Being in the hospitality industry means being in the people business, and not just when it comes to members or guests. As club leaders, our people are our greatest asset. Now more than ever, it’s essential to foster an intentional employee-centric culture to create an exceptional club environment for staff and for members.
If your team doesn’t feel happy, safe, and welcome at work, they won’t feel comfortable leading, communicating, advocating for themselves and others, or proposing or challenging ideas. This leads to disengaged employees, damaging your culture and breeding expensive staff turnover.
Walt Disney said it best.
“If we take care of our employees, our employees will take care of our guests.”
The best way to teach your team how to provide a warm, welcoming environment and exceptional service is to allow them to experience these things for themselves. If we as leaders don’t equip our teams to succeed, then we are responsible for their failure.
Putting employees first is not only the right thing to do, it will create happier employees, reduce costly turnover and create an exceptional club culture. An exceptional culture attracts exceptional people, and you’ll start to see an increase in top-notch incoming staff.
Make it easy for members or fellow staff to celebrate or recognize a team member during impactful moments in their life, such as welcoming a new baby, losing a loved one, or struggling with a family member who has fallen ill.
Encourage open communication and support leaders in rewarding exceptional service or a job well-done.
The saying, “One bad apple spoils the bunch” is true. Hire slow and fire fast. Zappos is known for their employee onboarding process. After two weeks of training, they offer $2,000 to leave if they think the culture is not the right fit.
Your brand promise is not just to your members, but to your employees as well. Lead with experience to prioritize a culture that respects and honors your team and members in everything you do.
Whether you’re working to enhance a member offering or change an operational policy, it’s important for your team to feel like they’re part of the process (and implementation will be much smoother).
If there’s anything the pandemic has taught us, it’s that people are extremely adaptable. Those who took risks and made changes grew, while those trapped in legacy thinking are struggling right now. Leaders must be flexible and constantly learning and adapting in order to grow with today’s rapid pace of change.
You can’t thrive in the people business without a people strategy.
Work with our award-winning team to create a culture your employees and members believe in – and want more of.
