Hospitality managers feel the heat. They feel the pressure of rising labor costs weighing on margins, of owners and operators that rightfully want to see profitability. But it’s not as easy as merely cutting labor costs. If that were the case, managers wouldn’t be working long hours scouring over weekly schedules and trying to think of new ways to boost productivity.
As the industry already knows, the time-honored tradition of simply cutting labor costs is a fool’s errand. Sure, it boosts the bottom-line for a short time, but ultimately does far more harm than good by damaging guest service and satisfaction.
So what’s the alternative? To look at labor management in hospitality from a different angle. To trust that managers can produce the metrics that owners, operators, and stakeholders want, as long as they have the tools and time needed to do so. That’s really the secret weapon to maintaining profitability, even when the market is hurling everything but the kitchen sink to drag margins down – empowering managers with the knowledge, skills, time, and tools they need to flourish. And that’s where a different perspective on labor management can make all the difference.
What Do You Look for in a Manager?
Let’s say you’re in the process of interviewing candidates for an open managerial position. All of the resumes and qualifications are generally the same, so it’s how each candidate comes across during the interview that will help you narrow the field. Just off the top of your head, what’s the one quality that will separate those with promise from others that might not ever make an effective manager? People skills. The ability to lead a team and, just as importantly, provide guest service that will keep people coming back.
Obviously, given the nature of hospitality, people skills and guest satisfaction are critical qualities in any good manager. But in today’s market, are your managers working long hours to brainstorm on better ways to serve your guests? Probably not. Instead, they’re handling complex day-to-day operations, having no free time to strategize on finding a balance between service and costs. And that’s what effective labor management is all about – balance – but also happens to be difficult to achieve in this economic climate.
That underscores the incredibly challenging position that many managers face – needing to rely on labor management skills that they’ve never really been taught in the first place and, compounding the situation, don’t have the time to develop, either. Likewise, if a hotelier doesn’t equip managers with the tools they need to effectively manage their teams in a least-cost environment, it’s like asking an experienced, competent mountain climber to scale Everest with a walking stick while wearing tennis shoes. The chances for success are considerably lower.
Flip the Script on Labor Management
It’s gotten to the point where the term labor management can almost feel punitive in nature, where it’s not only the most significant hurdle facing managers, but also the skill they’re most often criticized and reprimanded for lacking. This is an especially bitter pill considering that many managers would be able to develop the labor management skills and strategies to be successful if they only had the time to devote to them.
The entire hospitality industry relies on exceptional guest service to drive the top-line and create a competitive advantage. Managers drive guest service and satisfaction, deservedly feeling the consequences when service levels falter. However, when market dynamics shift as they have in recent years, it shines a spotlight on that chasm between what managers can realistically accomplish given the tools, skills, and time they have, and actual expectations from owners, operators, and stakeholders.
But that isn’t to say that maintaining high guest service levels and a least-cost environment are mutually exclusive of each other. Managers, operators, and owners can, in fact, have the best of both worlds, but that requires flipping the script on the concept of labor management and looking at it from a different perspective.
Labor Management: The Killer App for 2020
What if we started looking at labor management as a discipline that a hotelier can foster and develop rather than as an innate skill for managers? You hire your managers because they are smart, driven people that can lead their teams and maintain high guest satisfaction levels. They are likely capable of succeeding in any challenge – including profitability in the face of rising labor costs – as long as they’re given the necessary tools and time.
However, when managers find themselves picking up shifts, juggling schedules, and managing the day-to-day operations of incredibly dynamic teams and environments, they have anything but free time. Things like cross-training staff and improving employee engagement levels can have a significant impact on productivity and, thus, profitability by making labor more efficient and effective. But what do cross-training and engagement strategies require? You guessed it – time.
Managers will flourish with proper support. As it stands, however, 80% of industry workers say they’re experiencing at least some degree of burnout. Thankfully, even as industry revenues continue to stagnate and labor costs rise, hoteliers have effective labor management solutions to arm their managers for success, the time they need to implement things like cross-training, engagement programs, and other productivity drivers.
Hospitality providers already invest significant time, money, and effort in trying to understand the demand-side of the operational equation – and for good reason. But in this climate, it’s not enough to understand when, why, and how guests walk through your door. Let’s look at labor management as the killer new app this year, one that loosens the stress from those over-tightened revenue and expense bolts by giving managers the time and tools they need to produce outstanding bottom-line metrics.
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