The hospitality industry has always faced the challenges of high staff turnover; however, with the rise of labor shortages during the past few months, hoteliers are having to run operations with lean teams and potentially hire people with less experience, leading to increased costs and time spent on training and onboarding.
In this blog, we outline 3 considerations to help combat the challenge of hospitality labor shortages through training and onboarding so that operations teams can do more with less.
Adopt technology that allows easy training to build trust and team productivity
To run a productive and motivated workforce, hotel managers need to trust their teams and be able to rely on them to provide the best service to their guests, whether they are front of house or back. Implementing the right tools that are easy to digest and make your team's day-to-day jobs easier is essential and providing efficient training helps to build trust. Managers can then rest assured that their team members are getting consistent and up to date training on the protocols and systems that help their hotel operations run smoothly.
At Optii, our experience has shown us that step-by-step training over a longer period of time is more effective when it comes to retention and effective use of technology. We use short training videos to help with quick and efficient onboarding but we also know that the real questions come days, even weeks after implementation, which is why we have our Success Coaching to help guide you through our technology and understand how it can work for your hotel needs and goals. We also provide 24/7 support to our customers, which is very important when it comes to training new staff and/or learning and taking the right approach to their operations.
With Optii Housekeeping, housekeeping and operations managers can easily train team members on evolving cleaning protocols, such as what to do if a guest has requested delayed departure cleans or how to navigate irregular stayover cleans.
Empower your teams to help with retention
One of the leading factors to the labor shortage we face today stems from hospitality workers feeling under-appreciated in their jobs. Alongside the challenges of COVID and people not wanting to return due to the new risks, hospitality workers are faced with an even tougher job than before, having to manage a complex landscape with changing restrictions, protocols, new ways of working, and the obvious cost pressures as a result of the pandemic.
An effective way to help empower your teams to do their job better and to help them do more with less is through investment in technology. Tools such as hotel operations software enable staff to connect via desktop or mobile so that there is clear communication across teams, departments, and properties. This will not only help with efficiency but will also help to encourage proactive teamwork and engagement.
Make onboarding simple
With new cleaning protocols and changing guest demands, hospitality and operations teams are having to do more with less as teams are smaller and jobs tasks continue to increase. This also means that hotel managers can’t spend as much time onboarding new employees.
This is precisely where technology can play a crucial role for hotels. By deploying a hotel operations software, managers can offset the majority of their onboarding through technology, including immediate onboarding resources through their mobile devices. The software needs to be simple and intuitive so that new joiners can learn the processes with an easy-to-use interface and standardization of tasks so that all information on protocols is consistent across teams and properties.
At Optii, we have curated a series of training videos which can be accessed by housekeeping and operations teams to help them learn how to effectively use the technology and tools that will help them to do their job to a high standard.
Investing in technology that helps you onboard, train and retain staff is the best path to help navigate the labor challenges. Want to see how staff training and onboarding could look for your team? Get in touch with our team to learn more.
