freedom! employee empowerment the $2000 way

8 March 2017

Once a week insights, features and interviews for

HR professionals in hospitality

bites

Freedom!Employee empowerment the $2000 way

Freedom! EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

HR & HOSPITALITY BITES

“ For many, the

£200,000 - £250,000

pension pot is a distant

dream; the level of

monthly savings

required to get to that

target is simply

unsustainable for

most. "

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

0

01

Our industry may be the least likely to offer scope for

freedom in making decisions to our frontline staff, partly

because of the nature of the beast; the way we operate

is run pretty much by systems and processes and also

because we don’t always think of customer facing teams

as being the decision makers.

Employee empowerment the $2000 way

The decisions are made by the people behind the desks aren’t they? Which, when you see it in

writing just feels a bit…wrong.

Think of a situation that we have all encountered whilst staying in a hotel, eating in a restaurant

or enjoying any aspect of our touch point with the hospitality industry. Then think

of that situation where something goes a bit wrong and the reaction to that. Is it “I’m terribly

sorry, let me speak to my manager” or is it “I’m terribly sorry, let me personally fix this for you

right now. Here’s what I’ll do”?

Hmmm – more likely to be the first, and how does that make you feel? Let me suggest. It

makes you feel like your complaint will receive an entirely un-bespoke solution – a service

recovery that has been created by a formula, designed by management, probably written

down somewhere in a book and kept in a drawer (definitely floating around a PowerPoint…)

and wheeled out in its unmodified state whenever needed.

It makes you feel like you’re a number, a ‘situation’, not really

a cash paying human being who has chosen this as an

experience. It makes you feel, well, a bit like this type of thing

might happen a bit more often than anyone would like it to

(which is why there’s a ready made solution...). So how would

you feel if the person serving you, checking you in/out,

whatever it is, listened to you and came up with a solution to

make everything better right there and then, on the spot,

without having to scuttle off into a hidden room through a

door in a wall before coming back to you with a middle of the

road, standard solution.

$2000 is an eye-

popping amount

of financial

freedom for any

employee to have

with the company

purse.

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02

You’d probably feel quite good. Like you’re being treated as an individual, that the person dealing

with your ‘situation’ cares enough to think through the experience from your point of view and

come up with a remedy as a response to that. You’d probably feel that the organisation behind

that is forward thinking and confident enough that it inspires its teams to think logically, creatively

and feel empowered enough within themselves to deliver that level of guest experience. An

organisation that chooses only the best people to work for them.

Thinking people. With switched on heads and

hearts. For decades the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Group

has given its employees a $2000 discretion to make

it right or delight. That’s $2000 per situation, not

per annum. $2000 is an eye-popping amount of

financial freedom for any employee to have with

the company purse.

But I suppose, it’s all about how you define cost. Cost of keeping a (hopefully loyal) customer/future

ambassador vs cost of losing a customer. $2000 doesn’t seem like such an expensive mend. The

average Ritz-Carlton customer spends around $250,000 with the group in their lifetime. And in any

case, it’s not ‘all about the money’.

Apparently, the full $2000 has never been needed. It’s not about the money being used to fix a

situation, it’s about the empowerment of the employee and the removal of any restrictions in the way

they help, care for and treat a customer, eliminating the feeling of the hand tied behind their back. It’s

about putting a relationship approach before a transactional one and allowing staff to use their intuition

to exceed the expectations of a customer. It's not necessarily used as a fix either. Employees have the

freedom to use their hearts and minds to make an amazing experience truly exceptional.


CHANGING WORKFORCE


03


Staff replaced a little boy's

lost Thomas the Tank

Engine when they

learned that his favourite

toy had gone missing as

the guests were

departing. They snapped

Thomas in a variety of

locations around the

resort, sent the child a

photograph album of

Thomas' 'holiday'

adventures and the

replacement toy.

A lost Joshie enjoyed an

'extended vacation' before

being reunited with his

owner, along with an

album of Joshie's holiday

memories.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

CHANGING WORKFORCE

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1. Social media at work

No more staring at a blank Outlook message

wondering how you can phrase ‘Can you please

just send me the info right now?’ in a slightly less

demanding way and proceeding to rattle off the

usual email niceties… We’re talking speed,

brevity and no more ‘Hope you had a lovely

weekend’… Quick and easy exchanges, saving

time, cutting down in email overload. Why

wouldn't you?

