Hospitality is a growing sector in the service field and it sustains a representative position in the tourism productive chain. Rio de Janeiro's hospitality market expects to expand itself with the creation of 6.160 new ones until 2016. That intensifies the need to improve services in order to keep competitiveness. Ergonomics is a science focused on both well-being and performance improvement. This research aims to identify how organizational ergonomics can help creating value on hospitality services. A literature review is the first step, followed by a field research. The Ergonomics Work Analysis (EWA) methodology was applied on a hotel front desk, located in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The preliminary results showed how Human Resources Management and Operational Management works separately, causing difficulties to service quality management. We propose then that Ergonomics might bridge this gap, supporting organizational innovations so as to help increasing system performance and customer satisfaction.
Lodging is a specific kind of service that integrates the profit chain of tourism. Its importance sustains a representative role on tourism strategic management. In Brazil, this sector represented the biggest expectation of growth from 2013 to 2014, approximately 7.2% (Mtur, 2014)1 among others on tourism.
The greatest expectation of investment in Brazilian hospitality national sector was projected for 2014. With the new entering hotels, gradually the expectation of investment was reduced for 2015 and 2016. However, despite the reduction, the forecast for new hotel enterprises is significant. Besides, hospitality is characterized by its capacity to create jobs including many different qualification levels, and that is the main reason this research is relevant.
The hospitality sector in the city of Rio de Janeiro is in its expansion phase, based on the expectation generated around the World Cup – 2014 and the Olympic Games – 2016. According to the survey conducted by BSH Travel Research (2013) 70.531 new habitational units will be launched from 2013 until 2016 promoting a new offer context. It also shows that the forecast of new hotels openings totalizes 422 new projects from 2013 to 2016, and 33.892 new job positions in national economy.
Faced with the increased competition in the market, due to new entry and innovation on hosting solutions, the emerging need for training and professionalization on organizational systems in hospitality is seen, in order to optimize their performance and improve the delivered service. This need becomes a condition to generate sustainable competitive advantage, especially for independent hotel management. It is needed to seek organizational innovations for their survival in the competitive market.
However, despite the relevance of the hotel for the service sector, this is a relatively unexplored field of study. In Brazil there are few studies that seek to understand the human resources relevance and use Ergonomics to the pursuit quality on hospitality services. Considering the success of Ergonomics to other service sectors based on relationships, such as telemarketing, this work aims to show how this discipline can be an important tool for operational and strategic management in hospitality, by analyzing the preliminary results on a case of study in Rio de Janeiro.
2Hospitality service management and operationReception, telephony and governance are considered by Castelli (2003) as Basic Management Units (BMUs) that consist of the accommodation subsystem, as represented in Fig. 1.
The author emphasizes the interrelations between subsystems, and therefore the importance of communication between them for the fulfillment of individual units’ goals as well as the company's. They are on a larger context connected to administrative and food and beverage subsystems, integrating the hotel system.
Thus, the quality of processes is directly related to the quality of service delivered. Petrocchi (2002) points out some functions in hotels that are relevant for this study, like technical functions (such as reception, governance and reserves) and administrative functions (such as planning, human resources and operational controls). These functions integration represent the capacity to provide service effectively. Petrocchi (2002) shows the distribution of responsibilities between jobs positions. The author points out that management functions like planning, organization, execution and controlling are distributed in many positions and so there is a need to a fluent communication between them, reaching out guest satisfaction.
The subsystem of accommodation is defined by Petrocchi (2002) as the central activity of the hotel enterprise. Its basic tasks may vary according to the hotel size. The reception is responsible for, according to Oliveira and Spena (2012), receiving and registering guests (check-in) from the reservation information. Moreover, it is also responsible for closing accounts (check-out) when guests are leaving and giving the guest all the information they need during their stay. In larger hotels, other parts are involved with guest relations, such as concierge and guest relations.
The reception tasks (Davies, 2010; Oliveira & Spena, 2012; Petrocchi, 2002) include: registration, care and control of in and out guests flow (check-in/check-out); registration of passengers without reservation (walk-in); Control and guest reception box; Night reports; Control of safes; Apartment's key control; Receipt and delivery of mail; Receipt and delivery of messages and others activities related to guest welcome and comfort, among others.
