Three Hyatt properties in Boston have taken the cost cutting measure of outsourcing housekeeping. In other words – they fired their housekeepers and are now paying a firm to handle that for them. Outsourced cleaning is not unique to business. I know people who are in the business but until now it has been mostly done in industrial or retail settings.

I am sure Hyatt considered all the angles. I know they will train to their standard and I am sure the cleaning firm will be bonded but there is one angle they can’t overcome – the message to all the other employees. What message does this action send to remaining employees? I asked an audience today and the general answer was, “I guess we are next.” There were concerns about quality and security too.

The beancounters have prevailed again, just as they did at Circuit City when they fired the high paid sales people on the floor (high paid = $11/hr) to save money. Oh yeah, Circuit City is out of business.

I don’t think this will put Hyatt out of business but I do think customer service is going to suffer at these properties. I do not think employees will buy in to a system that fires them to save money. Would You?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.