A hotel is only as powerful as its hotel staff. By successfully managing your employees, you can improve productivity and ensure consistent top-level service. As a manager, it should be your goal to inspire happy employees and a positive work environment because in doing so you will encourage your staff to excel and be the best brand ambassadors they can be.
In a client-centric industry such as the hospitality sector, you want to empower your staff to be the best employees possible. Some of the keys to managing your staff are delegating, communication, giving positive reinforcement and creating a sense of a team.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of building the perfect hotel team and some tips in order to do so. By implementing the right strategies hoteliers can ensure productivity and increase employee retention.
Building the perfect team of hotel staff
In the hospitality sector, your employees are the face of the brand. This industry is incredibly customer-driven, so making sure hotel clients are met with well-trained, experienced employees can be the difference between a three-star and a five-star rating, and can also be the difference between your hotel and the competition.
Plus, the better trained your staff, the more capable they are of handling situations with angry customers and of problem-solving to make sure complaints get turned around into positive experiences.
The importance of keeping hotel staff engaged
The best way to create the perfect team is to make sure employees are engaged and satisfied. Happy employees will better represent your band and keep up your brand’s reputation. You can keep them happy by creating a positive working environment offering regular training, promotions and giving them rewards based on performance.
In an industry with a 73.8% staff turnover rate, it’s fundamental to keep your hotel staff motivated with this growth-minded environment. This way they are more likely to stick around to succeed within the company instead of going elsewhere. Furthermore, they will be better equipped to promote the business. Working together as a team they can upsell, drive revenue and promote guest retention.
Front desk staff who are happy at their job will be more likely to interact positively with clients and make sure they have the best experience possible. They will ask for feedback and inform clients of discounts if they book on site for a future trip. In the same way, knowledgeable hotel restaurant staff will be better able to understand the clients. If they are wine connoisseurs, they will upsell to a better wine, or if they are deciding between a vegetable entree or a steak, they can wisely and smoothly convince them to order the more expensive item.
How to manage your team of hotel staff efficiently
Managing staff efficiently is one of the secrets of a successful business. Here we have laid out some tips on how to better manage your team.
Tools are key to efficiency
With so many moving parts, managing front-office, reservations, housekeeping and more, you need a hospitality operations platform that will do the grunt work for you. Using the right PMS is key to efficiency because you can streamline different components of the operations. Automating processes allows high-level management to focus on more strategic revenue-driven decisions rather than focusing on the day-to-day operations. Pro tip: Invest in a tool that helps with revenue management, reservations, and takes care of front office operations and housekeeping all in one.
Delegate
The key to delegating is that you can combine forces to get things done. By delegating, each employee is aware of what they need to get done, and everyone is working together for a common goal. When tasks are clearly laid out, hotel managers can then focus on overseeing the departments instead of micro-managing. Be sure to check in regularly to see how it’s going.
In delegating, managers should empower their employees to make decisions despite the consequences of making a mistake because there is no better way to learn than by learning from your mistakes; it’s a great path to success.
Instead of reporting directly to the manager, your employees can report to the head of the department. Creating a middle-management structure is also helpful for employees’ growth because they will have the organizational structure in place to be able to aspire to grow within the company and become a manager.
Communication is key
There is nothing more frustrating and alienating for hotel staff than feeling like they’re not a part of what’s going on in the hotel’s day-to-day happenings. This is why communication is so important across all teams, especially for those who work the night shift and often don’t have regular interactions with other staff members and therefore can feel out of the loop.
Brief, regular meetings that involve all departments are not only efficient but they also help staff feel like they’re a part of the team and this in turn makes them more accountable, motivating them to work harder.
Being in regular contact with your team also helps prevent mistakes from happening because you can catch them before they become a problem. Managers should know how their staff is doing on a regular basis, addressing any concerns, making sure they are aware of procedures and that instructions are laid out clearly.
This can be achieved through regular training, internal communication, and one-on-one meetings with employees to see how they’re doing and help answer any questions.
Positive reinforcement
The idea behind positive reinforcement is focusing on what your employees are doing right rather than what they are doing wrong. In this way you can condition your hotel staff to do well by rewarding and praising them every time they do a good job. Make sure their achievements are recognized company-wide. When people see their colleagues’ advances, they are encouraged by example to do the same. You can take positive reinforcement one step further by rewarding your employees with company merchandise, a team breakfast or even give days off or a gift certificate for achieving goals.
Create a sense of team
Creating a sense of team among your entire staff is crucial to managing hotel staff efficiently. Feeling part of a greater team makes people want to work together for a common goal. To create a sense of team, make sure everyone knows what their tasks are and how to achieve them best.
Once you’ve got your team working together, the next step is to make sure you give them feedback on how it’s going. Quantify their favorable results. Is the hotel seeing better reviews? Is your revenue increasing? Being transparent and letting your staff be aware of common successes gives them a sense of purpose, and allows them to feel motivated by the hotel’s mission. They will work together better to make the guest experience seamless.
Conclusion
Employees who work together as a team are more efficient and more productive. As a manager, your job is to inspire your employees to do the best job they can by rewarding their successes and giving positive reinforcement. Pamper and respect your employees because if you don’t, they’ll find another hotel who will.
Other secrets behind managing the perfect hotel staff are to delegate, encourage communication, use tools to streamline hotel operations and create a sense of a team. Your hotel will only flourish if your staff flourishes, so make sure they have all the tools to do so. With a series of clear processes and systemized operations, you will without a doubt ensure increased revenue, positive reviews and ideal guest retention rates.
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