The reception deals with most of the critical moments, which will determine guest satisfaction or dissatisfaction. According to Rutherford and O’Fallon (2007) the front line associate (as the authors call employees) may be the most important person in the hotel, because s/he serves the customers. Furthermore, the supervisor or manager functions involve supporting the front line in order to remove the barriers for a good job and leading people to do their jobs better.
3Human dimension on quality management and Ergonomics contributionTotal quality management in service field is an approach dedicated to improve the good of delivered service continuously, considering the participation of all organization levels (Taveira, James, Karsh, & Sainfort, 2003). Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) believe that quality has a set of dimensions to be considered for their evaluation when it comes to service management and they can vary from one kind of service to another. These dimensions are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, among others. Besides, according to Khairizam, Azmi and Ahmat (2013) service quality has become an important subject that requires management attention because of its impacts on the organizational performance.
Given the simultaneity and residuality as characteristics of hotel services, human factors are key elements in performance and quality. Castelli (2003) believes that the imbalance between staff and customers can compromise the competitiveness of hotel companies. The author sustains that in the hospitality market, it is impossible to succeed without the effective development of human resources.
Casas (2008) considers that the dimensions of quality are classified as Reliability, which means the provision of what was promised; Security, which represents the employee's reliable transmission to the client; Tangible aspects, which are all the physical aspects surrounding the provision of service and influence; and empathy, which is the level of attention and care that is given to the customer.
In hotel business, Castelli (2003) classifies the attributes perceived by customers as basic, expected, desired and unexpected. The basic comprises the essential attributes of hosting, such as cleaning and furniture; the expected are the attributes related to the customer experience during their stay; the desired are those that will be considered if they are offered; while the unexpected are attributes that cause great surprise when offered the client.
Linking quality and human resources, according to Casas (2008) and Khairizam et al. (2013) the moments when customers are in contact with the company are called ‘moments of truth’. The author sustains that the contact with receptionists is one of these moments, amongst others. In these moments of contact, Castelli (2003) emphasizes the importance of analyzing the quality attributes for the contact to be effective. The quality attributes for the service provided by receptionists are sympathy, empathy, safety, company knowledge and speed.
The moments of truth are the critical moments, vital and fundamental in the creation of value in service profit chain. These moments are experienced by front line employees. Albrecht and Bradford as cited in Castelli (2003, p. 117) state that “The context in which the service offer takes place, and as the person who is facing the moment of truth deals with the interaction, are what determine the gain or loss of credibility of the company from the customer's point of view”.
So, the need to pay attention to the quality of working life is highlighted (Carayon, Sainfort, & Smith, 1999), considering that service quality cannot be achieved unless there is a combination between workforce quality and process quality. Castelli (2003) goes further and considers that the company is ‘in the hands’ of employees, since these are the main actors on the moments of truth. So, they have a certain level of control over the outcome of the moment of truth by retaining control over their own behavior.
According to Dejours (2008) the common work situations are subjected to unexpected events, incidents, malfunctions and organizational inconsistencies, which actually generate a discrepancy between prescribed work and real work. Working consists of the way to go between the prescribed and the real situations that must be invented or discovered every time by the person who is performing the job.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is one of the most important organization's assets. Researchers suggest that there are some HRM practices that can improve and sustain organizational performance. Cho, Woods, Jang, and Erdem (2006, p. 264) highlight that “organizational performance is a widely used terminology to describe improvements on a firm's bottom line performance that is influenced by HRM”. But it is difficult to find a company that can completely harness its potential (Ahmad & Schroeder, 2003). The authors argued that HRM has gained a representative position on service organizations, compared with industrial ones.
Castelli (2003) emphasizes that human resources can determine the success or failure on hospitality management, but it is not properly conducted when it comes to this field. Some HRM practices as highlighted by (Ahmad & Schroeder, 2003, p. 20) are “emphasis on employee selection based on fit with company's culture, emphasis on behavior, attitude and necessary technical skills required by the job, compensation contingent on performance, and employee empowerment to foster team work, among others.” Those are just the weaknesses raised by Castelli (2003) about hotel organizations capacity to improvement.
