The “way” of carrying out each activity into a hotel is the key to render a good service, both to the guests and to each assistant.

It must be carried out a general diagnosis about each operative area.

This diagnostic might began from the knowledge of the Manager of the area, contracting a Consultancy that really knows, understands and has the capacity of adapting the different procedures of a hotel, or it might be taken into account the information that might give each assistant of the sector.
It might be carried out a coordinated work of each one of these actors, since from each different perspective it may de done a better job.

The work will start with the assistant of the last operative chain, that is to say, from the beginning of that chain that are the people who really carry out the procedures to achieve the best service: the assistants.

They must indentify:

- All the tasks that they carry out at their job.
- The tasks that take more time to be performed.
- The tasks that are more difficult to be performed.
- Frequent mistakes.
- Most frequent guests’ complaints as regard their own tasks.
- Apparent causes that lead to make mistakes.
- Solutions that they may contribute to improve those situations.

As regard Managers and Bosses of Areas, they must identify:

- Tasks that take more time to be carried out by each assistant.
- Operative mistakes that have been detected in the daily operation.
- Causes of those mistakes.
- Complaints and their corresponding causes which they have to solve.
- Difficulties because of absent of procedures, equipments, technical support and problems in the building or furniture.
- Problems of Communications within the same area and with other departments.
- Different suggestions to avoid mistakes (either with guests or into the area).

Taking into account this information, it must be analysed two main factors. One is related to the mistakes or activities that have caused problems in the operation, and the other to the possible solutions to those problems.

As it is clearly identified each problem with its possible solution, it must be written a complete, clean and operative procedure, with all the necessary information in order that it can be interpreted and carried out by each assistant.

Before they come into effect, it must be carried out some practical tests applying them to the diary operation of the area, in order to guarantee that they correctly run or to correct details that do not function as it is expected.

The true implementation of each new procedure must be carried out with formal and general training, and then an individual monitoring with each assistant, in order to be sure that it can be correctly set up and that the results are the expected ones.

It must be taken into account that each procedure that today is new, in a short period of time is going to be usual.  

the control of wrong procedures would be usually done by each Manager in his area, and he must spread it to every assistant in order that they can notice that procedures can be improved everyday, either to the guests’ benefits or the assistants’ benefits, since they will save time, effort, stress and bad humour and they will be always with a positive attitude at the time of serving each guest.

If the assistant is paying attention to this continue improvement, he will notice that everyday he will be reporting from big to small operative problems to the management, which he will be discovering while he is rendering the service and using each procedure.

Remember that the aim is always that the personnel carry out their job as well as they can, as soon as possible, with not so much effort and in a friendly environment and without operative problems because of using procedures that are not appropriate for carrying out each task.

Are they only useful to show an image or are they really useful for managing a hotel?

ISO standards are a tool of Quality Assurance. This tool means that when it is suitable used, it helps to organize and guide the company towards the proposed aim: quality in the service perceived by the guest.

Companies, where there is operative chaos, there are evident problems as regard the service and they cause problems in the service that are experienced by the guests, adopt this Standards as a “salvation” to their operative and organizational problems.

These tools do not contribute to know how and they do neither contribute knowledge nor a recipe to manage a hotel.

The know how must be contributed by the knowledge and experience of each assistant of the own company. ISO standards through their tools help to organize that knowledge and to detect operative problems that arise in order to quantify and analyse them and to find their causes and remove them.
It is a set of tools used to organize documents, procedures and information and to analyse them then.

This process leads to a continue improvement of the service and to a permanent learning, which is the principal aim of the Standards.

Being certified by ISO standards and spreading it outside the company is immediately translated by the clients as “high quality of services”, so their demands are going to be higher and they might have no tolerance toward small problems in the service.

It demonstrates that the standards are an internal tool of management and just when the company is sure that things are well done and that procedures are the appropriate ones in order to render a suggested quality of service to the guest or client, it is advisable to spread that certification as a marketing tool.

Several companies spread this information after it has been immediately certificated by the ISO standards, when the company does not guarantee the appropriate or minimum quality of service, and it may also happen that the personnel are not familiarised with them yet.

It must be clarified that the ISO standards do not guarantee the quality that is rendered, but they show that the company is in a process of permanent improvement to achieve it.

Designing is something attractive, it is something impossible providing a description of how it is designed a hotel.

Anyway, I am going to talk about it from the analytic audience’s point of view, since my profession gives me the tools for that.

Today, the hotel business has changed its function, dare I say it, that they do something different than 20 years ago.
At that moment, going to a hotel meant finding a pleasant place where to sleep, it must be close to everywhere and if it was possible, it had to have a good breakfast.
Hotel were wonderful around the world, it was a good experience staying in a hotel because of its space and originality. Today it is common.

Last years, the hotel business invites the person that enters to the lobby to experience great surprises, they have original spaces with avant-garde materials, furniture and colours and they compete with others as regard styles and details that each one has.  

