P2 & M1

P2 : Examine the range of operational and

functional departments within a chosen
hospitality business

M1: review the interrelationships of the

operational and functional units within a
chosen hospitality business
 Departments
• Functional Departments
1. Human Resource
2. Sales and Marketing
3. Purchase and store
4. Finance
5. Engineering & Maintains
6. Security
• Operational Departments
1. Front office
2. Housekeeping
3. F&B Service
4. F&B Kitchen
Security
• Security is mainly responsible for the safety and security of hotel guests,
visitors and hotel employees. This may include patrolling the hotel
premises, monitoring equipment's, and in general, ensuring the security
of guests, visitors and employees and their belongings.

Engineering
• Engineering is responsible for the maintenance and the operation of all
machinery and equipment (including heating, air-conditioning and
lighting). It is also responsible for carrying out all carpentry, upholstery
and small building, plumbing and other works of a hotel.
Purchase & Stores
• Hotel is a commercial endeavour (an attempt to achieve a goal),
where we purchase raw materials, give finishing and sell in high
prices. As a service industry, hotel purchases materials to
support service procedures. Purchase department plays an
important role while purchasing all requirements of a hotel.
From a sewing kit to a large purchase, it is the job of the
purchase department to facilitate with the procedures.
Purchase Manager is the incharge of this department. In recent
developments, this position is substituted by another position
known to be Material Manager who looks after all purchasing
and storing activities.
Sales And Marketing
• Who markets the hotel products is sales and marketing department. The
sales and marketing department is responsible for generating new business
for the hotel. This could be the sales of rooms, functions, conventions, or
even restaurants and bars. It also handles the advertising of the hotel as well
as sales promotions and publicity and often takes on the role of public
relations.

Accounting
• Accounting is responsible for monitoring of all the financial activities of a
hotel. Such accounting activities may include cash receipts and banking, the
processing of payrolls, accumulating operating data, and the preparation of
internal reports, audits and financial statements because of the importance
of financial data and statistics.
Human Resource Department (HRD)
• Human Resource Department is responsible for the hiring, firing,
training and development of hotel staff. In additions to this, this
department is responsible for welfare, collective bargaining
(negotiation of wages and other conditions of employment by an
organized body of employees) and industrial relations.
• In recent years, this division has gained in importance because of
the need to contend (Struggle) with legislation (Laws), labour
shortages, and the growing pressures of competition. hotels now
a days tend to put more effort into training and development
programmes to enhance the technical and conceptual knowledge
in the staff.
• What’s the best bit about being a front office manager?

• According to the team at CO REcruitment, the best bit is the positive impact you can have on
guests: "You're the face of the hotel. You set the tone for guests while they stay there."
• And the worst?
• Well, there's no getting away from the fact it's a crucial role with no room for shirking. "You’ll
have to work irregular shift patterns sometimes and you may also have to cover shifts at short
notice.“

• What skills do I need?

• Good telephone skills, particularly if you also look after telesales

• Diplomacy and communication skills to handle any complaints and emergencies in a level-
headed manner
• The ability to multitask and manage your time
• No fear of decision-making
 Operational departments
1) Food And Beverage
• The food and beverage (F & B) department put forward class
service of food and drink. The services may be provided by
coffee shops, bars, lounges, specialty restaurants,
banqueting, and room service, etc.

2) Room's Division
• Room's division department is practiced in large hotels in
which the numbers of rooms are large and the function is
complex and intense. Room's division department consists of
the following.
a) Front office
• The front office department is the most visible department in a hotel. The
focal point of activity within the front office is the reception desk. The
reception desk is usually the place at which guests receive the first
impression of the hotel. It is also the communication centre for the hotel's
operation.
• The reception desk includes front office cashier, information and registration
section. The other sections under front office are telephone exchange,
reservations and business center.
• Front office staffs are responsible for reservations of rooms, registration
information, cash and credit handling and other sundry (Various) services to
the guests.

•
b) Housekeeping
• The housekeeping department is responsible for the management
of guest- rooms and the cleanliness of all public areas of a hotel.
• A close liaison between housekeeping and front office is essential
so that the information about guest-rooms is kept up to date. For
example, which rooms available for letting, which are occupied,
which are out of order and which are vacant and dirty.
• The housekeeping and front office usually have a department head
or supervisor who reports to the rooms' division manager. Each of
the two department is responsible for its own specific operation.
Since these two departs have to work very closely together to
ensure teamwork.
 3. Food Production
• This department is responsible for preparing
varieties of dishes as per guest order. This
department engaged for receiving, storing,
preparing raw material. This department
headed by executive chef.
Duties and responsibilities of kitchen staffs of
each position
• Executive Chef:
• Develops recipes and menus for all retail food operations.
• Supervises food production.
• Maintains food cost standards and cost.
• Promotes safety and proper sanitation.
• Assists in taking inventory and purchasing supplies.
• Introduces new products.
• Acts as a replacement worker when short staffed.
• Handles customers' concerns and suggestions.
• Handles employees' concerns and issues.
• Controls food waste.
• May have full or final responsibility for job actions (e.g., hiring new staff, promotions, demotions,
transfers, discipline, terminations).
• Schedules/assigns work.
• Sets production goals or job expectations.
• Other duties as required.
• Sous Chef:
• Runs the kitchen when the head chef is away.
• Acts as a liaison between the executive chef and the
kitchen staff.
• Manages food purchasing and storage.
• Maintains a safe and hygienic kitchen environment
• Helps create new recipes and write menus.
• Instructs cook in preparing, cooking, garnishing and
presenting food.
 Chef de Partie

• Reports for duty punctually wearing the correct uniform and name
tag.
• Maintains a high standard of personal appearance, hygiene and
grooming standards.
• Provides friendly, courteous and professional service at all times.
• Maintains a good working relationships with colleagues in all other
departments.
• Responds to changes in the department as dictated by the needs of
the hotel.
• Flexible in job functions and can perform any other reasonable
duties and assigned responsibilities .
• Attends training sessions and meetings as and when required.
 Commis (I, II, III):

• Familiar with all the food items on the outlet menu.

