The hospitality sector, particularly hotels and restaurants, are often influenced by seasonal variations. These variations are typically a result of several factors like business cycles, travel costs, sociodemographic characteristics, climate, and institutional factors.
Seasonal variations have significant impacts on how hotels and restaurants operate. The workforce management or staffing in hotels and restaurants is influenced by these seasonal variations.
The Mapal’s workforce suite helps with hotel and restaurant management to manage the impacts of seasonal variations. This post highlights the impacts in details below.
Seasonal staff reductions and increases
Seasonal variations in the hospitality sector refer to periods of increased and reduced clients due to factors like weather and prices, to name a few. In response to these variations, hotels and restaurants often have to increase and reduce their staff.
This helps hotels and restaurants manage their operational costs. Low seasons mean that hotels and restaurants make less money. So, most of them cannot afford to stay afloat with plenty of staff members. This usually results in hotels laying off some of their staff members.
On the other hand, during high seasons, hotels make more money and they have more clients to cater to, hence the need for staffing increases.
Temporary staffing
Seasonal variations in the hospitality sector has resulted in many hotels and restaurants adopting temporary staffing models. Instead of having to hire and lay off staff members during high and low seasons, respectively, numerous hotels and restaurants currently opt for temporary staffing.
Hotels and restaurants just have to hire temporary staff members during the high seasons and let them go when the seasons are over. This is a transparent model where the staff members know what to expect and so do the hotels and restaurants.
Regardless, the hotels and restaurants still need to have some permanent staff members, especially in the management area, that can keep their businesses afloat. Mapal’s workforce suit, available at Mapal-os.com, helps with the management of the staff, both temporary and permanent.
The application of technology in staffing management
Seasonal variations have also resulted in the need for hotels and restaurants to start taking advantage of innovative strategies in their staffing approaches. The constant changes create the need for innovative strategies.
For instance, to keep meeting customer expectations, regardless of the season, restaurants may be forced to employ management software for their staff. Leveraging technology can also help provide flexible work arrangements, assist with employee training, and development.
For instance, instead of having to train staff members every time new members are hired, hotels and restaurants can use technology for training.
Embracing flexible scheduling
Plenty of hotels and restaurants are also embracing flexible scheduling practices to address the challenges of fluctuating demands and seasonal variations. They do this by offering staff members the freedom to choose their shifts, work remotely, and even take on extra hours during period breaks. In a nutshell, seasonal variations have resulted in hotels creating more adaptable workforces.
Conclusion
Businesses in the hospitality sector have to come up with effective staffing strategies to overcome seasonal variations. This is how hotels and restaurants manage to stay afloat despite the seasonal variations.
Maintaining a stable workforce and effective workforce management throughout different seasons Is essential for the provision of quality services, meeting expectations from clients, and promoting the overall success of a business.
Mapal-OS.Com is a workforce management software that help hotels and restaurants achieve this.