Establish productivity standards

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The first step in establishing employee schedules is to determine a productivity standard for measuring future performance. Lothar A Kreck defines a standard as: "a definite level or degree of performance established by management that is proper and adequate for a particular purpose".  1 There are several ways to establish standards.

Various attempts have been made to come up with industry-wide standards for use in the hospitality industry. Pannell, Kerr, Forster, a well-respected consulting firm, developed broad measures of restaurant standards over several years. These measures are outlined in Table 1.

It is not wise, however, to apply industry standards to a hotel or restaurant without consideration of the specific characteristics of the operation. Industry standards are averages for the industry and must be used for general guidance only. They do not take into account the age of equipment, the complexity of a menu, or the ability of the staff.

Time studies are useful for measuring repetitive activities involving the same product or service. This makes their use more difficult in the hospitality industry, in which the work often consists of many different activities and the handling of many different products. In work sampling, well-defined events are observed and recorded. An event might be the registration of a guest or the unloading of dishes from a dishwasher. As a result, data can be developed on times devoted to the different tasks carried out.

A technique known as Methods Time Management (MTM) is useful in this regard. Manual work is split up into basic movements, each of which is timed. Times are expressed in Time Movement Units; one TMU equals one- millionth of an hour. The Swedish Institute for Food Service has conducted research using this technique. When calculating time needed to make a dish, the degree of convenience is important, because there is generally an inverse relationship between the degree of convenience and the amount of labor involved.

The MTM system can analyze only manual operations and does not measure time spent in processing operations such as boiling or frying. To compensate for this, a contingency factor must be worked in, depending on the proportion of manual time to processing time. Assuming a ratio of 40 per cent manual time to 60 per cent processing time, the contingency factor would be 1.5 (60 divided by 40). The manual time to prepare the dish would be multiplied by this factor.

Standard times can be established for each item on the menu. When combined with sales forecasts, a standard is produced for scheduling purposes. When timing tasks, certain considerations are important:

The most practical method of developing productivity standards is to keep operating statistics over a period of time, noting those periods when service and quality were at a level that produced guest satisfaction with the fewest number of employees.

Standards would be set for each department, in a restaurant, for each meal period. In a hotel housekeeping department, the standard might be the number of rooms cleaned per employee hour, which equals the number of rooms cleaned divided by the number of hours worked by room attendants. By analyzing a test period of at least a week when there are no unusual operating conditions, standard figures can be produced.

To be useful, standards must be easy to use and implement. Managers must be able to rely on them repeatedly. They must be accurate enough to compensate for different employees and changing circumstances. They also must be a true representation of the task.