HOUSEKEEPING EXECUTIVE MANAGER’S REPORT FOR DINNER THEATER
After spring break began the planning for the Dinner theater, as usual the senior class students were assigned their managerial role. Some managers maintained their positions from GALA whilst others were reassigned different roles in other sections due to creating of new section for dinner theater “The Buffet section” which was not a section during gala and also the need for some specific skills required by other sections.
The service section gave off some of their members which were negotiated between the buffet team and the housekeeping. The buffet team selected enough for its team and gave the rest to the house keeping team on 3/28/07.
MEETING WITH THE TEAM
It was important to meet with the list of people assigned to your section so that I can match the names with the people to know the exact number of people I was going to work with. This was because some names on my list during GALA were not real people; others were but did not show up.
· My first point of contact with the members of my team was during PRO dev.
· I called out the names of my team and asked them to meet with me after PRO dev.
· I spoke to them and let them know the academic requirements involved in participating in their assigned team and the marks associated with it.
· I asked them to write their name, contact numbers and email addresses.
· I shared the names among my assistant managers and ask them to contact the people by electronic mails, phone call or which ever means possible to get their class schedule.
· I arranged to meet with my assistant managers to go through the schedules and decided on how to schedule the team during production preparation and the actual function.
· The above was done two weeks before the function.
PLANNING WEEK
The planning week began on the Monday, 4/2/07. First the executive committee met followed by the various sections planning meetings.
This was where the actual planning for the Dinner Theater began. I needed to have a plan in order to know what to do during Dinner Theater preparation, how to achieve my daily objectives, how to organize my staff, how to communicate with my assistant managers and staff as well, how to schedule them, how to motivate them and what to direct and coordinate. The plan sets the goals and formulated the strategy for action to achieve my objectives.
· I placed my orders through the production manager and ensure that everything I needed was ordered. The truck that brought the orders came the last Friday before the Dinner Theater week at 8:00am, so I was there on time to collect and checked my order list against the ordered items for my section
· I assigned my assistant managers to the various section of the production department- the hot kitchen, cold kitchen and the bake shop.
· I asked them to coordinate with their respective section heads (hot kitchen manager) to collect their timeline so they can work within that timeline.
· I met with my assistant managers to discuss the best way to schedule the team. Shift was preferred to other ways in order not to over work them and drain their energy out of them. I made the schedule flexible to accommodate changes from the production department.
· I asked my managers to schedule the team, went over the final schedule and ensured that it is posted on the notice board before the last Friday of the function.
EXECUTION WEEK
This started on the Monday, 4/9/07 with all the section in full swing ready to work. This was where I put my plans into action and ensured that every thing worked according to plan. Management is an art and it depends on your own ingenuity, creativity, dynamism and skills. As a matter of fact, this stage was where I put my organization skills, leadership skills, coordinating and controlling skills, problem solving and decision-making skills into play. I involved my assistant managers in every decision I made and got their input. I assigned them to specific role and gave them the opportunity to manage.
The following activities were carried out on the first day of the execution week:-
· I scheduled all my staff to be present on the first day of production preparation. This helped me to know the number of people who were willing to work with me. I did not have 100% of my staff present on the first day, but they eventually showed up with excuses.
· I took them through the housekeeping facilities, equipment and materials. This helped them identify where they can get what they needed to carry out whatever task they were assigned to, such as identifying the store room and the chemical room, where to get mop heads and buckets, gloves, trash cans, trash bags, brooms, dust pans to mention a few.
· I demonstrated how to work with the three tank sink. I showed them how to fill the three tanks with the required temperature of water; the amount of sanitizer to put in the disinfectant tank; where to wash, rinse and sanitize dishes.
· I assigned them to the various production sections such as the hot kitchen, cold kitchen, bake shop. I assigned them specific roles and duties.
· Allow them to work under the supervision of their managers.
· I ensured that they clean, wash all dishes and mop the floor of the hot kitchen, cold kitchen and the bake shop before they closed for the next day.
The second day of execution gave a fair idea of how my proposed planned schedule for the housekeeping team will work. I was circumspect based on my observation on the first day which identified those who were the hard working staff and the lazy ones.
· I scheduled my assistant managers on shift so they can have time to rest and also attend to other commitments.
· I scheduled my staff on morning, afternoon and evening shift
· Mixed schedule of the lazy and the committed staff balanced the equation
· I gave them five minutes break when there was less work to do
· I rotated them in the various sections of production (hot kitchen, cold kitchen and the bake shop) to break from routine and to alleviate boredom.
· Periodically, I went round and supervised their work, praise them, got involved when they needed extra hand; thank them and let them feel that they were working as a team
· I don’t order them to perform a task, but appealed to their conscience and say “please” when I wanted them to perform a task.
· I inspected the dish washing machine every morning and evening before I leave.
The routine work for the housekeeping team continued on the third day; whilst some came in groups of two, other came individually. Some were perpetual late comers and I have to deduct point from their marks and confronted them.
