JYOTI

  Calculating staff strength:   Compared to other hotel departments, the housekeeping department employs the largest workforce in most hotels. Manpower thus becomes a major operating expense. Good management of the housekeeping department depends on achieving a balance between the workload and the staff strength. When calculating staff strength, it must be remembered that each property will have its individual requirements. The factors to be considered here are: The type of hotel it is The location of the hotel Traditions and customs of the locality The size of the hotel (in terms of number of rooms) The occupancy rate of the hotel Management needs Company policies The quantity of work to be done The quality of work expected, that is, the standards to be met The time needed to do the work The frequency with which the work needs to be done The time when the work area is available The amount of traffic in the area   The staff st...

  Standard operating manuals-Job procedures A job procedure specifies the way in which a task is to be performed. Job procedures should be used during induction and training sessions and ought to be incorporated into the department’s procedure manuals. Updating job procedures is necessary as and when changes in equipment, cleaning materials, and so on, occur. They are most popularly called ‘SOP’s’ or standard operating procedures. They are also referred to as ‘work cards’ or ‘order of work’ documents. SOP’s comprise the following information: The job to be done. 1.      The job to be done 2.      Equipment and materials required 3.      Procedure of works 4.      Safety factor 5.      Time required to do the job   The goals in establishing SOP’s are as follows: 1.   To aid standardization 2.   To help in training 3.   To preserve surf...

  Time and motion study in housekeeping operations:  Extensive research in the form of time and motion studies to analyze work methods has helped the industry to find better and easier ways to carry out tasks and save time and energy. The time and motion studies for a task calculate how long it takes, on average, to perform a certain task. This helps in calculating staffing level s. TIME AND MOTION STUDY Time and Motion study, several staff members perform the same task (say, bed-making), one by one, their movements are studies and clocked. The results are compared and analysis is done as to how long it takes on an average to perform the task. The best practices derived from this study are then used by everyone so that the resulting performance will be more standardized and more predictable. Any of the methods discussed below can be used by the executive housekeeper to do a time and motion study in her department. 1.   Pathway chart:       T his techn...

  Productivity Standard It determines the quantity of work to be done by the department employees. Productivity standards must be determined in order to staff the department within the limitation with the hotel operating budget plans. Housekeeping Managers must know how long it should take a room attendant to perform the major cleaning tasks identified on the cleaning frequency schedules such as guestroom cleaning. Once this information is known, productivity standards can be developed; performance & productivity standards should be carefully balanced. If the quality expectations are set too high, the quantity of work that could be done may be low. Every hotel must develop their own productivity standards, as there are several factors that influence these standards, which vary from one property to another. Some of these factors may be: 1.       The type and age of the property. 2.       The type of surfaces involved and the degr...