At a recent company meeting for General Managers, Assistant Managers and Sales staff our CFO, Vicki Richman, led a discussion on Employee Recognition and Motivation. The following comments and list are from notes she developed from several sources.
The foundation of recognition and motivation is that people need and want Acceptance, Approval and Appreciation. Almost all positive motivation is based on these needs. People want to know that what they do makes a difference. Just recognizing the staff is the most important step one can take. You may want to count the number of "we's that are said instead of "I's in order to assess the extent to which your staff feels part of the team and part of the business' future. One saying is, "Powerlessness corrupts, absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely."
These nine actions will help immensely to give your staff what they need: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, Recognize, Recognize, Recognize, Thank, Thank, and Thank! From various sources, Vicki developed a list of ideas for ongoing weekly or monthly programs to keep employees connected to the hotel or restaurant emotionally, to create excitement and to make your business unique relative to your nearby competitors for employees. Remember, the competition for staff may be from other industries such as retail, manufacturing, etc. Pick a few and try them for a while; but, you must give them a chance, one time will not do it. The staff will see right through you. |
- Gift certificate for the most challenging question posed to the President
- Money or chocolates or lottery ticket to a spouse with a note thanking for his/her support during overtime
- Thumbs-up certificates redeemable for merchandise
- Soda, fruit, snacks to housekeeping staff all the time
- When anyone makes a negative comment, put $0.25 or $0.50 into a pot and use the money for a Fun Committee
- Bring Polaroid camera to work occasionally and take candids of staff and post pictures on a bulletin board for all to enjoy
- Selection of employee of the month/quarter/year by peers not just management
- When he/she is employee of the month, give him/her a special name tag highlighting that status
- Points given out at any time for anything, good attendance, helping out a guest, etc., and are redeemable for prizes
- When you reach a certain level in revenues, give all staff a reward, being sure to give them the goal in advance
- Spontaneous calls from corporate to line staff saying how they are appreciated
- Allow line workers to participate in all personnel function decisions, hiring, training, evaluating, firing, schedules
- Fine those who arrive late to a meeting and distribute the money to those who were there on time
- Create a symbol of the team, maybe just property logo but put it on T-shirts, mugs, caps
- Certificate of achievement, lunch, and mug for perfect attendance, gift certificate to the one with longest perfect attendance
- Allow those with perfect attendance record to enter a lottery to get a $100 or $200 gift certificate
- Quarterly teleconference with all employees and support staff, especially CEO
- Family orientation for new employees with slide show or video program with refreshments
- Several line staff call new hire to welcome him/her to the team the day before he/she starts
- Toll-free hot line to President where they can leave any question, suggestion, etc. and will get a response
- Hold a regular meeting to tell staff what is going on and how they are doing
- Always hang charts, graphs, etc. to depict regularly how the property is doing
- Full page ad in newspaper once a year thanking employees and name all individually
- Public praising of an individual at a department or hotel meeting
- Make sure all rewards, praise, bonuses, etc. are in public
- Have the General Manager spend at least an hour with every new employee
- Golden Broom Award to all (excluding housekeeping staff) who are seen picking up trash - after two, they can redeem them for a gift
- Pick a trophy that is passed from rewardee to rewardee so it is much desired, it does not matter what it is and actually the odder the better so it is fun
- Pre-printed "you done good" or "a pat on the back" or "bravo" note cards to have management inscribe whenever appropriate spontaneously
- Praise immediately and tell them specifically what they did right and how it helps the company
- Always find ways to get staff's input into the operation - just simple suggestion box works great
- Work hard at finding a way to implement each suggestion and give a clear explanation why it cannot be used if that is the case
- Acknowledge all suggestions, even if not implemented, express appreciation perhaps also a small reward If you implement an idea, give a reward, and widely publicize it
- Pins for uniforms that say "The guest comes first" or "I will do my best" or "We're glad you're here" or something similar
- Periodically hold contests like a TV game show where employees answer questions about the property hotel, perhaps in teams
- Use an 800# service which employees call periodically to be given randomly selected test questions and win a prize if they get them all correct
- Give a small gift on the date of their anniversary
- Hold an annual banquet for those with more than a certain number of years of service
- Give every employee printed business cards
- At Ritz Carlton, all employees throughout the hotel are authorized to spend up to $2,000 each incident to resolve a guest's complaint, but few spend anywhere near that amount
- Ask employees regularly what else we can do for them to enable them to do a good job
- Tell employees regularly what else they can do for management to enable you to do a good job
- Hold weekly meetings with small groups of employees to discuss anything, serve food
- Hold a weekly 20 minute meeting with one employee to discuss anything
- Make it personal, people naturally commit themselves to other people, not to organizations
- Hold monthly employee meetings at which the financial performance of the previous month and other goals are discussed in specific
- Distribute daily reports of revenue performance last night and month-to-date
- Send employees and family to a competitive property and have them write a report
- Send employees and family to your property and have them write a report
- Imprint the hotel's four key business goals on T-shirts
- Include career development discussion in all performance reviews
- Send line staff to schools to do recruiting and interviewing
- Tell staff that if they achieve x,y,z, etc., you will call their mothers and tell them how great their child is and actually do it
- Always make sure their work environment is positive, attractive, and reflective of your goals and values
- Ideas for back-of-the-house areas: plants, framed art (let them choose), clean unworn carpets, adequate ventilation, natural light, meeting space, adequate work-space, well-functioning equipment, attractive break facilities
- Form a recreation committee to plan monthly activities
- Regular employee newsletter
- Ask for input on cost-cutting programs during times of low demand
- Implement management reviews where line staff assess management's performance
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These are only a few of the infinite number of ideas to keep good staff members and motivate them to work hard toward common goals. Whatever you choose to do, keep doing it consistently and make sure that you are sincere. Good luck on making your hotel or restaurant a unique and rewarding place to work. |