OVERBOOKED: THE HOUSEKEEPING PERSPECTIVE
It is no secret that in all hotels, the director of housekeeping must be able to
react quickly and efficiently to any unexpected circumstances that arise. Mel
Nepumoceno, the executive housekeeper at the Peninsula Regency in
Camiguin, usually starts his workday at 8"00 A.M. with a department meeting.
These morning meetings help him and the employees to visualize their goals
for the day. On this particularly busy day, Nepumoceno arrives at work and is
told that three housekeepers/room boy has called in sick. This is a serious
challenge for the hotel because it is overbooked and has all of its 400 rooms
to service.
Your Task:
1. Identify the problems that exist and explain how the problems affect the
operation?
The primary problem of this situation is the unexpected absences of the three
housekeepers due to sickness. For some reason, their absence was not
unavoidable, so they can't blame them. Unfortunately, because the hotel is
overbooked, it will cause a big problem for the team leader and the staff due
to the lack of employees, this is a challenge for them as they will be required
to double their tasks and perform excellent service despite the circumstances.
Second, no one informed the executive housekeeper of the absence of the
housekeepers/room boy, until the ill employees called Mr. Nepumoceno when
he arrived at the hotel. Housekeeping members for informing the problem to
leader, so that they can have enough time to devise a plan. As I assess the
situation, concerns like this can harm the establishment's reputation if they
can't provide the high-quality service that all customers require. In every
difficult situation, you must have a backup plan.
2. State the specific steps Mel Nepomuceno should do to resolve this matter?
The first step to resolve this matter is to create a plan for all housekeepers to
follow. They must understand the situation and have an open forum where
everyone can share their opinions and ideas because, in this situation,
teamwork is the best solution. The second step was to assign your chosen
employees to the double tasks and, if necessary, assist them. Remember that
a great leader is a great follower, so do your job as an executive housekeeper
because I understand that this job may require you to clean, and if you want a
good result, do your part to assist your employees. Lastly, time management
because even if you apply teamwork and leadership, if you don't manage your
time and end up wasting it because you can't focus, your entire team will
suffer.
3. What should Mel do to maintain standards and ensure that all the guest
rooms are serviced?
Mr. Nepumoceno is the executive housekeeper of the hotel in Camiguin all
the responsibilities, stress, and pressure are charged on him now that he is in
trouble because three of his employees are in sick and knowing that the hotel
is overbooked. One thing that Mr. Nepumoceno can do to maintain the
standard of the hotel is by applying his leadership style, which is most
appropriate in this challenging situation. He must call for an emergency
meeting for the housekeepers to explain the problem and plan for the best
solution. Also, he needs to direct/instruct them to work as a team because
when employees work together and start helping each other, it reduces the
workload and work pressure. Another thing, he can also assign one employee
to double their tasks according to their specialization to make the output more
efficient and faster even though they are short on housekeepers due to
sickness. If needed, he may borrow people from other departments who are
available to help the housekeeping department. For this purpose, he
promotes teamwork and leadership among the workers because I believe
good leadership is the foundation of excellent performance.
4. What could be done to avoid such problems from recurring?
If I were the executive housekeeper of the hotel and if I experienced that kind
of situation, I think the best solution to avoid these problems from recurring is
by checking the attendance of your employees, by doing this you will monitor
who is absent and avoid misunderstanding if there are unexpected absences.
Another thing you can do is to have a positive working relationship with your
workers. Show them how important they are in their field, because if you don't
have a strong relationship with them, they may not even tell you about their
problems, which can affect their work performance.
References
Importance of Employee Relation and How Employee Relation Plan can be
Implemented in an Organization? (impoff.com) (accessed on 19 February
2022)
Human resources: Absent Without Leave (Unauthorised Absences)
(education.vic.gov.au) (accessed on 19 February 2022)
5 Strategies for Managing Employee Attendance Problems (cbri.com)
(accessed on 19 February 2022)
Executive Housekeeper - go2HR (accessed on 19 February 2022)
