Quality Policy of Hilton Sydney
Hilton Sydney is one of the reputed five-star hotels belonging to an international chain. The hotel has gained a reputation for the high quality of accommodation and food it serves to its customers. In addition, it provides the highest satisfaction to all those clients who stay with the hotel.
The quality policy of Hilton Sydney is based on its commitment to offer its customers a high quality of services and facilities, which are in accordance with the health and safety standards. The hotel also strives to maintain higher levels of hygiene and quality control standards and, at the same time to meet the expectations of the international customers in terms of comfort in the stay. The hotel also has adopted the policy of complying with all relevant regulatory measures.
In order to meet the quality objectives, the hotel has implemented comprehensive quality measures, which covers all the day-to-day duties and functions of the hotel. These quality measures are meant to ensure the cleanliness in the preparation of food as well as will take care of the stay of the customers in a safe atmosphere.
The hotel has established a quality system, which analyzes hazards and reports on the criticality of the operations. In accordance with the quality policy, the hotel will carry out inspections at regular intervals to make sure that the quality policies of the hotel in respect of food and accommodation are maintained.
The quality policies also cover the maintenance of the cleanliness of the swimming pool with drawing of the used water and refilling of the water regularly to avoid health hazards to the guests. The quality and safety policies evolved also meet the high standards of the equipment at the gym and spa. The policies provide for periodic maintenance of the equipment and cleanliness of the places.
The policy also provides for taking required remedial deeds where the quality and food safety policies are not maintained. The management sets measurable and objective goals, and the top management evaluates them periodically. In order to ensure the maintenance of the quality policy, the hotel arranges for the training of the staff and conducts workshops to educate the workers to adopt sound quality and safety practices.
Stakeholders, Needs of Stakeholders and Processes
Five Stakeholders of the Hotel are:
- Customers
- Employees
- Management
- Stockholders
- Community
Needs of the Stakeholders are:
- Comfortable stay and hygienic Food
- Favorable working conditions
- Efficient running of the hotel
- Increased return on investment
- Compliance with environmental regulations
Processes to Fulfill the Stakeholders’ Needs
- Quality Management System
- Performance appraisal of employees
- Setting measurable quality goals for each operation
- Good customer feedback and higher occupancy rates
- Training and development of employees to meet the environmental regulations
Inputs and Outputs of Quality Management System
The inputs required for successfully operating the quality management system to meet the needs of customers of the hotel in respect of providing comfortable stay and hygienic food is:
- Identification and communication of clear mission, vision and corporate values
- Formulating and implementing strategies matching resources and capabilities
- Development of quality objectives applicable to different operational areas
- Motivating employees through training to meet the quality standards
- Controlling the costs to become competitive in the market through efficient financial management
- Increasing the hygiene standards in respect of food and other services offered to customers
- Establishing control systems to ensure maintenance of quality standards
- Periodic evaluation of the quality standards by the top management
- Improving technological systems to ensure customer comforts
- Increasing customer concentration through relationship marketing strategy
Employing the above inputs, the hotel is most likely to result in the following outputs.
- The hotel would have established definite and comprehensive quality policies in respect of all of its operations and activities to attract more customers
- The employees of the hotel would have received the necessary training for meeting the quality standards
- There would be a continuous evaluation of the quality policies of the hotel to correct any deficiencies in the quality standards
- The customers would receive improved quality of service at competitive prices
- The occupancy rate of the hotel would increase because of the higher quality service provided by the hotel.
Performance Parameters and Methods to Measure Performance Measures
Performance Parameters:
- Customer satisfaction levels
- Grading employee performance levels
- Management evaluation report – Periodic Revenue statements
- Room price levels of other hotels operating in the locality
- Hotel occupancy rates for the rooms for the past periods
Methods to Measure Performance
- Customer satisfaction survey
- Employee performance evaluation
- Preparation of periodic financial reports and management reports on quality standards
- Collection of room price levels of competing hotels in the locality
- Maintaining hotel records for automatically calculating room occupancy rates during each month
Elements to Implement Continuous Improvement Program
In a service organization like a hotel, it is imperative that continuous improvement programs are installed in the hotel so that the organization will be able to provide high-quality service to the customers. With the increased expectations of the customers, the hotel may find it difficult to meet the demands of the customers unless the hotel implements a continuous improvement program. There are different elements forming part of the continuous improvement program. The following are some elements, which are worth mentioning in connection with the continuous improvement program in a hotel organization.
