5 Ways the Right Technology Creates a Better Staff Experience
Improving the staff experience has never been more important. Your hotel needs to attract and retain the best employees in order to stay competitive and deliver a high level of service.
Fortunately, the right technology can improve the staff experience in so many ways. Here are the five most important ways tech solutions can make your employees happier:
Eliminate Frustration
Technology should make life easier. Otherwise, what’s the point? Hospitality is a traditional industry, and the majority of hotel employees are working with tech solutions that are frustrating in some capacity. Outdated, or simply poorly designed, technology requires constant maintenance and fixes. This creates barriers for staff trying to do their jobs, as well as constant headaches for your IT team.
The good news is that hospitality tech has come a long way, even in the past few years. There are great options on the market today, meaning there is no reason to continue use of hotel technology that slows your staff down. Choosing something updated can eliminate so many daily issues for your staff, creating a superior work environment.
2. Reduce Training
Sub-par solutions are not only difficult to use on a daily basis - they are harder to learn in the first place. Thankfully, advances in technology mean hotels can do away with services or platforms that require lengthy training and experience to master.
We love that intuitive tech is king right now, and believe that any employee should be able to utilize a hotel’s systems from day one. We’ve seen great results from Ameniti’s solutions, which take about a half hour to master for any new staff member. Although we offer comprehensive support for employees, we find that they rarely have questions about how to operate our suite of services. This is especially important due to the high turnover in the hospitality industry, which makes training staff a more frequent occurrence.
3. Create More Hands-on Opportunities
Although it may seem counterintuitive, harnessing the right tech solutions will create even more opportunities for a personal touch.
You may be skeptical, but stick with us here. The majority of work done by hotel employees is invisible to guests. What is visible is a lack of attention from overwhelmed staff, who have so many other tasks that they don’t have time to service guests in person. This is a frustrating situation for your employees, who entered the hospitality industry with the goal of delivering top-notch experiences and customer service. More advanced technology, including automation, frees up time for staff so that they can focus on delivering the best possible experience to the guests they encounter rather than repetitive administrative tasks.
4. Improve Guest Interactions
Guests don’t want to deal with outdated or poorly-designed technology any more than staff or management. As we’ve discussed in the past, most guests prefer instant gratification, especially in scenarios when time is an enormous factor. Many are on the move and prefer to have crucial information right at their fingertips.
How does this impact staff? They’re the ones on call whenever customers have issues with guest-facing technology, or aren’t getting the information they need fast enough. And when there’s an issue that could have an adverse impact on travel plans, we all know that guests can become less than polite. A good employee will rise to the occasion and do their best, but your staff doesn’t want to be berated by angry customers all day for something outside of their control. Do them a favor and make guest-facing technology as streamlined and intuitive as possible.
5. Address Staff Shortages
Staff shortages don’t just hurt your bottom line - they hurt your staff, too. When it’s hard to find or replace talent for whatever reason, the burden falls on your existing staff, and especially managers, to make up for it. That could mean covering extra shifts, taking on additional workload or simply constantly changing schedules. When there is a staff shortage, the right technology helps remaining workers do more with less.
Additionally, as we learned in points 1-4, better technology means a better all-around work experience. A better work experience makes employees want to stick around, reducing staff shortages. By retaining more staff with the best work environment possible, your staff will benefit from being part of a consistent team and getting into a regular routine with less stress.