The person who goes to stay in a hotel, besides a good mattress and bathroom, he/she wants to live something that he/she can remember, and it is there where the DESIGN has an important role.

Design is Magic; with its different offers it can be done that any space looks like the owner of the hotel wants in order that the guest remember an outstanding characteristic of it.

A good design can add hierarchy, style, mark, comfort, organization and as a result of it, the possibility of competing in a market that everyday sells an aesthetic image where the hotel service is an accessory and it is not the protagonist.
Thus, it was born the BOUTIQUE HOTELS, which without having innumerable stars, they have high rates and generally they are chosen by a new market of users who are lovers of luxuries.

Nowadays, the cleanliness and hygiene of the hotels are a continuous worry of the operative managers and housekeepers. 

The housekeeping area has more challenges everyday, because of the high importance that guests give to cleanliness and hygiene.
In order to achieve those challenges, the professionalism of the area is the strategic priority of the companies.

Strategy

The intelligent strategy must be based on:

1- Procedures.
2- Products and equipments.
3- Training.
4- Control and measuring
5- Costs.

Cleanliness procedures must be adapted to the necessities of the hotel, to the materials, HR and the equipments that it has.
These procedures are the base of the other points for achieving:
- Quality in the service.
- Good conditions of the furniture, masonry, panelling and set of taps.
- Reducing times/ increasing productivity.
- Appropriate Costs.

The choice of the products is decisive; they must fulfil the following qualities:
- being effective for the dirty of the place.
- Being easy to use.
- Having as few variations as possible.
- Being ecological and no-aggressive.
- Being cheap.

The equipment that must have the personnel must de adapted to:
- Dirtiness.
- Furniture.
- Cleaning products.
- Spaces of the place.  

Training is essential. If the personnel know and are trained in the use of the products and the equipments, the result is going to be the appropriate one. It will be necessary: 
- An initial training.
- Introducing new assistants, but NOT by their partners of the area.
- Up dating the personnel as regard the use of products and equipments.
- Daily and continuous training in the field (in the job).

In order to take an exhaustive control of the cleaning quality, it is necessary to carry out inspections:
- They must be carried out by trained personnel and with critic sense of the tidiness and cleanliness.
- It must be taken a check list with all the items that must be controlled.
- Results must be written.
- Results must be compared month per month.
- It must be done a summary of the items with more problems and it must be applied corrections in order to improve them.

Costs are an item that must be taken into account in order to always compare costs-benefits-quality.
An inappropriate product causes the following operative costs:
- More hours spent in HR.
- Visible dirtiness.
- Deterioration of furniture, floors, carpets, bathroom fittings and set of taps.
- HR’s effort and frustration.
- Negative image toward the guest.

 Cleanliness

In order to carry out a good cleanliness, it must be used the appropriate products:
- Disinfectant and cleaning degreaser of bathroom fittings.
- Furniture and glasses.
- Odour neutralizer.
- Floors.
- Metal polisher.

The technical characteristics of the products must be the following ones:

The aim of the cleanliness is:
- Aesthetic.
- Safety.
- Maintenance.

In order to obtain these aims, it is necessary to plan them. This plan is daily prepared by the Housekeeper through the Cleanliness’ Reports which she will organize and prepare every day:

- Daily Report of Rooms’ Chambermaids.
- Daily Report of Public Areas.
- Daily Report of the Service Areas.
- Daily Report of Halls.
- Daily Report of Deep Cleanliness.
- Daily Report of the Annual Cleanliness Programs.

What does “to clean” mean?

-  To emulsify cleanliness.
- To maintain surfaces without damages.
- To avoid focus of microorganisms.

Basic concept of Cleanliness: these are the fourth factors that get involved in an appropriate cleanliness:

- Chemical action
- Time of action.
- Mechanical Action.
- Temperature.
These factors are essential to remove the dirtiness.

Is it the same cleaning than disinfecting?
Disinfecting is the destruction of the bacteria that is on the surfaces.

Conclusion. Intelligent Strategy.

It must be taken into account the following items:

- Responsible and motivated personnel.
- Qualified personnel.
- Daily meetings with the personnel.
- Appropriate, enough and identified products.
- Enough equipment.
- Cleanliness planning.
-Control and measuring.
- Costs.

Hotel business is a singular activity since one must work in order not to make any kind of mistake.

May be, it sounds easily when it is a production company where there is enough time to control and guarantee the product before the client take it, but in a service company where the service begins at the moment and place that the client is consuming it, it is not easy to carry it out.

The importance of the boss in the hotel Business is decisive in order to obtain quality service and operation; the boss’ spirit will be transmitted to the entire working team, which will behave according to those general guidelines.

Taking into account this basic concept, at the present the Boss must have the following characteristics:

- Be humane.
- Be professional.
- Be a planner.
- Be a teacher.
- Be a leader.

Being humane is when his working team might trust, address and find appropriate and coherent answers in their boss without being afraid before any eventuality, problem or necessity that might arise during the working day.

