Increase Effectiveness And Productivity

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Communication is the key factor of success in a hotel. If the interdepartmental communication within the hotel is poor; the productivity of the company decreases. In olden days interdepartmental communication was very different then these modern days. When there was no electronic communication; all the communications were done by paper memos. Paper memos are not usually convenient and it was time taking. Email changed the whole era of communication because it can be accessed from anywhere anytime. Online file sharing also will increase the communication gap between the departments within the organization. File transfer programs or FTP is the secure way to share the files online. Through FTP the users won’t lose the shared data, since the FTP server stores all the data securely online. Electronics media increases the customer satisfaction. It decreases the wait time and product delivery time too.

Virtual meeting is the latest technological software some of the organizations have started using it. If the hotels will start using virtual meeting software, it will enhance the communication between the departments such as food and beverage service and Food production. Between banquet department and conference planning department and also between front desk and housekeeping department. Virtual meeting will be very useful for the head of the Departments to communicate and solving the problems within their own departments while they are off duty. In result the communication between the departments will increase and the customer satisfaction and productivity will increase.

technology will help hotels to be more productive

Virtual meeting software will create a significant impact on hospitality industries productivity by allowing their employees to work from anywhere. Always employees in hospitality industry are always forced to spend more time at office and communicating with other departments. Virtual meeting software will remove the barriers. Employees can work from the comfort of their homes or they can work from beach. Virtual meeting is a part of Information technology. In today’s business world online meeting is easiest and quickest way to collaborate with customers, co- workers in different departments, vendors or with different teams. In today’s business quick reaction is needed. Especially when we talk about Hospitality Industry excellent customer service is always expected. In order to keep up with the standard operation process and customer satisfaction technological development is necessary. After implementing the virtual meeting software the flexibility of working hours will increase and the productivity will increase. Not only productivity; Hotels can save time, event expenses and travelling expenses too. Virtual meeting software can be creating more effectiveness then face to face meeting system. The whole meeting can be recorded and replayed when needed.

Due to the installation of virtual meeting software in all over the Hotels Worldwide the following are the things which will help the hotel to have the best results in terms of communication and productivity

The Advantages of virtual meeting software are

Better alliance –

It will help the hotel to have the Better Alliance. The online meetings, presentation and documents review sessions can be more effective and fruitful than being face-to –face. All the employees who are attending the meeting can interact with, regarding the profit, and the documents shared as a team in the real time.

Rather than fiercely taking notes, the cloud-based video meeting recording helps the attendees to concentrate on the meeting. It is also the most quickest and effective way when need to work together with the inter-departmental management, vendors, and mixed teams.

Saves more time and money

To have an international business, some Hotels asked the management to travel abroad and to attend the meeting conferences, seminars & to see what the other competitive business is doing. But now by making use of Virtual Software can save tons of money on travelling expenses, as for one hour meeting with the client now people don’t need to travel one state to the other state or country. Virtual meeting software can benefit give the productivity, and face-to-face discussion, while saving the valuable time and money of the hotel company and as well as the employees.

Increase effectiveness and Productivity

The real challenge for the hotels can be the amount of time spent for travelling; this can affect the productivity of hotels. Meetings that will involve taking instantaneous action on the particular matter or opportunities are usually delayed due to the requirement to have certain individuals in distinctive geographical regions present. This can be easily avoided by meeting virtually. Virtual meeting increase effectiveness as well as it can be fruitful by making it easier to gather people quickly regardless of where they are.

Increase in participation

Many people may be heartened to join a meeting because of the capability to participate from their comfort zone. Many hotel chains can also communicate with the top management regarding the changes to be made in certain departmental goals, profitability, the products and competitive advantage. They can take the ideas from different departments and can also involve managers and CEO’S of franchise hotels to participate through virtual meeting software to evaluate and implement the end results. Employees and management cannot be involved physically in virtually but they can be more focused and task oriented without being distracted while at home.

