Educating hotel staff in non-operations...on operations
I do not wish to be negative but I believe hoteliers in Sri Lanka have a massive challenge ahead. They need to come up with lasting solutions to convince people to join the hospitality industry whilst halting the exodus of those leaving our shores to work overseas in search of better pay and greater opportunity to rise up the ranks. Besides this double-headed problem, there is another insidious factor that drives away potentially talented employees, particularly those at supervisory and middle-management levels; the continued ‘control and command’ archaic mindset that prevails in many hospitality establishments. Unless there is a fundamental change in the way these owners and managers dismantle the several unwarranted barriers within the organisation, the situation will continue to be perilous.
Several years back, as the Rooms Division Manager at a 5-star hotel, I happened to bump into Patrick the hotel’s assistant Food & Beverage Manager one afternoon. Noticing the agitated look on his face, I invited him to join me for a coffee and to tell me what was wrong. As we waited for our coffee at the hotel’s café, he began to tell me exactly what had caused his anger and frustration.
Patrick had instructed the manager of the Patisserie to request the hotel’s cost controller to provide the exact costs for each of the 17 Healthy/Smoothie juices, which the outlet had in its menu. The outlet manager spent considerable time to carefully list out all the ingredients together with the exact quantities (measure) used for each of the 17 different beverage types. Together with a covering note duly signed by Patrick, he had then handed it over to the controller.
However, the controller had refused to accept it. Instead, he had given 17 individual blank forms to the Patisserie manager, each to be filled up separately, and each form be signed by both the manager and by Patrick, before submitting them to him. Patrick rounded off his tale of woe indignantly exclaiming, “A little bureaucracy may certainly serve a purpose…but not this. Surely, there are more effective ways. Why are we creating so many roadblocks merely due to some bungling by one or two employees? By penalizing the majority with such time consuming productivity killing processes, are we not diverting our managers focus away from their main duties?” He had even spoken to the Financial Controller; only to be told “Follow the procedure”. Listening to him I could well empathise with his mood, although I did chide him gently that his manager should have had a chat with the cost controller before doing things his way. Nevertheless, the inflexibility shown by the Finance people is an indictment on how some staff fail to appreciate that we are in this business together.
Previously, the hotel’s Financial Controller had forwarded me the observation made by external auditors, during the annual check-up, that the rooms reservations staff were not taking down details in the department’s internal reservation forms for ‘walk-ins’ and for booking vouchers received from travel agents. Alluding to the fact that this was done only for room reservations made via the telephone they considered this to be a procedural violation. What made it even more nonsensical was when the Financial Controller sent me a memo asking that this be investigated and that he be advised on the corrective action taken to!
Every so often, we read about courses such as ‘Business Finance for Non-Financial staff’ or ‘Finance for Non-Financial Mangers’ been conducted by some organisation or another. These may be one-day sessions or seminars for several days. I’ve hardly come across a course for non-operational staff on operations. Let me be clear, by non-operational people, I mean staff working mostly at the back-of-office and providing financial information, etc.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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