A professional person is the one who technically knows his profession, functions or activities. He must be continually up-dated about the trends, technical and technological advances. He must know and know how.

He must know who designs the procedures of each task that will be carried out by the members of the team. He must know how to suitably carry out a particular task and in the most beneficial way both to the company and to the assistant.
Knowing about his activity gives him authority before their assistants.

Being a planner is a way of leading any company at the present, there are not margins to improvisations; nowadays guests do not tolerate a mediocre service.

Being a teacher is a key task in order to be boss, it is the first task. A boss must know how to teach and how to encourage his team to learn everyday how to do their work.

Being a leader is a 70% a natural characteristic and a 30% is learnt. If the person does not have leadership, that is to say if he is not taken into account as an example, as consultant, he must not manage an area.
It is really important that the boss’ profile is the appropriate one to each area or activity, and then it must have the characteristics above mentioned.
His assistants must see him as a “teacher”, who provides security, peace, enthusiasm, equity and reliability above all.

Karina is the Head Housekeeper of a hotel and yesterday afternoon her shift assistant entered the discrepancies in the operative system in order that the front office checks them.

The night auditor passes on a report, after controlling them, where he says that from all the discrepancies, the one of the 1021 room is not correct, actually, Housekeeping has passed it as booked, but it appears as empty in the computing system.

When the following morning Karina arrived, she read the e-mail of the auditor and she started to find out what had happened, if the room was really booked or empty.

Firstly she looked for the chambermaid’s Reports of the both shifts of the previous day, she read the information, she sent to control the room to know if someone has slept there or not, looked for in the computing system the historical movements of that room during the previous day, and taking into account all that information, she arranged the information of what had really happened.

She arrived to the conclusion that the room had been occupied the previous afternoon and the front desk had recorded and handed in the key card but they had forgotten to enter it into the system and the room had passed to no show.

When Karina noticed that, she met with Julieta, Front Office Boss, and together analyzed the matter and they confirmed Karina’s deductions. Both decided to write a new guideline about the procedures that must be followed as regard several aspects:

1- Procedure to the receptionists about the steps that they must follow to do a check in, in order that they do not forget registering them in the computing system.
2- To write a procedure about the control of discrepancies in order to solve them during the night, in order not to have to solve it the following day.
3- To monitor the procedures during the following weeks to be sure that they are correctly running and that the problems are solved before the night closing in order that the administrative and statistical entries are correct.
4- It is distributed the procedures to all the personnel involved, and it is carried out a meeting with them in order to personally explain the procedures and to clarify doubts.

Both, Karina and Julieta, monitor it during the following fifteen days, and there were not any problems, they had just to make some adjustments in order to avoid any possible mistake.

After some time, a new night auditor entered and problems began to arise again, so that, Julieta and Karina decided to meet again in order to analyze again what was happening.

They had deduced that they had to set up an induction programme for the new employee in order that when they are at their job, they perfectly know how to carry it out, and they set up this new training system, which was adopted by the rest of the areas.

The Human Resources Director of the chain noticed the results obtained in that hotel, and he decided to use that method in the entire chain of hotels.

This small example, reflects a new “way” of group performing a hotel everyday, where each small mistake or problem is deeply investigate in order to deduce where it has been originated and how to change that origin so it will not happen again. It is different from hiring Public Relations personnel in order to receive more complaints per day. 

We might have two different situations. The mistake may directly affect to the quality of service that it is receive by the guest and he expresses it through a complaint or, that mistake does not affect the guest but assistants have to spend a lot of time, effort, psychological and physical deterioration in order to avoid that the problems get to the guest. 

We are in front of an important problem in both cases. In the case of an annoying guest, we might loose it forever or we might loose money in order to give him a present as part of the service in order to rectify that problem.

In the case of the assistants, they might be relaxed, quiet and with enough time in order to transmit that state to the guest and it must be also taken into account that the lack of organization and being all the time running to solve problems deteriorate the personnel and at the end the company has a great rotation of personnel so we return to the previous example: probabilities of mistakes are higher if the personnel have not so much experience into the company.

When we are facing a problem, we must ask ourselves at least five times why? In order to reach the origin of the problem, it is not advisable to be nervous, to badly treat the personnel or to shout because those attitudes only increase the feeling of unease in the working environment, an environment that is perceived by each guest when he is in contact with the staff of the hotel.

How many gastronomic businesses may say that they have a lot of clients, that they have high turnovers and that they have good profits?

Just some restaurants say that, since they generally wrongly make the calculations. Nowadays, it is a crucial theme in the gastronomic activity: how to set prices.
Some of the commonest questions that are heard are: why businesses that gain a lot of clients and have a high turnover are not profitable.
“This combination of high rotation and turnover and low or null profitability is directly related to the wrong setting of prices, which remove the profits”.
In the traditional gastronomy, everything is calculated at a guess, a formula that was useful during a lot of time because it was a stable period and there were prices that were respected in direct percentages. But times have changed, the consumer is more demanded, the market is more competitive and profit margins are reduced. So that, it is necessary to be more precise and professional at the time of calculating costs and setting prices, because a miscalculation of a few cents might cost a lot and might be the difference among growing, surviving or succumbing in the attempt.