When it comes to hospitality enterprises, Cho et al. (2006) argued that HRM is often criticized because its results are not clear and it is difficult to measure HRM outcomes. The emphasis on HRM to optimize organizational performance has been used as a strong organizational strategy, because it is not easily copied by competitors and it can also provide effective and rapid response to market demands.
Even though the relationship among human resource management, activities organization and service quality results is clear, there is a gap between the operational management and the strategic employee management in organizations. Guerin, Laville, Daniellou, Duraffourg, and Kerguelen (2001) believe that Ergonomics can help bridging this gap. The authors sustain that transforming the work is the main purpose of the Ergonomics action. Its objectives are: to contribute for the design of work situations which preserves operators’ health, besides valuing their capabilities and to achieve the economic objectives set by the company.
Carayon and Smith (2000) believe that Ergonomics can improve both organizational performance and health and safety. So, it has both social and production logics and these objectives can be complementary as long as the discipline considers an interaction between social and production approaches.
4The convergence between service and industry sectorsTertre (2011) considers that the company's economic model determines the modes of production and value creation, mobilization of human resources and their understanding of the work, its market relations (customers and suppliers), as well as financing. The author points out that value includes not only monetary values, but the four dimensions: the use, productivity gains, externalities and then the ability to turn the three previous dimensions in monetary values.
Dejours (2008) highlights the need for development to provide services activities in the industry. Tertre (2011) understands that we are in the process of a transition from the industrial logic to a service logic and therefore there is an increasing importance of the service relationship in the economy (Hubault, 2005; Tertre, 2007). However, there is still the incorporation of classical industrial logic to the service production processes. In Salerno (2001) the application of Taylorism in services is not unusual and by contrast, is growing. Therefore, it is a challenge to build an alternative productive model, embracing the concept of service logic.
The development of industry and services sectors is converging. In Zarifian (2001), the industry learns and incorporates the notion of service, while the service sector appropriates industrial methods. Industrial production of the service is the incorporation of similar principles to the industry in their technology, social organization, efficiency goals and principles. To illustrate the situation described the author uses the example of telemarketing services, in which evaluation priority is given to quantitative aspects, leading the operator to have to reduce the time spent on each call. Thus, the operator is under strong pressure and unable to increase their competence. Besides that, in order to dedicate the necessary time to listen and solve customers complaints, the operator can spend more time than the ideal planned. The solution to increase the quality perceived by the customer requires also increasing the number of qualified telephone operators, but it would be costly for the company.
5Work analysis in hospitality industry: the preliminary results of a Rio de Janeiro's case of studyThe International Ergonomics Association (IEA2) defines this scientific discipline as one that seeks to understand the interactions between human factors and the other components of a system and then applies theoretical knowledge, data and methods to optimize people well-being and the system's overall productivity.
Ergonomics has been used to investigate organizational problems within a holistic context. Macroergonomics is an ergonomics field dedicated to study the design of work systems focused on organization–system interactions (Kleiner, 2006). Falzon (2007) sets that Organizational Ergonomics deals with the optimization of socio-technical systems including organizational structure, rules and processes. The most relevant topics include communication, collective management, teamwork, participatory design, new ways of working, organizational culture and quality management.
Ergonomics in services situations is according to Falzon and Cerf (2005) focused on work conditions from reception and client relation actors. Therefore, activity work analysis is most of the times developed on situations where there is a direct relation between a professional and a nonprofessional actor. For this kind of analysis some aspects are considered such as the objectives of the relationship, the time of the relationship, the space of his achievement, codependency between the actors, in addition to prescriptions and technical support that regulate the interaction, according to Cerf, Valléry, and Boucheix (2007).
