First Time Leader Podcast

Episode 30 outlines steps to take to save on energy costs in every department and how to communicate the responsibility to every dept. leader.  

In this episode I discuss how to complete an incident report after someone has been injured or the occurrence of another type of loss. 

A generic version of the Incident Reporting Procedures can be obtained by writing to me at [email protected]. 

All of my podcast episodes can be found at https://firsttimeleader.libsyn.com  

In this episode I talk about Profit Ratios covers Departmental Profit, Gross Operating Profit or GOP, EBITDA,

A profit is earned when enough revenue is earned to cover ALL expenses. This is done by managing your productivity ratios and expenses mentioned earlier.

All of the episodes can be found at https://firsttimeleader.libsyn.com

In this episode I talk about productivity ratios and how using this method of analyzing your financial statement will in driving success in your business.

In the hotel business – your resources are your ROOMS and your PEOPLE to drive success

All of my episodes can be found at http://firsttimeleader.libsyn.com 

In this episode I give a quick overview of the Financial Statement, also known as you Profit and Loss statement or Income Statement. I review the Summary page and detail pages down the GOP line.  

Most General Manager are responsible for topline revenues all the way down to the GOP line. Rarely do you have any responsibility below that line. You may see these numbers on the P&L but the majority are fixed costs that never change except for FFE Reserve and Management Fees

IT WILL HELP IF YOU HAVE A P&L IN FRONT OF YOU TO HELP YOU GET A VISUAL OF WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. DEPENDING ON YOUR COMPANIES P&L FORMAT IT MAY SEEM DIFFERENT THAN WHAT I AM EXPLAINING. 

A P&L OVERVIEW

On the summery page of the P&L, you may see

MTD and YTD totals column presented as a dollar amount, as a percent of gross sales or gross revenues

Sometimes it will also have a per occupied cost as well.

On the detail pages that are broken down by department, the ratio most commonly used is CPOR or…… Cost Per Occupied Room

                You can benchmark your current P&L against the approved budget to see how well you did with revenues and expenses to GOP but I’m not going to talk about BENCHMARKING today but that will be explained in another episode.

In this episode I discuss how to prepare and conduct an interview and the need for a Competency Profile for each position. 

Conducting an Interview

The first thing to consider is your LONG TERM STRATEGY

• What will this do and how will they help you reach your long term strategies
  • Sales and marketing
  • Front desk
  • Department management

PREPARATION FOR THE INTERVIEW

Understanding the topics you can’t ask a candidate –

• Race, Color, or National Origin.
•  
• Sex, Gender Identity, or Sexual Orientation.
• Pregnancy status.
•  
• Age or Genetic Information.
•  
• Marital Status or Number of Children.

Create a POSITION COMPETENCIE profile  -  What do you want from this position

• Leadership/Individual Effectiveness
  • Personal Commitment
  • Leadership
  • Control
  • Flexibility
  • Interpersonal Effectiveness
  • Decision making
• Satisfaction Orientation
  • Teamwork
  • Guest Focus
  • Quality Focus
• People Management
  • Developing Others
  • Directing Work
• Functional Knowledge
  • Job knowledge
  • Industry Knowledge

Make a list of questions you want to ask each candidate so you are consistent to use as a guide to follow

• Ask open ended questions to get the candidate talking and HAVE at least two follow-up questions
• Drill down on focus areas that pertain to the position you are interviewing for like problem resolution and guest interactions, groups or corporate sales

I always made it a point to watch the candidate from a distance to see how they interacted with staff. Also, I talked to the person that greeted them first to get their opinion on first interactions, personality and conversation.

Also my first impression as I greeted the candidate was very important based on handshake, pleasant greetings, tone of voice and smile.

Always use an ice breaker to put the candidate at ease. This will let their ability to have a conversation come out.

As you progress through your list of questions, watch out for the candidates demeanor to see if it diminishes as time passes to stays consistent. This will be a tell tell sign the candidate doesn’t have a consistent personality.

At the end of the interview, make time for the candidate to ask questions about the company, position, pay, benefits etc. I always told them to email me if they had any additional questions after they left.

A good habit to get into is – have multiple people interview the final candidates, this will –

• Allow a different perspective
• Help you make the critical decision for who to hire
• Will let you compare notes about a certain candidate

AS a GM, if all interviewers didn’t agree on a candidate, they didn’t get hired. It had to be unanimous. 

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This episode gives a detailed explanation on how to conduct a hotel room inspection, everything a new hotel leader must be able to do to ensure quality and consistent cleanliness in their hotel. 

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In this episode I discuss the importance of conducting a new hire orientation in our department as a new leader. This checklist will inform new employees of the policies in their new work place and hopefully avoid embarrassing situations. 

Below are a few examples I talk about that should be included in you checklist. 

• Department policies
• Employee dress codes
• Employee code of conduct
• Attendance, day off request and vacation policy
• Training activities
• Co-worker introductions
• 1st day and 1st week follow-up
• Department Goals

Please send me any questions to [email protected] and please subscribe to the First Time Leader podcast so you know when new episodes are released.  

In this episode I talk about how to have a successful meeting and the steps to take in creating the information you need to be successful. 

In this episode I talk about the steps to counseling employees on performance issues and getting the ideas and asking for their help in developing action steps that will lead to a successful resolution.