Cost control and Efficiency Maximization

Question: Discuss about the Cost control and Efficiency Maximization. Answer: Introduction The labor being the highest variable cost in the management of hotels, the managers strive towards managing the costs of labor struggling to keep them lower with maintaining the profits higher. However, it looks tempting in reducing the cost of the labor while the quality of the service deteriorates because of the low staff present in the hotel with no manager really interested to work with understaffed labor and be penalized for the service offerings to the customers being on the lower standard. The scheduling of labor happens to be complex process. However, in most of the hotels the pen and the paper are still used for this scheduling of the labor (Rutherford, 2007). This requires the access related to advanced forecasting tools and the analytics with the forecast of the demand that forms towards the scheduling of the labor the basis that is based on the better instincts and the outlet manager experience. The demands requirements once understood by the manager they require to translate this knowhow, the knowledge and the information towards the determination relating to the employees consisting with right number that is required to fulfill the demand and also the staff members those can meet these and meet slots. The process in each of these steps happens to be time consuming and complex with mistakes being costly towards the objective of the process. The demand patterns being uncertain, the external influences interrelated with the data that is spread across the various multiple systems hampers the accurate methods of demand forecasting. Thus its important that exact demand forecasting is required for scheduling the rosters of the employees to meet the entire objectives of the organization. Roaster Creation based on industrial relations standards and instruments The creation of the rosters requires the certain principles that are important to keep the managers, the employees and the accountants happy. Roster without names Firstly designing of the roster that does not consist of names but requires allocation based on hours with costing it according to hourly rates of wages. After which the names of people suitable added relating to the differing days and the required shifts. This refers to position rostering than compared with the traditional modes that develops a roster based on the individual request and taking their busy lives into consideration (Thompson, 2009). Roster cost related to writing Though the functions vary the modern services provides to suggest that these reveal the costs with the writing of the roster that helps towards accurate forecasting and controlling the budget. These suggest managers to be provided with tools towards tracking prior to roster being posted as they are responsible for the cost of the labor. The wage budget with reverse working The head or the manger since responsible for the roster requires them to take the hours covered into consideration. They need to maintain the budget with this calculation as this is quite important as the fulfillment with budget provides the reason good enough for bonus. Roster for the Front Office Department Roaster for Front Office Department on 9/11/2016 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Name/ Job role Total Hours weekly Daily Cost Weekly Cost 9/12/2016 9/13/2016 9/14/2016 9/15/2016 9/16/2016 9/17/2016 9/18/2016 A/Front Office Manager 36 hrs $200.00 $1,200.00 (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs B/Receptionist 1 60 hrs $100.00 $600.00 (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs C/Receptionist 2 42 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs D/Staff 1 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs E/Staff 2 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs F/Staff 3 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs This roster is prepared based on the front office department requirements to provide the service to the customers according to the various parameters that are set forth in the roster that includes the Employees with their role function, the budget that is provided with each staff working hours from Monday to Saturday (Hayes et al., 2012). This also takes into account the daily hours, the weekly hours and the cost both the daily and the weekly that will determine the budget regarding the spending of the hotel. The staff suitability and the efficiency are considered during the preparation of the roster since these are required during the various hours of the work to provide the better service level to their customers. This takes care of the forecasting of the demand and the efficiency level that is required towards the discharging of the duties to offer better service and value to customers. Roster for the House Keeping Department Roaster for House keeping Department on 9/11/2016 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Name/ Job Role Total Hours weekly Daily Cost Weekly Cost 9/12/2016 9/13/2016 9/14/2016 9/15/2016 9/16/2016 9/17/2016 9/18/2016 G/House Keeping Manager 36 hrs $200.00 $1,200.00 (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs (08.00 - 14.00) hrs H/Staff 1 60 hrs $80.00 $480.00 (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs I/Staff 2 42 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (18.00 - 24.00) hrs (08.00 - 18.00) hrs J/Staff 3 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs (8.00 - 14.00) hrs K/Staff 4 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs (14.00 - 20.00) hrs L/Staff 5 36 hrs $80.00 $560.00 (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs (20.00 - 02.00 ) hrs This is similar to the front office roster prepared that keeps the department of housekeeping roster with the functions and the roles of the person responsible for the performing of their duties. This takes into consideration the overall budget with the daily working hours, the weekly working hours, the daily wage and the weekly budget that are important (Jones and Martin, 2005). This is mainly required for the completion of the job and the service to be offered to the customers depending on the level of demand that is existing and the efficiency of service required to meet this demand. Reflection This has provided the learning that the correct demand forecasting related to the need of the efficiency of the service is required. The managers need to manage and control the costs of the labor with the scheduling the appropriate staff levels that requires towards serving the demand. The excess staff increases the cost and the under staffed decreases the revenue and accounts for customers those are dissatisfied (Sheldon, 2006). This requires the approach taking the help of the software that can help with the preparation of this scheduling based on the demand and the need of the hour. This provides building an accurate and the labor schedule that is cost effective with forecasting accurate demand and the correct staffing numbers for meeting the demand. The costs needs to be reduced with increasing revenue that drives profits with the balancing of the labor available and the demand with creating in advance appropriate labor plan that helps to alert when the conditions of operation ch anges. The acceleration of labor schedule process using interfaces easily provides the relevant period labor needs with ability towards analyzing fast and make changes necessary as required. To make hiring better with deployment and the decisions related to service design with the evaluation of root causes that help understand operational data towards those variables that affect the volume of service, the behavior of customer and the performance of the employees(Corgel et al., 2012). The optimization of employee performance with proper monitoring and ranking them to have fast insights regarding the performance of employee against the parameters those are important. Conclusion Therefore, it is important the costs are controlled while efficiency is also achieved requires the proper scheduling of the work force that are neither over staffed or are understaffed based on the demand and the requirements to meet the objectives of the organization. References Broten, P. (1970) Progress in Hotel Research and Development.Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. [Online] 11 (3), 2-3. Corgel, J. et al. (2012) Hotel Industry Demand Curves.The Journal of Hospitality Financial Management. [Online] 20 (1), 85-95. Hayes, D. et al. (2012)Foundations of lodging management. Boston: Prentice Hall. Jones, T. Martin, R. (2005)Professional management of housekeeping operations. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley Sons. Rutherford, D. (2007)Hotel management and operations. 2nd edition. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Sheldon, D. (2006)World class master scheduling. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: J. Ross Pub. Thompson, G. (2009) Labor Scheduling, Part 1: Forecasting Demand.Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 44 (5), 22-31.