came by way of a passed business card to a theatre greeter and a beach life guard. Once you have the talent you must keep it, churn it, and eventually rehire it. We all want a team of promotable associates. To get this, progress must be seen as available and consistently occurring. This cycle activates current smart employees and attracts future rising stars. a myriad of ways exist to engage associates on a journey of success: • encourage a life designed—Work life balance is a phrase of the past. We all have blended lives and many associates think about improving work while at home and about home while at work. increasingly, the balance is about allowing the associate to design a life around personal passions that weave in and out of work. an associate with a degree in computer graphics, for instance, will become numbed by the daily routine of 50+ check-ins. Affording this employee an opportunity to create a weekly newsletter or take charge of a social media campaign on top of desk duties will make those 50+ check-ins for the tenth day in a row a much more enjoyable task. • expand job descriptions and capacities—A front desk agent should be just as comfortable on the phones, pouring a Starbucks drip coffee, or inspecting a room as checking in a guest. adding diversity adds engagement. and it never hurts to have a multi-functional team. • Provide exposure as often as possible— introduce the front desk to the sales team, take them to the kitchen for tastings, and show them that incredible 10 California Hotel & Lodging Association summer 2015 event in the ballroom. This will break down the departmental fiefdoms in the hotel, increase communication, and inspire your employees to reach for the next opportunity. The front office is the central nervous system of the hotel. A great front office operates as the bridge of the ship, sailing the hotel through the calmest route of calamitous seas. When the front office takes on water, the entire building will feel it. guest complaints and internal frustrations will begin to bubble up and creep into nearly every department, slowly sinking the property. When steered right the hotel is hyper communicative and strategically nimble around the rocky points. With a handpicked, well trained, engaged and promoted team, you will have a hotel that is driven with an eye on the horizon. A team like this can compensate for the new normal—a mobile world of decreasing guest interaction points— with heightened capabilities for brilliant service. Chris Harrison learned hotel operations at a young age living in the JW Marriott, Hong Kong, where his father was the General Manager. He attended Brigham Young University where he studied English and joined Marriott International. In 2011, he earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School where he served as the President of Harvard’s Hospitality and Tourism Club and specialized in operations within service industries. Upon graduation Mr. Harrison re-joined Marriott in a rotational management program. He was recruited to help manage and evolve the Front Office at the Boston Marriott Copley Place before moving to his current hotel, the Irvine Marriott, where he serves as the Resident Manager. His passions lie in operational innovation and talent development. navigating for success, cont. Great service, as we re-learn every day, is authentic, personal, anticipatory, thoughtful, customizable, and ultimately supremely human. repay themselves with loyalty and an educated, capable team. • skills Training—From the basics of saying hello to shaking hands, many of our front desk associates have never been taught how to do this properly or comfortably. a warm welcome and fond farewell will fail every time if one cannot get these basic soft skills down. • uniforms and Appearance— A fashionable and fitted look inspires confidence in both the team and the guests. Quick service encounters require positive first impressions. A stylist and tailor can do wonders to start these encounters off in the right direction. a dynamic desk is a diverse one. The best ones that i have seen and worked with represent a cocktail of locals and transplants, generations and cultures, languages and education levels. The aim is to increase the number of guests your team can relate to on a personal level. if you can, be strategic as you build out your teams using patience and a broad spectrum of recruiting tools to find exactly the right fit: • Participate in collegiate internship programs regularly—Exposure in the classrooms will net a pipeline of top service-driven talent. Do not let restrictive recruiting budgets prevent you from building connections with some of the state’s great community college programs. • Think globally—International students with F-1 and J-1 visas can be a great source of multi-cultural talent that is dedicated to the job for a controlled period of time. • Partner with veteran and second career organizations—The Veteran career network, for example, helps to fill jobs with candidates who have broad exposure, education, and adaptability. • source local talent everywhere you go— some of the best hires i have encountered
CHLA Lodging News Summer 2015
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