In his role as Operations Manager at the Radisson Blu Hotel Manchester Airport and at Park Inn by Radisson Manchester City Centre, Martynas Rutkauskas needs to be able to delegate tasks to the different teams and have an overview of the progress of the work processes in both hotels. In the following, he explains how hotelkit facilitated this task for him:
Main Challenge: Lack of Information Transparency
Where did you face challenges before digitalizing your work processes?
The amount of information that was exchanged between our departments via different communication channels was challenging: Emails, WhatsApp messages, and handwritten notes, there were many ways of exchanging information. So, to say the least, it wasn’t exactly easy to be on top of everything. Communicating through different communication channels took time and consequently also delayed our operating processes. Added to that, in 2021 we were merged with another Radisson hotel and led by a joint General Manager. The communication between the two sites, however, turned out to be quite challenging. At that time, we didn’t yet have a communication medium that stored all the important information and made it accessible to everyone, even those who weren’t on-site.
Digital Task Management, increased productivity
How did digitalizing the operating processes change the collaboration within the team and your job as Operations Manager?
To get to the point: The digitalization of our operating processes boosted our productivity.
All the information that we need in our daily work routine can now be found on one central platform, there is no more need to exchange information via emails, phone calls, or WhatsApp Messages. As Operations Manager for the Radisson Blu hotel Manchester Airport and the Park Inn by Radisson Manchester City Centre, I no longer need to use different communication channels to pass on information, be on-site to delegate tasks, or track the progress of work processes: I can now do all of this in hotelkit.
As Operations Manager, which hotelkit tool do you use the most?
I enjoy working with digital tasks and the checklist function; I have always been a big fan of to-do lists. hotelkit gives me the possibility to continually adapt my daily, weekly, and long-term goals. So, whenever I have a conversation about improvement measures that I deem relevant and that could be undertaken in our hotel, I almost immediately create a task in hotelkit and add it to my personal to do-list. I do the same, for example, when an idea pops into my head at dinner. This guarantees that no idea is forgotten, and it enables me to be on top of everything that I want to put into practice in our hotel.
In the morning, I transfer all the tasks on my personal to do-list in hotelkit onto the main lists of the different departments. This is done fairly quickly.
So, even before I enter the hotel in the morning, the heads of departments already know — in order of priority — the tasks that need to be carried out today.
To avoid distractions, each department can only see its own task list. My teams then start carrying out the tasks at hand, and the heads of departments and I can track the work progress in real-time in hotelkit. If complications occur, the employees can let us know about it by commenting underneath the respective entry – no more need for emails, WhatsApp messages, or phone calls. This way, even if we aren’t on-site, we can immediately respond to any questions or concerns as we are always connected with our teams via hotelkit.
You create and transmit the daily tasks to your team. What happens, however, if a department wants to implement a project on its own initiative?
For this purpose, we have a separate list in our hotelkit where each department can write down its wishes or requests for the hotel in form of a task. Example: If the Food & Beverage department wants to buy a new piece of equipment, they simply add this request to the list. At the proper time, I will then transmit their request to relevant departments to review and purchase.
Checklists for walkthroughs
Can you give any examples that show for which tasks you use the recurring tasks and checklists function in your daily work routines at Radisson Manchester?
An example that immediately comes to mind is the daily safety walkthrough which is done by an external service provider. The walkthrough route is meanwhile equipped with 56 NFC tags which need to be scanned on-site with a smartphone. Each NFC tag contains a hotelkit checklist that shows what needs to be checked at the particular control points. In case there is a problem, for example, a blocked emergency exit, and the checkpoint cannot be ticked off, one can immediately create a task in hotelkit and send it to the responsible employees. This gives us two clear advantages:
Our safety walkthroughs are documented reliably, and we can submit these documents to the authorities in the event of an inspection. Furthermore, it is guaranteed that damages are quickly taken care of.
Our safety walkthroughs are documented reliably, and we can submit these documents to the authorities in the event of an inspection. Furthermore, it is guaranteed that damages are quickly taken care of.
Moreover, we use recurring tasks including checklists for our morning and evening shifts at the reception. This way, it’s clear to all our employees what needs to be considered. The walkthrough of the Manager on Duty is also depicted in form of a checklist, and he is required to scan NFC tags at some of the control points. Thanks to this logical depiction, even new employees immediately understand what needs to be done.
Digital Handbook with all work-related information
hotelkit enables you to store important information in the digital handbook. What information do you store in the handbook?
In our handbook, the different departments can access SOPs, instructions, and safety documents. Moreover, the risk assessment which we update every year and which must be signed by our employees is saved as a draft in the digital handbook. In the handbook, you can clearly see by whom and when the document was last edited which enables us to prove that we carry out the necessary revisions on a yearly basis. Furthermore, it’s no longer necessary to print out each page, the changes can simply be done online. We then send out a task to the employees asking them to sign the document and upload the signed document onto hotelkit.
Highly Efficient Teams
More and more hotels are dealing with personnel shortages. How does hotelkit support you in this matter?
The increase in productivity has certainly helped us: Thanks to shortened work processes, our employees save time, and our short-staffed teams can tackle more tasks. Furthermore, thanks to hotelkit new employees can adjust to their tasks a lot quicker as all the information that they need to carry out their duties is accessible to them digitally and in a well-structured document. We also noticed that in using this smart solution, the employees’ motivation increased as the daily work routine becomes easier to handle.
Digitalize the task management in your hotel
