Planning is probably the executive housekeeper's most important management function. Without competent planning, every day may present one crisis after another. Constant crises lower morale, decrease productivity, and increase expenses within the department. Also, without the direction and focus that planning provides, the executive housekeeper can easily become side tracked by tasks which are unimportant or unrelated to accomplishing the hotel's objectives.
Since the housekeeping department is responsible for cleaning and maintaining so many different areas of the hotel, planning the work of the department can seem like an enormous task. Without a systematic, step-by-step approach to planning, the executive housekeeper can easily become overwhelmed and frustrated by the hundreds of important details that must be addressed in order to ensure that the work is not only done -but done correctly, efficiently, on time, and with the least cost to the department.
Area Inventory Lists
Planning the work of the housekeeping department begins with creating an inventory list of all items within each area that will need housekeeping's attention. Preparing area inventory lists is the first planning activity because the lists ensure that the rest of the planning activities address every item for which housekeeping will be held accountable. Inventory lists are bound to be long and extremely detailed. Since most properties offer several different types of guestrooms, separate inventory lists may be needed for each room type.
When preparing a guestroom area inventory list, it is a good idea to follow the same system that room attendants will use as the sequence of their cleaning tasks and that supervisors will use in the course of their inspections. This enable the executive housekeeper to use the inventory lists as the basis for developing cleaning procedures, training plans, and inspection checklist, For example, Items within a guestroom may appear on an inventory lists as they are found from right to left and from right top to bottom around the room . Other systematic techniques may be used, but the point is that some system should be followed-and this system should be the same one used by room attendants and inspectors in the daily course of their duties.
Frequency Schedules
frequency schedules indicate how often items on inventory lists are to be cleaned or maintained. Items that must be cleaned on a daily or weekly basis become part of a routine cleaning cycle and are incorporated into standard work procedures. Other items ( Which must be cleaned or maintained biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, or according to some other cycle ) are inspected on a daily or weekly basis, but they become part of a general for deep cleaning program and are scheduled as a special cleaning projects.
Items on an area's frequency schedule that are made part of housekeeping's general cleaning program should be transferred to a calendar plan and scheduled as a special cleaning project. The calendar plan guides the executive housekeeper is scheduling the appropriate staff to perform the necessary work. The executive housekeeper must take into account a number of factors when scheduling general cleaning of guestroom or other special projects. For example, whenever possible , days marked for guestroom general cleaning should coincide with low occupancy periods. Also, the general cleaning program must be flexible in relation to the activities of other departments. For example, if the engineering departments schedules extensive repair work for several guestrooms, the executive housekeeper should make every effort to coordinate a general cleaning of these rooms with engineering's timetable. Careful planning will produce good results for the hotel with the least possible inconvenience to guests or to other departments.
Performance Standards
The executive Housekeeper can begin to develop performance standards by answering the question. what must be done in order to clean or maintain the major items within this area ? Standards are required levels of performance that establish the quality of the work that must be done. Performance standards state not only what must be done ; they also describe in detail how the job must be done.
One of the primary objectives of planning the work of the housekeeping department is to ensure that all employee carry out their cleaning tasks in a consistent manners. The keys to consistency are the performance standards which the executive housekeeper develops, communicates, and manages. Although these standards will vary from one housekeeping department to another , executive housekeepers can ensure consistency of cleaning by demanding 100 % conformity to the standards established by their departments. When performance standards are not properly developed, effectively communicated, and consistently managed, the productivity of the housekeeping department suffers because employees will not be performing their tasks in the most efficient and effective manner.
The most important aspect of developing standards is gaining consensus on how cleaning and other tasks are to be carried out. Consensus can be achieved by having individuals who actually perform the tasks contribute to the standards that are eventually adopted by the department.
Performance standards are communicated through ongoing training programs. Many properties have developed performance standards and have included them between the covers of impressive housekeeping procedures manuals. However, all too often, these manuals simply gather dust on shelves in the offices of executive housekeepers. Well-written standards are useless unless they are applied . The only way to get standards in the work place is through effective training programs.
After communicating performance standards through ongoing training activities, the executive housekeepers must manage those standards. Managing standards means ensuring conformity to standards by constant inspection. Experienced housekeepers know the truth of the adage : " You can't expect what you don't inspect ". Daily inspection and periodic performance evaluations should be followed up with specific on-the-job coaching and retraining. This ensures that all employees are consistently performing their tasks in the most efficient and effective manner. The executive housekeepers should review the department's performance standards at least once a year and make appropriate revisions as new work methods are implemented.
Productivity Standards
While performance standards establish the expected ' quality ' of the work to be done, productivity standards determine the acceptable " quantity ' of work to be done by department employees. An executive housekeepers begins to establish productivity standards by answering the question : How long should it take for a housekeeping employee to perform an assigned task according to the department's performance standards ? Productivity standards must be determined in order to property staff the department within the limitations established by the hotel's operating budget plan.
Since performance standards vary in relation to the unique needs and requirements of each hotel, it is impossible to identify productivity standards that would apply across the board to every housekeeping department. Since the duties of room attendants vary widely among economy/limited service, mid-range-service, and world-class-service hotels, the productivity standards for room attendants will also vary.
