Risk Identification, Assessment, and Management
Executive Summary
There is an increasing interest in the security, safety and health attributes of hotels in the world today. The General Manager is interested in the attributes to satisfy its overarching managerial duties. These responsibilities include due diligence and duty of care. Because of this interest, the General Manager requested information on risk management and security in his hotel in order to assess the safety integrity and security of the food and beverage, and guest room departments of his hotel. Identifying the exact information that is relevant to determining and assessing such information is often challenging due to lack of agreed standards of what the safety and security features of the hotel should have.
As such, the General Manager requested for an outside analysis of the risk management and hotel security of his hotel. Therefore, it was important to respond quickly to the request in a customer-friendly, accurate and timely manner. While the hotel management recognizes the concerns and preferences of the customers and opts to cooperate with the customers as much as possible, it is important to acknowledge the fact that there are certain significant restrictions on the provisions in relation to the management of risks and security at the hotel.
This report will identify the risks and security concerns in the food and beverage and guest room departments of the hotel. After identifying the risks, the report will assess the risks and analyze various solutions to the risks. Recommendations based on the findings will follow the analysis of the risks. Recommendations will entail suggestions on how to improve the security and risk management within the operation of the hotel.
Methodology
The methodology of this report involved three essential parts including collection of the date, understanding of the data and assessing the data. Data collection had three distinct parts. The first part involved identifying the background information on the programs of security assessment of the hotel. The second part involved collection of essential information that a customer or the security department of the hotel could consider necessary in assessing the security of the hotel. The third part involved collection of ancillary information necessary to make security and safety assessment of the hotel.
Understanding the data was the second component of the methodology. It was understood that every department was unique. As such, there would be a variance in the risks and security concerns in the report. However, the variance would not imply derogatory operating environment of the hotel (Calder and Watkins 22). It would simply connote the existent difference in the hotel’s operating environment. The third component of the methodology was assessing the data. Based on the collected information, assessment would entail evaluation of the information based on the safety and management systems of the hotel and the findings. The General Manager would then decide for themselves whether the safety and security operations would sufficiently satisfy the due diligence and duty of care considerations off his hotel.
Identification of Risks
Food and Beverage Department
There are various risks and security concerns in the food and beverage department of the hotel. These risks and security concerns undermine the operations of the hotel by limiting the efficiency of the operational functions and reducing customer satisfaction (Carr, Konda, Monarch, and Ulrich 28).
The first risk under food and beverage department is in the management control of the department. That is; the department might lack an established system of food management. Second, the food delivery controls can also have insecurities and risks for the hotel. That is; the system of assessing the food and beverage suppliers might be inefficient. The lack of a documented system of reviewing the delivery complaints and problems relating to the suppliers is another risk in the food and beverage industry.
Other risks in the food and beverage department occur in the frozen food storage activities. Risks occur in the failure to cover foods, failure to place foods within their date codes, failure of the staff to follow procedures of stock rotation and failure to record temperatures of the frozen food. Risks can also occur during cooking or reheating (Chapman 19). First, failure to record temperatures of cooked and reheated foods can lead to risks. Failure to follow procedures to ensure that foods are reheated only once is also another risk. Cooling procedures in the food and beverage sector can lead to risks if proper procedures of cooling food are not in place or are not followed.
Services in the food and beverage sector can also amount to risks in the hotel. First, undocumented procedures for hot holding of food can bee of risk to the customers or the attendants as well. That is; the food can burn them. Hot foods should also be removed from the display after two hours and discarded. Foods on display in the hotel should be labeled to describe the food items. Failure to observe such can be risky because of confusions, which might lead to customer dissatisfaction. Failure to check and record the quality of water can result in diseases, which will affect the health of individuals in the hotels including the employees and the customers.
The areas of preparing food should have a constant supply of cold and hot water. Failure to observe that results in a reduction in water quality leading to risks (DIMITRIADI and DIMITRIADI 11). The failure to observe correct temperatures of hot water at faucets and taps can be risky to the employees and customers at the hotel because it undermines their health security.
Guest Room Department
Guest room security is another security concern for the hotel. Failure to ensure that the guest rooms have view ports, door closure mechanisms, door chains or deadbolt locks can be a risk to the safety and privacy of the guests at the hotel (Goss 33). The failure to ensure that the appliances in the guest rooms have appliances have instructions for use in understandable language can also be a risk to the guests especially the electric appliances.
Risk Assessment and Analysis
All the risks in the food and beverage and guest room department result to a single problem in the hotel; lack of adherence to the safety and risk management procedures. There are various alternatives to of addressing the risk. The first alternative is to enhance communication in the hotel. The first advantage of this method of solving is that it facilitates the transformation of information across the departments. Enhancing communication will also reduce the incidences of failing to label foods or provide elaborate instructions in the guest rooms (Jordão and Sousa 22). The disadvantage of using this alternative is that formulating of uniform measures of communication in the two different departments can be challenging.
The second alternative of addressing the issue is conducting security training for the personnel on security issues. The security training will also include risk management practices. The first advantage of security training is that it offers a variety of measures to deal with the risks and security concerns in the hotel (Saleh 19). Security training also advances and diversifies the measures dealing with security and risks at the hotel. The disadvantage of using security training is that it is expensive and time-consuming. As such, its results are long-term.
A third alternative is to employ signs that remind both the employees and the customer concerning security and risk managers. The advantage of using this alternative is that it is fast and efficient because it constantly reminds them of the significance of adhering to security and risk management measures (Suckling, Ferris, and Price 28). Its disadvantage is that it is prone to laxity from the people. All these alternatives are feasible and cost effective to the hotel. They are of quality and can be accepted by the hotel management. They are easily accessible and provide safety to the people in the hotel.
Recommendations
In order to implement the solutions, the hotel management needs to implement proper leadership techniques in their operations. The leadership techniques will ensure that there is effective implementation of the solutions in their operational functions. The General Manager should also implement proper organizational behavior based on ethical models and out of duty of care (Vellani 16). Such organizational behavior will also ensure that the employees and all other personnel promote effective measures of reducing their risks. It will also ensure that there is efficient following of instructions and adherence to the measures of reducing risks and insecurity.
Works Cited
Calder, Alan, and Steve Watkins. Risk Assessment for Asset Owners: A Pocket Guide. Ely: IT Governance Pub, 2007. Print.
Carr, Marvin J., Suresh L. Konda, Ira Monarch, and F. C. Ulrich. "Taxonomy-Based Risk Identification." (2010): Print.
Chapman, Robert J. "The controlling influences on effective risk identification and assessment for construction design management." International Journal of Project Management (2010): n. pag. Print.
DIMITRIADI, ANNA, and SOPHIA DIMITRIADI. "A Conceptual Model of Risk Management and its Importance for Sport and Leisure." Choregia (2007): n. pag. Print.
Goss, James. Risk Assessment. London: BBC Books, 2009. Print.
Jordão, Benigno, and Emilio Sousa. Risk Management. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2010. Print.
Saleh, Fabian M. Sex Offenders: Identification, Risk Assessment, Treatment, and Legal Issues. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
Suckling, R., M. Ferris, and C. Price. "Risk identification, assessment and management in public health practice: a practical approach in one public health department."Journal of Public Health (2003): n. pag. Print.
Vellani, Karim H. Strategic Security Management: A Risk Assessment Guide for Decision Makers. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Print.
