. Here, food is prepared as per the liking and wish of the guests, day and night. The kitchen department can be further subdivided into different departments like food and beverages, purchase department, human resource, room service and much more.
4. Sales Department - It is the department where all the marketing and sales-related strategies are formulated. This department is responsible for generating new business for the hotel and handles the marketing plan for the following year as well. It is mainly handled by hotel owners themselves along with their team of advisors.
5. Miscellaneous Departments - Apart from these four prominent departments, in some hotels following departments are also present - personal and human resource department, account and finance department, security team, purchase department, and many others.
Challenge for Hotels - Collaboration of Different Departments
A hotel works like an orchestra band where every musical instrument needs to work in the perfect symphony so that a beautiful melody can be created. Hotels need to strengthen their different departments in a way that they can efficiently work together. It is because one department can not work without the output from another department.
Like, it is the responsibility of the front desk to inform the housekeeping staff about the arrival of new guests and their special requirements so that they can prepare their rooms on time. If the front desk won't deliver information on time to the housekeeping department, then they won't be able to ready the rooms before the arrival of their guests.
But, it is easier to say than done when thousands of different departmental employees working in the hotel plus shifts of teams change in every eight hours. In this, it becomes a big challenge for hotel owners to put their different departments in sync. It is a difficult task, but technology has made it somehow simple.
How?
Well, if you get a customized employee efficiency app for your hotel and install it on each employee phone, then the problem of collaboration can be fixed easily. Now, don't scratch your head hoteliers because you guys can make your workflow lot smoother and effective by using mobile apps. Such as -
Easy to Maintain Record of Employees
When there are different departments are working on the parallel line, then it is very difficult for departmental managers to keep attendance and performance records of their employees. Moreover, the work of the housekeeping department is scattered on different floors and parts of the hotel which makes it difficult for managers to ensure when an employee has started and ended his shift.
But, if you have installed an employee efficiency app on your employee's mobile phone, then they can punch in and out their attendance from their phone. And, the concerned department's manager will get the geotagged attendance of their employees. This app even has fingerprint authentication along with the shift management system which is very useful for hotels.
Fix Responsibility of Employees
In large teams, it becomes very difficult for managers to fix the responsibility of managers in case anything goes. Like, if a hotel has 300 rooms, then how can they fix the responsibility of housekeeping staff if anything mishap occurs in any of the rooms.
However, with the tracking app designed by TrackOlap, managers can easily fix the responsibility of their employees. When a member of staff enters a room, then he or she will punch that in their mobile. This way manager knows this employee is working in a particular room so if anything happens, then it is the responsibility of that employee. Moreover, after cleaning the room, the employee can take a picture of the room and along with geotagging send it to the manager to ensure that everything is fine. Plus, if managers want to restrict employees from certain parts of the hotel, then they can set geo-restrictions as well.
Praise of the Team
The employer needs to praise and reward the efficient team so that they can encourage other teams to work hard as well. When managers get real-time feedback of their every staff member with their comprehensive performance report in Excel format at the end of the day, then they can easily praise the employees who have done an exceptional job and all reward them. This will encourage the employee to work even harder and get more praise from the seniors.
Effective Staff Management
Hotel employees are the backbone of the organization, even if one employee takes a break for a day - an entire workflow relapse. So, managers need to keep record leaves of every employee. With the single screen platform, leave management has become a very efficient process. As an employee can apply for leave from mobile app and managers can easily deny or accept leave requests and can even assign duties of an employee on leave to another employee so that workflow won't collapse. Moreover, it helps maintain leaves record as well.
Task Allotment
Department managers can allow duties to their employees through the app and send them timely reminders as well. They can even broadcast task to the entire team or send to a particular employee via chat. Such as the front desk can send the details of daily guests to check-ins along with the special requirements for the rooms to the housekeeping team and ensure that rooms are ready before the arrival of guests at all that from one simple tool.
Guests Feedback
Hotels must ensure that their guests are fully satisfied with the services and hospitality of their staff. For this, managers can create custom feedback forms with quick options that they can ask employees to fill and get guest's digital signature on the app. This geotagged form will inform hotel management of how much their guests are satisfied with their employee's services. If management finds any of the employee's services not up to the mark, then they can send them tickets to improve their services.
Smooth Flow of Communication
When we are talking about the hotel of 50 floors where hundreds of rooms, a handful of restaurants, pools and other facilities are involved, then it is a tedious task to freely communicate. But, when one to one chat, group broadcast, geotagging to pictures and text is possible through an employee efficiency app, then communication between departmental and inter departments become very smooth. Plus, managers can monitor the communication flowing among their employees to keep an eye on them.
Instant Alerts
Managers can send constant alerts to their team in case of any emergency. With the mobile push notifications, the department head can easily track down the nearest employee and allot duty them to ensure that the requirements of their guests are catered immediately. For swift services, different departments can instantly send alerts to each other.
Conclusion
With the help of employee efficiency tools, hoteliers can strengthen their every department and establish coordination between them. The custom apps ensure that workflow in the hotel stays smooth and brings efficiency, ease, and productivity in the departments. If you are part of the hospitality industry and make sure that your business floats on the higher bars, then you can design the customized employee efficiency and management tool for yourself today from TrackOlap.