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Managing Human Resources in the HospitalityIndustry: Putting Values Into Practice

.By David Wheelhouse, CHRE, Anchor Consulting, and

Chris Longstreet, CHA, Society for Hospitality ManagementJuly 2004

Our job as managers in the hospitality industry requires us to match our policies,procedures, and practices with the values by which our company operates. A companysvalues are put into practice in several ways: the choice of measurements that will be usedto gauge performance and success, the treatment of employees, the allocation of wagesand benefits, and the kinds of performance that will be recognized, rewarded, and talkedabout.

What You Measure Counts

Regardless of what a company says its philosophy is, what it measures is one of thebiggest determinants of what its values really are. If food costs, labor costs, andinventory turnover are all it measures, talks about, and uses to evaluate performance,people will adapt to that and the company culture will be control-oriented. Thefrequency of measurement also has a profound impact on the organizational culture incommunicating the true values of the company.

An organization must decide whether its systems are there for the convenience of theguest or the accounting office. Are bartenders, front desk agents, and cashiers part ofguest service or are they really data-entry clerks? Is the first priority of the company

maintaining the accounting records or helping guests? If your employees believe theirfirst priority is keeping proper inventory and accounting records, in reality service isntyour philosophy. If you want service, you have to place equal or greater emphasis onmeasuring service. This may mean evaluating guest satisfaction by measuring repeatbusiness, responding to guest reactions, comments, and suggestions, and even conductingguest surveys and gaining other guest feedback.How You Treat People Counts

How you treat your employees will also communicate how you think guests should betreated. If you want guest satisfaction, you also have to measure employee satisfaction,since their behavior is part of the product. Employees must be happy and contentthemselves before they can make guests happy. When people feel good about themselvesand are comfortable with their skills, theyre more willing and able to perform in public.The happier they are, the likelier they are to go out of their way to help a guest or co-worker. If your human resources strategy is working, you wont need a customer servicetraining program to teach workers to smile. You wont need a customer service trainingprogram to teach workers to smile. On the other hand, employees in uncomfortablesituations will generally tend to be ruder to guests and one another. Employee turnover,

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absenteeism, attitude surveys, and accident rates are all indicators for measuringemployee satisfaction.When managers know that employers consider achieving guest and employee satisfactionto be as important as achieving financial results, theyre likelier to give proper emphasis

to service and the importance of their employees in achieving successful service. Whenthat happens, employees know that management means it when it says, Our employeesare our greatest asset.

What You Pay Your People Counts

Compensation policies will also communicate the values of a company. If a companywants to emphasis service, employees who are on the service line should be adequatelycompensated. If front desk agents, cashiers, and telephone operators earn minimumwage, while clerks in accounting, the storeroom, or the mail room are paid substantiallymore, this communicates that service isnt the companys top priority.

How Your Recognize and Reward Your Employees Counts

Values can be reinforced through recognition programs and the rewards provided toemployees. When employees perform consistently according to your values, they shouldbe recognized and rewarded. These employees should be turned into heroes who becomerole models and examples for others to follow. Others who see them being rewarded willknow whats important to the company and what it takes to get ahead, and theyll want tofollow suit. Its only when everyone understands what the goals and values are and cansee that the company really does operate by them that they can begin to identify with andcommit to them.

Your Rules and Regulations Count

Your human resources policies and procedures are a practical application of your missionand values. In essence they are the translation of a philosophy statement into a workingoperation. No area of management communicates and controls your values moreforcefully than the development and day-to-day administration of your personnel policiesand procedures. These are the rules and how-tos that determine what you require andpermit, who you hire, how you train, what you praise and pay for, and why you disciplineor terminate someone.

The Art of Storytelling

One of the most effective ways of reinforcing values is to talk about the people who bestrepresent them. Every organizational culture is characterized by traditions and legends ofwhich all employees quickly become aware. The process, sometimes known asstorytelling, has a powerful influence on the behavior and attitudes of workers, because itsummarizes the beliefs and values of the company.

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A favorite example of many in the hospitality industry is a story Disney employees tellall about Walt Disney taking his children to an amusement park. After observing thelevel of maintaining there, hes said to have vowed that if he ever had an amusementpark, hed never want to have chipped paint on the horses on his carousel. Clearly, thatdetermination is understood and upheld by employees in the Disney organization today.

Another example can be found in a true story told at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, inGrand Rapids, Michigan. During the opening days of the property, in one of the hotelsfine restaurants, a child asked for a peanut butter sandwich. Not a jar of peanut butterwas to be found, but a food server ran across the street to a convenience store during asnowstorm to get some. Not only was the employee not disciplined for leaving the job,she won an award for putting the needs of the guest first. Years later, employees stillhear about the peanut butter story and the choice she made for personal service.

Jay Levenson, in his now famous speech and training program called Think Strawberriesoutlines one of The Plazas stories:

Today, if you ask a Plaza bellman who is playing in the Persian Room, he will tell you,Jack Jones. He will tell you it's Jack Jones because he has seen Jack Jones and heard JackJones, because in the contract of every performer there is a clause requiring thatperformer to first play to the staff in the Employees' Cafeteria, so that all the staff can seehim, hear him and meet him. The Plaza staff now sees the star first, before the guests.And if you ask a room clerk or a telephone operator what is on TV closed circuit moviein the guest rooms, they will tell you because they have seen the movies on the TV setswhich run the movie continuously in the Staff Cafeteria.

Today, all the room clerks go through a week of orientation that includes spending anight with their husband, or their wife, or (laughter) just like a guest. They stay in aroom in the Plaza. The orientation week includes a week of touring all the guest rooms, ameal in the restaurants, and the reservation room clerk gets a chance to actually look outthe window of the suite and see the difference between an $85 and a $125 suite, becausethe $125 suite overlooks beautiful Central Park, and the $85 suite looks up the fanny ofthe A-Bomb building.

It is to this end that your human resources strategy should direct and dictate all of yourpersonnel programs. You cant buy a set of ready-made programs or borrow them fromanother employer and expect them all to support your culture. Your own humanresources strategy should control every program and event you implement. How you usethis strategy to manage - in recruiting, interviewing, evaluating, hiring, training,rewarding, promoting, firing - will communicate and reinforce your organizationalculture.