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How do you boost your morale for front desk staff?

Front Desk Operations

zomac started this discussion 10 years 7 months ago

As the hostel is becoming more occupied than ever, we have a serious trouble in the turnover rate of our staff.

The staff who worked from the first day of the hostel have worked for us for a year as they promised during the recruitment. After we've passed the first anniversary, they had to leave for different reasons. It seems that they all liked to work in a hostel, but the career path is limited. Some of them came back to work as a part-time or volunteer...anything but a full-time staff.

Among the new staff we've recruited, while many of them failed the probation for different reasons (theft, too nervous at dealing with strangers, neglect work), we couldn't even retain the very good one. That guy still loves to come back to the hostel from time to time, and hanged out with our staff, but he just doesn't like being a receptionist, probably because of lack of career path.

While we're expanding our headcount and reduce workload for our staff, I'm also wondering what a good hostel could do to retain the good staff.

Salary is a major factor. While we couldn't afford to pay as good as a big company, our salary is around 25-30% higher than receptionists in my city. We're now thinking about giving a lower salary, but ample bonus for each three month.

At 6th month, they will get the bonus for the first 3 months. And at 9th month, they'll get the bonus from 4th to 6th month. Not quite sure if it can keep them to work for longer.

What else tricks do you have?

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katrina_192

10 years

Hey one thing that they do at our hostel is they let people play their own music. It's a small thing but people tend to be a lot happier when they are listening to the music they like. Things like songza make this nice and easy.

That and other perks like half price food from the backpacker bar downstairs make a difference.

These suggestions are based on not knowing your hostel though, it could be more ingrained things like complicated processes (which you could look at simplifying) which are driving people away.

Hopefully that helps! I've worked on reception in a couple of places and money isn't always enough to make you stay.

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Rucksack Brian

10 years

We worked out a bonus plan based on bed nights. First we calculated the average increase year over year for each month to see what kind of numbers we can expect already. We added that average to last year’s monthly total, and that became our minimum quota. For every 100 bed nights above that quota, the staff gets a cash bonus for each shift they worked during the month. This way the people who worked the hardest get the most reward. Because it’s based on each month’s specific quota, the bonuses could come anytime in the year rather than just in high season. Our idea was that the receptionists would try to make such a great atmosphere that our guests would want to stay longer or come back to the hostel later in their trip.

Our team likes the challenge that the quota poses. We found that they were motivated by watching the bed night count rise every day and watching the goal flip from negative to positive numbers. They also got more personal satisfaction from their jobs because they got to know the guests better and got closer to them. As Katrina mentioned, we found that the cash itself was appreciated, but not particularly motivating.

I really like your idea for retention bonuses that are paid several months after they are earned. We may have to look into that as well.

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