Record Meetings

The virtual meeting software can also allows to record meetings. The recordings can be also easily shared with others who were not able to attend or those who want to look over or review what was discussed. Hotels can be beneficial due to this as the management can review the video over the discussed topics and can take appropriate actions which can further help in making changes if needed.

Disadvantage-

When an organizer conduct the virtual meeting, it won’t be possible to distribute all the participants all the documentations. Have to plan ahead and fax or share the data’s through email and give enough time to print them. Communicating through virtual meeting has no possibility of reading body language. And sometime there is a possibility of poor voice hearing or receiving; there will be no surety the participants are listening. The speaker needs to be proactive while doing the meeting. In business building relationship is very necessary, by using so much of virtual meeting can cause less interaction and personal contacts and could reduce development of relationship. Virtual meeting allows people to do multitask and that could cause distraction. While dealing with multiple people from different time zone suitable for everyone to attained the meeting. Also in some companies the staffs are used to traditional direction of meeting system; so it is hard for them and uncomfortable to adopt new technology. Conducting virtual meeting within a large number of people is always a tough task to perform.

The strategies of virtual meeting software are –

Encouraging online chat –

Software also allows a chat feature. It can be very helpful in the hotels because the managers and supervisors can share the awareness, provide feedback, and work together online this all chats will be shared with the people in the meeting online. For example if there are some problems with the guest who is staying in particular room, and everyone needs to be aware than through the meeting software the employee can chat online and discuss the issue this chat will be shared with all the managements who are in the meeting online and this will help to take a prompt decision for taking actions regarding the issue. Second example is there is a big banquet of

When hosting a virtual meeting using tools that combine web and audio conferencing, encourage participants to use the public chat feature. You and your co-workers can share insights, provide feedback, collaborate and even joke with each other using this feature. According to the Corp Magazine (2010) website, "online chat reduces the time employees spend in meetings because the facilitator does not have to stop the discussion every time someone wants to share their opinion". Encouraging chat also promotes a virtual atmosphere where participants feel their contributions and opinions matter.

Case Study-

Virtual meeting technology has changed the business era for many companies. Hotels should use virtual meeting software for their inter-departmental uses too. A California based company Nimbula, who is well known as a cloud computing service is using virtual meeting software for its recruitment and other departmental activities. According to O’Connor on Business ready (2009) article "Paired with social media, video conferencing is transformed from a dated technology into a vital communication medium that helps companies sell products and select the most qualified workers". By using virtual meeting software companies can expand their geographic area to find qualified and skilled future employees without spending a lot of money. Companies can also use virtual meeting software to reach their costumer globally, in that way it can save the travelling costs. Nimbula used virtual meeting software and social media to hire employees for its South Africa based development office which saved its travelling costs. There is a huge example of many companies who are using virtual meeting software to reduce their travelling costs and to do better customer services and for recruitments.

Hotels should use virtual meeting software for recruitments, better customer service and for improved communication between departments within the hotel.

Especially when a hotel starts new global franchise, video conferencing and social media together helps the hotel to overcome cultural differences and built a better communication between the management and employees. It helps increasing the sales and revenue too. When we look from candidates prospective, before applying they always like to know more about the company and little bit interaction with the prospective employer, video conferencing and virtual media helps candidates to do so. When we talk about any jobs abroad it is not possible for the candidate to go to the place and know about the company and the same situation for the companies too. In these cases virtual meeting and social media are the remedies.

What is Virtual meeting-

Virtual meeting is the way of meeting which conducts through electronic media or internet and it uses video and audio both. It is a chatting tool through which individuals can share their files and data while talking and seeing each other. According to educause.edu (2006) "virtual meeting engage students in fully interactive, online learning experience". Most of the students who participate in virtual meeting use the tools more than video conferencing such as electronics white boards, recording and file sharing options and tools. All the virtual meeting software’s integrated with course management technology. It allows any person has connection to internet and web browser to meet in real-time. It is a convenient way of meeting for people situated long distance.