2. Social media at work

2. In an Instant

The way to reduce the risk and fear element is in how

you empower your employees. It’s not a case of

delivering a carte blanche, it’s about having a

framework to give your employees confidence in the

boundaries of their freedom to make decisions,

providing a set of clear guidelines. It’s about giving

your teams autonomy as individuals to make your

brand look good.

The people who are in the best position to know your

customer needs are the ones in front of them, but if

they’re following a set of rules and processes rather

than guidelines, part of their intuition, personality,

will to exceed expectations and truly surprise and

delight will be switched off.

It’ll be stifled, numbed and partly dormant, which

results in bland, standard, impersonal service. The

stuff that sets you apart from your competitors – and

not in a good way…


So why are we not all doing it then, when we know that the impersonal ‘I’ll get my manager’

approach is such a huge turn off? Fear of lots of things. Bad decisions, creating unrealistic customer

expectations, setting a precedent, throwing big money at small problems and opening the

floodgates, to name a few.


CHANGING WORKFORCE

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2. In an Instant

4. Spread the love

We only have to look to how brands engage with customers via social media to see how much the

style of customer service has shifted over the past couple of years. Standard responses have become

unpopular in an age where customers expect personality driven responses, something that’s a

genuine response to their tweet/complaint/questions/letters. It's also an opportunity for brands to

express their personality and win a bigger (and more permanent) place in the customer's heart.

Standardisation is out.

Being real is in, and yes, of course

systems and processes are the

bones that piece an authentic,

quality experience together but

it’s personalisation and

personality that bring it to life and

make it fly higher than the

customer expected it to.


CHANGING WORKFORCE

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2. In an Instant

4. Spread the love

So how can you empower your teams to ‘be them’, work with freedom, enjoy their jobs

more (because providing amazing service feels good) and connect on a deeper level

with the customer (without it costing you $2000)?

1. Empowerment guidelines

Virgin Airlines allows employees to work within a ‘judgment playing field’, whereby

senior management specifically defines where employees are and aren’t allowed to

deviate from established rules and processes – and then gives them the flexibility to

experiment with new ways for serving customers.

2. Communication of your mission, vision and values

If your people understand why, they’ll feel more comfortable with finding a ‘how’.

Understanding the ‘big idea’ is crucial for employee engagement and empowerment.

It gives them something to work towards, something to get excited about, something

to be inspired by – a common goal.

3. Support

Have a safety net, a sounding board – something which makes your teams feel more

comfortable in making that decision. Ensure that every employee has the right training,

resources, back up and support they need to do their jobs and feel empowered and

confident to make the best choices in every situation.

4. Trust

Trust inspires trust. The more you trust, the better the relationship you have with your

teams and the better service they'll deliver. Take a step back, give some space and

freedom and let your people shine.

5. Leadership

Inspiration, especially for new staff has to come from the already inspired. People feel

more comfortable and confident when they see a set of values being lives and

breathed by the folk running the show. Otherwise it's just words, on paper.

Empowering your teams through ‘freedom’


CHANGING WORKFORCE

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4. Spread the love

7. Praising the good decisions

Empowerment is all about confidence boosting and there is no greater boost than

knowing you’ve made the right decision. Recognise and reward.

6. Hire the right people

Richard Branson explained that once you hire the right people and give them the best

training, let them use their imagination and creativity to solve problems. “Rather than

providing rules or scripts, you should ask them to treat the customer as they themselves

would like to be treated – which is surely the highest standard,”.

8. Communication

Creating an open, honest, ideas culture where employees feel comfortable in coming

forward with questions, feeding back where things didn’t go quite right and of course

expressing new ideas and solutions, giving their experience of where it’s worked an

where it hasn’t.

9. Have their backs

Knowing that senior management will cushion any decision mishaps and protect staff

is key to empowerment and confidence building. Nobody’s going to stick their neck

out unless they have the support and backing of their manager.

10. Review your policies

Do your policies feel like they might help or hinder employee empowerment? If

employee empowerment is your goal, the way you express that in your policies is key

to making this live and breathe in your organisation.

Great things can happen when employees are given more power in the decisions which they are

faced with every day of their working lives. A greater sense of ownership, pride in their work,

improved performance and a more ‘real’ sense of service. And of course, the likelihood that you're

going to be able to give your customers something that they can't get anywhere else.

The reasons ‘to do’ outweigh and outnumber the reasons and risks not to. In an age where love is

worth more than money, where relationships are everything, and knowing that you can’t legislate for

every situation in life, it seems like a pretty good time to give more power to those who truly make a

difference to your organisation, brand and customers – your people.

freedom! employee empowerment the $2000 way

Recruiting & HR