Pre-shift meetings are a fundamental and indispensable means to convey important info to all housekeeping employees regarding that day’s business and priorities. Here are several essential topics for supervisors to cover:
Uniform Check and Room Assignments. Ensure all employees are in proper uniform, complete with name tag. Rooms and areas will be assigned for cleaning, and keys will be issued to staff members.
Occupancy Activity for the Day. Vital statistics, such as forecast occupancy, number of arrivals and checkouts, arrival or departure of large groups, and anticipated late checkouts or early arrivals, will determine workload pace and priority, stress levels, and deployment of assets.
Daily Focus. Remind room attendants of the daily “special” task they should complete or an area to focus on in each guestroom or floor (e.g., high dusting, cleaning inside windows, scrubbing tile grout).
Safety. Every daily briefing should include a “safety moment” to remind employees of the importance of adhering to one unique safety procedure or to conduct important safety protocol training.
Praise and Recognition. Recognize at least one employee for previous excellent performance during each pre-shift briefing. This will start everyone’s day off on a positive note.
Dr. William D. Frye, Ph.D., CHE, is coauthor of Managing Housekeeping Operations.
Photo credit: Housekeeping manager via Bigstock.
