The level to which your employees are engaged in your hotels' work is going to have a very real impact. On your staff turnover rate. On your guest satisfaction. And yes, most definitely on your bottom line.
Despite this, employee engagement is often neglected by hospitality management. Here's some ways to address that!
Let’s define our terms. Employee engagement sounds similar to employee happiness or satisfaction, but it’s its own beast.
According to Forbes, an engaged employee has an emotional commitment to an organisation and its goals. They believe in the work they’re doing, and their motivations stretch way beyond a monthly paycheque.
Employees with this level of investment tend to go the extra mile. Volunteering for extra shifts, giving stellar customer service, etc. They want to succeed for themselves, but also for you.
When employees are engaged, they’re more enthusiastic, productive and focused. And this brings a lot of benefits.
Good service is synonymous with quality. Fillip Boyen, the CEO of Forbes Travel Guide, says that 75% of the standards he uses to review luxury hotels are based on service.
Engaged employees have a stake in the way your hotel is perceived. So naturally, they’re going give the best service they can. This in turn makes for happier customers, increasing the likelihood of positive reviews, repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Employee turnover rate is the scourge of hotels. Constantly replacing employees is costly and drains your business of expertise.
Tackling employee engagement can help. Hilton Hotels made a concerted effort to do just that, addressing everything from paternal leave benefits to giving staff rooms a makeover. They estimated their efforts produced a 6% drop in turnover.
For hotels, productivity can be measured many ways: number of rooms cleaned, average spend per guest, etc. Whatever the metric, your employees are the key to success.
There’s a clear connection between productivity and engagement. Gallup conducted a study of over 2.7 million employees worldwide. And zeroing in on sales, they showed that highly engaged employees were 18% more productive.
The three previous benefits we’ve touched on feed directly into a fourth — more money coming in. Employee engagement and profitability go hand-in-hand.
Gallup found that organisations enjoy 26% higher revenue per employee when staff are highly engaged. While Towers Perrin concluded that an engaged workforce correlates to 6% higher net profit margins.
Ok, you’re raring to make some changes for your staff. Here’s five areas to concentrate on.
If your hotel employees are doing great work, let them know. And if they’re not, it could be because they’re missing constructive advice on how to improve.
Statistically speaking, 43% of highly engaged employees get feedback at least once a week. That’s compared to only 18% of disengaged employees.
Here’s some tips for providing feedback to your team:
Employee engagement is not just the responsibility of HR. Far from it. It’s a responsibility for all levels of management too.
Because positive relationships between staff and their supervisors is crucial — accounting for up to a 70% variance in team engagement.
To take your initiatives hotel-wide, you can:
Your business' values don’t just belong on your ‘About’ website page. They’re your guiding principles. And they give staff a feeling of working towards something bigger.
Unfortunately, only 40% of employees say they’re well informed on where their company is headed and why.
How to reinforce your values:
Workforce management (WFM) solutions like tamigo empower your staff to do what they do best. It’s one app that covers time-registration, holiday booking and more. It's used by hotels across Europe, like Germany's Hotel des Nordens.
How tamigo can help with growing employee engagement in your hospitality business:
Thinking a workforce management solution may be right for your hotel group? Head to our dedicated Hotel page to learn more.