By Jim White, Senior Vice President of Field Operations, Xclusive Services
I’ve approved a lot of overtime over the years, and I’d approve it again tomorrow if the situation called for it.
You solve the problem in front of you. That’s why overtime remains a necessary evil. The mistake isn’t using overtime but allowing a short-term tactic to de facto become a long-term staffing strategy.
Hotels don’t stop operating because someone calls off, occupancy comes in higher than expected, or a banquet doubles in size. Guest rooms still need to be turned, kitchens still have to serve breakfast, and lobbies still need attention.
But the long-term answer to a staffing shortage is not asking the same people to work longer. Eventually, that approach begins to create costs that don’t always show up on a payroll report but affect the operation just the same.
So, yes, overtime has its place as a necessary Band-Aid, but operators still underestimate the hidden costs that begin to add up when overtime stops being the exception and becomes part of the staffing rule.
The most obvious cost of overtime is the one everyone sees. Covered employees generally earn time-and-a-half once they exceed forty hours in a workweek. When the operation needs extra hands fast it’s a practical option.
But that’s only the visible cost. The less visible costs begin accumulating almost immediately. Supervisors spend more time rebuilding schedules, managers spend more time adjusting labor plans, and departments over-rely on that handful of dependable employees who continue saying “yes” whenever another shift needs coverage.
A staffing company’s markup is easy to identify because it appears on an invoice; the true cost of sustained overtime is scattered throughout the operation.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that people rarely stop caring because they’re tired. it’s just that they simply have less to give.
Housekeepers still work hard, stewards still hustle, and supervisors still want to help their teams succeed. But after enough consecutive overtime shifts, rooms may take a little longer to clean, small details get missed, and smiles for guests get harder to come by. As for managers? They spend more time correcting work that normally would have been right the first time.
Research supports what most operators have experienced firsthand. Studies summarized by the International Labour Organization have found that productivity declines as fatigue accumulates and working hours continue to increase. Employees remain productive, but additional hours often produce diminishing returns.
Paying time-and-a-half doesn’t always produce time-and-a-half worth of productivity.
We know that most hotel work is physical. Cleaning bathrooms, stripping beds, setting banquet rooms, and meal prep is demanding and fatigue makes it that much harder.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found that extended work hours are associated with higher injury rates and increased fatigue-related risk. Anyone who has spent time in hotel operations knows this deep in their bones. The work itself doesn’t become easier because someone has already worked fifty hours that week.
No operator ever wants to see a valued employee injured. Protecting people has always been one of the most important responsibilities we have, and building a staffing strategy that reduces unnecessary fatigue and its inherent risks is one very smart way we do that.
The employees most willing to work overtime are often the employees you can least afford to lose: dependable, experienced, and hard-working. They’re the people managers call first because they know they’ll pick up the phone.
Over time, that creates another challenge.
The same people who help the operation recover from staffing shortages can quietly become exhausted by carrying that extra load week after week. Research from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and other organizations has linked sustained long work hours with fatigue, burnout, absenteeism, and turnover.
Protect your best people before you’re recruiting to replace them. That’s good leadership and good operations.
This may be the most important lesson I’ve learned.
Overtime stretches existing capacity and contingent staffing adds to it. These aren’t competing ideas just different tools designed to solve different operational problems.
If someone calls off tomorrow morning, overtime may be exactly the right answer. If your hotel has been operating short-handed for the last three months, that’s a different conversation.
At that point, you’re no longer solving a temporary scheduling problem. You’re managing a capacity problem which demands a capacity solution.
Contingent staffing, direct hire, department outsourcing, cross-training, recruiting, and retention all have a place in a thoughtful staffing strategy. The strongest operators don’t rely on one tool. They understand when each one creates the most value.
Overtime will always be with us and it’s an important short-term tool. Unexpected occupancy surges, staff call-offs, a snow storm: good operators respond, and overtime often helps make that possible.
But temporary solutions have a way of becoming permanent in busy hotel environments. When an operation repeatedly asks the same employees to carry more of the load, the cost eventually reaches far beyond payroll. It shows up in fatigue, injuries, missed details, management strain, absenteeism, and the loss of experienced employees who have been asked to do too much for too long.
Overtime can help a hotel get through a difficult shift, a demanding week, or an unexpected surge in business. It cannot give an understaffed operation the operating capacity it needs. At some point, operators have to stop stretching the workforce they have and start building the workforce it needs. Band-Aids only hold for so long.
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