What is a hospitality team

What is a hospitality team

Team experts talk about two different types of teams: “natural teams” and “crossfunctional

teams.” Teams that include people in one department or work area may

be called “natural” teams. Natural teams include everyone from line-level

employees to managers. Teams that cut across more than one area of

responsibility at a company are known as “cross-functional.”

In this handbook, you’ll concentrate on building a natural work team with your

employees.

Teams have three basic characteristics.

Teams may consist of many different people and perform many different types of

tasks. But all teams have three characteristics in common:

1. A team has specific purposes and goals. Teams may work to make

improvements in products or processes, to solve a problem, or to meet a new

situation.

2. Team members are mutually accountable. Responsibility for developing and

meeting the goals belongs to everyone. Decisions are made with input from,

and generally the agreement of, the whole team.

3. Team performance is measured. The group’s solution to a problem includes

specific ways to determine whether it works.

Below is an example of a natural work team in action in the hospitality industry:

Guests complain that employees are impersonal and unfriendly; gratuities are

falling off. The uniformed services staff develops a strategy to recognize guests

by their names throughout the hotel. As a result, tips increase. The department

tracks changes in guest comments and guest counts after the name-recognition

strategy is put in place.

Think about how the team in the example above meets the characteristics of a

team. Then do the exercise at right to see how your employees work as a team.