The Importance of Prioritising Work Ethics in Your Business

Unethical business practices and an unhealthy culture will inevitably damage your brand, workforce, and future viability. The hospitality industry with rotating shifts and little routine, constantly working with different people every single day, can lead to lack of empathy and care towards one another.

This can lead to many issues that could be avoided, such as:

harassment,

lack of empathy,

no care towards one another

bad customer service

high absence quota

increased turnover rates

HR must take harassment accusations and bad working culture seriously along with other ethical issues commonly found in the industry. Between harassment, theft, internet abuse by employees, and a wide variety of other problems, HR in hospitality must find ways to continually track these issues while showing their employees a level of trust- which is a fine line to not overstep.

Key to Success: Supporting Technology

HR software is not here to make your life harder and more complex. It is here to make managing your workforce so much easier on you. The larger the organisation, the more difficult it can be for HR to monitor a larger workforce so, in such an environment, utilising technology to keep a constant pulse on the workforce is imperative to identify trends before they could become systemic problems and damage the ever-important workplace culture.

Fostering Common Ethics Is Not Something To Be Overlooked

Ethics is important for the wellbeing of an organisation. It determines the effectiveness of an organisation and its operations. In the hospitality industry, ethical practices help to avoid issues such as racial conflicts, cultural differences, gender troubles and dishonesty among others.

There exists a link between common work ethics and employee performance. Most organisations take ethics as just another set of regulation. Incorporating common work ethics is in an organisation is fundamental in sustaining projected growth and eventual optimal performance of that organisation.

The essence of ethical behavior is shared across cultures of the world. It is important for the business to foster common ethics to get the best of the workforce. Staff is quite sensitive to unethical behavior touching on their welfare. Issues such as favoritism in staff recruitment, remuneration, promotion, allocation of duties etc, do have a lasting negative effect on staff performance. To enhance staff performance, businesses should always strive to put in place a clear company policy.

Policies Are The Way Forward

Hospitality administration needs to put policies in place to try as much as possible to be transparent in allocation of duties. A business must believe that it is important in supporting employee’s ethical growth. In supporting employees, administration shows employee’s that they are willing to go that extra mile in understanding their employees in tandem with the organisation’s culture.

Of great concern is the fact that absence of policies in any organisation eats away into its core profitability. This can be caused due to bad customer service standards as every employee follows their own rules.

Whenever there is a strong shared work ethic in an organisation, this is mostly due to set policies that are followed across the board. It actually projects a strong message that the establishment holds onto strong values and pride & customers will notice it.

Fostering a great working culture in hospitality will pay off, if you just give it the attention it needs to show its effects.

Continue reading our blog and learn how to solve other HR struggles in hospitality.

We can support you each step of the way! NOVA Smart NG is the solutions to cover your Hospitality needs. Learn More

Talent Acquisition in Hospitality

Due to the high turnover rate as well as more short-term employment, businesses in hospitality require a steady influx of new talent. However, the hospitality industry has recently experienced difficulty consistently recruiting candidates with the skills necessary to succeed in even entry-level jobs. Primarily it is hard due to a shortage of skills, consistently high turnover rates and the ability to retain good employees.

Business success can never be achieved by just one person; it takes a team – and the right team – for you and your business. So how do you find, attract, and keep the right people to work for you and your business? You do this by putting employees first.

Some of the overall benefits of good human resources (HR) practices include

higher employee satisfaction,

lower staff turnover,

superior customer service and, of course,

increased profitability.

In short, A human resource department’s main goal is to implement a variety of functions that are strategically designed to both attract and maintain an effective workforce.

You may not have a specific HR Manager, but you can implement some tactics they use to attract the best talent & retain them. Check them out below

Be Clear About The Skills & Experience Needed For The Job

This helps you to understand where your priorities lie in terms of necessary skills and abilities. Job analyses like these support you in finding the right talent required to successfully fulfill the job requirements. Once you figure out what’s most important, you can go through the interview process with a clearer picture of who and what you’re looking for. You also may realise, that not that much experience is needed for you can train them easily. This gives you access to a wider talent pool and more potential candidates.

