The pandemic has been an enormous challenge that has prompted us, some would say forced us, to reconsider and re-engineer how we conduct business operations in many cases. From housekeeping and human resources to sales and marketing, everything has been put under the magnifying glass in order to meet the needs of public safety, reducing expenses and making the best and most considerate use of our human resources.
This effort has crystallized urgent hospitality fundamentals like expense management, operating revenues and profitability, as well as the reasons why we are engaged in a hospitality career. Each of us has had to do some meaningful soul searching, given the disruptions and strains on staffing, and we've had to rethink how we attract, train and motivate our team members and how we can celebrate our successes.
Working our way through this “grit and grind,” we expect that most hospitality organizations will emerge stronger; more focused and re-energized. For example, even as properties were closed or running at less than capacity, many of us took the initiative to not curtail, but, rather, expand training initiatives and management training programs. This is the time to invest in our people and demonstrate the values, opportunities and fun of a career in hospitality.
Additionally, as we continue to re-organize and recover from the pandemic, sales and marketing teams, unable to canvass office building for prospects as in the past, are working to reach traditional user groups in new ways, while securing alternate bookings.
To Serve Us All
Most importantly, the labor “crisis” has us listening closely to the needs of our team members, including ones who performed with great loyalty during those most stressful days and the ones we want to attract to a hospitality career.
We are now considering issues and strategies such as helping parents with securing and finding ways to help them pay for child care; flexible scheduling for staff, including students, seniors and working parents; flexible pay scales depending on room demand and, thus, staffing requirements; “gig pay” schemes; and bonuses to say "thank you" for staying the course with us. Inclusion and diversity awareness and issues are being considered in meaningful ways that invite participation and help us understand the value of having “more voices at the table.”
Interestingly, in more recent weeks, guest comments seem to be most focused on traditional aspects of guest service. Not just housekeeping or “where is my breakfast,” but a general sense of wanting to be cared for as they were pre-COVID. Mobile check-in and guest chat systems have their valuable place in modern hospitality. So do a friendly smile and asking, person to person, how one is enjoying their stay with us.
We welcome these guest expressions, for they get to the heart of what we are about at hoteliers. The enthusiasm, the team spirit needed to achieve outstanding guest service—and the profitability it generates—must come from within. They must come from a shared vision for excellence; from team member appreciation and celebrating of our mutual successes; and from respect for the great traditions of hospitality, while being open to an evolving society.
For these traditions and shared experiences are a large part of what distinguishes hospitality from many other service industries in our economy. Between profit and purpose, we enjoy many wonderful opportunities to get things right.
Mark Ricketts is president and COO of McNeill Hotel Company.
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