“Think about the
current culture of the
team. Is it a culture of
togetherness, or does
everyone do their own
thing? That will make
a huge difference.”
– ANDREA ZEMEL, People Culture Partner,
Trilogy Spa Holdings
Trilogy Spa Holding's VTO days have included dog washing and
donation drives.
Trilogy’s spas document
their service days to
share across the company.
After each VTO, the
employees can gather
back at the office for
pizza to bond and celebrate.
This has been appealing
to many of
Trilogy’s younger team
members, especially
when the service project
is one that they are passionate
about.
One logistical hurdle
is the scheduling of a VTO-based activity: many employees
may want to participate in the activity, but you must still
have enough staff available to work at the spa. And some
employees may not be fully onboard with reallocating
funds from other team-building activities to charitable
causes, so the way that a VTO pogram is initially presented
and communicated matters greatly.
“It’s how we deliver the message,” says Andrea Zemel,
people culture partner for Trilogy. “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey
we’re not having a holiday party’ or you can’t have one.
It’s just that the company is going to invest in this instead
of paying for a $5,000 party. The response at first was, ‘OK,
this is different.’ But it wasn’t, ‘I can’t believe we are doing
this!’ It was very well received.
“Think about the current culture of the team. Is it a culture
of togetherness, or does everyone do their own thing?
That will make a huge difference,” Zemel says. “If you have
a manager with a pulse on the team, that will go a lot
further than someone who sits behind desk and doesn’t
know the team as well. Do they respect their manager? If he
or she puts out a program like this, will they listen?” n
FEATURED SOURCES
CASSIE
HERNANDEZ
Director of Spa/Salon
and Fitness
THE BROADMOOR HOTEL
YVONNE SMITH
Director of Spa and
Resort Retail
LA RIVE SPA
AT NORTHERN QUEST
RESORT & CASINO
ANDREA ZEMEL
People Culture Partner
TRILOGY SPA HOLDINGS
JUNE 2020 ■ PULSE 37