Mark Adams
A hotel is only ever as good as its employees. Therefore, regardless of the facilities you have on offer on your premises, you will need a skilled and dedicated team to run the operations. There is a high turnover rate in the hospitality industry, so your management and leadership team must build a healthy work environment to keep your employees engaged and motivated.
Poor management can often be a primary reason for frustrations and poor work ethic in a company. Therefore, as a leader, you must recognise that the buck stops with you. As a manager, you should take care that your actions contribute to making employees happier and more productive. Here are some tips to improve your management style in the hotel industry.
1. Communicate
Poor communication in the workplace invariably leads to errors. This is something that you should be hell-bent on avoiding. Therefore, you should take every step possible to ensure that you communicate effectively and clearly with your team. When you keep everyone up to date and on the same page, you can drastically reduce the likelihood of crossed wires and mistakes.
When managing your team, make sure that your instructions are clear, that you talk to your staff about their concerns and adequately explain techniques and why they are used. Poor communication leads to mistakes which then causes customer dissatisfaction, so a primary focus of any good manager is effective communication.
When it comes to coordination and communication, it is a great idea to harness the power of technology in your operations. Consider integrating a property management system into your organisation to allow you and your team to easily see and coordinate reservations, room availability and payments in one place. This can reduce errors and ultimately improve efficiency in your hotel.
2. Delegate
As a manager, you cannot take on every job that needs doing in the hotel. In fact, doing so would most likely contravene your job description. A hallmark of good management is knowing when to delegate tasks and which employees can perform them to the highest standard.
You should attempt to hold daily meetings with department heads to ensure that everyone is aware of the expectations for the day. For example, if your hotel has been booked for a large conference, you need to make sure that everyone is aware of this and delegate tasks to the different departments effectively.
Additionally, you need to allow your department heads to manage their teams as they see fit. Avoid being an overbearing manager and give them some wiggle room to perform their duties in a way that they believe is most effective. On the whole, the department heads will have a better idea of their team’s capabilities than you, so their judgment and decisions should be respected unless you need to step in.
3. Recruit Right
Your employees are the organisation’s backbone, so you need to take every step possible to ensure that you bring in suitable candidates to work at your hotel. Hiring employees who do not fit your culture or do not have the right work ethic can be frustrating. Staff turnover also brings a hefty financial penalty.
As a result, you need to take care when recruiting new staff members. You need to look out for dedicated and skilled candidates invested in the company and its success. Therefore, you should try not to rush the hiring process. During interviews, you should try to ask behavioural questions to ascertain a candidate’s reliability and give you a better idea of who they are as a person.
4. Reward Performance
Maintaining a positive atmosphere and enthusiastic employees often hinges on recognising their achievements. When a team member goes above and beyond to offer exceptional customer service or excels in their duties, you should take the time to praise them. You should do this right away, sincerely and, where possible, publicly. This will give your employees a sense of achievement and recognition, improving their happiness in the job and, ultimately, their productivity.
Providing incentives for excellence is a brilliant way to promote high performance among your team. Rewards will drive engagement, boost motivation and will keep your workforce happy in their roles. This isn’t simply about raises, promotions or bonuses (although these are helpful). You could reward outstanding efforts by bringing in breakfast for your team or just write them a hand-written thank you note. When it comes to recognising achievements, a little goes a long way.
Conclusion
In summary, effective hotel management is an intricate and complex affair. Ultimately, you need to build a team within your organisation that you can rely on. You should focus on your recruitment to ensure that you bring in staff members motivated to perform. Additionally, you should strive for effective communication throughout your organisation, which will allow you to effectively delegate tasks to your team members.
