1. Planning to Schedule Workers:
A Major Advantage of Housekeeper Team Staffing

2. Worker Scheduling
Scheduling is a major task that must be performed with absolute regularity
Hotels, hospitals, and restaurants are not five day, 40 hour work week businesses – things would be easier if they were
Fluctuating occupancies and employee needs further compound the scheduling process
Team scheduling is definitely easier than individual worker scheduling

3. Team Staffing
Being able to schedule a group of people as one person is a major advantage
Being part of a small unit also raises morale – people relate better to team performance than being just one of many
Performance is measured on a team basis
The more competent G.R.A.s are usually more willing to help weaker workers improve
Absenteeism and tardiness is often resolved at the team level

4. Promoting Teamwork
Individuals work toward the achievement of personal goals (e.g., promotions, etc.) therefore cooperation should be part of performance appraisals and rewards
Managers should allow everyone to “shine”
Managers should consider team ideas as well as individual ideas
Reward team as well as individual performance

5. Teamwork and Swing Teams
Sometimes disputes occur between swing teams and regular teams
Equal praise and reward to both teams for a job that is well done
When problems arise, management should bring both parties together to work out disagreements

6. Team Scheduling is not Team Cleaning
Team cleaning involves “specialists” who perform only one set of cleaning tasks (e.g., bathroom cleaning, vacuuming)
Most hotel use zone cleaning where a G.R.A. cleans a quota of guestrooms
Team cleaning has been shown to be much more efficient than zone cleaning in schools, office buildings, hospitals, and retail stores
Team cleaning is largely untried in hotels, but it holds great promise

7. Standing Rotational Scheduling and Tight Scheduling
First, a standing rotational schedule must be constructed that allows employees two days off a week and provides for complete coverage for a full seven days
Second, a tight schedule must be constructed that modifies the standing schedule based on occupancy less than 100%

8. Standing Rotational Scheduling and Tight Scheduling
The standing rotational schedule presented in the textbook allows for:
Employees to work a maximum of five days in a given work week with no need for overtime pay
Days off will be consecutive
Standing rotational schedules differ from regular schedules in that:
The workweek begins on Saturdays and ends on Fridays
All team members must be willing to work their share of weekends
The schedule is on a seven week cycle, advancing one day every week for the seven weeks

9. The Work Calendar for the Standing Rotational Schedule
It is divided into seven distinct work weeks
Some weeks the employee has three days off in a row
The employee may work five days in a row in one week followed by another day in the next week, working six days straight
Positions are scheduled, not persons
Fixed positions are individual positions that do not change because of occupancy

10. The Work Calendar for the Standing Rotational Schedule
The linen room supervisor and the linen room attendant should be scheduled off on different days
The senior housekeeping aide and the linen room supervisor should not be scheduled off on the same day
Although managers do not appear, none-the-less they should not all be scheduled off on the same days

11. Posting the Standing Rotational Schedule
The full cycle of seven weeks should be posted next to a copy of the department staffing guide
A marker can be used to indicate the current week in the cycle

12. Tight Scheduling Systems
Tight schedules are operational systems that change with increases and decreases of occupancy
The tight schedule only impacts team scheduling, fixed positions are not impacted by occupancy
Tight schedules indicate how many team employees are needed, but who is needed may be left to the supervisors’ to determine

13. Union Contracts and Their Effects on Scheduling
Union contracts may prevent the use of a standing rotational system
A union contract may demand a full work-week for full-time employees, so the number of full-time employees may be very small
Steady extras (workers who are not guaranteed 40 hours) will then be used to make up the difference