Daily Archives: August 29, 2010

The Saujana assignment

Lycette & Associates recently completed a consultancy assignment at the Saujana Hotel and the Club at Saujana in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During this 7-day visit, a review was made of all Housekeeping operations and a coaching skills training was delivered to the 20 Housekeeping Supervisors including team leaders from the gardening and laundry sections.

The logistics of operating 2 very different hotels on a lush 160-acre property, surrounding a beautiful lake and golf course is challenging. In any property that is spread out, the daily organization of moving linen, equipment and even staff are obvious.

The variations in these 2 properties, one being older and large, and the second only recently opened and the different levels of service in each property present interesting challenges for the Housekeeping team.

Lycette & Associates was able to offer this very experienced housekeeping team some alternatives and suggestions to improve efficiency and productivity. This included the swapping of staff between the properties, developing the talents of Assistant Housekeepers by moving them between the hotels and having some flexibility in working with an aging workforce.

At the Saujana Hotel, the average age of the original opening team of 15 Room Attendants is 46; the physical nature of being a Room Attendant becomes noticeable and must be acknowledged. This makes planning for the future essential.

The Executive Housekeeper, Noorlailee Ong and her housekeeping team already have some terrific best practice initiatives in place, such as the gardening team moving in to help the laundry department when it was raining heavily and they were not able to do their usual outdoor jobs. Further insights were had in how to improve upon the existing procedures.

For more information on Lycette & Associates consultancies visit our website or contact Liz Lycette on liz@lyctteandassociates.com