Housekeeping Skills Essay Example

its staff could not be maximized. Thus, the researchers’ tasks include the identification of those strengths weaknesses of the staff of the housekeeping department so that appropriate decisions and plans could be made for further training of the staff of the housekeeping department.

Review of Literature and Studies The researchers were able to find and read literature and studies that were related in one way or another to their study, and the gist of each of these literatures is presented in the following exposition. Related Studies The studies reviewed by the researchers were related to their study because focus and concerns of these studies were also the focus and concern of the study of the researchers, although there were some variables that were different from one study to another.

In a related study conducted by Arreha (August, 2012) entitled “Housekeeping in Hotels: Personnel Turnover, Cultural Diversity, and Safety and Security,” it was said that housekeeping department is extremely important to any hotel. Housekeeping staff play significant roles as well. For this reason, Arreha said that there is a need to minimize personnel turnover by monetary and non-monetary bonuses, trainings, good schedule, and the like. As an option, Arreha recommended that it may be achieved by cultural diversity in the housekeeping department.

Cultural diversity will benefit the organization by different ideas from employees with different background. Customers may be satisfied from any country or area. It was also suggested that absenteeism be minimized for it would improve employee’s knowledge of their duty and make them understand the importance of safety and security management of the hotel. Arreha concluded that good-natured and well-trained employees

will definitely benefit the company, the hotel.

The foregoing study is related to the study of researchers since the study of the researchers was concerned with safety which was one of the focus of Arreha’s study. Casado (2009) commented on a study that most customer complaints are directed to the chief housekeeper and sorted out among the housekeeping staff. Casado also noted that housekeepers often coordinate purchasing special items and assist sales teams. According to Casado, the housekeeping department is also responsible for a level of security, safety and environmental duties such as composting and recycling.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in cooperation with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Employment and Labor Relations, Occupational Health and Safety Branch, and with the participation of the staff at the Hotel Newfoundland, a Canadian Pacific Hotel conducted a correlational study in July of 2007. The study concluded from its findings that there is a direct correlation between a clean, neat, and orderly workplace and a safe, successful organization. Poor housekeeping, on the other hand, creates hazards and invites accidents.

Housekeeping in a hotel is a very physically demanding job that includes many, varied tasks. The said study found out that housekeepers were typically responsible for cleaning 16 rooms per shift. The actual amount of work depends on the size of the room and the number of beds. A housekeeper needs between fifteen and thirty minutes to do one room. Moreover, a housekeeper changes body position every three seconds while cleaning a room. If it is assumed that the average cleaning time for each room is twenty-five minutes, we can

estimate that a housekeeper assumes 8,000 different body postures every shift.

In addition, forceful movements while using awkward body positions include lifting mattresses, cleaning tiles, and vacuuming every shift. Housekeeping is a physically demanding and very tiring job. It can be classified as "moderately heavy" to "heavy" work because the energy required is approximately 4 kilocalories per minute (4 kcal/min). Another conclusion made from the same study was hotels are usually designed for the comfort of their guests rather than their housekeeping staff. This fact makes it very difficult to improve working conditions for housekeepers by means of better engineering.

However, some improvements can be made by selecting more appropriate equipment. Some of the more specific recommendations are as follows. Lighter vacuum cleaners (preferably the self-propelling type), and lighter service carts with wheels designed for carpeted floors would ease the workload for their operators providing this equipment is always kept in good repair. When new vacuum cleaners are purchased, low noise emissions should be one of the criteria. Improving the body postures that pose a major risk for musculoskeletal disorders seems an unachievable task. Again, this fact results from the peculiarity of hotels as a workplace.

To attract guests and remain competitive, hotel management pursues a policy that everything should be "so clean it sparkles". Floors, walls, windows, mirrors, and bathroom fixtures might be adequately cleaned with some form of an extension tool to reduce bending and over-stretching. However, the demand for spotless cleanliness and hygiene, management often requires their cleaning staff to spend extra time and effort cleaning by kneeling, leaning, squatting, crouching, slouching and stretching. These postures will in time

contribute to new musculoskeletal injuries and aggravate old ones. Job rotation is one possible approach.

