CASE STUDY The Hotel Paris' competitive strategy is to use superior guest service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability. HR manager Lisa Cruz must now formulate functional policies and activities that support this competitive strategy by eliciting the required employee behaviors and competencies. Although hazardous conditions might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of hotels, Lisa Cruz knew that hazards and safety were in fact serious issues for the Hotel Paris. Indeed, everywhere you look from the valets leaving car doors open on the driveways to slippery areas around the pools, to tens of thousands of pounds of ammonia, chlorine, and other caustic chemicals that the hotels use each year for cleaning and laundry hotels provide a fertile environment for accidents. Obviously, hazardous conditions are bad for the Hotel Paris. They are inhumane for the workers. High accident rates probably reduce employee morale and thus service. And accidents raise the company's costs and reduce its profitability, for instance in terms of workers compensation claims and absences. Lisa knew that she had to clean up her firms occupational safety and health systems. Lisa and the CFO reviewed their company s safety records, and what they found disturbed them deeply. In terms of every safety-related metric they could find, including accident costs per year, lost time due to accidents, workers compensation per employee, and number of safety training programs per year, the Hotel Paris compared unfavorably with most other hotel chains and service firms. Why, just in terms of extra workers compensation costs, the Hotel Paris must be spending $500,000 a year more than we should be, said the CFO. And that didn't include lost time due to accidents, or the likely negative effect accidents had on employee morale, or the cost of litigation (as when, for instance, one guest accidentally burned himself with chlorine that a pool attendant had left unprotected). The CFO authorized Lisa to develop a new safety and health program. QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS 1. From the vantage point of an experienced HR manager like Lisa Cruz, identify ten possible high-risk areas in the hotel. Provide three effects to the hotel business if these high-risk areas have not been addressed by the hotel management. 2. What metrics can Hotel Paris use to measure improvement in the safety and health levels?