Staffing issues are one of the most pressing challenges facing the hospitality industry today. In particular, many hotels and vacation rental property management groups are struggling to retain their housekeeping staff. Many hotels have made adjustments to their operations, such as offering guests the option of declining daily housekeeping services. While this has been a well-received offering during the height of the pandemic, it’s not a viable long term solution.
Without a fully staffed housekeeping team, it becomes extremely difficult to maintain the high standards of service your guests expect. Over time, this can be very damaging to your reputation and your revenue. For this reason, new solutions are required to improve housekeeping staff retention.
The following strategies will help you retain your housekeeping staff longer and minimize the impact that staffing issues are having on your business.
Everyone wants to feel valued and know that their hard work is appreciated. When employees are recognized and rewarded for their quality work, they typically remain more engaged in their job, and they’re more likely to want to stick around longer. For this reason, placing an emphasis on recognizing and rewarding your housekeeping staff for quality work is an easy way to boost retention.
There are many ways you can recognize your team to make them feel more valued:
In addition to these forms of verbal affirmation, you should create a reward system for your housekeeping team. These rewards can be small – a gift card to Starbucks or Amazon would be sufficient. Simply providing these small rewards goes a long way towards keeping your staff motivated and making them feel appreciated.
You can use a reward system to recognize your housekeeping staff for a wide range of actions:
Do some research to determine the market rate for housekeeping staff in your area, as well as what your competitors are paying their housekeeping staff. This will allow you to set your wages at a level that is slightly better than what your staff can find in other places.
It’s also important to consider benefits, bonuses and other perks when establishing your compensation packages. If you offer health insurance or an end of year bonus, it may make your job more attractive than a housekeeping position with your competitors.
One of the advantages you can offer your housekeeping staff is the opportunity for career growth. When you hire new team members, take the time to find out what their career goals are. Do they want to move up to a management position and run the housekeeping team? Do they want to eventually move to other areas of your hotel’s operations?
After discussing goals with your staff, take the time to create a plan that helps them achieve these goals. This will show them you value their hard work and see them as being an important part of your long term success. It will also give your housekeeping staff incentive to remain with your team since they can see their path for growth and development if they remain loyal.
Providing your staff with a healthy work-life balance will often help improve your retention. The more flexible you can be with scheduling, the easier it will be for your housekeeping staff to maintain their desired work-life balance. While this may be challenging during peak season, it should be possible to provide greater flexibility at other times of the year.
When offering flexible scheduling, make sure you’re sensitive to the needs of employees who have special circumstances, such as the need to available when they don’t have childcare.
While these strategies can improve your ability to retain quality housekeeping staff, there may still be times when a staffing issue arises. This may be due to multiple team members calling out sick at the same time, a need for increased staffing during a busy season, or just about any common issue that may result in staffing shortages. In these situations, Xclusive Services can provide the quality housekeeping staff you need at a moment’s notice.
At Xclusive Services, we provide housekeeping staffing solutions at all levels – from entry level staff to experienced managers who can run your housekeeping team. We can deliver the quality employees you need to keep your operations running smoothly at all times.
You’ll also benefit from our Xclusive Excellence™ promise which guarantees:
Please request a quote or call a local office for immediate staffing needs.
