HILTON@HOME PROGRAM
What are the potential risks in Hilton@Home program of Hilton Hotels for its customer care employees?
Hilton@Home program provides its participators with unique working opportunities. It employed more than three thousand workers in 2011 and was continuously growing since then (Santorelli, 2011). This type of program was already launched by major players in the field and Hilton was one of the least to introduce it for its customers. That is why it is possible to state that it was already tested and double-checked for any possible issues. From the employer’s perspective, the program looks marvelous. However, it bears some possible pitfalls for its employers, which include both software risks and human errors.
According to the information provided by the video published on YouTube, employers try to implement new technologies in the program (Hilton Hotels Case Study, 2008). Instead of traditional office software developed by Microsoft, Hilton managers introduce and promote special software, which is called WYSE. The core difference between classical Microsoft office and WYSE software lies in the fact that WYSE has no moving parts. It means that the information cannot be stored on a local computer, only transmitted via the Internet. In other words, if any error connected to money transactions or data share occurs on the software or hardware level, the Hilton@Home employee has no opportunity to prove that. In addition, it may be particularly difficult for newcomers to work remotely without any help. If the error mentioned above happens during the first days of the work, the person will become confused and might even leave the company.
How does Hilton@Home program help in TQM Sustainability?
First, the program cuts the unnecessary expenditures, which are spent on administrative costs such as electricity costs, rent and equipment costs. The saved amount of money can be directly distributed to the Total Quality Management system of the company. While it does not benefit the TQM sustainability directly, it still may affect the quality of the services. If the top management of the company are concerned with the quality of the company’s products or services, the reserved costs can be spent on such counterparts as training facilities and software development to ensure that mechanical and human factors are reduces to the minimum.Moreover, the fact that employees of the program are able to work from home and customize their working schedules according to their preferences, suggests that the amount of unfavorable situations such as conflicts between operators and clients will be lower.
How does Hilton@Home program help in better customer relationship management and service quality?
As it is stated on the official website of Hilton Corporation, Hilton is planning to recruit huge amount of stay-at-home parents, military spouses, retirees and college students (Hilton Worldwide Global Media Center, 2015). It means that the company recruits the people not according to their location, but according to their personal and professional qualities. There are a lot of people who preserve great professional skills but are not able to apply to this particular job physically, either due to their …
