How Good Are You at Operations?
When all’s said and done, the devil is still in the details. This is why your role as an operations manager is made all the more important. But exactly how good are you at operations? Below we go through a few vital skills and tools every operations manager should have — so you can check where your strengths are and where you need to improve moving forward.
One key responsibility of the operations manager is to ensure that everything runs as smoothly and as effectively as possible. An in-depth understanding of how your hotel operates can help you more accurately determine where to cut costs, eliminate bottlenecks, and review inefficient processes — whether it be by yourself or with experienced colleagues. Additional knowledge on industrial-organizational psychology — or human behavior in the workplace — can further help you formulate strategies to increase productivity. For example, you can offer upskilling opportunities or train employees in using automated software meant to eliminate redundant manual tasks.
Operations managers should also ensure businesses run optimally regardless of circumstance. You’re probably already familiar with lean operations. This minimalist strategy advocates continually cutting costs to maximize available resources. One great example is Toyota. Its pioneering production method “Just In Time” only produces enough cars as needed, so workers can assemble each car to perfection. Checking for duplicated tasks, burdened inventories, and cost overages can help you do the same in your hotel. Digital transformation tools like automation can also help you operate leanly, so consider using them to your advantage if you haven’t already.
Empowering your team
Your role as operations manager extends beyond monitoring business performance. Since you’re at the helm of one of the most important roles in business administration, you also play a big part in helping your business survive the ongoing staff crunch in the hospitality industry. To adjust and survive through recruitment difficulties caused by today’s economic uncertainties, talent management experts LHH recommends you focus on shifting from a replaceable workforce to a renewable one. Think about your staff’s current skillsets and if they can be upskilled to meet your organization’s future goals. When recruiting new staff, hire based on their ability to adapt and positively respond to fast-tracked training over time. As we mentioned above and will go further in-depth on below, further empowering upskilled staff with technology can help you become more agile in countering present and future challenges in hospitality management.
If you haven’t yet, consider streamlining your workload with technological tools. This will allow you to attend to more pressing matters. Consider platforms like Zapier for automating everyday tasks and Trello or Hive for centralized project management. For the customer-facing aspects of your role, try our own HMP Master system. Three strategic benefits of our technology solution include immediate feedback from guests, a holistic guest interface, and better sales and marketing production management. With it, you can collect the data you need to improve guest experiences — and easily share reports with other hotel stakeholders.
If you’re aiming to achieve a certain level of operational efficiency, you’ll need some way to track and measure your progress. In its 2022 article “SMART Goal,” the Corporate Finance Institute lauds that specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) objectives is the best way to eliminate vagueness and establish a sense of direction. Instead of simply saying you want to increase the number of direct bookings, for example, you can aim to increase direct bookings by 75% in 6 months. To see smart goals to success, remember to keep track of some key performance indicators (KPIs) as well. This can include revenue per available room, average length of stay, occupancy rates, online reviews, and market penetration index. These steps should help give you a firm grasp of your hotel’s performance and what you need to do to improve it.
Hotel operations management can be challenging. Hopefully, this quick rundown helps you check how good you are at operations — and what you can do to become even better.
