Creating a hotel company culture that engenders loyalty and leads to a better guest experience is a constant challenge. This summer, HOTELS, in partnership with The Wall Street Journal, brought together industry leaders at The Virgin Hotel Chicago to discuss how to foster a strong company culture and why its benefits are far from just soft.
The panel included:
- Dominque Colliat, executive vice president, Hotel Services, North and Central America and the Caribbean, AccorHotels
- Bill DeForrest, president and CEO, Spire Hospitality
- Clio Knowles, vice president of people, Virgin Hotels
- Niki Leondakis, CEO, Commune Hotels & Resorts
- Nabil Moubayed, area director of operations, Midwest, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants
- Jim Petrus, global brand leader, St. Regis, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
- Lindsey Ueberroth, president, Preferred Hotels & Resorts
- Robb Webb, chief human resources officer, Hyatt Hotels Corp.
- Jeff Weinstein, editor-in-chief, HOTELS (moderator)
The complete story can be found here in the September issue of HOTELS.
HOTELS also asked the panel about incentives. What motivates teams to exhibit preferred behaviors, those traits that engender loyalty and, in the end, lead to a better guest experience? Here is what some of them had to say:
Jim Petrus: In the industry, there are associates of the month, managers of the quarter, and so on, and those good ideas are on checklists that everyone has.
Now that I have returned to Starwood, I see the effort that has been put in place to make sure that people realize that it’s more than just the checklist items. And their effort to teach managers, in particular, about the more heartwarming elements that I think have a greater tendency to come back with associates. And it might be simple like writing a handwritten note that expresses personal appreciation or putting your arm around someone and saying, ‘hey, you really did a great job.’ In the end, that is probably the most meaningful.
People are smart enough to realize what comes from the heart and what’s being done because just to fit into an environment. It’s refreshing to see there’s a little bit more of an emphasis to make sure that our leadership teams understand the role that they play and how important it is that it’s done with sincerity.
Clio Knowles: When you mentioned employee of the quarter and of the year, I was determined not to roll out those programs because I do feel they are really disingenuous. How do you choose just one employee when you have 250 in one hotel, at least, that are doing amazing jobs every day?
That being said, I just launched my employee of the quarter last week because the employees really wanted it and felt really bad they didn’t have it. But it ties into a larger program. The person that wins overall actually gets to go to London with a guest in September to have dinner with Richard Branson and the family and all the other stars of the year from Virgin Worldwide. So, it’s part of a larger Virgin initiative, and the people are super excited about it.
What we’ve done on a more daily basis is create this Valentine’s program through an internal communication platform where at any point during the day, staff can log on and send a Valentine to a fellow employee. Sometimes it’s about something really simple like ‘thank you so much for bringing me a cold Dr. Pepper. I really needed it.’
But it’s trying to find a way to recognize all those little moments that happen in a hotel that management doesn’t see or aren’t aware of and honoring the unsung heroes. This allows your teammates to do peer recognition, as well, which is exceptional.
It’s hard for us to quantify the value of this, but I will say that we’ve had very low voluntary turnover, which to me speaks well of what we’ve created here.
Nabil Moubayed: It goes back to understanding what motivates every person that’s working for you at every level. You’ll find there are obviously hundreds of different reasons why they do it. If the GM, department managers and line level supervisors can connect with each person that way, then you can click with those people and help them become more motivated at work every day. Understand there’s a reason they are there and feed into that to keep them going.
Bill DeForrest: This is one of the best industries there is for turning a job into a career. From a cultural standpoint, everybody can do it. There are no limitations. And the more we can engage people in that, the more that they are going to feel good about what they’re doing because they can see that this is something that they can take wherever they want to take it.