Chapter Five. What should your operation manual include? In the last chapter, I looked at the frame, or the structure of the operations manual, as well as a couple of examples of what it should include. In this chapter, I'll be looking at specifically what should be in an operations manual. I'm not going to tell you exactly what your operations manual should include, because it's up to you. The material could vary a little bit from property to property.
But the frame or the structure I'm going to share with you is universal. You don't have to write all this down because first, it's going to be a long list and second, I will include a link to the PDF of the list in the resource section, but I do suggest keeping a pen and paper handy in case you can think of additional information you would like include it. Okay, here we go. It should include the following company history, vision and organization. Products and Services policies. Position statements, systems, how it's done.
Statistically nine out of every 10 businesses fail within the first five years. This is why you should not look at your hospitality property as an independent business. If you look at McDonald's, Starbucks, big chain hospitality properties, more of them succeed. Because they are set up for consistency. They are franchises and 75% or more franchises succeed. Part of the reason for their success is due to having a standard operations manual in place.
If you're a small property, your chances of success will increase dramatically if you are determined and take time to develop an operations manual. As I mentioned before, your operations manual should be treated like a living breathing entity and can be amended accordingly as trial and error findings are made. When designing this manual, you must always have in the back of your mind, can I I opened a second location with this operations manual model and not have any problems or can I open 10 locations with this operations manual model and not have any problems? Or can I open 1000 locations with this operations manual model and not have any problems. Your goal must be to develop the best working system have the operations manual model. And when it's completed, your system must work like clockwork.
Once you go into your operations manual model, as I said before, everything an example I've used in the past is McDonald's. The next time you walk into one of their locations, take a moment to look at their operation. Look at the decor of the restaurant, how you're greeted by the employee, their uniforms, the distance between the ovens to the burger slides to the register, how the fries are cooked on a timer. In theory, no matter what location You find yourself in a McDonald's restaurant all the above will be the same. The reason they're all working from the same operations manual model, you may not enjoy the franchise, but there's no way you cannot respect their system. You might be thinking, I'm in the small hospitality property industry.
Why are you talking about McDonald's? That's easy. The theory is the same. It's an operations manual model that works. So there's no reason for you to try to rediscover the wheel. Copy the model that works and use it.
Your operations manual will contain a large amount of information including a detail organizational role responsibility list, who is responsible for what with the diagram if applicable, what else should be included in your operations manual model? Ready? One location of your site description. The amount of foot traffic you attract the amount of drive by traffic you attract area and your customers demographics, age, sex lifestyle. Distance from a population center. What your highway access looks like distance from complementary businesses.
Reason, your location will tell you a lot about your business. Is your location easily accessible to your target clientele, to training? It's imperative that you have this aspect of your operations manual correct. That training must be step by step and easy to understand by even the lowest possible skill level. You should also be specific in how your training will proceed. When the employees are hired or changed position, not preferable, on a regular basis, preferable.
Who's responsible for the training and what are the necessary materials needed? Three, your property setup, what equipment furnishings and accessories are required. Include prices, if possible. For supply an inventory. This would include room supplies, bedding, towels, bathroom accessories, cleaning supplies, vacuum cleaners, building materials, if you have a restaurant, food inventory etc. You will also include the quantity to supplier or suppliers to prices etc.
Five staff uniforms, you have to decide how you would like to present you and your staff to your customers professionally dressed or casual. Is the dress consistent and doesn't have your business name and logo. Six marketing efforts, what marketing you use, who is your target customer, what are the platforms and the percentage of your marketing budget allocated to each seven personnel a responsibilities an organizational chart of the duties and who is responsible, including who is responsible at every level which is very important in this section. Also Include who has to follow up be perfect employee profiles? What skills are necessary for each will the type of personality required? Do they have to be team oriented?
See job descriptions. Refer to the organizational chart and be more specific. d. How do you find your potential employees? Where do you recruit? How do you recruit? Would you call for referrals, ie interviewing and background checks?
A prepared list of interview questions for each position, how to do background and referral checks, ie pre employment testing, a policy and procedure for pre employment testing, g new employee orientation and training and new employee orientation training process. It's very important that this be thorough and consistent. Ah, communicating and personnel policies. Having a proper communication system in place is crucial. To the success of your operation, I paying your employees when and the system to be used as well as the procedure for bonuses. J scheduling for employees.
How are vacations handled time off requests? A plan to make sure all is fair and consistent. k employee management forms. This is for old a new staff to review old and new procedures, ongoing training. l employee morale and motivation. Would you like to come to work every day with the same old day in day out routine?
Nothing ever changes? Neither would your employees. It's important to keep your employees motivated and to have systems in place to accomplish this. Keep track of what factors create good morale, signs of bad morale, ways to improve motivation and morale and performance evaluation. When and what is the standard are they once a year, twice a year. Or ongoing?
