s="" high="" labor-cost="" structure.="" in="" order="" to="" develop="" an="" economically="" viable="" hotel="" organization="" model,="" ahi="" decided="" implement="" some="" new="" policies="" and="" practices="" at="" sah.The first of the initiatives was an organizational structure with only three levels of management—compared to the traditional seven . Partly as a result of this change, there are 25 percent fewer management positions, enabling a significant saving. This change also has other implications. Communication, both up and down the organization, has greatly improved. Decision-making has been forced down in many cases to front-line employees. As a result, guest requests are usually without reference to a supervisor improving both customer and employee satisfaction.The hotel recognized that it would need a different approach to selecting employees who would fit in with its new policies. In its advertisements, the hotel stated a preference for people with some ’’service” experience: in order to minimize traditional work practices being introduced into the hotel. Over 7000 applicants filled in application forms for the 120 jobs initially offered at SAH . The balance of the positions at the hotel (30 management and 40 shift leader positions) were predominantly filled by transfers from other AHI properties.A series of tests and interviews were conducted with potential employees, which eventually left 280 applicants competing the 120 advertised positions. After the final interview, potential recruits were divided into three categories. Category A was for applicants exhibiting strong leadership qualities, Category C was for applicants perceived to be followers, and Category B was for applicants with both leader and follower qualities. Department heads and shift leaders then composed prospective teams using a combination of people from all three categories. Once suitable teams were formed, offers of employment were made team members.Another major initiative by SAH was to adopt a totally multi-skilled workforce. Although there may be some limitations with highly technical jobs such as cooking or maintenance, wherever possible, employees at SAH are able to work in a wide variety of positions. A multi- skilled workforce provides far greater management flexibility during peak and quiet times to transfer employees to needed positions. For example, when office staff is away on holidays during quiet periods of the year, employees in either food or beverage or housekeeping departments can temporarily fill in.The most crucial way, however, of improving the labor cost structure at SAH was to find better more productive ways of providing customer service. SAH management concluded this would first require a process of "benchmarking". The prime objective of the benchmarking process was to compare a range of service delivery processes across a range of criteria using made up of employees from different departments within the hotel which interacted with each other. This process resulted in performance measures that greatly enhanced SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality.The front office team discovered through this project that a high proportion of AHI club member reservations were incomplete. As a result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard promised to them as part of their membership agreement, reducing the number of incomplete reservations greatly improved guest perceptions of serviceIn addition, a program modeled on an earlier project called “Take charge” was implemented.Essentially, Take Charge provides an effective feedback loop from both customers and employees. Customer comments, hot positive and negative, are recorded by staff. These are collated regularly to identify opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, employees are requested to note down their own suggestion for improvement. (AHI has set an expectation that employees will submit at least three suggestions for every one they receive from a customer.) Employee feedback is reviewed daily and suggestions are imp