Analyse your hotel business with the 3 P framework
If you have a struggling hotel or restaurant , a good way to analyze your hotel business is by using the age old 3 P framework. In case you are not aware of the frame work, the 3 P are Product, People, Process
The Right People following the the streamlined Process, selling the best Product with care and empathy
People:
While you may want the best people to lead and work in your team, it is not always possible to hire the best given your budget and other constraints. That being said, you can not always keep replacing people who leave you as well. So in order to make the best of the People leg of the framework you must have a plan to Attract, Train and Retain people
Attract:
You can attract people by being a good employer. Being a good employer is not about paying the best salary. It is about the brand you build with existing employees and what they say about your organisation to their friends. In many hotels, the maximum number of people join due to a internal referral program. That means , your employees are not only work mates, but friends in many cases.
Train:
After you attract the people , expecting them to get to work without setting ground rules is a recipe for disaster. Yes the person you hired would have earlier experience, however if you don’t train as per your expectation, the new employee is going to work as he was instructed previously. Having a good training structure for various levels of the employees is surely going to help the person grow and support the organization.
Help to train you team better. Give them access to online learning. Know more
Retain:
A recent trend in hotels is that we have to replace our employees every 9 months on an average. This is a huge cost as you know, hiring, training and getting people to work to standards take about 3 to 4 months. Getting productive work is important to recover the cost associated with this. And in order to get benefit for all the effort, you need to develop a plan to increase the time the employee stays at the organisation. Even a 3 month increase can benefit the hotel with incremental sales than a new employee.
A simple after work program, benefits that are valued, competitive pay scale, growth prospect, trust are some of the compelling reason why people stay back.
While many claim that people are their most important asset, few put this in practice and if you are honest about your struggling business, my advice is to look at attrition data. If you have a merry go round with people getting on and off frequently, think about what you can do to Attract, Train and Retain your people.
Process
Process are systems you set in place. They are the building blocks of the organisation. Without that, you are running an organisation in the wild west. If you are in the startup phase of your business, systems and process will help you to streamline what needs to be done and how.
Every department need to have process to ensure they are working efficiently and eliminating waste. Your business exist to make profit and if you don’t have systems in place, you will not know which part of your business is bleeding. Process come in many form in the hotel.
It can be as simple as checklist to ensure work is done or SOP which guide people how to do the work.
In finance, the audit process is a system of check and balance and is a process that must be followed daily.
If your process is strong, you can work on all parts of business with confidence.
Product
The final P in the framework is the Product. That is the last part of the framework. While analyzing your product, look at what your guest are telling you to improve the facility. Also make sure the product you envision to sell can be made and delivered by the people you have on board.
If you want to have the best bakery in town, and your bakery is headed by a Chef de partie, it might be impossible to get good products. You need to work to staff the bakery with the best possible people.
Simplify your product to match the capability of the people or train them to deliver on exceptional service. Some time your restaurant menu is an ego based menu with mix and match of cuisine. Prune them mercilessly till you have a theme that you can deliver. Even in an all day dining menu, 40 great dishes will be better than 101 mediocre dishes.
When it comes to the hotel, think about the rooms and the amenities and the overall service level. In rooms your product is sleep. You are selling sleep and a good night rest. Can your people and process support that product.
So there you see the correlation of the 3 P framework. Use this framework every time to analyse your business and maybe you can find solutions from there.