1. General Education Office
IHM.316 / ILA2401
English for the Hotel Business
Chapter 3: Staffing and Organization

2. "I am a great believer in luck
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it.“
Thomas Jefferson, former President of the United States of America
“You're only as good as the people you hire.” Ray Kroc, American pioneer of the fast-food industry, Founder of McDonald's.

3. Objectives
The objectives of this unit are…. 1. Language Focus: Staff Roles and Responsibilities 2. Vocabulary Focus: Hotel Staffing and Organization The purpose of this unit is to ensure your familiarity with the titles and responsibilities of hotel staff, and the departments within a hotel.

4. Objectives Today you will:
Identify staff positions, responsibilities and organization in hotels
Use must, have to and should to describe obligation and responsibility
Discover Adjectives/Nouns for key characteristics of Hotel Service staff
Familiarize with the qualities of a Concierge
Discuss the importance of effective communication
Describe the relevance of Pareto’s Principle in Business
Review terms related to employment
Make informed decisions about suitability of personnel for job positions

5. Staffing Roles and Responsibilities
Who does what?
Role
for whom?
Responsibilities
how?
Characteristics

6. Organization Chart – Large Hotel
General Manager
In groups of 3;
Review the Organization Chart provided.
Identify the ROLEs and RESPONSIBILITIES
Discuss/Decide the POSITION of the ROLE within the organization
Present your findings

7. Reverse Organization Chart
Guests
Associates
Managers
“Service Leadership”
“Supportive” GM
“Nurturing”
“Working for…..”

8. Obligation (and responsibility)
We use must, have to and should to talk about obligation:
The General Manager ….. must make sure the hotel makes profit.
I have to supervise Front of House operations.
He should ensure that the food is excellent quality .
We use don’t have to to show that something is not necessary:
He doesn’t have to check with me all the time.
We use mustn’t and shouldn’t to indicate obligation not to do something:
We mustn’t forget that the guest is most important.
It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to clean the room.

9. Obligation (and responsibility)
The housekeeper is explaining to a new chambermaid what her duties are. Select the most appropriate structure in the sentences below.
You (mustn’t/don’t have to) smoke in the bedrooms.
You (don’t have to / shouldn’t) work at night.
You (should/don’t have to) have a twenty minute break every two hours.
You (don’t have to/must) make sure you are ready to start work at 8.15am.
You (have to/shouldn’t) be finished by about 2pm most days.
You (shouldn’t/don’t have to) make it clear you want a tip.

10. Obligation (and responsibility)
Decode the anagram adjectives to find words used to describe personality and write them in the table on your sheet. (Ex 2)
ricesen
cultunap
blareeli
utocusero
carticlap
lebelfix
suiteachtins
usitomabi
nicefitfe
nitfecnod S P R C F E A
sincere
punctual
reliable
courteous
practical
flexible
enthusiastic
ambitious
efficient
confident
sincerity
punctuality
reliability
courteousy
practicality
flexibility
enthusiasm
ambitiousness
efficiency
confidence

11. Staffing Requirements
Small hotels have quite different staffing requirements from large ones. Read the article about George and Sylvie Bonnet and answer the questions in part 3

12. The Concierge’s Job
Listen to Christopher Lloyd, the Personnel Director of a large hotel, describing the job of a concierge.
As you listen, tick the items below if you hear Christopher Lloyd talk about them.
personality required  working hours  duties  uniform 
2 Listen again and take more detailed notes about the items you ticked.

13. Concierge service phrases
Without listening again, match the halves of the phrases below:
1 provide for a a guest’s request
2 contact b a courteous manner
3 make c guests’ needs
4 display d supply of stamps
5 maintain e external companies
6 keep f guest satisfaction
7 fulfil g bookings for tours, etc.
8 maximise h a log-book
Others:
Meeting guests in the reception area Helping guests with their baggage Showing guests to their rooms Handling customer queries Taking and delivering messages for the guests Making travel and restaurant reservations for guests

14. Communication What the Dishwasher knows……….
The Art and Science of Hospitality Management
Vallen & Abbey, Managing HR, P158
Dishwasher
Steward
Busboys
Server
Food & Beverage
General Manager

15. Communication What the dishwasher knows…
For three dollars an hour should I look at every fork when they come out?
If I did, the steward would tell me to quit wasting time.
Sure, I know the silver isn’t soaked long enough and the scrapers overload the garbage disposal. But they have to hurry or the dishes won’t be out soon enough to go up fast enough.
And the dishes aren’t separated and stacked right when they come down, so it takes me longer to get them into the machine. I tell the busboys, but they say they’re in too big a hurry to have time to fool with arranging dishes for the dishwashers.
It doesn’t make much difference. The dirty stuff will just be sent back for us to do over again.

16. Communication What the dishwasher told the steward…
The washer doesn’t spray hard enough and the soap isn’t strong enough to clean the dishes unless I put them through twice. Then I am slowed down too much.
What the steward told the food and beverage manager:
These guys just don’t care. Unless I watch them every minute they just let the stuff slide by. The best thing to do would be to appoint a head dishwasher so he/she could watch the rest, if I could find one I could trust. But for now I’ll just have to check them myself.

17. Communication What the Server knows…
I noticed the dishes were streaked and the silver still had food stuck on it, but there’s no use bothering the steward. I just set the bad stuff aside and got others from the pantry myself. Those dishwashers just put in their hours. They don’t care about the customers.
What the Food and Beverage Manager reported…
The steward will check the dishes and silver after they have been washed. He’ll push the dishwashers to work faster and more carefully. We haven’t enough workers.

18. Communication What the General Manager concluded….
You can’t get good help in the pantry and scullery.
Those people just don’t care!
They have no idea of the effect of their work on the
customers’ attitudes and opinions!!!
Who uncovered a problem?
Who covered a problem?
Who reported a problem?
“80% of the staff knew about a quality control problem, but only 20% of them passed the information along”

19. Pareto Principle Pareto Principle
also known as the “80–20 rule” or the “law of the vital few”
states that, for many events:
roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes
named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that
80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population
he developed the principle by observing that
20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas

20. Pareto Principle In business:
80% of the work is usually done by 20% of the people.
80% of the crashes are caused by 20% of the bugs
80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend
80% of your sales come from 20% of your products
80% of your sales are made by 20% of your sales staff

21. Generic Employment Terms
Application
Staff Turnover
Person Specification
Appraisal
Disciplinary
Orientation
Empathy
Probation
Motivation
Mentoring
Leadership
Empowerment
Tribunal
Supervision
Job Description
Management
Terms & Conditions
Interview

22. Interview Activity Work in Pairs
You are Senior Managers at a large, busy hotel in the heart of Toronto.
One of you is the Front of House Manager
One of you is the General Manager
Read the Job Advertisement (on P38) and the qualities from your Concierge notes
Read the 3 Interview Notes (on P39)
Decide who is going to get the position of Concierge (10 Minutes)
Join another pair, Discuss your decision and CONFIRM
Indicate on the white board whom you will APPOINT

23. Summary
Today we have:
Identified staff positions, responsibilities and organization in hotels
Used must, have to and should to describe obligation and responsibility
Discovered Adjectives/Nouns for key characteristics of Hotel Service staff
Familiarized with the qualities of a Concierge
Discussed the importance of effective communication
Described the relevance of Pareto’s Principle in Business
Reviewed terms related to employment
Made informed decisions about suitability of personnel for job positions