How To Engage With Our Workforce.
Contented employees and engaged employees.
There’s a big difference between contented employees and engaged employees. We do need to find ways to engage with all generations in our workforce and give them the tools to communicate in their hands.
Important to understand that digitization and digital transformation are not one and the same. We can digitalize everything today, but digital transformation means changing business processes. The way how we work and let technology assist allows us to focus on our core business. Which is serving our guests and exceeding their expectations.
Only with core transformations in hospitality we will become more efficient and keep a competitive advantage. Employee engagement is one of the most crucial priorities today.
‘When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.’ Simon Sinek
Although you may walk around your office and the team is laughing and smiling, which is a great thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re engaged. Engaged employees are committed to your organization, they see the mission of the company, they see the goals and they want to work towards them, within their position. They want to take their roles to the next level and are really committed to making things go right for your company.
Studies done in 2021 in the US market show us
In the U.S. in 2021, a comprehensive productivity report study with 350,000 frontline workers throughout a 90-day period was conducted by a Productivity & Cultural Transformation Initiative. Focusing only on the team huddle as the core change agent within the organization.
It resulted in productivity improvement equal to 22% in 90 days.
I believe that implementing a workers platform is necessary to engage with currently five workforce generations and generation Alpha is to come!
A connected workers’ platform will within a hotel, or a global brand connects all employees via smartphone with chats, voice, and video messages, and soon, VR techniques.
This will help in value-added problem solving and root cause analysis discussions and equip all to communicate based on their skills and abilities. This will improve business outcomes.
The system will measure trends of engagement, will flag ‘flight risks’ and poor teams and at the same time help spots and develop emerging talents.
It can be set up to generate and provide analytic reports to suit your needs.
The system will show you live employee engagement results and replace the annual employee satisfaction audits.
Implementing connected workers platforms that put the tools for success and communication in everyone’s hands helps you become an employer of choice, through engaged and energized employees. This will guarantee a heart, mind behavior change of employees.
‘Employee engagement is an investment we make for the privilege of staying in business’ – Ian Hutchinson
One of the most important tools in hospitality is the daily huddle or briefing, as it is the most consistent activity across the service industry in all departments. And yet it’s one of the most inconsistently executed.
We need employees’ opinions whether it’s a one-on-one talk or chat or a companywide online chat meeting where employees can use chats, voice, and video. We want to hear their opinions and hear them out, individuals this makes them engaged because they know that they have opinions, that we care, that their opinions make a difference in the company, and that they can say what they need to say about certain projects.
If employees feel their opinion and thoughts are important as individuals and employees and are listened to, this will make them want to work harder for your company.
“For a company to excel, employees must be reassured that self-interest, not the company’s, is their foremost priority.” -Ricardo Semler
We must show genuine interest in each employee as individuals and show that we are listening. At our worker’s platform, every employee has an individual public profile, which everyone within the organization can see. The employees can put in their own profiles any personal information they like to share with others. The company can show awards and achievements the employee may get.
We need to see the platform like a walk around, like in the good old days, start to talk to your employees. Get to know them as people, get to know their family lives or their hobbies you never knew you may have something in common.
But this requires a digital transformation.
This will great employee engagement because it shows that we are listening to them as individuals and makes them get to know. We as persons might have a bond that we never knew that we could have before. These kinds of things make employees more engaged, in their roles in their company in general.
“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” – Alfred North Whitehead
We need to focus on acknowledgment, we want to acknowledge them for all the hard work to be done in our organization.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we must give them a prize every time they can clear projects.
But even just a ‘Great job’ or ‘Wow and you did well on that project‘ is important to individuals and employees and makes them much more engaged.
On the worker’s platform we can place a thank you note to an individual or team which is visible to all employees, and then in addition can send an individual thank you message.
It is important that employees can see that their hard work is acknowledged and not taken for granted, it makes them want to work harder for us.
“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” – Stephen R. Covey
We want to respect and trust our employees.
This is extremely important because knowing that our trust as an employer makes them want to work harder for our organization.
There’s nothing worse than being given a project as an individual or as a team and then having it taken away from them, by someone who makes might think they’re better than them or something that’s been there longer.
It’s just a sign of disrespect and it’s not appreciated by any employee.
Once we assign projects, let employees take them from start to finish, we need to share them with relevant employees on the worker’s platform. Let them start it, let them edit it, let them show us, and let us hear some feedback.
They want to be acknowledged for their hard work, they want to be trusted to complete something correctly.
This kind of trust and respect really engages employees and makes some want to be a part of their role and own their role and really take us together to the next level.
‘Recognition is proven as among the best method of improving work motivation and employee engagement.’
The worker’s platform can make our workplace fun and rewarding. By creating multiple-choice competitions, guests’ satisfaction scores competitions. This can be linked between hotels and departments.
We can take it to a level whatever our team and we can think of and create.
It makes the workplace a place that employees want to be. It makes it a place that they feel that they’re having fun and it even makes it feel at home. For all of us having something fun and rewarding is important.
Trying to engage them overall, engaging employees is very important to the success of our company. Engaged employees will work hard for us, they need to know our mission and they want to work towards that mission for our company. They have a lot of goals set and really want to take our company to the next level. We want to make sure that our entire employee base is engaged not just content in their roles.
‘To win in the marketplace you must first win the workplace’
Without a worker’s platform, this is today no more possible
The fact is every employee today has a minimum of one smartphone and spends daily hours chatting away, watching some videos, or playing games.
Imagine if we can as an organization, find a way to engage with our employees via the same smartphone, and they spend only 15% of the time on the organizations’ application instead of spending it somewhere else.
90% of our problems are solved.
Connected worker platforms have been implemented in many different businesses very successfully, hospitality is just starting, and today still light years behind.
This will bring the urgent needed innovative sustainable transformation; the way hospitality operates and engages with its workforce and brings a huge needed competitive advantage.
The good news is there are some incredible technology platforms out there which been developed already for hospitality.
They are very cost-efficient, powerful, and cool and cater to every generation in our workforce.
Let’s get started
We help companies improve employee engagement and build sustainable profitability through our structured framework.
The Transformation Kickstarter
The ideal way to begin our effective digital transformation project together.
Me presenting you a first draft proposal that includes how I can assist with the transformation of your business needs, based on today’s discussions.
The Pole Position Package
Your team and I finalizing the transformations strategy for your approval.
The Chequered Flag Package
Your team and me implementing the transformations.
Debrief Package
Managing and reviewing and adjusting outcomes of the successfully implemented transformations, to ensure perfect results.ed
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