When you’re running a hotel, you depend on your staff to deliver an unforgettable experience for your guests. However, setting up an effective schedule can be challenging. Poor scheduling can lead to inefficient shifts where there are many things left undone, and it can diminish employee morale, too, as they feel the pressure of work that they can’t ever seem to master.
You’ll see the effect of this on your bottom line: bad guest experiences, diminished bookings, and rising costs. So how can you master staff scheduling?
Here are some tips to improve the effectiveness of your scheduling.
Start by having comprehensive knowledge of your forecasted demand, budget, local labor regulations, and historical P&L records to track year over year actuals
Then, adjust it based on your sales and banquet bookings (such as a film festival or tradeshow/conference) and all local market changes (such as the opening or closing of a competitor).
Next, know your staffing budget. You want to get the best staff for the time and resources you can manage.
Finally, focus on local regulations related to staffing and vendor procurement to make sure you’re legally compliant:
First, know your employees’ strengths and growth opportunities so you can put complementary shifts together. For example, do you have someone who is a master problem-solver with your booking system but gets tense with complaints? You can match them with a people-pleaser who has trouble on the computer. Teach them to work to their strengths, and you’ll build a strong team.
Next, make sure you know a little about your employees’ lives outside the property. Know which team members have outside scheduling commitments; then, make sure you understand which employees have flexible or concrete commitments.
You should also be aware of employees who constantly ask for additional work/hours, and those that are reluctant to take on more shifts.
When it comes to hotel staff scheduling, flexibility is the only possible path to success. Flexible scheduling depends on flexibility from your employees. You can require your employees to be flexible and change their schedules to fit the hotel’s needs. However, this can lead to resentment which, in turn, means less efficiency, lower morale, and higher employee turnover.
Instead, it’s best to get employees to become flexible by offering incentives and bonuses, comp time, or even preferred shift selection on the next staffing period. The more you can get your employees to buy in to schedule changes, the better morale and tenure will be.
Hopefully, you aren’t limited to scheduling manually with pen, paper, and a hardcopy employee list. There are many powerful options when it comes to staffing software and digitalization. Try several of these programs to find your preferred fit. It should feel intuitive, scalable, secure, and populate quickly.
As with flexibility, offer incentives to make employees excited about cross-training. Also, make it clear your property does not operate with hierarchy, and all roles are important for the team’s success. This practice promotes equity and a unified approach for long-term success.
Let people know when and how you set the schedule and let them know the process to request certain shifts. Have clear rules about how you resolve conflicts, such as using seniority, having a lottery, or using a point system. Sometimes it makes sense to have employees work out conflicts, but you need to know your people to know if this is a good idea for your hotel.
We all know “set it and forget it” does not apply to hotel scheduling. It’s important to monitor changing conditions and adjust your schedule to reflect it. When someone calls in to cancel or decides to quit, you have to get replacements for their shifts. If bookings spike, you will need to get additional people in to handle the excess load. Or, if you have multiple cancelations, you can survey who might want to skip all or part of the shift.
One critical strategy which ties all this together is having effective communication with your team. You need to be sure you can reach out to them over multiple channels and let them know about the initial schedule, changes, policy updates, training opportunities, and more.
It is also recommended to build in routine check-ins to make sure people know about upcoming shifts so you can confirm their availability and attendance.
Remember, good communication goes both ways. It’s important to have at least one way to communicate with all employees about scheduling concerns. Clear communication should be offered during your routine check ins and on all communication channels, including absolute alignment on urgent scenario expectations like off-hour assistance and unexpected personnel coverage.
What can you do if you just don’t have enough people to fill the schedule? Whether it’s due to people calling out sick, unexpected staff turnover, or an unforeseen spike in business, there may be times when you may have obstacles maintaining proper staffing levels. In that case, you need to call for help from a hotel staffing agency. Xclusive Services can help you find necessary staff when you need it most.
Xclusive Services can supply staff for a variety of positions, and we have locations around the country. Check if there’s a location near you! We provide hourly workers at entry and skilled levels. In addition, our local service managers are always available to support placed works and help them function to optimize efficiencies and execution in your organization.
You’ll benefit from our Xclusive Excellence™ commitment. This is our concrete promise to provide highly qualified staff who will be able to step into the work with little training or direction. We only work with people experienced in hospitality who are committed to delivering the exceptional customer service you promise your guests.
When you work with Xclusive Services, you can count on:
We want to make sure getting help with staffing problems is easy and effective. This can mean more than short-term help: we also offer seasonal staffing solutions and janitorial services.
Want to learn how we can help? Request a quote for staffing solutions or call a local office for your immediate staffing needs.
Learn how Xclusive Services can bring the X Factor to your property today!
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