What is the system you use? Do you have a motivation component included in your evaluations and employee discipline? Here it is extremely important to document everything. Oh, documentation, witnesses, signatures for resignations, termination, post separation procedures, final paychecks, explaining termination to other employees giving references p good employee management practices, but practices and gratuity policy do you have in place for employees and management? Daily operating procedures? One, what is your hospitality properties operating procedures?
When will you be open to customer service procedures? Here you cannot have too much detail. great customer service is the lifeblood of your business. A customer service viewpoint That includes customer feedback, how you will judge the effectiveness of your system, customer complaints, a customer complaint process, what is your customer complaint policy? This has to be step by step, refund requests your policy B service procedures. This is done to consistently provide great customer service.
For example, greeting customers answering the telephone atmosphere, understanding the product offerings, working interacting with customers. job descriptions, suggested selling techniques. Passive selling versus active selling. See, do you have merchandise? Does your merchandise fit with your business's image? How will it be displayed?
Will there be signage D meal preparation procedures here again consistency Very important prepping procedures, setting up the stations, consistent recipes, preparation procedures for everything. Maintaining inventory, dishwashing sanitation procedures, ie transacting sales. You don't want your employees figuring this out on the fly as they are ringing up a customer so they have to know cash handling procedures, accepting personal checks, accepting credit cards, debit cards, suggested prices, f gift certificates, the issuing of gift certificates redeeming of gift certificates, ci inventory management, what is the minimum inventory level before ordering? Who orders how much is ordered? Who's the supplier? What is the price?
What are the order procedures, how to change suppliers receiving procedures Storing procedures, labeling and inventory rotation, what to do with spoilage? How is waste handled? h, operational and financial reporting? You might be surprised to hear that I've met many hospitality property owners and managers that are so nervous about their books that they ignore them. Keeping weekly Profit and Loss income statements has to be on the top of your list as well as tracking the metrics of your business. who was responsible?
What and when report should be generated? analyzing the reports I loss prevention techniques. How are you going to audit for theft? What is the policy for documenting and then following through on suspected theft for cash in inventory? j required cleaning and maintenance. dirt in the corners or cobwebs on the ceiling is a major turnoff for me.
It's been my experience that customers tend not to return to dirty establishments, especially if you handle food. So what is your daily cleaning and maintenance, weekly cleaning and maintenance, monthly cleaning and maintenance? Kay, safety procedures. Employee time off due to a preventable accident or injury can be very difficult for employee morale and your bottom line. safety programs can go a long way. an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Preventing accidents and injuries. crisis management policy reporting accidents, workers compensation issues, fire safety, robbery and burglary, unruly customers using the alarm system l sales procedures How are customers handled from the initial contact, ie reservations to after they arrive home introduction, sales process, identifying the customer's needs, building rapport, handling objections, understanding your competition, competitive advantages. What is your sustainable advantage over your competitors? What do you do consistently? Well, this can be shared with pride, am marketing, promoting your business in your area? logo specifications?
Your brand is your business's sole, required marketing budget, what platforms will be used for marketing? How will you get your message out and what methods will you use to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns? What is your message, direct mail, radio, television, billboards, magazines, newspapers, social media, networking word of mouth referrals and community involvement. Some of the most successful businesses are those that give back. Your top line goal should be to serve as many people as possible. Your profit will follow press releases, Better Business Bureau or similar associations, local Chamber of Commerce or similar associations, teams, sponsorships, community service charitable activities, oh, management documents.
This is an incredibly important aspect of your business. It allows your managers to have a consistent execution of the policy you have instilled, and it provides consistent tools across the board. Daily cash sheets, absent policy, applicant information release, sample application rejection letter, sample applicant acknowledgement letter, time spent during work hours, customers satisfaction survey. Discipline documentation forms. This could include drug test consent form if applicable. electronic funds transfer authorization, emergency instructions, job application, General work rules, holiday and vacation policy, toilet inspection worksheet, sexual harassment policy, smoking policy, termination meeting checklist, employee time records, checklist for handling workers compensation claims, workplace safety rules, employee data form.
Now after seeing all this, some of you might be thinking, wow, Jerry, you are killing me. I only have a small operation. Let me remind you of the statistics I shared earlier. Nine out of 10 businesses fail within the first five years 75% Businesses using an operations manual model succeed. Now, the reasons could include many factors such as your name, your marketing, success, people skills, to name a few, but the core of your business will always lie within the operations procedure. Your operations manual model is the keystone of your business and to your success, like the way I did that.
Okay, that's it for this chapter. take a little time and let all this sink in.