Do they have resources they can refer to when they have questions that need answering, or do they always come to you to solve their issues?
Do they understand what tasks they are responsible for?
Your staff is one of your greatest assets if they are managed correctly. This is an important detail concerning branding. If your hotel’s service isn’t stand-out, your brand can suffer.
If managing your staff feels like a major burden at times, imagine how your challenges may be magnified as your team grows.
So, how do you assign tasks to specific people on your team and help them stay on top of their duties? Here are some practical tips.
This may seem like common sense, but it’s astounding the number of business owners, managers, or HR people that fail to create job descriptions for every role in their company.
Granted, even job descriptions can be hard to understand at times – either because they aren’t adequately defined, or because they are riddled with technical jargon. But having them is still better than not having them at all.
The roles within your hotel business should be clearly defined. Whether it’s concierge, housekeeper, greeter, or general manager, you should identify who you require and what their job is.
This doesn’t mean that your employees will never take on responsibilities outside of their assigned duties. But that is the ideal. The overall goal should be to determine who you need on your team, and make it clear what they will be doing once hired and trained.
Now it’s time to get more granular.
Once job roles have been defined, it’s time to think about what tasks each person will be carrying out.
When hiring, the best plan is to hire for the role, not for the tasks. Tasks can always be reassigned, automated, or even eliminated. You will build a far more productive and effective team if you onboard people that are suited to their role.
This doesn’t make the tasks any less important. Someone needs to get them done. But it’s easier to problem-solve tasks than it is to problem-solve specific job roles.
So, take the time to map out every task that needs to be completed by your team, and then begin assigning them to the appropriate people.
Some tasks do not need to be completed more than once. But these are rare. Most duties fall under the category of repetitive and recurring.
What you may not know is that every repetitive and recurring task can be systematized. This doesn’t necessarily mean you can automate every task – though in some cases you can – but it does mean it can be documented and made into a checklist.
Well-crafted checklists make it easy for your employees to know exactly what they need to do. They can simply follow the defined steps and instructions to completion. This makes them more productive and effective at their job, because they’ll be less likely to miss steps, and they won’t have to remember every step either.
Do bear in mind that checklists take time and effort to create. You may need to iterate and revise as you come across any issues. But the effort will be worth it.
Keep the channels of communication open with your team. Find out if anyone is overloaded, or if anyone feels like they can handle more. Determine if anyone is interested in changing roles, or if they feel they have the capacity for something different.
Checking in with your staff regularly with help you determine who is best suited to handling specific tasks at any time.