Health and Safety in Hospitality Management - Essay Example

Housekeeping in Hospitality Management al Affiliation: Housekeeping in Hospitality Management Introduction Housekeeping department essentially deals with cleanliness and all subsidiary service attached to that. Good standards in housekeeping play an important role in maintaining a good status in eating places as an individual feels comfortable in a clean and well ordered environment. The largest sector in a hotel is the accommodation department. It is also the most revenue generating department that takes care of all rooms in the Hotel department. The rooms in hotels are used to offer accommodation to travelers or guests usually presented as individual units of bedroom. Some rooms are also interconnected rooms to serve an efficient accommodation purpose to many guests and big families. Other hotels also offer suits to the guest (Winter, Doris & Hatfield, 1989). Hotel offers laundry, dry cleaning facilities, and shoe polishing services among many others in an attempt to make the business environment comfortable through offering these special services. Some restaurants are connected with a bar that sells liquors to guests and this act as a good source of revenue. There are also banqueting, meeting and private party facilities in some big hotels that generate revenue when conferences, meetings or even seminars are held there. Resort hotels have recreational facilities like swimming pool and spa and try to make their place as pleasant as possible through using nice colors, attractive furnishing and most importantly a well kept and efficient staff (Alan & Wortman, 2005). The department of housekeeping determines largely whether the guests are satisfied when they visit the hotels. This is achieved through fine accommodation and quality service provision to the guests so that they are exited with their visit and stay in the respective hotel. The guest satisfaction and the hygiene factor are the primarily objectives that should be present in any given hotel ( Sudhir, 1985). The major revenue in hotels is generated by the rooms and the rooms that are not sold in any given night result to lose of revenue for ever. Loosing guests in the rooms can be attributed to poor hygiene factor, poor cleanliness, lack of modernization etc. A guest spends more time in the room alone than any other part of the hotel and hence a clean and hygiene environment will be of great significance. The guest may check whether the place is dusted off, whether the room is clean and may lose confidence of the place if this is not the case. Dirty and disorderly draws may deter him from putting his/her clothes down. The guest will be pleased when the room is descent with a nice laundry service that seeks to comfort him. The guest can judge a lot from the cleanliness of the public area, the restaurant, the cloakrooms and the lobby. The house keeping department contributes a lot to entice the guests by ensuring that the picture of the general cleanliness portrays a positive judgment (Alan & Wortman, 2005). Housekeeping staff provides adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities in the workplace by ensuring such facilities are well cleaned and maintained to a proper degree in such a way they do not pose a health complication to workers and the guests. The workers in the hotel need to have portable clean water that is safe for drinking, sanitary toilet facilities, safe food that is prepared in clean kitchens and served in clean canteens, and a workplace that is generally maintained clean. Regular housekeeping and maintenance helps the staff to identify potential issues and take potential measures before problems emerge. It also aids in mitigating problems brought about by tripping hazards, slippery floors, and unclear exit routes (Winter &Hatfield, 1989). A socially responsible organization ensures that there are no facilities or practices that create a risk situation to the workers and the other guests due to poor housekeeping practices and poor work place hygiene. The piece of work below helps in checking whether there are such risks that are brought about by not meeting safe standards in current business operations, and if so, how to enhance controls that ensure housekeeping and workplace hygiene are well understood (Alan & Wortman, 2005).. Bearing in mind the prevailing knowledge of industry and of any specific hazards, a safe and hygienic working environment shall be provided. Sufficient steps should be adopted to mitigate accidents and injury to health that arise from it, associated with it, or arising in the course of work by minimizing these hazardous causes in the working environment. Health and Safety Having a good housekeeping plan in place keeps the company clean and helps the management meet the requirements for many sectors in the occupational health and safety. For instance: Machinery and Site Vehicles - machines should be kept clean as this means the likelihood of breaking down is minimal to create a hazard. Hazardous materials - used chemical containers should be disposed of safely as it promptly reduces the risks to both the workers and the environment. Worker health – stagnant waters on the company grounds should be drained to deter insect infestations and possible illnesses. Emergency and fire safety – exit routes should be kept clear by reducing clutter at the workshops. Federal safety and health rules advocate that all employers should provide a workplace that is safe and healthy.. Housekeeping concentrates on keeping the workplace clean, orderly and sanitary (Hatfield, 1989). Employers should compulsory provide clean water, clean toilets, clean hand washing facilities and clean changing rooms for employees who are needed to put on protective clothing to protect them from contamination by toxic materials and other rules related to good housekeeping in related industries. Employees who handle sanitation should put disposable gloves and dispose them carefully after