This guide offers practical steps for examining this issue in a hotel. Learn about Feathers Hospitality’s approach, explore the platform and contact the team to understand Feathers Hospitality’s hotel asset-management approach.
Adapt the guidance to the property’s actual conditions and data. Confirm legal, financial, technical, employment, safety or data-protection decisions with qualified professionals before changing procedures.
In brief
- Define the question and boundaries of the review.
- Use evidence suited to the property’s conditions.
- Assign owners and review the outcome.
Define what “balanced” means
Start with the question the review should answer: whether coverage is adequate, whether work is distributed fairly, or whether a service target can be met safely. These are related but different. A task total cannot answer all three, especially when one request takes a minute and another requires sustained attention.
Choose a period that includes comparable shifts and note occupancy, arrivals, events, absences and service changes. Do not compare a quiet weekday with a full event weekend as if conditions were identical. Record estimates and missing data rather than implying a level of precision the property does not have.
Measure effort and interruption
Sample how long tasks take, how often they are interrupted and how much follow-up they create. Include work that is easy to overlook, such as answering colleagues’ questions, resetting rooms after a change or coordinating a supplier. Agree a simple method with staff before collecting information.
Avoid continuous surveillance or recording unnecessary personal details. Use aggregate observations where possible, explain who sees the results and follow employment and privacy requirements. A short, transparent sampling period is often more informative than an intrusive permanent tracker.
Include timing and skill requirements
Map when demand arrives, not only how much work occurs over a whole day. Check whether several duties peak at the same time and whether the person assigned has the training or authority needed. A schedule can look balanced on paper while leaving one role with all time-sensitive decisions.
Separate tasks that can be moved from those that depend on guest arrival, supplier access or safety. Ask staff where queues form and which handoffs create waiting. Validate those accounts against service records, while recognising that the records may capture only work that was formally logged.
Compare capacity with demand
Estimate available working time after meetings, breaks, handovers and predictable administration. Compare that capacity with observed demand and identify the busiest intervals. Do not assume every minute is productive or assign a full shift to guest-facing tasks if necessary support work has been omitted.
Use ranges when task duration varies. If a short disruption creates a large queue, note both the normal pattern and the peak case. The purpose is to decide whether staffing, cross-training, process changes or clearer escalation would help, not to produce a single “correct” headcount from incomplete data.
Test a practical adjustment
Choose one limited change, such as a different overlap between shifts, a clearer task owner or a trained backup during a known peak. Agree how the team will judge the result: waiting time, missed tasks, overtime, guest contacts or another measure tied to the original question.
Discuss changes with affected employees and confirm contractual, working-time and health requirements with qualified local advisers. A hotel employee workload study in Kuala Lumpur offers context on pressure and support, but its sample should not be treated as a universal staffing benchmark.
Review fairness and service together
After the trial, compare like-for-like periods and ask which tasks moved, which remained concentrated and whether service or staff strain changed. A lower task count for one role may simply mean work moved to another team. Track handoffs and unplanned support so the overall effect is visible.
Keep the review open to staff feedback and correct assumptions when the evidence conflicts with the roster. If demand remains above capacity, escalate the resourcing issue instead of expecting people to compensate indefinitely. Document what changed and when the next review will take place.
Frequently asked questions
Is the same number of tasks per employee a fair target?
Usually not. Tasks differ in duration, urgency, interruption and skill requirements; compare effort and timing as well as counts.
Should workload data be used to rank individuals?
Not without a clear, fair purpose and context. The article recommends reviewing process and coverage, with employment and privacy safeguards.