Boosting Employee Performance in Hospitality
The last couple of years were very rough for the hospitality sector. So, it shouldn’t come off as a great surprise that a lot of companies working in the sector decided to scale down and trim their employee teams. These days, though, things are finally starting to turn around.
The end of 2022 finally marked the industry's return to the pre-pandemic level and is expected to grow by an additional 10.2% by 2026. That puts hospitality businesses in a very tight spot where the occupancy and client interests are once again spiking but the industry still isn't stable for major, long-term scaling.
Well, in a situation like that, the best we can do is to use the resources we do have at hand in the most optimal and efficient manner. So, let's see how to boost employee performance in the hospitality sector.
Offer tangible incentives
Your employees will be able to put out the best performance if they are properly motivated and the easiest way to keep them in high gear and engaged is to offer some tangible incentives for extra effort. These incentives can come in the form of bonuses, free days, flexible work schedules, or some other workplace perks. But, if you want these measures to take effect, you need to have a very clear and consistent set of rules and standards for getting these rewards. The milestones the workers need to reach also need to be well within their possibilities. If not, you will create exactly the opposite effect.
Give praises and honest feedback
The hospitality industry is very personal and, unlike some other sectors, absolutely mandates good interpersonal relationships. Keeping that in mind, being honest with your employees, praising their efforts whenever they deserve so, and providing constructive feedback when they do something wrong can go a long way in making them feel more engaged. The most important thing, however, is that they get the impression that you care about performance and spend time to make it better. Going out of the office and helping them out from time to time will also inspire a great level of trust and camaraderie.
Get the appropriate tools
Every job is much easier to accomplish if you have the right tools at your disposal. What tools can you use the lives of your workers easier? Well, for a start, you can get some latest-gen reservations software that will drastically streamline and automate the booking process and give workers time to deal with other issues. The same can be said about cloud-based productivity tools that not only offer a lot of flexibility but also the ability to perform a great deal of work-related tasks on the go. A lot of these things can be accomplished by integrating as many of these resources under one shared intranet infrastructure.
Create a friendly and inspiring company culture
Working under heavy pressure can cause even the strongest teams to crack. The hospitality industry which experiences a lot of seasonal workload spikes, difficult customers, and other motivation poisons is especially susceptible to such form of pressure. Well, with things as they are, the best thing you can do is to reinforce your ranks by building a friendly, transparent, and engaging corporate culture. You can do this through a variety of different methods ranging from company-sponsored family vacations, and team-building exercises to providing free career development resources and training programs.
Create detailed workplace procedures
Essentially, clear and unequivocal workplace procedures eliminate a great deal of idling and aimless wandering. Your workers always need to be aware of what their current tasks are, how to address them in the most optimal manner and how to respond to eventual problems they might experience along the way. These procedures should be made public and instantly available at any moment. If you want to go one step further you can even create an integrated workflow and outline everyone’s role in the process. Showing how their work benefits the broader goals will help your workers focus on the most critical tasks.
Leverage contingent workers
Last but not least, we would like that even despite your best efforts, putting the excessive workload on your human resources will inevitably spread these resources too thin. The simple solution to this issue can be found in using contingent workers that will fill in the productivity gaps, help your workers to avoid burnout, and keep your business working at the optimal capacity. In order to use this asset, efficiently, however, you will need to put some effort into predicting demand spikes and hunting down prospective workers before guests come knocking at your doors in swarms. Also, streamlining the onboarding process and clearly defining company roles can make a lot of small growing pains go away.
These were the top six ways how you can boost the productivity of the workers employed in the hospitality sector. We hope they will give you a couple of ideas about how you can help your business work with optimal efficiency even during the busiest periods of the year. As long as they are properly motivated, well-managed and have the right tools for the job, people are capable of moving mountains. Make sure then your workers have the best possible treatment and they will conquer the world for you.