There are exceptions, of course, but in the general market prevails the improvisation from the beginning: “firstly, it is thought in setting up the business, arranging it and finding personnel; just before two weeks of the opening it is thought in the menu, and at the end it is thought about the “price”.

Thus, the decision of the sale prices might be arbitrary at the end: according to the local of the corner, according to “how much we think that we have to charge”, according to the menus of other restaurants, etc. the “more or less” to which we are used to in our country, it is not more effective.
Some time ago, the recipe was “to multiple the costs by three”, but it hided two basic mistakes: firstly, to multiply as if it might be useful for any business in any circumstances, and secondly, not to have into account the real cost of the dish.


Initial prices

It is important to study what happens in the market and the prices of the competence, however, analysing the costs requires a professional and detailed work, which takes time.
 
There are different methods to set prices, but the most precise and professional one consists on a large and complex series of steps, such as choosing the menu, adapting it to the target that it is desired, verifying that the dishes would be prepared within the times that are managed by a restaurant, calculating the exact profits of each product, preparing a costs’ list of each dish, or applying formulas to calculate the coefficient of the costs of the raw material.

“Nowadays, there are few restaurants that carry out this procedure, unlike the industrial companies –catering- that produce foods, where profit margins are significantly lower and it is managed really tight values”.

This process is long, boring and tedious: once it is determined the local supply, it must be carried out a detailed study about dishes in order to prepare the real recipe, verifying the value that each food lost in the process of elaboration.
Every food or raw material suffers a loss, since they are bought until they arrive to the plate – cleaning, cooking, etc.-, both in volume and weight, and there are tables that quantify them. Meats, for instance, loose around the 30%; fish around 400%.

After determining the factor of loss as regard cleanliness and cooking, it might be known how much they cost.
For example, a cooked and finished steak of 200gm that arrives to the table, in general, in order that the dish contains that amount, it is necessary a steak of about 320 and 350gm.
It must be taken into account these losses, since this difference is not charged to the client; it is paid by the profitability of the business.

The determination of these factors of loss must be done with each raw material that it is used, in order to elaborate its own table: following with the example of the steal, it must be multiplied the final 200gm by the value of the cooking loss which determine how much might weigh the raw and clean piece –for instance, 250gm. This weight must be also multiplied by the factor of the cleaning loss in order to obtain the real weight and turn the recipe into a card of costs: the card to the sector of costs will say 320gm of steak; to the cook will say 250gm. The client will receive 200gm, but it is charged 320gm. It must be done the same process with each dish, each product; it is a process that might take several months.

Hide costs

The cost card of each dish with the reliable information about the costs of each ingredient is the first stage that only includes the costs of the merchandise, but there are other costs that have influence on the price setting.
In gastronomy it is spoken about “hide costs”, because in every process it is made mistakes, or it is generated situations that increase the general costs, and although hide costs are more difficult to quantify, they must not be left aside: for instance: the replacement of the set of dishes, the uniform of the personnel or the laundry costs. It is essential that the average of those expenses is calculated within the fixed costs.

It must be also taken into account that, because of being careless, it might be made mistakes in the orders: the cuisine chef or the chef order more than it is necessary, “just in case”. Thus, although it allows getting better prices, it is also increased the financial costs, because of immobilization of money, maintenance of stock, energy and personnel expenses, and even the loss of merchandise.

A reverse but common problem in these times is ordering less. It implies purchasing the missing merchandise at last moment and at higher prices.
In the best of the cases, it is lost an opportunity of sale, but in the worse one, a client. How must costs losing a client because of lack of merchandise, just because it has been not correctly planned a system of purchases?

The system of purchase might be arranged when it is ready the recipe, when it is exactly known what and how much must be ordered, and there are statistics of the movement of dishes, which allow forecasting future movements.

In order to appropriately determine the price, it must be carried out statistics of movement, standardized sales and purchase’s forecasts, since the supplier provides a steak of 2,5 kg one day and the other day one of 2,7km, the standardization looses it utility. These types of situations must be forecasted from the beginning, avoiding arranging menus with ingredients that might be not available, but with ingredients that might be really available.


Other costs

Another question arises at this stage: how it is added the costs of light, personnel and/or the taxes to the dish? Which is the cost of the water that is used to clean, wash, cook?

There are at least two theories. One, a bit vague, is that the calculation is made according to the time of labour assigned to each dish. Another one says that the assignation of general costs of operation depends on the cost of each dish: that is to say, an expensive dish supports higher fixed costs –something as a proportional percentage of the total fixed cost-.
The famous traditional “multiplying by three” meant that the costs of the raw material did not exceed the 33% during stable periods. But during periods of distortion as the current one, when the value of the raw material changes everyday and the operative costs of the business growth a lot, that automatic 33% is not more useful.

