Head Housekeeper
Type – Full time (40 hours per week), with a rota operating on 5 out of 7 days per week.
Reports to – Hotel Operations Manager
Location – Careys Manor Hotel. Located in the beautiful village of Brockenhurst, nestled between the New Forest National Park and the Solent. With 77 plush bedrooms and suites, the award-winning SenSpa and 3 onsite restaurants, we pride ourselves on our friendly staff and attentive service. Situated 5 minutes’ walk from Brockenhurst Village and train station with excellent rail links to Bournemouth, Southampton and London. The New Forest is a lovely setting with ponies, deer and other animals roaming throughout the Forest and its villages, and beautiful surroundings.
A Summary Of The Job
This is a fantastic opportunity for a standards-motivated Housekeeper to use their experience and skills, working with a superb and dedicated team, to ‘stamp their mark’ on the Housekeeping department in what is a key operational and Head of Department role.
The Head Housekeeper will report directly to the Hotel Operations Manager and will have responsibility for the day to day running of the housekeeping department. Key objectives in this role will be managing, training and recruitment of staff, delivering rooms and public areas to the standards expected in terms of cleanliness, maintenance and overall presentation, along with effective stock control, planning rotas and active communication with other departments. We are seeking a proactive and intuitive leader who has the ability to manage, motivate, and develop the team through effective communication, problem-solving and rapport building.
The role would suit someone with a strong Housekeeping background, who has proven leadership skills and a participative approach, delivering exceptional service levels through collaboration and team work. As Head Housekeeper, you will need to be responsive, able to adjust and adapt to new and changing work processes, requirements and cultures. You will be standards-orientated and genuinely passionate about service delivery, able to understand and respond effectively to customer and business demands. As you would expect, ensuring that our guests receive the highest standard of service is the most important role for the Head Housekeeper, so rooms and public areas must be maintained to an exceptionally high standard.
The successful candidate will be well-presented, have a keen eye for detail and possess first class communication skills. If you are an experienced and ambitious housekeeping manager, with high standards of guest care, then we would love to hear from you.
Main Responsibilities:
- Recruitment of staff in conjunction with the Hotel Operations Manager
- Management of staffing at appropriate levels, within budget and ensuring adequate cover at all times
- Organise the rota a week in advance and publish on Fourth (HR software & scheduling tool)
- Approve end of week schedules for wages on Fourth
- Ensure you and your team are aware of 4 star Standards and adhere to them at all times
- Ensure you are up to date with the AA report and you use it within your team as a training tool
- Complete daily room inspections to ensure standards are being achieved and that the deep cleaning schedule of bedrooms, public areas & toilets is being completed
- Report any Maintenance issues and check they have been resolved
- Complete the ordering of stock
- Balance the invoices to all deliveries and record any discrepancies and report these to the relevant company
- Ensure monthly stock-takes are carried out
- Control the linen stock from the linen company by ensuring we receive the correct amount in the delivery and report any rejects
- Control the mini bar stock and ensure monthly stock takes are carried out, and issue the daily forms to reception for charging
- Maintain in room coffee machines and stock levels as per hotel standards
- Control all public areas and ensure the cleanliness is of the highest standard, complete several daily checks of these areas
- Deal with guest and staff queries and complaints when required and report to the Duty Manager and Hotel Operations Manager
- Implement new ideas within the department to improve your standards and/or reduce costs
- Ensure you are aware of the daily VIPs and inform your team
- Attend Head of Dept meetings and update HoDs with information on your department
- Suggest and implement ideas for increase of sales
- Undertake any reasonable request from the General Manager, or any other senior managers
Training:
- Ensure that all staff are fully trained to provide the highest quality of service
- Implement new training techniques
- Maintain all department records to ensure that staff training is up to date
- Regularly revisit staff training to ensure that all staff are aware of new procedures
Management:
- Motivate and encourage staff – implementing incentives for the team and look at introducing departmental initiatives
- Conduct appraisals and regular one to ones
- Agreeing and setting objectives and measuring performance against objectives
- Creating development plans
- Dealing with staff poor performance
- Aim to achieve budget on a monthly basis, improving profitability of the department and the standard of products
Health & Safety, COSHH:
- Ensure you are aware of the current Health and Safety regulations and adhere to them at all times
- Work alongside the hotel’s H&S Advisor to ensure that Risk Assessments are carried out
- Work alongside the hotel’s H&S Advisor to ensure that regular training sessions are carried out for the Housekeeping team
- Ensure you are aware of the COSHH regulations and adhere to them at all times
- Ensure the team are aware of the correct cleaning chemicals to use and are aware of the correct products and protective equipment to use
- Work with Ecolab to ensure staff receive regular training where appropriate
- Ensure the department are aware of the fire precautions and evacuation procedures in the event of a fire alarm
- Carry out any reasonable tasks that may be requested by management
Additional Responsibilities:
- Carry out at least 2 Duty Manager shifts a week
- Take guests’ feedback on board as a tool for creating a culture of continuously bettering our products, standards and training
Employee Benefits
- £33,500 per annum plus Service Charge tips
- Paid day off on your birthday
- Employee Referral Bonus
- Staff accommodation (subject to availability)
- Leisure membership of our award winning SenSpa facility
- Staff training and development to ensure you reach your potential
- Friends and Family discounts in our Hotels, Spa, and Restaurants across Group
- Employee Assistance Programme through Hospitality Action
- Long serving staff enjoy enhanced holiday entitlement and annual celebratory dinner
- Pension; eligible team members benefit from a NEST pension scheme
- Free parking on site