It requires workers to move between different tasks, at fixed or irregular periods. However, it must be a rotation where workers do something completely different. Different tasks must use different muscle groups to allow muscles already stressed to recover. Another approach is job enlargement. This increases the variety of tasks built into the job. It breaks the monotony of the job and avoids overloading one part of the body. Job enrichment involves more autonomy and control for the worker. Team work can also provide greater variety and more evenly distributed muscular work. The whole team is involved in the planning of the work.

Each team member carries out a set of operations to complete the whole product, allowing the worker to alternate between tasks. This reduces the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. A well-designed job, supported by a well-designed workplace and proper tools, allows the worker to avoid unnecessary motion of the neck, shoulders and upper limbs. However, the actual performance of the tasks depends on individuals. Training should be provided for workers who are involved with housekeeping activities. It is important that housekeeping staff be informed about hazards in the workplace, including the risk of injuries to the musculoskeletal system.

Therefore, identification of the hazards for such injury at any given hotel is fundamental. Individual work practices, including lifting habits, are shaped by proper training. Training should encourage employers and workers to adopt methods that reduce fatigue. For example, it is advisable to plan one's workload and do the heavier tasks at the beginning of the work

shift, rather than at the end, when fatigue is at its maximum. When a person is tired, the risk of injuring a muscle is higher. Training should also explain the health hazards of improper lifting and give recommendations on what a worker can do to improve lifting positions.

Training should also emphasize the importance of rest periods for the workers' health and explain how active rest can do more for keeping workers healthy than passive rest. The effect of such training can reach far beyond occupational situations because the workers can apply this knowledge also in their off-job activities. In 2005 Punnett and Ceballos in the study they have jointly undertaken reveals that hotel housekeeper work is dangerous, and getting more dangerous. Vast majority of housekeepers coping with persistent pain on the job, addition of luxury amenities correlates with increasing rates of injury.

The study released the findings of the study entitled "Creating Luxury, Enduring Pain" that couples research with the stories of hotel housekeepers to paint a dramatic picture of the work of a hotel housekeeper. Findings show that behind the luxury and comfort that housekeepers provide for hotel guests is a pattern of persistent pain and injury. The study of Punnett and Ceballos utilizes the first comprehensive analysis of employer records of worker injuries, including records of the major five hotel companies. The analysis covers 7 years from the year 1999 to year 2005 and over 60 hotel properties with approximately 40,000 hotel employees.

The report finds that not only are housekeepers injured more frequently than other hotel and service workers, but this problem is only getting worse as hotel

companies implement room changes including heavier beds and linens and in room amenities like coffee makers and treadmills. Housekeepers endure this workplace pain and continue to work because they value their jobs and their customers. Valessie McCaskill, a housekeeper at the Chicago Hilton and Towers explains, "Some days my leg would swell up and I would literally limp from room to room. When the pain was at its worst, I would sit on the beds and cry because it hurt so much.

In the rooms, at least no one would see me. " Unfortunately, the study finds that stories like Valessie's are all too common. The statistical analysis of hotel housekeeper pain and injury is based on recent work by a group of occupational medicine experts. The results were presented at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's 2006 National Occupational Research Agenda symposium. Using hotel employer records of housekeeper injuries, combined with evidence from earlier surveys, the study reveals that housekeepers face prevalent pain and disproportionate rates of workplace injury.

There were several significant findings of the study which included the following. In a survey of over 600 hotel housekeepers, 91% reported experiencing workplace pain. This pain is so severe that 66% of hotel housekeepers who reported workplace pain took pain medication and 67% visited a doctor. In the 1999 to 2005 period, hotel housekeepers faced an injury rate of 10. 4%, which is over 86% higher than the injury rate experienced by non- housekeepers (5. 6%). Between 1999 and 2005, housekeepers faced a 61. 4% higher risk of injury compared to all hotel workers.