Nowadays, it is more difficult to give a number of reference, but depending on the type of business, that cost is among the 35 and 45%, which considerably reduces the profit margins. So, how is that coefficient obtained?
It must be done a list which includes all the expenses and costs that exist in a particular period in order to know how much has been spent and what has been bought, a deeper and more exhaustive analysis than the accountant’s report. 

The never-ending expenses of a restaurant –taxes, telephone, social charges, advertising, laundry, ABL (lighting, sweeping and cleaning), etc.-  are at the end more important than the raw material, and it must be charged to the client, even the telephone bill; if not, it is paid by the profit.
It must be taking into account how and for what that cost is useful in order to determine the balance point of the business, which is really good as a tool of control. But besides that, in the case that it is detected an imbalance during a certain month, it allows finding where it has been caused and correcting it.

Once all the costs are cleared, it is applied a formula: it is added up all the fixed and variable costs; it must be subtracted the merchandise to the variable costs and it is added the desired profit – the most widespread formula does not include the profit, but adding it up is really useful-.

Within the fixed costs, it is added, as a desired profit, an assignment to the owner; what he/she needs to live.
When it is prepared the list of fixed costs, it must be taken into account those ones that require money from the owner’s pocket to be paid and those ones that do not, such as the amortization of the invested capital or the provision as regard salaries – for leaves, dismissals, year-end bonus, etc.
There are also other values that are the opportunity costs, such as the common example of the owner of a business who was also the owner of the premise. Although it is usually considered as profit, it is no more than the amount that is not paid for a rent.
Although you are not renting, it must be taking into account a rent; the company must be able to pay for a premise, to someone that manages it, to return the invested capital and to generate profits.
It is also a cost the time that the owner is into the business. There are owners that spend 12 hours a day behind the counter and they do not include them as costs.
Calculating the own salary as profit is a common mistake. Returning to the formula: fixed costs plus variable ones, minus the raw material, plus profits, divided by the obtained turnover –even for a new business, which must include an estimated cost-. The result is a figure (0,…), that is the coefficient of the fixed costs–where it is included the owner’s salary-, the variable costs and the basic profit that has been used without the merchandise. If that coefficient is, for instance, 0, 65, it implies that it has been used the 65% of the capital.
Thus, we will have on one side the 100% of the incomes, and on the other one the 65% used in costs and theoretical profit, and it is a 35% that is the percentage of the incomes that might be assigned to the merchandise.

One conclusion of this method is that two premises can not have similar prices if one pays one thousand pesos of rent and the other one pays five thousands; or if one distributes ten thousands pesos in salaries and the other one two thousands, so that, the comparison with other ones is not useful.
This methodology defines a coefficient, that determines how much money would be available for merchandise, depending on how are managed the fixed costs. A restaurant must not be compared with the one of “the other block”, but with ones of the same level, which allows having knowledge about the prices that paid in the market.
Thus, it is achieved own floor and a top in the market. Knowing the floor own price is essential because it allows offering real promotions and not intuitive ones, promotions that are profitable, though they are lower to the average of the market. 

Decisions

Once it is finished this work, it must be prepared a small table with the recipe, the cost of each dish, the floor value, the rank of the market prices, and then, it is arrived to the price that is written in the menu, where it is present a subjective value: the marketing, the location of the premise, and how it is managed the relationship with the rest of the market.
Sometimes, it is a positioning decision having high prices, though it is a risky move, because there are not rules to follow; so each one decides by oneself, basing on the knowledge of the clients and the market.

If the cost of a breaded chicken steak, for instance, is five pesos and at the market it is not charged more than four pesos, what must be done? A risky alternative is to sell it at five pesos, but it may be not demanded. Another alternative is to sell it at four pesos, but it will be lost one peso of profit by each breaded chicken steak, a lost that might be really important if it is calculated according to the amount of dishes per month.

When it is prepared the tables of all the dishes, it is found that some of them loose and other ones win as regard the relation to the own floor price.

An option is to compensate: some dishes are more profitable than other ones, so in the average, according to the statistics of dishes’ departure, the business runs.

When it is talked about changes into a company, automatically appears the rejections. Generally, this rejection is increased in the hotels that have more time running and in the people that have been working there for a long time.

Generally, when it is desired to make changes in a working team, appears the resistance, which might be either clear or hidden.

The clear resistance is information that might help us to change it taking other ways to set up changes, the hidden resistance is much more difficult to detect, especially when the person supports the change verbally, but when he has to put it into practice, he does everything that is possible to avoid setting them up.

In this last case, it is always found an excuse for what the change could not be set, where it is blamed external situations to the person or other people.

As regard changes, they must be set from the highest authority, either from the hotel, changes that affect the whole company, or from the departmental managers, those changes that are specific of each area.

So that, the vehicles that transmit and set up the changes are generally the Bosses or Supervisors, they are the ones that must motivate, train, set up, control and exert the necessary pressure that is required for each implementation.