Falzon (2015) describes synchronization as the coordination between the actors involved in a collective work. According to the author, this coordination is never fully prescribed. It is built between the agents through verbal or nonverbal communication. So, in collective activities, participants must build shared knowledge, in order to carry out the activities, as well as representations of the situations status in which they are involved and the roles of other participants. Petit (2005) considers that the front-office activities have phases of back-office and the lack of connections between both phases can hinder the execution of a collective activity.
5.1MethodologyThis study started with a bibliography research on service quality, Ergonomics and hospitality field that allowed identifying a lack of established relations between these subjects. After selecting a hotel enterprise, a qualitative analysis was carried out from some guests’ comments and evaluation about their stay, categorizing them according to the quality dimensions by Casas (2008) and the hospitality quality attributes by Castelli (2003).
Considering these results, an Ergonomics Work Analysis, as proposed for Guerin et al. (2001), was conducted on the hotel front-desk, in order to confirm the gaps and identify other ones, besides realizing the opportunities to optimize the delivered service. The selected hotel is a four star property, independently managed and located in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Ergonomics Work Analysis was initiated by an interview phase that was carried out from March 2015 to July 2015. The demand identified was related to improve quality services on reception desk and the perception of quality at all, principally the negative evaluations on reservation sites. The negotiated demand was: The quality of service perceived by the guest and the reception ability to quickly and effectively respond to their demands/requests. So, the next step was to analyze the guest comments filled for the guests after their stay, in order to raise more information about the gaps for quality management. After that, the observation phase was initiated. Global observations were made from July 2015 to August 2015, followed by systematic observations carried out until September 2015. The selected observable for the systematic observations were time, the actions performed by the operator and communication. In addition, the situations considered were the moments characterized by greater quantitative variability of requests. The last step consists of both preliminary local and global diagnostics, based on the first results, seeking out to contribute to hotel companies’ strategy improvement.
5.2ResultsA group of 171 forms was analyzed and 134 answered to the open question complaints or suggestions about the hotel. The composition of this group was, according to travel motivations: 33% for business, 49% for leisure, 4.5% for congresses, fairs and exhibitions, and 13.5% for others motivations. Although business travelers are a majority, leisure travelers represent most of the responses. That may indicate a difference host profile between them, considering their availability for filling the evaluation form at the end of their stay.
The reasons why they chose the hotel were, according to quantitative data, previous experience (24%), location (29%) company decision (20%) and other (27%). The predominant reasons (location, previous experience and decision of the company) are in line with the hotel's main guests, which are business travelers.
Considering the dimensions of quality, the coded comments from leisure and business tourists showed significant losses in relation to aspects of reliability and tangibility (Fig. 2).
The more common complaints regarding non-compliance with promised services were related to the Wi-Fi signal and the lack of comfort caused by internal and external noises. The tangible aspects that resulted in more complaints were due to lack of maintenance in the bathroom, as problems in the shower or leaks, and lighting issues, lack of housekeeping and smelly rooms. The receptivity, which obtained the highest number of positive ratings, refers to the care of some operators and variety of options in the restaurant.
When it comes to the quality attributes perceived by the guest, the basic ones had the highest number of negative evaluations. This fact is due to the perceived problems in physical aspects of hosting such as structure and cleanliness, already mentioned. Among the unexpected aspects evaluated as positive is the fact that the hotel owner is directly involved with service provision, being in contact with the guests (Fig. 3).
When global observations were carried out, it was possible to identify the times of greater request intensity during the week days early in the morning and in the evening. The morning held most of the check-out. Moreover, it is characteristic of the guests to arrive at the hotel before the check-in time at 12 a.m., creating a responsibility for the hotel to keep them comfortable until their entry time.
The reception is open 24h a day, with one or two operators for each turn. Supervision is carried out by the reception manager, who is in the hotel from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. period. There is no formal script or work recommendations. The Reception Manager sustains that each operator “works on his/her own way”. The work processes were described during the global observations and interviews.
About the employee recruitment there is not a pre-established criteria. Among other things, the high turnover rates among employees were highlighted, especially in maintenance and housekeeping (governance) departments. This certainly compromises quality management implementations.
