just some philosophical BS found
on your website or a piece of paper
on a wall.
3. Be transparent and open about
your company’s objectives,
scores, and decisions. By sharing
important information, you can
inherently build responsibility
among your employees to help
create a better business. Too
often, companies adopt a policy
of employees not needing to know
the big-picture strategy; I respond
with: how are you going to achieve
that big-picture strategy if most
of the people in your organization
aren’t aware of or involved in
making it happen? In hospitality,
your line-level employees need
to be aware of your big-picture
goals as they frequently
engage with guests. If your
revenue is decreasing or
guests are dissatisfied,
your employees need
to know what they can
do to fix this. Task them
with getting the numbers
to where they need to
be and show them how
their efforts apply to the
bigger picture. Aligning
their tasks to the overall
goal will inspire your front
desk agents to promote
upgrades, your servers and
bartenders to upsell, and
all employees to engage
with guests as they realize
how important it is to
ensure guests are pleased
and want to spend money
at the property.
4. Ensure the new
people you hire have a
great first impression of
your company and are
set up for success. A new
employee’s first day should
emotionally connect
them to the brand,
customers, and culture of the
company—it should be memorable.
I remember when Horst Schulze,
the president of the Ritz Carlton
Hotel Company, said that an
employee’s first day of a new job
was your best chance to instill in
them the priorities of the brand.
We often audit orientation days
for many hospitality companies,
yet there is still too much focus
on rules and paperwork and little
about guest service. If you want
your new employees to be focused
on your guest, then make it a
priority from day one. After the
first day, new employees are sent
to their departments where they
should be welcomed, immersed,
and trained on how to be great in
their role. Too often, we fail to set
new employees up for success,
utilizing a sink-or-swim mentality
that quite honestly never really
worked, but is even less effective
with today’s younger workers.
Half of all employees who leave
their job this year will do so in the
first 90 days of being employed
because companies fail to orient
and onboard them successfully.
Successful onboarding and
orientation are especially critical
for hospitality, as turnover
continues to be an issue that
many companies struggle with.
Set your hospitality employees
up for success from the start and
you will see increased confidence,
engagement, and guest service for
the long-term.
5. Expect, teach, and incentivize your
managers to be leaders. Hospitality
companies have many managers,
but often, very few have actual
leaders—those who can inspire
others to want to do what they
want them to do as opposed to
making them. While companies
invest in leadership development,
it is often started too late, after
a manager has already been
in their role. Start developing
leaders early, before they get a
supervisor or manager title. Ensure
supervisors and managers are
communicated clear expectations
of their leadership responsibilities
and recognize or hold them
accountable to those expectations.
Managers are often judged by
their ability to get things done,
regardless of how they treat their
employees, leaving employees
frustrated and disappointed about
the lack of care, respect, and
thought given. An employee’s
immediate manager has the most
significant impact on how they feel
about coming to work, yet there
is little accountability for those
managers who do not positively
impact their people. Focus your
incentives and expectations
on your manager’s ability to
communicate, coach, and care for
their people, and you will see an
immediate improvement in your
company’s culture and employees’
experience.
About the author
A world-renowned keynote speaker,
author of Culture Hacker, and television
personality, Shane Green is a business
magnate who consults global Fortune
500 leaders on customer experience and
organizational culture. Shane draws
upon his foundation at The Ritz-Carlton
Hotel Company and his work in multiple
industries to transform employee
mindsets, habits, and skills to improve
customer experiences and interactions.
As the president and founder of SGEi,
Shane leads a team of professionals
who inspire brands like NBA, Westfield,
Foot Locker, NetJets, Cisco Systems,
and BMW to reprogram their employee
experiences to create loyal customers
and raving fans. Visit www.ShaneGreen.
com to learn more.
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