The Best Employees Feel Proud and Excited About the Future

Categories: Employee Engagement
As published in:  Hotel & Motel Management
Date: September 25 2007
Author: Jonathan Barsky, Jan McDougal

Engaged, satisfied and emotionally connected work teams create employee “advocates”. These committed employees are not only hard workers, but also serve as promoters of your company, recommending your company as a great place to work.

But what makes an employee feel this way? What experiences at work create such devotion? What does it take to create employee advocates?

A Market Metrix study of over 70,000 hospitality employees surveyed over the past year shows that employees are more likely to recommend their hotel as a great place to work when they feel especially proud about their jobs, and feel good about their opportunity to advance within the company.

Feeling of Pride

• Managers recognize my effort
  
• GM is passionate about customer service
  
• I am empowered and trusted to use my judgment

Excited about opportunity to advance

• Clearly defined career path opportunities
• Exposure to other parts of the business
• Frequent promotion from within

On average, 95% of employees who said they would recommend their hotel as a great place to work (advocates) also reported a strong feeling of pride. Managers who are good at recognizing and empowering employees, and who demonstrate passion about guest satisfaction have the most success in developing proud teams.

83% of employees said they were excited about their opportunity to advance within the company. Companies that provide clear career path opportunities, with frequent promotion from within and across the business, were best at inspiring employees to feel good about the future.

It’s an Emotional Connection

The Market Metrix Employee Metrix tool measures the emotional connection, satisfaction and engagement of employees. In addition to feeling proud and excited about the future, employee advocates also reported feeling appreciated at levels significantly higher than other employees. The appreciation that employee advocates mention most often comes not from formal recognition programs, but most importantly from guests, their fellow team members, and direct supervisors. Employees’ sense of esteem was also boosted by other emotions that ranked highly among advocates (feeling important and powerful).

Interestingly, for hotel employees, Accounting and Maintenance employees were the most likely to recommend their hotels as great places to work, with employee advocacy rates of 85% and 83% respectively. Reservations and Room Service departments reported the lowest levels of employee advocacy, with only 72% of employees recommending their hotel as a great place to work.

Here are sample comments from employees describing why they would recommend their hotels as a great place to work:

“I was given an opportunity to take over the books for the property, and thanks to my managers, my hard work and dedication to the company is being recognized. They have been supportive…and given me trust and encouragement.”

“Everybody works focusing on the most important people: the guests.”

“We are like a family and this is my second home.”

“The empowerment given to employees to please the guests when problems arise.”

“Having the opportunity to work in different departments is great! I learn something new every day.”

Although creating a great workplace is challenging, the benefits are significant and can include: receiving more qualified job applications, lower turnover, reductions in health care costs, higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, and more innovation and creativity.

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Jonathan Barsky and Jan McDougal work for Market Metrix LLC (MarketMetrix.com), a firm that provides multi-channel survey, analysis and service improvement tools and benchmarking data for the hospitality industry. For more information, call (800) 239-7515.

Jonathan Barsky and Jan McDougal work for Market Metrix LLC ( MarketMetrix.com/), a firm that provides customer and employee programs for the hospitality industry. For more information, call (800) 239-7515.