This pressure might be the one that is only required because of the implementation of something new, as well as the resistance that is generated in the boss or the team of workers.

In the most adverse case, the management must have decision, resistance to the effort, determination, patience and perseverance during long periods of time.

This implementation must start from a previous diagnosis, a good communication about the aim of it and the benefits that it will provide both to the assistants and to the quality of service that is rendered.
First it must be gradually carried out with a strong training, and then I must be a training to maintain or remind it. 
Once the change has been made at about 70% approximately, it must be left some time in order that each assistant assimilates the changes quietly and without pressure.
When it is noticed that changes have been assimilated, it must be waited a sensible time and then it must star again with the correction of any problem or to reinforce the implementation of them, or begin with the following stage of the change. It must be always applied the necessary pressure until you are sure that the change has been made.

Leaving people without pressure during a short period of time, allows them to stabilize, assimilate and apply changes and they are going to be something common of each task. In this stage, it can be said that the change has been achieved and it must be only taken into account the control and reinforcement of the problems that may arise.

The fortitude of the leader that will carry out the changes is really important as the change itself, since the newest assistants will seek support against the change in supervisors that are between the management, which wants to make it, and them, that have to put them into practise, or even in other managements such as the HR or the general management, among others, which take decisions into the company and the ones that will have to support the performance of the manager that is carrying out the process.

Nowadays, in a hotel company it is common the culture of change, since the continuous improvement or the no mistake that may be reached.

Everyday, guests are more demanding and the market is more competitive. Guests change their tastes, computing systems are quickly updated, the facilities of the hotel are updated with the new technologies, so the change is diary and the training must be continuous.

What is behind a process of personnel recruitment and selection in order to consider it successful?

The day arrived, and the anxious client received on line the list of three final candidates together with a brief summary of the assessment interview made by the professional. The three candidates are supposed to be the best to occupy the job in question.

It might happen that the three candidates are a good option for the client, and he can not choose one or he prefers one because of the empathy produced during the interview. It is the same; the success of this first stage and of this staging has arrived to be here. To be here? Yes, to be here in this first stage, but it is missing another stage, and it is that this person, because candidates are also people, is adapted to the culture of the company, to that ways of performing into the company. The culture impregnates the way of performing and the important thing of the candidate’s profile is having the ability to adapt him/herself to it, and that he/she can develop his/her potential in the job in question. And now it is closed the process in order to consider it successful.

What is behind this scene? What is behind of what is seen by the client when we present the list of three final candidates? It is professional and craftsmanship work, where vocation and expertise in this area are an extra and an important value of the profession that takes part in the process, where the dedication and working aligned with the expectations both of the clients and candidates are essential in order to find a coincident point among the interests of both parties.

We are building a process in different stages, listening to our client in order to know him as well as to each candidate, and with the tools that the psychologists specialised in human resources or labour have, we detect the most suitable person for the job and the most prepared one to the culture of that company.

THE STAGES OF A PROFFESIONAL PROCESS OF PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION ARE:

1-Interview with the company in order to investigate about:

1-1- Requirements of the candidate to be incorporated: age, sex, education/studies, minimum required experience, technical and/or professional knowledge, languages.

1-2- Description of the job in question: name of the job, tasks and functions, location into the organizational chart of the area and of the company (it is really useful observing the working physical place). It will be also important to determine the relationship of the job with the other areas of the same, less (areas and/or number of person that he has in charge) and higher hierarchical level (to whom report), estimated remuneration.

1-3-Personality: necessary and desired psychological characteristics of the candidate. Generally, a psychological profile of the candidate.

2-Publication of the advertisement

3- Initial selection of the Curriculums Vitae: the ones that are more adapted to the requirements that have been published. (See point 1.1).

4-First Interviews with the first candidates that have been selected. It is investigated basic aspects of the CV, their labour history, and it is analysed in the interview if the information given by the candidate during the interview corresponds to the CV and with the profile built by the company. It is evaluated expectations, perfect work, interpersonal relationships with workmates and bosses, etc. 

5-Presentation of the finalists – Interview with the client: it is carried out a second selection of the candidates among the candidates that have been initially selected and it is presented to the client those 3(three) candidates that are more adapted to the profile together with a report of each interview.

6-Optional: it might be chosen the administration of an Aptitude Test: it is a deep psychological test of the personality related to the future working performance.

7-If it is chosen point 6:

Presentation of the Report of the candidate’s psychological profile that have been selected by the company:
In the Report it is described the aptitudes and skills of the candidate’s personality according to the job and the profile in question.

The final Report has the following items:

Intellectual modality/ modality of thought: strategies to solve problems or situations, type of thought, reasoning, attention and concentration, discretion, creativity, etc.

Modality of Contact/Social/Emotional: modality of interpersonal relationship, teamwork, leadership, expressiveness, shyness, tolerance to failure, emotional control and maturity, response to pressures or stress.