Write Out An Detailed Job Description

Based on your job analysis you can write out a detailed job description. The analysis allows you to target exactly that group of potential candidates. A job description is also helpful for a candidate, as it allows them to learn exactly what the role would include should they receive an offer and can better estimate whether this roles suits them or not.

Imagine your Applicant in the Job

A hotel’s staff directly relates to that facility’s success. Hotel staff members have a major impact on a guest’s stay, for better or for worse. To ensure that your customers return for another visit soon, keep the focus on hiring the very best that your industry has to offer.  Imagine the applicant in that job. Give them day-to-day cases and ask for them to explain how they would react. Allow some candidates to work for a day in your business and ask colleagues about their performance. For this to work you must have a business culture of openness & trust. Make the process fun so that the applicant feels save to be themselves and both parties can get to know each other on an honest level.

Why Not Look At What Talent You Already Got?

Divide your time equally between internal recruiting efforts and spreading your message to outside candidates. Both types of recruiting have value. Many businesses inadvertently end up focusing too much attention on one over the other. If you have an employee working the front desk who appears to have potential to fill another role, start considering them. Let them know what the other position would entail and find out whether they have the drive and skills to handle this new position.

Choose Untraditional Methods Of Finding The Right Fit

If you’re out and meet someone who you think would be perfect for your team, have you ever thought about asking them?

Exchange contact information and stay in touch. Even if they’re not currently looking for a new job, you may find that they’re your next great hire. It’s easy to teach someone how to do a certain activity. It only requires practice. Though, it’s much harder to teach them customer service abilities or other soft skills. If you think they’d represent your hotel well, contact them when an opening comes up. You may be surprised how easy hiring can be.

Ensure You Complete Background Checks

Background checks are especially important in the hospitality industry. Your staff will have access to guests’ personal possessions and information. As busy as you may be during the hiring process, never neglect this key step.

Do Not Forget To Invest In Proper Onboarding

Talent acquisition in hospitality is one thing, but retaining talent has a lot to do with the onboarding phase. Onboarding is the first phase were not only you get to see how the new employee actually performs, but so is it a period for the employee to check out the company.

This first impression is essential to build the fundament for a long-lasting employment. It is like with a new customer- first impressions count and for them to come back, you must invest and offer them a better experience than the competition.

Clearly Communicate Expectations & Tasks

Everyone who works in your facility, regardless of their duty, should know what’s expected of them. They should understand how guests should be treated, how to handle a dissatisfied customer, and who to talk to if they have concerns. It brings clarity to the new employee and offers them an opportunity to understand your restaurant’s, hotel’s or café’s vision much faster.

Are you ready to improve your chances of hiring the right talent & better Talent Acquisition in Hospitality? Focus on streamlining your hiring process & get the best of the best for your hotel, restaurant or cafe.

Continue reading our blog and learn how to solve other HR struggles in hospitality.

We can support you each step of the way! NOVA Smart NG is the solutions to cover your Hospitality needs. Learn More

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction in hospitality is important to not only retain employees but also to be able to fulfill the needs of your customers. Job satisfaction displays the amount of gratification that employees have when they’re in the workplace. It plays a crucial role in employee productivity.

Unsatisfied employees with low morale simply don’t have the incentive to exceed expectations from either managers or customers. Such circumstances are especially dangerous in the hospitality industry as inferior quality service directly impacts customer satisfaction and, eventually, brand reputation. Given the importance of social influence in the modern marketplace, negative reviews and low ratings can quickly erode business.

While the cause of low morale can vary between organizations, some of the more common reasons include a consistent lack of training, unskilled coworkers, lack of sufficient staff and lackluster rewards. Many hospitality workers consider themselves underutilized. It should be clear to management that employees want to learn and progress within their roles. However, most times, they do not feel they have sufficient training and opportunities to do so.

Employee Morale

Employee morale is a description of the emotions, attitudes and feelings of employees within their workplace environment. Employees that are happy and show a positive attitude at work are known to have high morale. Employees who don’t favor their work environment have low morale.

