An Appraisal of Safety Practices on Employees’ Performance in the Housekeeping Department of Some Selected Hotels in Ghana

Abstract

A mixed-method approach and a descriptive cross-sectional research design were employed for the study. The population of the study comprises of all the housekeeping staff and management from the 82 star-rated hotels in the Accra Metropolis of Ghana. Purposive and Quota sampling techniques were employed to select hotels and respondents for the study. The advent of Covid19 has caused some of the hotels to temporarily shut down. Therefore, a total of 18 hotels were purposively selected for the study. The respondents were then selected using quota sampling technique from the various hotels, where a proportionate number of respondents were selected from each hotel based on their total number. The 200-sample size consists of 140 employees from the housekeeping department and 60 respondents from management. Questionnaires were used as the main research instrument in sourcing primary data on the subject. The data were compiled and tallied using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were also used to explain variations in responses. The study concluded that employees at the housekeeping department are trained on safety practices, specifically in the sphere of health and safety trainings, stress management training, emergency procedures, and first aid equipment usage. The study also indicated that various forms of safety hazards/risks such as burns, muscular strains, bruises, sexual harassment, etc. have ‘mild’ impact’ on the overall performance of the hotel. Indeed, activities in the housekeeping department is physically demanding and it is plunged with repetitive motion injuries, it is recommended that more male are employed in this department or more technological devices should be used in the housekeeping department in order to reduce the risk of suffering from back injuries and bodily posture-related ailments. It is once again recommended that, Management of lower-rated hotels should endeavour to put safety protocols in place to avert any form of safety risks/hazards. To the Ghana Tourism Authority, it is very paramount that they conduct frequent surprise supervision of hotels and sanction those that fail to ensure safety at their facilities.