When determining realistic productivity standards, an executive housekeeper does not have to carry around a measuring tape, stopwatch, and clipboard and conduct time and motion studies on all the tasks necessary to clean and maintain each item on an area's inventory list. The labor of the executive housekeeper and other management staff is also a precious department resource. However, housekeeping managers must know how long it should take a housekeeping employee to perform the major tasks identified on the cleaning, frequency schedules-such as guestroom cleaning. Once this information is known, productivity standards can be developed.
Let's assume that, at a hotel offering mid-range service, the executive housekeeper determines that a room attendant can meet performance standards and clean a typical guestroom in approximately 27 minutes.Productivity standards can then be established for room attendant working 8 hour shifts. Calculation room attendant take a half hour unpaid lunch period. Room attendants should be to clean 15 guestroom per 8-hour shift.
Quality and quantity can be two sides of a double-edged sword. On one side, if the quality expectations ( performance standards ) are set too high, the quantity of work that can be done accordingly may be unacceptable low. This forces the executive housekeeper to add more and more staff to ensure that all the work gets done. However, sooner or later ( and probably sooner than expected ), the general manager will use the double-edged sword to cut the high labor expense of the housekeeping department. This action would force the executive housekeeper to reduce the size of the department staff and to realign quality and quantity by redefining performance standards in light of more realistic productivity standards.
On the other side, if performance standards are set too low, the quantity of work that can be done accordingly will be unexpectedly high. At first, the general manager may be delighted. However, as complaints from guests and staff increase and the property begins to reflect dingy neglect, the general manager may, once again, wield the double-edged sword. This time, the general manager may choose to replace the executive housekeeper with a person who will establish higher performance standards and monitor department expenses more closely.
The challenge is to effectively balance performance standards and productivity standards. Quality and quantity need not be a double-edged sword ; instead, each can serve to check and balance the other . A concern for productivity may not necessarily lower performance standards-it can sharpen and refine current work methods and procedures. If room attendants are constantly returning to the housekeeping area for cleaning and guestroom supplies, there is something wrong with the way they set up and stock their carts. Wasted motion is wasted time depletes the most important and most expensive resource of the housekeeping department: labor. The executive housekeeper must be constantly on the alert for new and more efficient work methods.
Remember, an executive housekeeper will rarely have all the resources necessary to do everything he/she may want to accomplish. Therefore, labor must be carefully allocated to achieve acceptable performance standards and realistic productivity standards.
Equipment and supply Inventory Levels
After planning what must be done and how the tasks are to be performed, the executive housekeeper must ensure that employees have the necessary equipment and supplies to get their jobs done. The executive housekeeper plans appropriate inventory levels by answering the following question; What amounts of equipment and supplies will be needed for the housekeeping staff to meet the performance and productivity standards of the department ? The answer to this question ensures smooth daily housekeeping activities and forms the basis for planning an effective purchasing system must consistently maintain the needed amounts of items stored within inventories controlled by the housekeeping department.
Essentially, the executive housekeeper is responsible for two types of inventories. One type stores items which are recycled during the course of hotel operations ; the other type stores non recyclable items. Non-recyclable items are consumed or used up during routine activities of the housekeeping department. Due to limited storage facilities and management's desire not to tie up cash in overstocked inventories, the executive housekeeper must establish reasonable inventory levels for both recyclable and non-recyclable items.
Recycled Inventories, Recycled inventories include linens, most equipment items, and some guest supplies, Recycled equipment includes room attendant carts, vacuum cleaners, carpet shampooers, floor buffers, and many other items. Recycled guest supplies include such items as irons, ironing boards, cribs, and refrigerators that guests may need during the course of their stay. Housekeeping is responsible for storing and maintaining these items as well as issuing them as they are requested by guests.
The number of recycled items that must be on hand to ensure smooth operations is expressed as a par number . Par refers to the standard number of items that must be on hand to support daily, routine housekeeping operations.For example, one par of linens is the total number of items needed to outfit all the hotel guestroom once; two par of linens is the total number of items needed to outfit all the hotel guestroom twice; and so on.
Non-Recycled Inventories, Non-recycled inventories include cleaning, supplies, guestroom supplies ( such as bath soap ), and guest amenities ( which may range from toothbrushes and shampoos and conditioners, to scented bath powders and colognes ). Since non-recyclable items are used up in the course of operations, inventory levels are closely tied to the purchase ordering system used at the property. A purchase ordering system for no-recyclable inventory items established a par number that is based on two figures-a minimum quantity and a maximum quantity.
The minimum quantity is the fewest number of purchase units that should be in stock at any time. Purchase units are counted in items of normal size shipping containers, such as cases, drums, and so on. The inventory level should never fall below the minimum quantity. When the inventory level of a non-recyclable item reaches the minimum quantity, additional supplies must be ordered.
The actual number of additional supplies that must be ordered is determined by the maximum quantity. The maximum quantity is the greatest number of purchase units that should be in stock at any time . This maximum quantity must be consistent with available storage space and must not be so high that large amounts of the hotel's cash resources are tied up in an overstocked inventory. The shelf life of an item also affects the maximum quantity of purchase units that can be stored.
