One of the most reliable routes to success that your hospitality business can take is to increase your focus on Human Resources. It is well known that happy employees are more motivated and make a better impression on customers – and a well versed way to ensure employee happiness is to have a sound strategy for Human Resource Management.
But why is a focus on Human Resources so important?
Reputation can make or break businesses in the hospitality industry, and customer service is often at the centre of this reputation. Therefore, the satisfaction and retention of your employees on the front line is imperative, as is ensuring that employees behave appropriately and according to your company policy. This makes the role of Human Resources critical to hospitality.
As well as its own charm and benefits, hospitality has its own unique Human Resource challenges. Employees often work long hours, including evenings and weekends, alongside having to meet high demands from both the business and the customers – all with a smile. When staffing levels become an issue, employees may lose flexibility in their scheduling, which can cause frustration and burnout.
A good Human Resource Management strategy will reduce staff turnover, increase staff training, and look after staff welfare – providing a solution to these common problems.
Four Scaling Up Best Practices in Restaurants
1. Choosing the Right Employees
When attempting to fill positions in hospitality, don’t underestimate the importance of having comprehensive, well thought out job roles. An accurate and detailed job description will encourage the right candidate, with the right skill set, to apply for the position. It will also give you a valuable tool to use in interviews, to ensure that you’re hiring candidates that tick all your boxes.
Remember, individual characteristics like and “warm personality” and “confident” are just as important as previous experience!
It is important to not only recruit people, but to recruit the right people.
2. Establish a Transparency Culture
Your employees will be more satisfied if they feel secure, informed and communicated with. This can be achieved by opening lines of communication with employees! Take a look at our “Simple Ways to Improve Your Teams Communication” article.
3. Provide Continuous Confidence Building Training
Hospitality customers desire a consistent and rich experience that they can enjoy – and hopefully tell their friends about! Hospitality managers can accomplish this customer experience by giving their staff continuous training. Share your best practices, and empower your employees by encouraging them to share theirs! Every employee is worthy of this continuous training, from kitchen porters, to waiting staff, and your higher level management – they all have an impact on your customer experience.
4. Code of Conduct and Company Values
Don’t underestimate the power of a strong shared message! Having unifying company values and a strong shared message can bring your employees together and encourage exemplary workplace behaviour. Relate workplace tasks back to your company values, keep them relevant, and encourage employee involvement in shaping them.
The same applies to a Code of Conduct – make expectations clear to employees, so they have all the tools they need to meet them. Outlining your business’ expected behaviours gives you a framework to praise, review and discipline employees on. Without clear expectations, you won’t be able to appraise employees in the same way.
To Summarise
In hospitality businesses, Human Resources have a huge importance. Getting your Human Resource Management strategy right will lead to an increase in staff retention, happiness, motivation, and behaviour. By choosing the right employees, onboarding them well, communicating with them effectively and providing continuous training – you will put your business’ best foot forward, and get your business striding down the road to success.
To give your Human Resource leaders a chance to focus on these goals, invest in a Human Resource solution like Opsyte to make the day to day tasks easier – and allow them to turn their attention to those all important employees.