Labour Modality:
- Relationship with the task: responsibility, capacity for taking decision, capacity for organizing and/or planning, perseverance, adaptation to new situations and to the rules of the company, capacity for controlling the tasks of other people and own ones, initiative.
     - Relationship with others: workmates, subordinates, authorities. Leadership.

Why people that work in a company are part of its capital?

The capital of a hotel company does not consist of the equipment, shares, money, land, among other material elements.

Nowadays, 80% of the capital of a hotel company is the people that work there. It is the only important thing, it is limited and it is never property of the company. The 90% of the problems that might arise in a hotel as regard the service are directly or indirectly caused by the HR.

Most of the guests choose a hotel because of: location, rates, comforts, services, among others, but the last choice is directly related to the service that is rendered: its HR.

The service is joined to the person, without the person there is no service, so that the quality of it must depend on him/her.
Sometimes, it is said that the guest or the client must be treated as a King, but actually, what must be treated as a King is each HR.
A person that does not feel as a King, or how he/she might behave before a King, he/she would not transmit that behaviour.

Taking into account the complexity of the people, it is not easy to satisfy each assistant, since it is not said that it must be taking into account their comfort above all. A job is not comfortable by nature, since it is related to do certain efforts either physical or mental. The idea is that those efforts would be tolerable within a comfortable frame.
The person that must be in contact with the guest everyday must save energy in order to spend it during each contact, and not to stand the operative or administrative procedures and the owners or bosses’ whims.

It is common that a manager or a boss thinks that the assistants work for him, it is observed in a lot of companies. The assistants work for the company, in order to firstly satisfy the external client and then the internal necessities, since a guest can not wait.

In order to attract the best professionals, the company must have a prestigious image, either by the quality of its services or by the comments that its current assistants and suppliers make outside the company.
It helps to the company to attract good professional, but the most difficult task is to maintain them if the external image does not coincide with the internal one and with what is feeling by the person who works there.
That contradictions make that the person leaves the company, causing a great economic loss, waste of time and it produces a deterioration of the image of the company.

Each person that is incorporated to a company requires a necessary time in the job in order to be adapted to the new culture, to know the internal rules, to know the rest of the assistants, to know the operations (procedures), to know the facilities, to learn to carry out his/her job in general and to learn to reach the appropriate standards of quality.
This induction takes a particular time according to each job, but during that time, the company is investing money in the salary of the new assistant, the salary of his/her trainer, in the time of supervision, and it generates different reactions among the rest of the assistants that might produce lack of motivation, fall of the service quality, general unease among the team, among others.

This process is a really important investment to the company, since it is capitalizing the HR, but it is going to be an expense if that process must be repeated continuously because of the lack of ability to maintain that assistants. 

This last case might also put the quality of the service at risk, since a new assistant has more possibilities of making a mistake since he/she has not the enough experience in the job.

In the key jobs of the company, it must be also taken into account that the departure of an assistant might take with him/her the “sprit” of the area; that is to say, an important part of the knowledge and motivating forces that produce that a service is carried out in a way and not in another one. That motivating forces are unique of each person and they are not transferable, it is really difficult that they might be adopted by other people.

Likewise, a high rotation of assistants make that the guests, specially the most habitual ones, notice it and the image as well as the company might be affected.

Fresh mushrooms must be only clean with a fabric. They loose taste if they are washed or sprayed with lemon juice.

In order to remove the bitter taste of the aubergines, they must be submerged in skimmed milk during 1-2 hours and then they must be rinsed before continuing with the preparation.

In order to thicken the sauce, it is advisable to use starch instead of flour, since it thickens twice and it allows reducing to the half the amount that is used.

When it is used chilli pepper, it must be removed the white part that is inside them, since it leaves a bitter taste in the preparations where it is used.

It must be only used the surface of citrus fruit peel, since the white part is really bitter and it might damage the taste of the preparation.

To remove the scales of the fish, it is introduced into a bowl and it is scraped with a knife from the tail to the head. Thus, it is avoided scattering the scales out the sink.

To prepare a hard-boiled egg or soft boiled egg, it is perforated with a pin the lower part, since there it is an air chamber and it is avoided breaking the egg when the water boils.

To hydrate the gelatine, it must be always used a bowl with cold water and it must be slowly sprayed. It must be left 5 minutes and then it is added hot water. It avoids the formation of lumps. 

To store foods or prepared foods into the fridge or the freezer, it must be not use pieces of paper or colour bags, since they might fade or contaminate foods.

To avoid that the non-stick vegetable spray is burnt, it must be not directly used on the container. It must be lubricated the foods that are going to be brown and then they are placed into the container previously heated.

If it is used globe zucchinis in pies or soufflés, they must be cooked in the oven or in a dry frying pan to avoid preserving water and damaging the preparation.

Sweet potatoes must be peeled under the tap and they must be maintained in cold water until the moment of being used. They are not going to be dark. 