Customer Opinion Surveys
Research has indicated that service quality is a critical factor in ensuring the success of any type of business (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988). Customer opinion surveys are an effective and useful method to monitor and ensure that Hilton is continuing to improve its performance standards in terms of the quality of its service. Through opinion surveys, it is possible to collect feedback from the customers on the quality level of service. This will help the hotel to improve its service level based on the comments received from the customers on the deficiency in the service quality. The opinion surveys will indicate the areas where the hotel has to improve its service delivery. The use of the DINESERVE questionnaire instrument is one of the popular methods of finding the opinions of the hotel customers (Stevens, Knuston, and Patton, 1995).
Setting Quality Targets
It is essential that every organization should set definite and measurable targets and goals in respect of customer service. In fact, it is advisable to establish attainable standards in respect of all operational areas and activities. It is the responsibility of the management to work on the establishment of these goals so that the organization can continue to initiate efforts to achieve the set targets. In a service organization like the hotel, there is likely to be continuous changes in the demands and expectations of the customers. With the advancement in information and communication technology, the customers are able to obtain up to date information on the levels of service available from different organizations. Based on such information, the customers expect to receive the same level of service from the hotels which they approach for their stay. This calls for the setting of measurable standards by the hotel management and implementing strategies to achieve the goals established by them.
Total Quality Management
Instituting total quality management is another possible element in instituting a continuous improvement program. Total Quality Management (TQM) is concerned with the organizational culture and employee attitudes, which enables the organization to provide its customers goods and services, which meet their expectations (Hashmi, n.d). There are different meanings attached to the term “Total Quality Management.” However, all the definitions focus on the concepts of developing strategic goals and ensuring the organizational commitment towards achieving the goals. There are other factors like continuous improvement, fixing the employee accountability and providing necessary training to the employees, which form part of TQM. Focusing on quality improvement in all functional areas of the organization is the central objective of TQM. There are certain principles associated with TQM. Some of these principles are:
- The customer specifies the quality requirements, and meeting these requirements becomes the primary responsibility of the organization
- The top management is expected to provide the necessary leadership to ensure meeting the quality standards
- TQM considers quality as a strategic priority necessitating the organization to formulate strategic planning
- The organizational members at all levels carry the responsibility for ensuring the quality standards of the products
- Continuous Quality improvement and monitoring the quality standards continuously are the important elements of TQM
- Cooperation and support of the employees and management provide the solution for quality issues
- Statistical quality control methods are used on most of occasions to solve quality issues and ensure quality improvement on an ongoing basis
- TQM requires providing training and education to all the organizational members so that quality is maintained on a continuous basis
The major benefit of TQM arising to the organization is that TQM ensures maintenance of quality standards at every functional area, which enhances the competitive edge of the organization.
Management Performance Review Methods
The hotel organization may adopt management review methods in ensuring continuous improvements in the provision of quality service to the customers. The operations and activities involved in rendering quality service may be broken down into different milestones and work breakdown structures (WBS) to help the management achieve the desired levels of service quality. The management may take the necessary steps for evaluating, analyzing and avoiding the potential deficiencies in the quality levels of service delivery. There needs to be a continuous evaluation of the different processes involved in the activities and operations of the hotel organization to ensure the quality levels of service.
Continuous Quality Improvement Programs
The objective of continuous quality improvement programs is to review and improve the processes on a real-time basis without waiting for feedback. Continuous quality improvement ensures the achievement of the organizational goals through adopting detailed strategic organizational planning directed towards the achievement of the set goals. Strategic quality management involves the establishment of goals for all the functional areas and in respect of all the organizational members. The managers and employees are provided with the required resources to meet the goals. The means and resources in this connection include introducing efficient production processes, providing necessary training to the employees and use of several quality techniques. There is an automatic feedback mechanism, which enables corrections and modifications to the strategic planning. Just as in the case of TQM, statistical quality control measures play a major role in ensuring quality at all levels.