Hotel rooms have become more

hazardous places to work in recent years. Between the year 2002 and year 2005, housekeepers had a 71% higher risk of injury relative to all hotel workers compared to 47% in the 1999 - 2001 period. Laura Punnett, an occupational epidemiologist and ergonomist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and one of the coauthors of the recent NIOSH presentation on housekeeping health and safety, has this to say: "Work like hotel room cleaning has been shown over and over again to increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, such as low back pain and tendonitis.

The prevalence of low back pain and related symptoms is unusually high in hotel workers. " The evidence strongly implicates increasingly excessive workloads in the rising rates of musculoskeletal disorders among hotel housekeepers. Hotel housekeeping workloads and the physical demands of the work have increased significantly in recent years as the hotels have upgraded and introduced new room amenities like luxury beds with heavy mattresses, triple sheeting and heavy duvets. Leticia Ceballos, a hotel housekeeper at Glendale Hilton (Los Angeles): "I have sharp pains when I bend.

Putting the sheets on the beds and cleaning the toilets and bathtubs hurt the most. After the hotel put in the heavier beds and linens, the pain became more severe. " Hotel workers across North America are coming together to improve working conditions through the Hotel Workers Rising campaign. In addition to improved wages and benefits, workplace pain and injury is a major concern for hotel workers, and local unions often include proposals to improve workplace safety as part of their collective bargaining agreements.

Safe workloads are expected to be in

issue in many cities this year as 60,000 hotel workers negotiate new contracts. Margie Merricks, Executive Housekeeper of the Cumberland Hotel, presented a case study in 2004 and she found out that Cumberland Hotel in London’s Marble Arch is a favorite with fans of contemporary art and design. Its vast ambient-light-filled lobby doubles as an art gallery and each of its 1,000 plus guestrooms features leading-edge designs and original artwork by UK contemporary artists.

The hotel even boasts a Jimi Hendrix suite, as a tribute to the legendary guitarist whose last-known address was the Cumberland. Merricks concluded that projecting the right image is clearly key for the hotel and it is critical that as well as maintaining exceptional standards, everybody working at the Cumberland understands the culture and is capable of upholding brand standards. This includes the army of housekeeping staff from WGC, the cleaning company that has the contract to provide hotel housekeeping services at the Cumberland.

Responsible for maintaining more than a 1,000 rooms, WGC’s workforce includes room attendants, floor porters, linen porters, housekeepers and office coordinators. The Cumberland chooses to outsource its hotel housekeeping services for a number of reasons. It gives the hotel the flexibility to match staff numbers to occupancy levels and also achieves both time and cost savings because WGC takes responsibility for the lion’s share of the recruitment, training and management of the housekeeping workforce. Naturally, in an environment where exceptional standards are a must, an rrangement such as this can be perilous if the outsourcing company isn’t up to scratch. However, with WGC, the Cumberland is in safe hands. As a highly experienced and exceptionally

professional company, everyone delivering WGC’s hotel housekeeping services is thoroughly vetted and expertly trained before starting a new role to make sure they are capable of maintaining the standards expected of them. Due to the size of the workforce at the Cumberland, WGC also bases one of its trainers onsite to work alongside the Cumberland’s training department and help uphold standards.

The quality of work is assessed constantly and WGC has strong systems in place to identify and resolve any issues quickly and to make sure its relationship with the Cumberland is running smoothly and that it continues to deliver exceptional housecleaning services. Avner On, a General Manager, made another case study in 2002 that focuses on Hilton London Metropole. With 1,054 guestrooms and the capacity to hold conferences for 3,000 delegates, the Hilton London Metropole is the largest hotel in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.

Managing guestrooms on this scale is a considerable organizational feat. It was found out that the hotel prepares rooms as early as possible in the day while also keeping a firm eye on standards to ensure quality is never compromised. To help it succeed, the Hilton London Metropole has outsourced its housekeeping function to specialist hotel cleaning Services Company that focuses solely on providing hotel housekeeping services, with skilled workforce, capacity and experience to handle the demands of working in such a huge, fast-paced environment where quality is key.