Planning for future operations in a post-COVID-19 world - Part 1
Those who have read my earlier article “Hospitality in a Post Covid 19 Sri Lanka” scenario would have observed that I concluded it after raising the following salient points, for Hotel Managers to ponder and act upon in this ever evolving pandemic scenario. A quick run through of the points are as follows:
One year into the pandemic the restrictions to global and local public life and consequently the hospitality and tourism industries, has adversely impacted their very existence. Industry stakeholders have been driven to a state of bankruptcy, due to the draconian measures adapted governments worldwide in an effort to stamp out the spread of the virus.
The worldwide clarion call has been “Await the roll out of the Vaccine”. This was the panacea offered by all governments and health authorities. Now, that the vaccines roll out is imminent worldwide, the time for reactivating the Tourism & Hospitality industries are priority number one for most of the nations worldwide. Given the status quo, the start up of the industry in Sri Lanka, is already underway. Let me quickly get into the deep end of things right away.
With the beginning of the pandemic, most hoteliers were compelled to cut costs to survive. Regrettably, Labor was one of the first cost centers to be visited and perhaps ruthlessly trimmed to enable the management get a better idea of how best to operate considering the stringent protocols introduced by the authorities to prevent the spread of the virus. Now, with gradual easing of the regulations, most hospitality organizations are faced with the unenviable tasks of making the decision of how to start functioning. Do I go back to the former operating modus operandi? or do I start adapting a new model? From a Sri Lankan context this is a very important decision, as the hospitality industry has been predominantly, a single owner business. Corporates are present, but have a diversified portfolio of businesses that have enabled them to tide over the difficult times and ever rising costs, together with the financial viability of the hotel hanging by a thread.
I for one would advocate a new model where due to the shortfall in occupancy and other incremental revenue, I would look at a multi tasking type operation where the reduced staff cadres are allocated multi tasking functions to match up with the volume of business. This is easily said than done. Sri Lankan staffs are notoriously uncooperative in handling multi tasking duties and prefer to not work in other areas of the hotel, even at the risk of losing one’s job. It is in this type of scenario that the training and HR skills come into play; where management is able to explain to the staff the current situation and the possible way out as a matter of survival of the business. This does though present a dilemma to most hotel managers and to their human resource personnel.
Together with this exercise, it is important that management invests in Human Capital to recruit, retrain and incentivize the staff especially those who are capable of multitasking duties. Some of the departments to be considered are the maintenance dept. where some specialized tasks can be handled by multiskilled individuals – where routine painting work and minor electrical and plumbing functions can be undertaken by gardeners and utility workers. It is essential that HODs and HR handpick these individuals by going through their staff records and studying the staff skill sets.
Further, Maintenance jobs could be classified as routine maintenance jobs and specialized contract assignments. This will enable the department head to outsource any major repair jobs to an external contractor, thus leaving the routine maintenance jobs to be handled by the hotel staff. This would mean looking at a lean & mean approach to your human resource strategy.
To be continued
Jan Van Twest with over 40 years experience in the hotel industry is currently the Director / General Manager of the Fortress Resort & Spa in Koggala, Sri Lanka. He is also a Director of Hotel Services Ceylon PLC, Summer Seasons PLC, Fortress Resorts and the Queensbury PLC
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