In my previous blog, I talked about productivity in the age of “work from home” and how to entice employees to join us back on-site and remain productive. However, possibly more importantly, we need to understand how not only to entice our employees to join us back on-site but to remain happy employees at our establishment as well.
As companies struggle to find help, especially in the hospitality industry, it’s becoming easier to put more responsibility and a more significant workload on the employees we already have expecting them to fill the gap for our missing workforce. However, this can quickly lead to a toxic work environment and burnout for employees. Burnout is one of the number one reasons employees leave an occupation, putting employers in an even more difficult position. So, even though we often must put a more significant workload on our current employees, how do we keep them from burnout and leaving? I have some tips below.
- Express gratitude: employees need to know their work is appreciated and valued. Tell them you appreciate it if they are going above and beyond. Tell them they are doing well and reinforce positivity. Words of affirmation are a great way to express appreciation towards employees. Employees want to know they are valued. They could quickly go somewhere else with the current job market, so make sure they know that you, as their employer, want and appreciate having them at your company.
- Provide opportunities for growth: employees want to know they can progress and go further in their current careers. Make sure they know they can do so in your hotel.
- Promote within– employees want to see that you value who is currently at your hotel. If you want an employee to be loyal to you, be loyal to them. As a hotel executive, you can establish that you value commitment to your company by promoting within. There’s nothing more discouraging for employees than feeling as if they are “stuck” with nowhere to move forward.
- Seminars- provide seminars on different ways to grow in the field and how to be better in hospitality. Not only will your employees value this, but this makes your employees more experienced and well-versed, which helps your company. Consider making the seminars, or a portion of them voluntary. This gives your employees an opportunity to decide whether the seminar message will be beneficial to them. This also provides a way for you, the executive, to look at who wants to grow.
- Meet with employees- tell them what they are doing well and how they can improve. In these meetings, you can express gratitude and tell them ways that they can get promoted within your company. Establish two-way feedback.
Establish two-way feedback: set up meetings with employees where you tell them what they are doing well and what they can improve upon. Then, allow them the opportunity to do the same. Let them tell you what they need and ways that you can improve in managing them. Establishing two-way feedback allows your employees to express concerns and promote that you value and appreciate your employees.
