Employees are your most valuable asset and should be treated accordingly. Yet employee turnover is still a pervasive industry issue that’s costly and time-consuming. Did you know that according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the turnover rate in the U.S. hospitality segment rose from 66.7% in 2014 to 72.1% in 2015?
That’s an incredible challenge to overcome for owners and operators. Training costs, onboarding a new employee and getting them up to speed costs about $1,200 per employee, according to a study by ADP. So it’s no surprise hoteliers want to do as much as possible to keep their good employees happy and on the payroll.
Worse yet, there are generally pre-departure costs, recruitment, selection, loss of productivity and more issues, too. If that’s not enough, says high turnover is damaging to corporate culture, which in turn can cause more people to leave.
Problem is, even if you are great to employees, outdated technology can lead to dissatisfaction and frustration since it can result in decreased job productivity and efficiency. And that can lead to more employees quitting. Once an employee leaves, a report by DHI Hiring Indicators states that it generally takes 29.2 days to find a replacement.
Out With The Old
Your typical employee was most likely raised in a world surrounded by screens; computers they interact with logically and visually as part of a post Windows 95 world. Essentially, they’ve been trained for years how to interact with computers a very specific way. But too many hotel property management systems are relics of a bygone era, requiring employees to utilize an entirely different thought process to do basic tasks.
Neither guests nor employees appreciate waiting around during the time it takes to do even the simplest tasks on older hotel management software. It can frustrate employees make their jobs needlessly complicated, and can turn a customer touch point into a customer damage point. Guests generally do not like when hotel staff pecks away at a keyboard seemingly forever to do even the most basic tasks.
hoteliers do not want to risk anything that may disrupt the employee’s ability to do their job.
In With The New
Today, a web based property management system can completely change the front desk agent’s entire job. Visually intuitive, easy to learn and operate, a modern PMS system is a great hospitality solution. Not only may it make employees more productive and efficient, but it can also help prevent many costly mistakes.
Oh yeah, new employees probably won’t have to spend nearly as much time training either, and ongoing training which may save hours of back of house training that can be replaced by hours front of house helping guests. More productive and efficient staff means happier guests, which can increase loyalty and your ability to charge higher rates.
Spending a little bit now on a modern PMS computer system built to help hotels achieve growth, elevate operating performance, and improve the guest experience is a smarter way to unearth future opportunity.