To easily crack almonds, they must be submerged in boiling water during some minutes. 

To attractively colour mashed potatoes, it might be used red pepper, turmeric or vegetable artificial colouring, combining the colours with the foods that they go with.

Bananas have not to be put into the fridge since the enzymes that they have, speed up the ripening process when they get cold.

Baked potatoes must not be salted in order to avoid that they loose the starch and that they get stuck to the roasting pan.

Alcoholic beverages must be added at the beginning of the cooking in order to keep the taste while the alcohol is evaporated.

When egg whites are beaten until stiff, it must be not knocked the bowl with the mixers to remove the rest that is on them since the cream will loose volume.

When it is cooked meat, it must be used a spoon or a spatula and not a fork to turn it over since it looses the juice and taste when it is speared.

The necessary amount of water to cook pastas is 1l per 100gm. Salt must be added to the water when it comes to the boil, before introducing the pasta.

If it is desired softening tough meat, they may be submerged into milk during 1 or 2 hours.

When it is used olives in sauces, they must be added at the end, since if they are too cooked, they take a bitter taste.

When you want to tenderise meats, they must be surrounded with a dish towel dampened with water and vinegar, and they must leave into the fridge during all the night, or 4 or 5 hours.

When it is cooked hard-boiled eggs, they must boil 12 hours, and then they must be submerged in cold water during a minute. The shell with be easily removed.

To sear meat, instead of frying it, it must be heated the container so the pores will be closed without using oil.

To know if a bivalve is fresh when its shell is opened, hit it: if it closes, it is alive; on the contrary through it away.

When you want to decorate something with chopped parsley, use it dry, since if it is wet, it can not be scattered on the preparation.
To cut chives, basil, spring onion and other herbs use a pair of scissors. They will be more detailed and it is easier.

To avoid that the rice is adhered to the bottom of a container, empty it when the water is boiling and stir it only once.

 When it is cooked pulses, it must be not added salt to the cooking, since it will form a layer that will avoid that pulses tenderize and cook uniformly.

To peel red pepper, preheat the oven during 10 minutes, wrap them up in aluminium foil leaving space to the circulation of air, cook them during 15 minutes and turn off the oven.

Keep them into the oven until they get cold. It will allow easily removing the skin.

To keep yolks, put them into a container and cover them with water, they are not going to be dried.

When it is boiled tripe, it is not used salt and it must be added 2 spoons of vinegar. It speeds up the cooking time and the meat will be soft.

To cook hard-boiled eggs, boil them during 12 minutes and submerge them in cold water to stop the cooking. This will avoid that the yolk takes a greenish colour.

When it is used sweetener for cooking, do not use those that contain Aspartame, since the high temperatures becomes it bitter.

 To prepare skimmed ricotta, add a spoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the milk when it comes to the boil. Cook it during a minute, cold it and then strain it.

To prepare roast apples, remove the centre with the seeds and make cuts around it. Cook them over low heat, it will avoid breaking them.

To avoid that the salads turn brown, cut the vegetables with the hand or a plastic knife.

To keep the meat into the fridge, do not use paper, it will give bad taste and strong smell and it will be easily discomposed.

To keep spices and herbs, it is necessary to keep them in fresh places in order to retain their taste and aroma.

          If it is used chocolate in the preparations, add a pinch of coffee to enhance the taste.

To prepare vinegar with taste to herbs, it is just necessary to add some fresh spring of tarragon or pilgrim, and leave them during 15 days.

To clean glass jars or bottles where it has been stuck foods, they must be filled with water, cooking salt and washing-up liquid, put the tops on and shake them energetically.

If some foods have been stuck on ovenproof dish or on a pot, leave them during the whole night with water and cooking salt, they will be easily removed the other day.

In order that the chicken is not underdone at the inside, it must be cooked firstly over medium temperature and at the end over high temperature to brown it.

In order to obtain a well-cooked Spanish omelette, it is necessary to pour the preparation into a hot frying pan and after searing it, lower the temperature to cook it uniformly.

Remember that the stiff egg whites must be always incorporated over the hard ingredients and mixed them from the outside-in, on the contrary the volume of the cream decreases.

To prepare poached eggs, boil them into water with a bit of lemon or vinegar during 2 minutes.

If you want to the prepare sour cream, add to the preparation some drops of lemon.

In order to obtain a soft octopus, put it into a dish towel and hit it with a heavy element. Then, submerge it three times in boiling water and cook it until it is soft.

When it is even a gourmet restaurant, we must take care not only of the presentation and the good taste of a first-class dish but also of our guests’ health to avoid a possible indigestion.

It is important to achieve a good and health food, making certain not only of the good quality of the raw material, but also of the form of preparation, the appropriate food preserving that have been correctly prepared and served by the qualified personnel.

There is a variation of foods that might be easily contaminated:

Vegetables and fresh fruits, seafood, fish, pork, meat, flesh, eggs, mayonnaise, creams…

What might we do to avoid indigestion?