A few aspects of a workplace that can influence an employee’s morale include working conditions, support from management and job security. For example, If an employee sits down with their manager and it is communicated that they are on task with their work, then they will have a higher likelihood of feeling emotionally at ease and feel less pressure because of receiving a vote of confidence from management.

During an annual performance review, an employee may be asked how they feel about the work they are doing and evaluate their environment. This question gives the employee a chance to answer the question directly about whether the job is fitting in with their career goals.

It’s important for you to analyze employee morale and job satisfaction as two separate concepts. If you notice an employee with decreasing satisfaction, morale or both, you can assess how they can proceed in finding solutions to help them regain their morale or passion for their work.

Here are strategies for improving your workforce’s morale and job satisfaction.

Create a positive work environment

The success of your organization can be determined based on how your workforce communicates with one another. Therefore, fostering positive behavior within your workplace is crucial to ensure your workplace can manage projects they’re working on and interact with clients in a friendly way.

Assess managerial support and behavior

Employees who work with clients on a day-to-day basis are brand ambassadors for your organization. Whether if it’s sales, marketing or another department, employees may not receive direct feedback from clients about their performance. If you receive feedback from the client about an employee, present feedback in an honest manner. Ensure that you’re making them feel like they’re doing well and are taking the necessary steps to better their performance when necessary.

Check in with managers monthly to see if they’re proceeding in enacting the steps to render employee feedback.

Measure satisfaction

Hold individual meetings with your employees periodically to gauge the motivation they have towards their job. When you get a response from the employee, you have a better idea of what their motivations are and how to build on them. Performance reviews also can give the employee an avenue to express their opinions in writing about additional comments they may have about their current role.

Involve employees in decision-making

Another method of fostering an all-inclusive workplace is to elicit feedback from team members as to areas of growth on a specific strategy or tactic. Giving employees more autonomy when it comes to resource allocation, setting priorities and goals is conducive to the success of your strategy. Also, it empowers employees to execute their tactics with clarity.

Receive feedback from employees regularly

Ensure you have direct communication avenues with your employees that extends beyond one manager. It’s important to have the manager’s evaluation of the employees. Establish an open-door policy to allow for frank conversation and open up the communication lines between upper and lower-level employees.

Are you ready to increase workforce morale and job satisfaction in hospitality? Focus on improving your employee’s attitude to their work to increase retention & overall customer service quality.

Continue reading our blog and learn how to solve other HR struggles in hospitality.

We can support you each step of the way! NOVA Smart NG is the solutions to cover your Hospitality needs. Learn More

High Turnover:  A Result of Neglected Training

Insufficient training and development in hospitality also play a significant role in high turnover rates. Low retention rates leave management with fewer choices and often leads to undertrained and ill-prepared employees placed into critical positions without the necessary skills and knowledge.

Many times, companies place too much personal responsibility on employees without giving them the tools they need to succeed. They blame employees for poor performance. If an employee is underperforming, there’s a good chance that they’re a great employee who’s not been given the tools they need to do their job. It isn’t always physical tools that allow an employee to be successful; a tool might be levels of clearance, training, or a clear channel of communication.

Be aware of it by talking to your employees regular and foster an honest workculture where constructive feedback is requested and not avoided.

You Already Have the Brightest Talent within your Team

If you’re looking to fill the positions you have, start by looking at the talent you already have on hand. It is important to look for transferable skills within your organization. A bad hire costs companies time and money every year. Many times, soft skills are an innate trait that can’t be taught. If you already have found employees with great soft skills, training them for specific positions would be a better option fiscally. Also, other employees will view the promotion of their co-workers as a boost in motivation to improve their own performance.

Investment Worth Making

An overall lack of preparedness will eventually have a cascading effect that impacts customer satisfaction which increases employee stress levels and only further exaggerates high turnover rates. Organizations in hospitality are wise to invest in thorough and comprehensive management training programs that will, in turn, help those managers properly train first-line staff.

