Traveling is part of our job at Ladyironchef, and our lodging changes from one hotel to another. Many times, we check in to luxurious rooms and suites – big beds with pressed sheets, clean and vacuumed floors, a mini bar full of drinks and snacks… and sometimes, we take for granted all that are put in place nicely for our experience.
Have you ever wondered what goes behind the scenes? How are your rooms cleaned? How does the hotel facilitate the numerous check-ins and check-outs daily? Sometimes, we would stop and talk with housekeeping staff when we bump into them along the corridors, but all that we could learn and understand from such transient conversations are but superficial information.
This month, we had the privilege to attend a tour behind the scenes of Sheraton Towers, and learned in-depth the various backend procedures and systems. And because it was such an educational and enriching tour, we would like to share some insights with you.
We learned that the Labour Movement has been actively helping the hotel industry to embark on job enhancement efforts, and one of the initiatives at Sheraton Towers is the upgrade of the laundry machineries. The hotel pumped in S$1.3 million in April 2013 for the laundry department to upgrade their equipment which reduces employees’ risks to potentially harmful chemicals. Moreover, the machines such as the automated shirt pressing machines also help to increase the productivity by letting staff iron shirts in less than 5 minutes each.
We witnessed the use of the machines, and it was very impressive as the associates in the laundry department are able to do the laundry in a more efficient manner, and if they finished their work 1 hour earlier, they could go home early without any pay cut. In fact their productivity rose till they received a 10-15% pay increase!
With 420 rooms, Housekeeping is a key department in turnover of rooms for guests who check in and out daily. Many hotels are still using physical report sheets and documents, with the associates going around to track the progress of rooms that are being turned over, and this is very time-consuming and physically demanding. However, alongside some other hotels in Singapore, Sheraton Towers tapped on the Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) and introduced an e-housekeeping system which made housekeeping jobs easier, smarter and safer.
With the new system in place, everyone in housekeeping uses a tablet which has all the details that they require for the respective duties. From clocking in their timings when cleaning the rooms, to updating the mini bar consumption, to reporting defects in the rooms – the housekeepers no longer have to submit physical hard copies of their reports, which is very tedious, time-consuming and inefficient.
The process saves a lot of time and makes it easier and smarter for them to perform their duties, which in turn increases the efficiency and work satisfaction.
The E-housekeeping system also improves the communication and liaison between the housekeepers with their team leaders, as well as the front desk and security associates. With the connected hand-held devices, the progress of the rooms are being recorded instantaneously via a few clicks on the tablet, and the front desk gets a clear summary of the various states of the rooms – whether they are cleaned and ready for new guests to check in, or whether they are still occupied and dirty. The number of rooms cleaned per hour increased and front desk is able to check in guests faster.
The instant availability of information which rooms are cleaned and vacant also reduces unnecessary mistakes and overlooks, which would eventually result in customer dissatisfaction. With this system put in place, the staff are more confident and efficient in their work, and in the long run, it is definitely more cost-effective for the hotel to work with this cheaper, better and faster model.
Another interesting thing that we learned is the implementation of Ezi-Maid Bed Lifting System. This is also an initiative by the Labour Movement to encourage hotels to make the work easier, smarter and safer for housekeeping staff. It is essentially a steel frame which raises the bed to waist height, allowing the housekeepers to clean the area without having to lift the bed physically. Before the implementation, the housekeepers had to constantly bend down to clean the floor, or lift up the heavy beds. But with the Ezi-Maid Bed Lifting System, it significantly reduces the time taken to clean the room from 45 minutes to 25 minutes, and housekeepers can clean more rooms in an hour so guests can check in faster. And most importantly, this system encourages a safer working environment and minimises the risks to injuries, allowing housekeepers to continue working even after retirement (our encounter with one 72 year old housekeeper put testament to that).
Sheraton Towers drafts out a career pathway for each staff and provides education grants to staff who wish to upgrade their qualifications and skills. By integrating the NTUC’s Progressive Wage model into their staff career paths, Sheraton Towers aims to raise the pay of their lowest paid staff from $1,200 to $1,500 in a few years’ time.
It is heartening to learn that hotels like Sheraton Towers proactively finds ways to value every worker and the management works closely with the union to constantly seek new initiatives and taking efforts to improving the lives of their employees by making their work environment easier, smarter and safer.
The Learning Journey with Sheraton has given us more insights on the hospitality industry, and we hope that everyone will give more credit to the unsung heroes working hard behind the scenes – all to ensure a pleasant experience for us when we are staying in a hotel.
This message is part of a ladyironchef x Labour Movement project where we seek to share with you insights on the different initiatives by the Labour Movement to give workers in Singapore better jobs, better pay and better work-life balance.