Is outsourcing a viable staffing solution for your department?

TA: We outsource because it gives us more flexibility, so during a low period we lower the outsource staff and when we are getting busier we ask for more — we have to ask for them in advance so that they are trained before the busy season.

AD: Outsourcing is good for your manning and your budget, but at the same time we don’t get the quality or consistency of staff. Today I could train someone who will be with me for just three months, then they will be in another hotel and I will have to start all over again, so the training and consistency is not there.

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In the UK, you have an agency that gives you staff who will stay with you for a long period of time, so they know your standards and quality, but in the UAE it is not easy at all… today you get one person, tomorrow someone else.

DC: Outsourcing is useful when someone falls sick, as they will provide you with cover, but I prefer to have my own staff because you spend so much time training them and when we develop them they will stay in our hotel even if they go to another department.

SP: I think that we need to turn the tables on the outsourcing companies. They do provide you with a person, but you have to do all the work of training them. What I have done is said that I will not pay per person; instead I will pay per clean area of the hotel. Some companies have said they won’t do this, but I have two companies who have agreed to it, and it is working very well for me.

What is the most important part of your job?

AD: To retain your staff and to always have an open door for them. If you do this, you will get the best out of them. Being part of the team, interacting with the staff and not always being a boss is important too — sometimes we are bosses with our noses up and we don’t get our hands dirty but you have to be with them, and innovate, to get the best out of them. When you give your staff this kind of attention, they make your job easy because they know who you are.

TA: There are many things that are important — the motivation of staff, guest retention, the owner’s demands. There are so many different factors which are important, whether it is finance or the environment — it all melts together in a big pot. This it is a multifaceted role and you can’t say what the most important part of it is, you just have to play it by ear.

DC: I love meeting people and it is important for me to get feedback from guests because then I can see how we need to improve. If you speak to guests and ask how they want the room done and retain their details, they will be pleased that you have remembered.

SP: For me it is creating an atmosphere of support. Housekeeping is like an octopus — we have our arms stretched everywhere. As a department I think if we have an atmosphere of support, because we interact with every other department, it gives our guests the best comfort and we should give that and never say no. I say to our colleagues and management — I will never say no.

JF: It is to provide support, interact with other departments and it is also very important to be around the hotel. The time I spend in the office is minimal — because for me it is important to interact with staff. I find that walking around the hotel, team members will start talking about things they don’t want to share in morning briefings and it is important to have this interaction.

How much autonomy do you have to run the department as you see fit?

TA: There is a budget to stick to, but as long as you don’t exceed the budget and you keep everything in line then you are very much free to decide what goes on.

JF: Housekeeping is an area where cost management is very important. In the housekeeping department, you have to work with numbers and keep in line with your targets.

It is a bit different with laundry because you can make revenue for the area, but housekeeping is more to do with cost management and you can manage your department in the way you consider to be the best one, but you need to be very close to your numbers because housekeeping doesn’t make revenue.

SP: A lot of department heads have to be involved in the housekeeping department; the general managers need to be involved with what we are deciding and agreeing and so forth. We bring things up and sometimes we have to agree to disagree but the general manager always needs to be fully informed of what we are doing.

DC: For us to run the department properly we really do need the support of people like the front office and the engineering department — and of course they all need our support as well. And laundry — if housekeeping and laundry do not work together then we cannot run our departments so we need their support. That is one of the good things that happens in our hotels — if you have good support from everyone and from all of the departments it makes it easier.