By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

ONE would expect to find a pastry chef in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches to his culinary creations. But of late, Edwin Yik has been out in the lobby of Meritus Mandarin, learning the ropes as a doorman. Similarly, banquet chef David Tan is staying out of the kitchen, but it has nothing to do with the heat.

Multi-tasking is clearly the word of the day as hotels cut back on casual labour and try to keep overtime pay to a minimum. Sometimes, it's also the only way to keep a job in an industry battling sliding occupancies and other disruptions.

With two of Meritus Mandarin's F&B outlets - Triple Three and Meze Bar - temporarily closed as the hotel undergoes renovations, some 80 staff members are out of work for a period.

However, instead of retrenching staff, Meritus Mandarin decided to redeploy them - either to another department, such as housekeeping, or to a sister hotel - without affecting employee titles, terms of employment or salaries.

Other belt-tightening measures that Meritus Mandarin has put in place include deferring non-crucial purchases, keeping an eye on energy consumption and encouraging employees to clear their annual leave.

Meritus Mandarin is not the only hotel that has come up with creative ways to cut costs and keep jobs.

Naumi, for example, has managed to renegotiate prices of existing contracts with suppliers down 10-15 per cent for a short period. Its staff switch from role to role.

'Multi-tasking is one word I would like to use,' said Naumi's general manager Hament Rai, who is not averse to pouring a cuppa in the hotel's coffee house during the morning rush if his staff have their hands full.

Staff, however, remain understanding, especially when considering the alternative.

'Casual labour is out of the question,' Mr Rai said. 'We're expecting you to support the team.'

Said another industry source: 'We explain to staff why we're doing it, that it's a temporary measure. They are very supportive. It's either that or a more drastic solution.'

A similar multi-tasking programme was implemented by Ritz-Carlton Millenia this year to save jobs and reduce labour costs. A side benefit of the programme is that it helps build camaraderie as well, since staff are shuttling between departments.

Another hotelier who's not above getting his hands dirty is Royal Plaza on Scotts' general manager Patrick Fiat, who now and then plays assistant chef and shares his home recipes at the hotel's new cooking classes. The monthly classes are expected to net the hotel some S$120,000 in additional revenue this year.

This is in addition to other belt-tightening measures such as forgoing salary increases, encouraging staff to clear leave during lull periods and even dropping the International Herald Tribune as one of the two newspapers usually offered to guests.

Meanwhile, instead of hiring additional staff for its Ibis Singapore - which opened its doors in February this year - the Accor Group has deployed about 30-40 staff from its Grand Mercure Roxy and Novotel Clarke Quay hotels to beef up headcount at the Ibis.

And one upside to the downturn is that the lower occupancies free up resources, making it a good time to train staff and prepare for the turnaround.

According to Meritus Mandarin's assistant VP of marketing communications, Lim Ee Jin, a total of 222 employees have to date undergone service training under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience.

This article was first published in The Business Times.