So where will we find the next generation of leaders in the hospitality industry? Like their counterparts in other business sectors, this question remains top-of-mind for those responsible for finding, managing, and developing the talent needed to ensure the vitality of their organizations. While, arguably, not as glamorous as a new guest amenity or as important as a cost-saving innovation, there is nothing more critical than talent to succeed in an increasingly competitive and challenging global business environment. Leveraging the best strategies and tactics related to talent management, succession planning, workforce planning, training and leadership development are, quite possibly, a company's most critical work. READ MORE

Engaging and retaining talented, trained workers is a critical component of success for any business in any sector. When employees are disengaged or turnover is high, organizations face challenges of subpar customer service, high costs, and human resource inefficiencies. Gallup estimates rampant disengagement among employees costs American businesses between $450 billion and $550 billion per year. In the hospitality sector, delivery of impactful customer experiences is strongly connected to employee engagement and satisfaction. Happy, engaged employees can make happy, loyal customers. Currently; however, the hospitality sector suffers higher than average employee turnover. READ MORE

You're just being politically correct! In America, being politically correct has taken a new meaning and now has a negative connotation. But why? Definitions can help identify the reason. The definition of political correctness is "the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially discriminated against." In simple terms, political correctness is going to the extreme to avoid insulting socially disadvantaged groups. What could be wrong with that? The issue is not them or the term, it's us! READ MORE

Ever wonder what planet your new hires are from? For most, it is called Millennialland. It is my homeland, and it is a whole different world than where Boomers and GenXers were born. So why are your younger workers from this strange land so hard to understand, manage and retain? Why is it that they lack the loyalty of those who came before them? Why do they need so much handholding in the workplace? And where does this tremendous sense of entitlement come from? Being born in a certain generation does not give everyone in that cohort the same personality. It is more about the fundamental similarities they hold due to the time in which they grew up, and the way their parents raised them. Allow me to explain. READ MORE

Do your hotel financial statements give you the information you need to effectively run your business? Do they have an effective summary statement with departmental profits, flow thru analysis, proper room segment statistics, labor productivity, do you have payroll segmented by management and hourly classifications, do you have separate supplemental payroll and benefits, do you track arrivals and departures? Most statements I see do not have most of these critical elements. They're lacking these incredibly effective elements that can easily be added. How would these elements add insight and value to your business? Let's explore this READ MORE

Analytics continue to be one of the most-discussed topics in the Revenue Management industry and as the backbone of any solid revenue management discipline, this makes sense. With that said, how do we really use analytics, and why is this measurement so important to building a solid revenue management foundation? Perhaps the most obvious answer is that humans - the drivers of revenue management - measure experiences through perception. This may not be intentional, but we are emotional and irrational creatures by nature. Analytics help us take an unbiased approach to our business in more rational and data-driven ways. Simply put, analytics give us the foundation needed to arm hoteliers with the ability to price efficiently and effectively without experiential bias. READ MORE

The hospitality industry is swimming with data. Torrents of data are churned out daily from traditional marketing research, social media, email and rating apps such as Yelp. We all prefer to make fact-based decisions, but unfortunately, there are times when the facts simply don't matter. Perceptions, no matter irrationally formed, are always more important when it comes to brand choice, particularly in the hospitality business. That's why qualitative research must have a place in hospitality brand's marketing mix. READ MORE

Employee engagement in the U.S. is a mess. Gallup tells us only 32% of our employees are engaged, and that figure has hardly budged over 15 years. Worse, Deloitte says we are about to spend $1.53 billion a year to “fix” it. Unless we get smarter, we'll be flushing that fortune instead of fixing. It gets worse. Again according to Gallup, those remaining 68% are either sleepwalking or sabotaging. So unless your company is different, two-thirds of your employees aren't giving their all. One has to wonder: How much better would our economy be if we solved employee engagement? READ MORE

Robots have reshaped manufacturing, technology, aerospace and online retail/warehouse supply chain structure and process. That same quantum leap is on its way to hospitality just as surely as the computer changed the front desk process late in the twentieth century. Robots entering the hospitality industry will be very different from their fictional counterparts and certainly won't possess the artificial intelligence of the sinister HAL Computer, at least not yet. READ MORE

You found your perfect candidate. Their resume is a dream come true-it matches your requirements exactly and you hire him or her. The anticipation of having this amazing person on your team builds as you eagerly look forward to their first day on the job. Once they are on board, however, your excitement quickly turns to dread as you realize your perfect candidate fails to live up to their perfect resume. Have you found the perfect candidate and on their first day of work, that candidate was not what you expected? This happens far more often than one might expect, and it can be avoided with some strategic thinking about your recruiting process. READ MORE

How would you like to decrease employee satisfaction, decrease employee performance, increase burnout, and encourage employee turnover? Not very appealing? Well, the good news is that there are some relatively easy ways to make your employees happier, more loyal to your organization, and thus more likely to perform well and stick around. The secret: work-life balance. Before we jump into our tips for improving work-life balance in your organization, we must first define what we mean by “balance.” When you think “balance”, you probably think 50/50 or a scale with equal weight on each end. READ MORE

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tried and true method of connecting with guests and customers across a number of platforms including websites, social media, apps, live chat, email and phone. Selecting a CRM software solution is notoriously laborious and the software itself has the reputation of being expensive and hard to implement. Hotels and hospitality organizations who operate at a local level, and thrive on the relationships they have in the community, need a nimble, real-time CRM solution to engage with their guests and be responsive to their service needs. READ MORE

Eighteen months since the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) revised its standard for the imposition of joint employer liability, and hoteliers remain in a state of legal limbo, unsure what 2017 and beyond have in store on the issue. For those hotel and resort operators whose best response to the question, “how should we continue to move forward in the wake of BFI?” is a shrug of the shoulders, a current scorecard for your consideration. The NLRB shook the hotel franchisor/franchisee landscape with its jaw-dropping Browning-Ferris Industries of California (BFI) decision back in August 2015, which drastically eased the criteria for a company to be considered a joint employer. READ MORE

The key to retaining good talent in the hotel industry is in developing and maintaining a positive organizational culture. We all know what it is like to work in an environment with a positive organizational culture. The feeling is infectious and the energy is electric. When employees are happy, they come to work and display an enthusiastic attitude about being a part of something special. In addition, they display loyalty and commitment and produce results. If happiness exists as a result of a positive organizational culture, an employee will likely stay with the hotel as opposed to leaving for an opportunity at another hotel. READ MORE

Great hotel salespeople are hard to find. Our Sales Leaders and Talent Recruiting Professionals commit time, money and energy recruiting for high performing, passionate and productive salespeople. Our best salespeople consistently drive revenue, inspire confidence and loyalty with our customers, generate new business, increase brand trust and contribute to the company culture. Conversely, turnover is expensive and negatively impacts our property's performance. Successful leaders must cultivate engaging environments and maintain high business standards to retain their salespeople and to create successful teams. READ MORE