Being Short-Staffed Leads to Culture Transformation
150 year old Grandfather Live Oak
The problem? The front desk was short-staffed and our guests weren’t experiencing the best service we could provide.
I heard from managers daily that we weren’t getting the applicants they wanted. I went home thinking how I could widen the applicant pool and other sources I could use to hire candidates. Rather than ride the subway home, I walked through the park. That usually helped me think clearly and create ideas. Just as I walked past Bethesda Fountain, it dawned on me that we had housekeepers working reduced hours. What if we cross-trained them and they could pick up shifts at the desk. The desk wouldn’t be understaffed anymore and the housekeepers could earn a full paycheck. How do we cross-train them, though? How do I get the managers on board with this idea? What tools did I have to use to cross-train them? So many questions and I had a lot of work to do to answer them. I picked up my pace because I was excited to get home and start answering those questions.
I couldn’t get the door unlocked fast enough. I threw my bag on the couch and opened up my notebook to write down the ideas that flew around in my head. I created a plan to present to the General Manager.
The plan:
Advertise this opportunity by putting information in the Employee newsletter, talk about it at pre-shift meetings, and call employees at home who were working reduced hours.
Identify employees who wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.
Assess their skill level and identify what skills they have that met the needs of the department and what skills had to be developed.
List the training tools available.
Create an individual training plan for each employee.
Do what’s necessary to support their success at the front desk.
How will all of this work with so many moving pieces? I had to get department manager buy-in to work with training employees and scheduling them because they would see this as a scheduling challenge and wouldn’t want to do it. The General Manager and I would be there to support them every step of the way.
I woke up before my alarm the next morning and couldn’t wait to get to my meeting and present this to the General Manager. His immediate reaction was “Let’s do it.” He and I met with the managers of Housekeeping and the Front Desk, laid out our plan, and they were on board immediately. I should have never assumed they wouldn’t want to be a part of this solution. They asked how long it would take because we had to train employees on using technology, communication skills, general business practices, and soft skills because the Front Desk Manager needed employees ASAP. It would take awhile to get everyone up to speed, but we worked quickly and fast tracked some of the training. It was wild keeping track of everyone’s training plan. But, there were tools for that. It was madness to train people on their computer skills and soft skills. Some were hesitant at first and they weren’t confident in their capabilities. The employees were motivated to learn and we worked through those hesitancies. Within a matter of weeks, we had trained three people to transfer to the front desk.
We expanded the program and included anyone in the hotel who was interested in learning a new job. Room service attendants cross-trained at the bar. Front Desk agents trained in the Revenue Department. Bar employees learned about management. It was an exciting experiment that transformed lives.
Seeing people develop their skills and show up to work each day with unbounded enthusiasm for their new jobs. Watching people transform themselves right before our eyes. Solving problems that seemed insurmountable. I’ve had a lot of crazy ideas in my career, but this may just have been the craziest. It all started with an idea and people willing to jump right in to solve the problem.
