The Portman Hotel Company Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Effective reward system

Another alternate for the management of the company is to install a revised reward system. As for now, Personal Valet is mostly dependant on tips to make extra income. But as the case states, American people were not aware of the PV’s system and therefore they were not giving enough tips as the management and the PVs predicted. This made the Personal Valet less motivated because of the lack of tips. Therefore, to make the PVs motivated and to serve the guests with the unique facility of PVs, the management should bring in a reward system which is attractive. As the case states, the per hour wage rate of each PV was similar to that of a maid although; PV’s responsibilities included much more than that of maid. To motivate employees and to serve the guest in a better way, Portman needs to install an effective reward system.

Redesign Jobs

Redesigning the jobs of each Personal Valet can also bring the motivation in them and can encourage them to work efficiently. As the case states, the night shift PV was solely committed to serving guest during the night shift, whereas the morning shift PV was dedicated to serve morning guest and similarly evening shift PV was responsible for serving evening guests. However to motivate them and to make them interact with new people, the management should rotate the entire three shift Personal Valets to all the shifts on rotation basis. This will encourage them in serving people at all times.

Recruit Temporary Employees

Recruiting temporary employees will definitely be an option for the management of Portman Hotel. Although, hiring temporary employees will incur cost but it will in return serve the guests to the maximum. The positive aspect to opt for this strategy is to avoid putting over-burden on the permanent regulates Personal Valets to serve more than their capacity. With this option, the hotel can hire people for temporary period during the peak season where the capacity reaches maximum. This will although increase the cost but in the long run guests will return happy and satisfied because of the continuous satisfying services.

Guest Survey

Another alternate solution for the management is to conduct guest survey where the management can take feedback of each guest who visits Portman Hotel through a random questionnaire survey. This will make the management identify the pros and cons in the current system of PV and the measures which the management should take to improve the services. The survey will also help the company in developing stronger relation with each guest because he will consider his opinion and suggestions valuable.

Key Decision Criteria

Legend: 01: yes, 02: no

Alternatives Analysis

Team Captain

The option of having a team captain that can report to the supervisor on behalf of Personal Valets can be a useful option because it will reduce the problem of Personal Valets to go out to the supervisor for each and every problem who is sometimes not available. It will increase the customer satisfaction and corporate image of the company because now the PVs will be motivated towards their jobs. With a voted PV representative, the morale of employees will improve. The idea of captain will work in fulfilling the future commitments of employees or the PVs in the future. This will definitely increase sales, market share or the return on investment while the strategy will be aligned to the mission and vision of the hotel.

Revised reward system

With a new reward system, the management can actually motivate the employees. As for now the management was giving $200 to PV per month and $1000 to PV for a year. But this was something that was solely based on extraordinary performance...................................

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