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Bed and Breakfast Industry Trends |
Wednesday January 7th, 2009 |
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22 Ways to Build Employee Loyalty & Engagement - By Ken Burgin |
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'Loyalty' and 'employee engagement' are great buzz words, but what do they really mean? |
A business group recently gathered the work on this topic, and reduced it to the 8 key elements needed for a loyal, engaged workforce:
Trust and integrity: how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
Nature of the job: is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
'Line of sight' between employee performance and company performance: employees understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
Career Growth opportunities: are there future opportunities for growth?
Pride about the company: how much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
Co-workers and team members: their attitude can significantly influence the level of engagement.
Employee development: is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
Relationship with your manager: Does the employee value the relationship with their manager?
Great - it all sounds good, now what do we do?
Just asking 'what are the main problems' won't usually get the response you want - it's a conversation that's needed. Conversations bring out the detail and allows all sides be examined. Conversations need lots of listening. This is not about right and wrong, black or white, but 'what's next? '
Be aware that there could be 'an elephant in the room' that no-one wants to talk about - real change may need the elephant issue to be handled before other issues can be properly addressed. Eg alcohol or drug problems undermining performance, rumours about company results, management promises not being kept etc.
Putting the list to work:
If we agree that the list addresses the key areas, here's how it can be examined and turned into action:
• Bring it to a team meeting and ask members to prioritise the items from most to least important in your business. Priorities could be from 1- 8, or give items one, two or three ticks according to how important they are.
• Choose the two strongest elements and work out how they came to be such positive features. Out of this, find another one that with some work could be improved.
• If team building is needed and relationships aren't so strong, don't tackle all the 'worst' elements at the start. Working on positives gives the less assertive members practice in sharing ideas.
• Ask for people to identify the strongest and weakest elements. Once that's done, identify why the strongest is so, and what needs to be done with the weakest.
• Ask for specific examples of each element in the business, and whether it's done well or not.
• Identify elements that could be worked on each week in each department.
• Make sure actions suggested are measurable and observable eg time management and 'follow through' issues can affect #1 'Trust and integrity'. What specifically are people planning to do differently?
• Take action on #2. Identify the least interesting/most boring job and find some ways to enrich or vary it. Hint - talk to the people who do it.
• Ask everyone to identify the most boring part of their job and suggest ways to alleviate it.
• Re #3: What weekly and monthly results are shared with the team? Is it only the bad news, or also successes? Can they understand the figures you present - percentages are a problem for many staff.
• Training about 'how a business works' always pays dividends, especially information on running costs and 'hidden costs' like phone bills, electricity and water bills, and how they are allocated.
• Show how sales increases can improve the bottom line, even if it's hard to cut some costs. Use calculators and simple Profit & Loss Statements to share the information.
• Re #6: What can be done to build friendships sooner between team members? Introductions and buddy systems can help shy people settle in more quickly.
• What role do managers see for themselves in #4 and #7 - do they need coaching with this? Who is working on their career development?
• Ask everyone to list what training they want over the next 3 months. Some will have no suggestions, but they can gather ideas from others.
• Ask all team members to find one training activity they will undertake in the next month. Make someone accountable for following up on it.
• Ask the kitchen staff what skills the waiters and front-of-house staff need to improve.
• Ask front-of-house staff what skills the kitchen staff need to improve - expect a lively response.
• How good is the relationship between managers? They will need to work together on this.
• What does your accountant and other outsiders think are the strongest and weakest elements on the list?
• What do the office staff have to say - they're usually tidying up after others make a mess!
• How can pride in the company be fostered? Uniforms, a better website, better product to sell or sharing news about achievements?
Finally, ask team members how they would use the list to build engagement and loyalty...
Ken Burgin
Profitable Hospitality offers management and cost-control systems (Manuals & CD-ROMs) for restaurants, cafes, hotels, bars and clubs. The systems are based on the extensive consulting and operating experience of CEO Ken Burgin, and enable busy owners and managers to set up complete operating and cost-control systems in minutes, not months. Profitable Hospitality also runs regular management training workshops in the areas of kitchen profit & efficiency, restaurant marketing and functions management. A free monthly e-newsletter keeps you up to date on the latest industry management issues. www.profitablehospitality.com.
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