A 4-star hotel in the mid-South engaged Carpedia to help with increasingly high turnover resulting in the need for temp labor. The high churn constantly produced a large pool of new employees with less than desirable guest-scores.
The productivity losses associated with the constant learning curve – coupled with the high wages paid to temp employees – also meant our client was effectively making a premium investment in its personnel but was paradoxically eroding the guest experience at the same time.
Since the very nature of the labor market wasn’t going to change in the short-term, the focus became how to mitigate the effect of high turnover. The strategy was three-pronged and involved shortening the onboarding process, maximizing output from existing full-time employees, and better equipping managers with planning and execution tools. The project spanned operations in Housekeeping, Laundry, Guest Services, Food & Beverage and Engineering.
The Results
Key changes included:
- Standardized Room Attendant training program to shorten the onboarding process.
- Streamlined guestroom cleaning to reduce average cleaning time by over 5 minutes/room.
- Increased the Houseperson availability for guest-related activities by 16%.
- Redesigned the Laundry process to increase throughput by 15%.
- Adjusted Server-to-Guest ratios based on actual event requirements to maximize output from seasoned staff-members.
- Increased forecast accuracy to 97% for Food & Beverage Managers to staff more effectively according to volume.
- Standardized Engineering equipment storage and transportation to reduce travel during events by 19%.