• Prepares food products according to the required standard
• Follows standard recipes and minimises waste to help ensure that the
outlet’s food cost is in line with budget.
• Flexible wherever possible in meeting special requests from guests for
specific food preparation methods and ingredients.
• Follows presentation guidelines as established by the Chef de Partite, Sous
Chef or the Chef de Cuisine.
• Maintains the assigned station / section in a clean and orderly manner at all
times.
• Up to date with the availability of seasonal and new products on the market.
• Treats all operating equipment and supplies carefully to minimise damage
and reduce waste.
House keeping
Sales and marketing
 Interdepartmental relation
• All departments in a hotel have to work with
close coordination among each other.
• An effective and efficient service can be provided
only from strong interdepartmental relationship.
• Both functional and operational departments
have to work together.
• Inside a department also, each section should
work as a team.
 With F&B Service
1. Service operates sales in various outlets. It takes the
food order and serves it to the guest.
2. Service acts as a bridge between the guest and the
chef and helps to communicate the requests and
opinions of the food by providing constant feedback.
3. For cooking, wines and liquors are required from F&B
on daily basis.
4. Service sells the food and markets the chef’s specialty,
thereby bringing in more sales and happy customers.
 With Housekeeping
1. Kitchen requires clean uniforms, aprons, and dusters
on daily basis, which are provided by housekeeping.
2. Kitchen also needs to coordinate with housekeeping
regarding the pest control and fumigation in the
kitchen.
3. Special uniforms if required for particular functions
or theme parties are obtained from housekeeping.
4. Festive decorations if required in the restaurants or
outlets, is again taken care of by housekeeping
 With Front Office
1. Front office communicates the daily arrival list to the kitchen
and it helps the chefs to forecast their production so that the
wastage is minimized.
2. The daily arrival list also contains guest history and the chefs
come to know if there was any problem with food or service
during the guest’s previous stay. Hence, they could make it up
this time by exceeding his/her expectation.
3. The front office circulates VIP lists in the kitchens for any special
requests of guests and for the room amenities to be placed in
the room.
4. Sometimes welcome drinks are prepared by the kitchen for
some VIPs.
5. Front office also assists guests in making their dining choices
and helps in marketing the restaurants and outlets.
 With Purchase and Stores
1. This department procures raw materials at the best possible
prices, not compromising on the quality of ingredients.
2. Chefs help the purchase department to create the standard
purchase specifications for commodities.
3. Chefs must give sufficient time for the orders to be procured
and so maintaining of par stock levels are decided by the
chefs and the purchase managers depending upon the
frequency of withdrawals and availability from the market.
4. Chefs also receive the goods at receiving bay(area), thereby
ensuring that the right quality of ingredients as per the
standards specified is purchased.
 With Finance
1. Finance does the costing of the recipe and this helps
the management to decide upon the selling price to
get the desirable profits and maintain the agreed
food cost.
2. Finance helps chefs and the purchase managers to
go for regular market surveys and see if any new and
better quality products are available.
3. Finance helps chefs to keep a check on their
expenses by giving a periodic report mentioning their
profits and losses.
 With Sales and Marketing
1. This department helps the chefs to promote new menus and
festivals.
2. Sales department promotes the chefs so as to increase the
sales of their product.
3. Banquet sales works in close coordination with the kitchen
to sell the menus and bring in more business. The banquet
sales, however, form a part of F&B service rather than direct
sales and marketing.
4. Sales people entertain VIP guests to bring in the business.
5. Sales department coordinates with the kitchens in times of
festivals for providing hampers and gifts to VIPs
 With Engineering
1. Engineering department does the preventive and
breakdown maintenance of the machinery used in the
kitchen
2. Helps in installation of new machinery and equipment and
trains the staff in its usage and precautions.
3. Coordinates with chefs to utilize the resources effectively to
minimize costs and increase profits.
4. Maintenance schedules are made and followed up by chefs.
5. Fire fighting and safety procedures are laid down by the
engineering and followed up by the chef
 With Human Resources
1. HR department helps chefs to find the skilled people and
facilitate recruitments by helping chefs to take interviews
and trade tests .
2. Chefs highlight the training and development required by
their staff and communicates it to the training department,
who then prepares the training calendars and train people
accordingly.
3. Appraisals and career developing of the kitchen people is
Raised with the HR department.
4. Joining formalities of the new staff, induction, orientation,
locker facilities etc. are dealt by HR department.
 With Security
1. Items taken out of the hotel are taken on a ‘gate pass’. It is made in triplicate and
one copy is retained in the book, one goes to finance department and the other
one goes to security department.
2. Any fire in the kitchen is immediately reported to security.
3. Keys of certain areas are deposited in the security and only authorized personnel
can withdraw the same.
4. Sometimes store room needs to be opened. In such a case, the normal procedure
is to inform duty manager who will inform security and together with chef the
stores shall be opened in front of security supervisor and duty manager and
locked duly after the commodity is withdrawn against a store room requisition.
5. Employees swipe the cards when they come for work and go off duty. This is
done at the staff entry point of the hotel, which is also known as ‘time office’. The
swiping helps the HR department to compute their salaries. However, when the
machine is faulty or the employee has forgotten to swipe the card or any other
reason it should be informed to security.