· I assigned them their usual duties and supervised them periodically.
· I washed every item required by the service team and the bar and handed it over to them.
· I ensured that the hot boxes for the hot kitchen were working
· Always, I was the last person to leave after everything was well done.
· I reviewed the schedule of the team for the three days function.
On Thursday 4/12/07 which is the first day of the Dinner Theater function put much responsibility on the housekeeping team. I had to make sure that all sections had every item they needed at their right place.
· I cleaned the hot boxes and took them to the satellite room (R. 1111)
· Whilst maintaining some staff in the hot, cold and bake shop, I asked some staff and my assistant managers set up the break down station. This was done by 4:30 pm.
· I made sure that all empty rack from service and bar were brought to the station, including silver ware bowl, trash can, bucket, gloves and anything I might need at the station.
· When the function started, I assigned at least three of the staff to the hot kitchen, two to bake shop, three to cold kitchen, three to dish washing machine, four to break down station and one person running between the break down station and the dish machine.
· As the dishes flow, I asked the runner to send them to be washed and kept them appropriately so that service, bar and the kitchen will find their items the next day without any difficulty
· At about 10:30pm the rush hour for the glasses started, I assisted them to create more receiving space to accommodate between 15 to 20 banquet trays.
· I leant from my mistakes with regard to the set up of the break down station on the first day of the function.
On Friday the 13th of April 2007 was the second day for the function. We started on a good note and effectively supported all the section to efficiently carry out their duties. We went about our normal duties such as cleaning, washing dishes, emptying trash can, moping floors and so on.
· I helped review the break down station.
· Corrected my mistakes and let it work this time.
· I ensured that all sections of the kitchen were cleaned up before leaving.
On Saturday, which was the final day of the function, we improved upon our performance by making sure that previous mistakes do not repeat. The staff worked hard to ensure that production processes run smoothly.
· I assisted the set up of the break down station appropriately and on time. Made sure everything required at the station were sent to the place and got my men focused to meet the new standard.
· Work as fast as you can during the rush hour but reduce damages.
· The fastest time recorded for rash hour was 10 minutes and the average time recorded for getting all the glasses in their respective racks during rash hour was 13minutes.
· After the program, I ensured that all necessary areas including the satellite kitchen were well cleaned. Moved warmers back to the store room
· Got all glasses in their respective racks and sent to the back store room.
· All plates and silver wares were sent to their right place.
· The dish washing machine and its area were cleaned and the machine turned off
· I supervised all necessary and potential housekeeping areas and ensure that they were in good shape before I finally left.
STAFFING
The housekeeping team for the 2007 Dinner Theater was well staffed. We had 25 people and everybody showed up to work. This made it easier to schedule them and also carried out our duties to perfection.
MOTIVATION
Motivation is one of the important tools to make people love doing something which hitherto they despised. I praised them, be concern about their wellbeing, provided them with the tools to work with (gloves, aprons, broom, brush and mops),
The house keeping management team used different means to motivate their staff. This was effective and yielded awesome results. I spoke to the staff and appealed to their conscience. The staff understood that the health of the GALA guests is their prime concern and it behoves for them to ensure that food was served safe. We took attendance each day and awarded marks based on hard work and commitment to work.
Also, during the six days of production preparation, I designed house keeping stars list which identified them as STARS. With this, I stuck stars against their names hour after hour and each day based on hard work and selflessness. The number of stars a person had against his/her name determined how hard the person had worked. The stars motivation was effective and really worked like magic.
EVALUATION
The housekeeping management team assessed their staff through attendance, commitment to work and selflessness. Overall, the attendance was excellent and performance was good with few exceptions. Below is the attendance sheet I designed during the execution week.
THE HOUSEKEEPING TEAM ATTENDANCE SHEET
NAMES DAYS
MON / TUE / WED / THUR / FRI / SATJERELLE ADAMS / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
ELISE MADDOX / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
EBONY MAKAL / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
JUSTIN WHITE / ü / x / x / x / x / x
RHONDA HEDGEMAN / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
JUSTON MARSHALL / ü / ü / x / ü / ü / ü
YVONNEDRA LEACH / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
HEATHER STEIN / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
NANCY SOWAH / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
JESSICA RUFFIN / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
CHARLSE MARTIN / ü / ü / x / ü / ü / ü
HILDA AMANKWA / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
SAMANTHA PICKARD / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
MARCUS ROGERS / ü / ü / x / ü / ü / ü
DERRICK BAKER / x / x / ü / ü / x / x
ROBERT SCOTT / ü / x / ü / ü / ü / ü
THOMAS BONNEVILLE / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
ANDREA JONES / ü / x / ü / ü / ü / ü
JESSIE BROOKS / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / x
BRANDON MORSE / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
FRANK BUTLER / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
JAVAR FOSTER / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
BURTON JOSEPH / x / x / ü / ü / ü / ü
GEORGE KORA / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü / ü
MITCHELL WYLLIE / ü / ü / x / ü / x / ü
ü - PRESENT