Flexible Work a Game-Changer for Singapore’s Hotels?
Could this be the future of work in hospitality? Probably not, at least for frontline staff.
Singapore’s Tripartite Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) guidelines come into effect on 1 December 2024. These guidelines are a meaningful shift towards a work-life model that emphasizes balance and productivity. These changes have naturally been welcomed by employees. You’d be hard-pressed to find an employee who would not want more flexible work, given the choice!
The reaction among hospitality employers has been polarized though. Hotels operate around-the-clock, so shift work is not going away. A tight labour market and limited work visas add to the challenge of providing flexibility. Guests aren’t going to serve themselves after 6pm!
In this post, we explore these challenges, and consider how employers can turn them into advantages.
Overview of the FWA Guidelines
Based on the guidelines, there are three types of FWA:
Flexi-time: flexible hours, but with no change to workload or total work hours
Flexi-load: flexible work loads, with compensation adjusted accordingly
Flexi-place: flexible work location aside from the office
Let’s consider how they could apply to hotels.
Flexi-time
Status quo: Operations and F&B teams operate on fixed shifts. Most hotels operate 3 shifts. Staff are allocated shifts throughout the week. Back-of-house teams (sales, finance, HR etc.) operate traditional office hours.
Opportunities:
Dynamic shifts that match staff’s preferred hours with required staffing levels
Shift swaps that empower staff to seek cover when they need to make last-minute changes
Compressed weeks where staff work for longer on work days, but work less days overall
Challenges in implementing opportunities:
Makes rostering more time-consuming
Adds complexity to rostering given the need to match preferences against staffing requirements
Requires continual tracking of staff hours worked and roster rebalancing
Flexi-load
Status quo: Full-time staff work fixed hours with little flexibility. Roles are well-defined with limited scope for role extension. Contract staff supplement staffing when staffing levels fall short, but work the same fixed shifts.
Opportunities:
Shortened shifts, with corresponding pay
Job sharing where 2 (or more) staff take on the work load currently borne by 1 staff
Job extension where staff take on additional work from adjacent roles with enhanced wages
Challenges in implementing opportunities:
Needs new tools to link payroll to dynamic roster
Requires thoughtful knowledge transfer to facilitate shared or extended roles
Requires training and middle manager oversight to ensure service quality is not compromised
Flexi-place
Status quo: Hotel premises are the primary workspace for most staff, with limited opportunities for remote work
Opportunities:
Remote work for non-customer and non-operational roles
Challenges in implementing opportunities:
Needs added info-security tools and policies to safeguard customer data
Manage staff perception of fairness, especially among frontline staff
Implications for Hotels
Staff engagement directly impacts customer satisfaction.
Benefits
Higher staff engagement: Flexi-time and flexi-load present forward-looking hotels with the opportunity to strengthen staff engagement. General managers that take heed of staff preferences, will appeal to the modern workforce that demands managerial empathy.
Alleviate talent crunch: Making work more accessible by offering options for shorter work or reduced workloads can expand the labour pool. FWA is an opportunity to renew the sector’s appeal with the elderly, disabled or new parents among others. Redesigned roles position the sector to attract a new generation of jobseekers who value outcome-based and multi-faceted work.
GOP margin uplift: Staff are the lifeblood of hospitality. Engaged staff lead to better guest experiences which directly translate into pricing power. Focusing on outcomes will encourage productivity gains and a closer alignment of costs with revenue drivers such as occupancy.
Important enablers
Technology is a must: FWA invariably adds complexity to rostering, payroll and workforce management. Rostering for example is highly manual and done on spreadsheets today. Managers need intelligent tools that can predict workloads, capture staff preferences and use algorithms to generate dynamic rosters. Staff will need mobile access to rosters, knowledge and communication. These systems will need to integrate well with HR and Finance systems for seamless payroll and accounting.
Ongoing communication: Managers need new tools and policies to provide staff with the means to raise preferences, concerns and requests. All requests and corresponding manager responses should be logged. Data analytics should be used to track sentiment, attrition, leave days and other important metrics. These support the business case for FWA, and allow managers to course correct where required.
Managerial buy-in: General Managers must personally champion FWA and engage staff on the desire outcomes from such implementations. Middle managers should be involved in developing policies and processes. They should be encouraged to communicate clear and measurable performance goals to their teams. All managers should be trained on outcome-based performance measurement.
In conclusion, FWA has been a polarizing topic in hotels. However, with the right strategy and implementation, FWA can be a boon to both employer and employee.