During the check-in activities, it was possible to highlight communications with the reservation and governance sectors to carry out the activity. The reservations department is responsible for entering the data in the system which the reception operator has access during the check-in. In case of absence or errors on that information, the quality of delivery service is compromised, and requires remediation efforts by the reception operators. The Governance is responsible for room preparation, as well as updating the data about the room status in the system so the receptionist can check and inventory it.
The check-out, even though faster than check-in, requires more attention from the operator. Again entered information from reservation sector, such as the form of payment, is essential to the quality of the process. Moreover, governance is responsible for updating the system communicating the guest consummation, as well as preparing the room to the next guest within the estimated time.
Fig. 4 shows the distribution of the flow during the morning and afternoon on 09/04/15. It is observed that all the exits were held in the morning hours; Check-in procedures, on the other hand, were well distributed across the morning and afternoon periods. It was Friday and there was a national holiday next Monday, both expectations were high and the hotel was operating on 100% occupation rate.
During the morning 91 operator actions with observable aspects related to communication used (verbal, telephone, radio, computer and other) were observed. It was observed that the requests are diverse and vary quantitatively during the operator's working period. Therefore, anticipation of employee strategies has been identified, in order to reduce the risk of errors and queuing at the reception. Amongst the strategy is the anticipation of groups check-in. The operator fills in the check-in system and prepares the key cards before the group's arrival. When they arrive, anticipated service reduces the procedure time.
Fig. 5 shows the classification of the services performed during the observation period. Activities such as balcony organizing and conversations between operators on reservations or guests, cash conferencing and checking log book are not included as requests. Check-in requests totalized 26% of care provided by the operator observed during the period of work, while the check-out amounted 23%. In addition, the operator had 7% of their demands for service relating to the provision of information.
As for the demands, 31% were related to other sectors. Such demands were characterized considering its source responsibility. They consisted of service provided by reception, which might initially have been solved by other sectors. The maintenance sector that includes, for example, requests about Wi-Fi connection accounts for 9% of these demands. As for the complaints 4% were related to the governance and included factors such as office supply or water requests. The demands related to reservations involved guest transfer or confirmation, which was not reported to the front desk and also the inventory of habitational units available and locks according to anticipated entries. In addition, administrative tasks such as separation of payment documents for the finance office were performed by the receptionist operator.
The demands characterized as others included reception activities such as preparation keys cards, requesting apartment exchange, dialog with staff and other sectors to meet guest requests. It was possible to identify the following quantitative distribution of the demands/requests over the observation period.
Fig. 6 allows to confirm the information obtained in an interview with the front desk manager, over the most intensive work period, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The observations held on Thursday, 09/10/15, during the afternoon presented the in/out flow as shown in Fig. 7.
During the afternoon observation, the hotel was operating on 71% occupation rate. During this period, check-in procedures totalized 85%, as shown in Fig. 8.
The analysis and classification requests show that the largest share of the operator's time is devoted to various requests from the reception, including information exchange, issuing extra keys cards, apartment exchange requests, taxi request and transfer, among others.
The second largest demand group refers to matters of maintenance sector, 22%. Within these cases, 100% were related to complaints about the bad Internet connection. In addition, it was observed that 20% of the demands of service were to check in, while 3% were to check out, because of deadline for the procedure is at 12 p.m. External demands, only 2% of cases, were related to tour operators. Some governance demands were identified, such as room smelly, towel and extra blanket request, searches for lost object, among others.
The distribution of requests during the observation is concentrated on 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. period and after from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. as shown in Fig. 9. In the first period, diverse requests are predominant, while in the second, the maintenance requests are.
It is important to highlight that during all observation periods, the simultaneity in carrying out activities was identified, because of the impermissibility about either qualitative or quantitative requests variation.
5.2.1Global and local diagnosticsDysfunctions in other sectors such as governance, reservation and maintenance, cause reception overload with demands from these other areas. Furthermore, these disorders create the dependence of these areas in relation to the reception for the identification and solution of their problems/demands. Even though the reception tries to anticipate its requests, the overload and simultaneously activities performance may have a negative effect on operator health (stress) as well as negatively impact service quality and organizational performance.