These functions facilitate the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for staff to perform in their current position and/or to prepare for advancement.

Trained Employees Equals Happy Customers

Great service by employees leads to great customer experiences and may result in word-to-mouth recommendations & overall good reviews. However, customers can sense whether or not an employee is happy with their job. They can also tell , if someone knows what they are doing. Therefore, having well-trained employees will increase the quality of service and make the customer feel more welcome & overall, more cared for.

Are you ready to increase service quality, employee happiness & customer satisfaction? Focus on developing your employees to get the best out of your company with the resources you have.

Continue reading our blog and learn how to solve other HR struggles in hospitality.

Novative can support you each step of the way! NOVA Smart NG is the solutions to cover your Hospitality needs in hiring, employee retention, training, scheduling and much more. Learn More

High Turnover Rates in Hospitality

While varied schedules and low pay rates contribute to the staggering statistics, poor management is often the biggest culprit in hospitality. Like many service-oriented industries, employees typically experience high levels of stress which, when coupled with ineffective decision-making from managers, makes high turnover rates inevitable. Staff will change their employer in no minute. They are ready to explore less stressful and more respectful working environments.

Recognize People Will Leave

Hospitality is an employment area where a lot of employees work part-time. Be it the parent while their kids are in school, the student, trying to earn a little extra cash or generally, people who are looking for another job or career on the side, all are there for the short-term.  Be aware of this situation and monitor the turn-over rate for this group separate from the fluctuation for professionally trained personnel.

Say Thank You More Often

Hospitality demands a lot of its employees. Rush-hours with stressed and unfriendly customers, time pressure to keep customer satisfaction high but service quality stable across the board, early or late shifts and little to no weekends off to spend with family – these are all aspects of this industry. All this leads to stressful environments where employees can quickly feel underappreciated for their hard work.

Recognize your employees & show them your appreciation. It does not have to be a big deal. Say a simple thank you, congratulate them for mastering a super busy shift or shout them out in the next staff meeting. For any bigger accomplishments you could recognize them through an extra day or weekend off, a gift card, a bonus or sending them home earlier on a very calm day without cutting pay short.

Encourage Workplace Relationships

A healthy workplace is not built accidentally but requires effort, time and determination from the manager. Employees should feel welcome, appreciated & comfortable. To build an environment where employees connect &  respect each other requires a policy that enforces this behaviour. Also, regular team events, team lunches or other activities beside work encourage a healthy work culture and relationships between work colleagues. This is especially important in an industry where employees work closely together. Retention can be increased by strengthening colleague relationships.

Succeed with Long-term Staff Planning

The flexibility ofworking time and not working a 9 to 5 job is a selling point for hospitality. Many employees looking after relatives or working another job on the side that require a flexible work schedule. However, this does not mean that employees have no private life without fixed responsibilities and planned appointments. It also does not mean that they can come to work as soon as you call them. Therefore, publishing the shift plan a day before the shift schedule becomes effective, is a formula for disaster.

Release the working plan in a set rhythm. This allows you and the employees to have enough time to adjust to the plan. Give them time to request to change a shift with a co-worker. This takes the pressure out & allows for long-term planning & security for you and your staff.

Become An HR Manager Without Being One

Business success can never be achieved by just one person; it takes a team – and the right team – for you and your business. So how do you find, attract, and keep the right people? You do this by putting employees first. Some of the overall benefits of good human resources (HR) practices include higher employee satisfaction, lower staff turnover, superior customer service and, of course, increased profitability.

In short, A human resource department’s main goal is to implement a variety of functions that are strategically designed to both attract and maintain an effective workforce. Even, if you do not have a single HR manager in your team, get familiar with HR best practices. This can increase your overall business operations. You can attend courses, read online articles or attend short seminars specific for your industry.

Are you ready to put an end to the high fluctuation?

Continue reading and learn how to solve other HR struggles in hospitality.

Novative can support you each step of the way! NOVA Smart NG is the solutions to cover your Hospitality needs in hiring, employee retention, training, scheduling and much more. Learn More