By Brian Marcus
I remember when I was just starting out in my career, every two weeks I would check the hand-written schedule with red cross out marks on it, hanging in the break room, to see what my short-term destiny would be. Boy have we come a long way!
In a seminar at a CCMA conference in Macau several years ago the words from one of the presenters became a reality to me, “the first thing a millennial does in the morning is check the device for their overnight Instagram and snapchat messages”. Right? Yes, of course right, and not too dissimilar to the non-millennials as well.
So how can we harness that power of the device for scheduling? Easy as long as WE are ready to embrace change and doing things differently. With a bit of easy learning (or having a 20-something show you) move to disseminating your schedule “socially” and personalized to that staff member.
We did this at a former Club that I worked with and it was fantastic. Easy for the manager, direct and appropriate for the staff and made schedule changes and maintenance so simple. The result, less lateness, happier and more engaged staff, more empowered managers and ultimately better overall service.
Taking it a step further we had a restaurant staff all on a group messenger service where the manager could “shout out” anything from the soup of the day to the service standard of the week to; you guessed it, schedule changes. Communication made easy and effective.
Grab a device and give it a try!
Brian Marcus is one of our executive recruiters specializing in private clubs and hospitality. Brian has over 10 years of club experience and 25 years of hotel, restaurant and F&B experience in numerous countries. For more information contact Brian at 626-836-1222 or brian@globalhospitality.com