ABSTRACT

In any industry in which labour is a significant cost, its monitoring and control is vital in ensuring profit-ability. This is certainly the case in the hospitality industry, especially in high labour costs regions such as the UK, European Union as a whole and North America. It is also the case that the hospitality industry must also consider the workforce as a key element in the provision of a quality product and standard of service. Hence any consideration of controlling labour costs must be simultaneously assessed alongside the need for maintaining the desired levels of quality and of service to the standards required to meet the expectations of customers. This is the challenge of understanding and monitoring productivity of the labour force.