Faculty & Research
Workforce Staffing Optimizer
By: Gary M. Thompson Ph.D.
Executive Summary:
The goal of the Workforce Staffing Optimizer is to specify a mix of employees that will provide a hospitality operation with the best possible service at the least possible cost. While the optimizer works for all types of operations, it is particularly useful to address the staffing challenges faced by managers of steeply seasonal operations.
To use this tool, managers should have ready monthly information on the number of full-time-equivalent employees needed to meet forecast customer demand, the number employees by type (e.g., full-time, part-time, contract), employee productivity rates, attrition rates, and hiring and termination costs.
The optimizer returns a scenario showing the number of employees of each type to hire and terminate each month, together with expected costs of that employee mix. Users can create, evaluate, and save different scenarios of various employee mixes. The tool includes a sample scenario so that users can see how the optimizer works without entering data.
To view the tool, please click on the link below
Your Comments Please
If this CHR Report made a positive impact on your management approach or business operations, we welcome your commentary. We would like to post your comments on our website. Please email your comments to js372@sha.cornell.edu and dss18@sha.cornell.edu.
Other Reports or Articles You May Find of Interest
- Why Trust Matters in Top Management Teams: Keeping Conflict Constructive, by Tony Simons and Randall Peterson
- The Effects of Organizational Standards and Support Functions on Guest Service and Guest Satisfaction in Restaurants, by Alex M. Susskind, K. Michele Kacmar, and Carl P. Borchgrevin
- The Cost of Employee Turnover: When the Devil Is in the Details, by J. Bruce Tracey and Timothy R. Hinkin
About Gary M. Thompson Ph.D.
GARY M. THOMPSON is a Professor of Operations Management in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Operations Management. Previously he spent eight years on the faculty of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He holds a B.Sc. with First Class Honours from the University of New Brunswick, an M.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in Operations Management from The Florida State University.
His current research focuses on optimizing restaurant table mixes, on optimizing conference schedules to improve attendee satisfaction, on course scheduling in post-secondary and corporate training environments, and on the effects on customer service of labor staffing and scheduling decisions. His research has appeared in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Decision Sciences, the Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, Operations Research and other journals. He has consulted for several prominent hospitality companies and is the founder and president of Thoughtimus, Inc., a small software development firm focusing on scheduling products.