removal, make bed or change bed linens, remove soiled toilets and garbage from toilet room, disinfect touchable surfaces, remove used glasses and spray disinfectant on toilet room surfaces (Bhatnagar, 2002). There are requirements that concern clean and sanitary work environments to safeguard employees from contact with blood or other potential infectious materials. Federal workplace housekeeping rules are administered and enforced by OSHA that states that; i. All places of employment, store rooms, passageways, and service rooms should be kept clean and orderly and in a sanitary condition. ii. Floors should be kept clean and dry. iii. Every floor in the working place and passageway shall be kept free from protruding nails, holes, splinters or loose boards to facilitate cleaning. iv. All workplaces should have available potable drinking water that meets the U.S. Public Health Service quality standards for drinking (Andrews, 1985). To provide excellent and satisfying quality services, lot of efforts have to be directed towards organizing and training the housekeeping staffs incessantly. The staff should then be retained to ensure consistency and dedication remains focused through various methods of motivation and training. The hierarchy of the housekeeping department, the largest in any given hotel, is of great significance in adopting the duties and responsibilities of all the housekeeping staffs for effective communication and coordination. The success of the hotel is solely attributed to the staff when it is organized and trained. They provide excellent and quality service. The way an hotel is organized and structured depends on the size as well as the activities that undergo in that respective hotel. A general housekeeping staff should have staffs like Executive Housekeeper, his assistant, Uniform Room Supervisors and Attendants, Linen Room Supervisors and Attendants, Floor supervisor, Tailor / Seamstress, Room Attendants, Helpers, Public Area Supervisor, Runner, Head Houseman, Desk Control Supervisor, Cloak Room Attendants, Night Supervisor, Hat-Checkers, Horticulturist and Gardener (Andrews, 1985). Problems can erupt in workplaces and using common sense is the best tool to handle that. The faster a setback is sorted out, the lesser the likelihood of calling an assistance from an external entity. Housekeeping staff should have good processes and procedures for tackling issues that arise in line of duty and at the same time they should ensure that every employee is aware of them. The staff should also be aware of what is required of them. This is achieved through acting in good faith, a practicality of common sense, and it reduces the risks of conflicts and problems in work place. Good faith is a minimum requirement in various employment acts ( Bhatnagar , 2002). Employment agreements and policies Every individual and collective agreement in employment must clearly explain the processes involved in resolving employment relationship problems, an explanation that does not need to be complicated or long. It should clearly outline the processes housekeeping employees should follow, their rights and what really happens in case a problem occurs (Sudhir, 1985). The ministry of employment helps employers and managers in hotels and restaurants draft an employment agreement that contains policies specifying the types of situations that may arise, any disciplinary actions or dismissal, or the processes that are followed by the employer and the employee. It is important that the employer and the employee consult the agreement and any pertinent policies before embarking on any disciplinary or dismissal process. Restructuring in the workplace Employers may need to make changes in the workplace of the housekeeping department due to some inevitable reasons that result to improved service delivery such as; Improving technology Including more productive business processes Making changes to products In case of loosing suppliers or markets These restructuring should be done in a way that does not result to employment relationship problems. It is a legal process and the law requires all employers to provide information to employees whenever they consider making changes that will affect the jobs of the workers and the employees should be granted an opportunity to make contributions to any decisions made by the management (Winter, 1989). Personal grievance The Employment Relations Act grants al housekeeping employees the right to present a personal grievance if they have any of the following grievances: A dismissal that is not justifiable Unjustifiable action that inconveniences the employee Discrimination in work Sexual harassment either by someone in authority or by the co-workers Racial harassment Pressure over membership of a union or other employee organization. Raising the grievance should be done within 90 days of when it occurred or came to attention. However, the employer may approve a personal grievance that is raised after that time. If that does not happen, the employee can make a formal application to the Employment Relations Authority to be granted a chance to raise the personal grievance after the 90 day period (Barrows, 2002). References Abbott P. and Lewry S. (1991), Front Office: Procedures, social skills and management, Butterworth Heinemann. Alan T. Stutts, James Wortman (2005), Hotel and Lodging Management: An Introduction, Wiley. Andrews Sudhir (1985), Hotel Housekeeping Training Manual: Tata Mc Graw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd. Go et al (1996), Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry, Wiley. M. Zulfikar (1998), Introduction to Tourism and Hotel Industry, Sangam Books Ltd. S.K. Bhatnagar (2002), Front Office Management, Frank Bros. & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. Tom Powers, Clayton W. Barrows (2002), Introduction to the Hospitality Industry, Wiley. W. Winter, Doris Hatfield, H. Hatfield (1989), The Professional Housekeeping, Hyperion Books. Read More