Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
A truly do-able function with higher returns than other functions we may spend our time at. From the founder of Joie de Vivre Hotels.
As we work our way through his environment, it is the commitment of those who lift the load for us that will allow us to emerge on the other side with a minimal of bruising.
A simple technique I learnt from a veteran commenting on how little effort we spend on appreciating and thanking our teams:
Place 10 pennies in one pocket at the start of the day.
Every time you appreciate a team member, transfer one of those pennies to the other pocket.
Make sure you transfer all 10 by the end of the day. Surely you come across at least ten occasions to be grateful to someone on your team.
If you don’t, then you don’t have the right team!
Enjoy the day!
Nagib.
The best $73 I ever spent
By Chip Conley, HWN Contributor
Originally printed on The Huffington Post, Joie de Vivre Hospitality founder Chip Conley shares his beliefs on how to manage and properly treat employees
Close your eyes for a moment and consider the collection of bosses you’ve had since you joined the workforce. I remember my first boss, Mac, when I suffered through six weeks at the fries and shake workstation of McDonald’s. He helped me understand that “boss” was a four-letter word and spelled backward it’s what I felt like doing when I came home from work each day (SOB also is how I described Mac to my friends).
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But, I also remember Larry Keating, who mentored me with great patience and wisdom in my summer internship between college and business school. Larry helped me realize I had more ability than I thought I did so I could accomplish more than I thought I would.
My hotel company, Joie de Vivre, has a more than 10-year tradition of celebrating “Employee Recognition Week” just as we’re going into our busy summer season. We started this tradition as a means of helping our maids, bellmen, bartenders and managers realize that we truly appreciated how much life they gave to our enterprise. While we initially were thrifty with our expenses during this week, with time our generosity grew to include tickets to theme parks, baseball games or cruises on the bay.
More recently, we spent nearly $100,000 on these various recognition-week activities, which may sound lavish. But when you realize this is only about $35 per employee (or about $1 per hour that each of our employees worked that week), you come to realize the good feelings that are generated about our company culture are probably worth it. Heck, you could spend $100,000 in legal fees in California just settling one wrongful termination suit of an employee who didn’t feel properly recognized.
While employee recognition week may be a wise investment, this year we don’t have the cash to invest, and we’ve had to make cutbacks. Sound familiar? Does that mean we can’t recognize our people? Compensation is a right, but recognition is a gift. What gift could I give my staff that would be as meaningful as what Larry Keating gave me that summer 27 years ago?
Yesterday, I decided to write each of the 80 people who work in our headquarters a handwritten, heart-felt thank you card. For less than a dollar per card and about six hours of my time, I could give the ultimate gift that we all are looking for. Cancel your round of golf this weekend and plant yourself in your favorite chair watching the NBA Finals and pen some thankful prose to those who work for you. As William James once wrote, “The deepest hunger in humans is the desire to be appreciated.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve saved cards that old high school flames wrote me as well as those employees have written me over the years. The power of genuine, customized appreciation will never lose its value—even in a gloomy economy … in fact, it’s probably what we’re all thirsty for in this desert of a depression.
The Gallup organization found that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty is not the pay, the perks or the benefits. It’s the quality of the relationship between employees and their supervisors. Isn’t it ironic that pay, perks and benefits all cost your company at the bottom line but authentic recognition, especially when it’s most unexpected, costs very little and gives the most impressive return on investment? The $73 I spent on those cards was the best investment I’ll make in 2009.
Chip Conley is founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality. To read more of his thoughts, visit www.chipconley.com/musings/
Nagib Lakhani RevMax Hospitality Consulting Services
O: (425)677-7866 C: (425)445-7750 F: (866)508-7866
nagib@RevenueMaxConsulting.com
4313 245th Avenue SE
Issaquah, WA 98029