Some perceptions are sustained, as:
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The reception staff does not have autonomy to solve critical incidents: At times the critical incidents occur and the operator does not have autonomy to make decisions, he gets restricted to meet the demand only with the presence of his superior, not knowing how to act when he is not there;
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The reception has no organization/service processes, and therefore does not have quality evaluation criteria: Dealing with several simultaneous activities, it is common for the operators ‘to get lost’ sometimes, leading to failures, for example, not informing a payment, which can lead to errors in the cash flow. Another common example is not following up on guests’ requests, which in some cases go unanswered, causing dissatisfaction.
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The miscommunication between the supporting sectors overloads the work at the front desk making it impossible to improve services: In certain situations, the performance of the reception activities is compromised by the lack of information from other sectors. A critical factor for the good performance of the reception is, for example, the accuracy of information in the reservation system. However, the reservations department is not open 24h a day, which eventually results in a gap between the system information and the guest's arrival;
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The support areas have no structure and qualification to carry out their work, resulting in part of their responsibilities transferred to the reception: Governance sectors, maintenance and reservation have problems such as high turnover rate, besides lack of qualification and training, as remarked in an interview with the Human Resource professional. Governance employees, for example, do not speak English, which makes them depend on the front-desk help to fulfill some activities. In addition, its work structures have limited physical space for performance and organization of their responsibilities;
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The lack of clear definition of roles and functions overloads the reception operators: Front desk operators do not have well defined responsibilities, and therefore, many times they perform activities of other sectors, such as inventory habitational units and block them according to reservations expectations, which should be held collectively with the reservation sector;
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The physical separation of administrative sectors, especially Human Resources Management, weakens the concerns about the job and your organization: There is no structure in hotel that is responsible for recruitment, selection, training and qualification of employees. There is only one employee responsible for organizing the documentation of others and transfer to outsourced office for completion of the legal processes. This situation aggravates the unpreparedness of workers.
The creation of Human Resources department in the studied hotel organizational structure is needed. The creation of a department responsible for the recruitment, selection and training of employees, in addition to the organization and management of job positions could lead to significant organizational changes in a medium and long term, and directly improve the employees’ quality of life, besides enhancing hotel system productivity and quality.
6.2Technology and operating systemsIt is important that the management system is integrated and that operators are trained for handling properly. Moreover, because of differences on reception and reservation schedules, it is essential that the reception operators have access to reservation information when there is no support.
6.3Organizational innovationThe review and redesign of the processes flow between front-office and back-office sectors is required for enhancing the effectiveness in communication, in terms of speed and readiness in responding to guests’ requests. The back-office sectors need an internal restructuring, including physical and managerial aspects. Moreover, governance, reservation and reception need to be gathered tied to a single system in an integrated manner, composing the hosting system, so they can work continuously. One suggestion would be the creation of the hosting management department and greater integration between reservations, reception and governance.
7ConclusionsFaced with the increasing competition in the market, the need for qualification and professionalization of organizational systems in hospitality is intensified, to improve their performance and delivered services quality. The organizational efficiency becomes a condition to generating competitive advantage, especially for individual management hotels, that need to seek innovations to survive in the expanding market.
The perception of quality is constantly related to the heterogeneity of customers as well as the continuity of service (communication flow), since the individual perception during the relationship is crucial for evaluation of quality and loyalty. Therefore, the challenges for the hotel quality management are focused on situations that take place on front-office. And so, the management of information flow between front and back office sectors is essential.
This study allowed concluding that Ergonomics Work Analysis can actually contribute for company strategies. Overall, considering the service field and hospitality management competitive context, it is really important to know better how work is organized, in order to find out enhancement opportunities. As remarkable during the bibliography research, human resources represent one of the most important assets for service companies. So, this study represents the first step for a group of transformations that need to be done in order to create value on hospitality profit chain, besides to improve quality work life, guest quality perception and sustainable competitiveness on lodging services.
The study proved pertinent to generate results to be incorporated into the strategic and operational management of the studied hotel. Therefore, the potential of Ergonomics stands out as a field of study and project for the improvement of hotel systems, remarking the opportunities for further researches.
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