Five-star treatment for all staff

Hotel keeps morale high and turnover low with its unique HR philosophy Explosive growth in the mainland's hotel industry has led to intense competition for staff, and knowing how to keep employees on board is imperative. One hotel leads the rest in this field, and its secret lies in offering staff the same five-star gold standard treatment as its guests. With accolades ranging from Hewitt's best employer in Asia to being ranked No1 in Training Magazine's 'Training Top 125' 2007 survey, which selects 125 best global companies for employee-sponsored workforce training and development, it is no wonder that The Ritz-Carlton has one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry internationally - below 20 per cent. Besides corporate recognition, the hotel's reputation as a good employer precedes it. About 5,500 applicants stormed the hotel's job fair during the latest recruitment drive for The Ritz-Carlton, Shenzhen, which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. Iwan Dietschi, general manager at The Ritz-Carlton, Shenzhen, said: 'Due to the size of the building we were not able to accommodate all the applicants in the venue. Therefore we needed to close the doors and move people to an outside area. I made a speech and thanked them for coming and showing interest in the company, and explained the application procedure while we were collecting all the CVs.' Within one month every applicant was contacted about their applications and 120 staff were selected. Besides being attracted to work for a big brand, the secret to the hotel's success in employee engagement is simple. 'Treat your staff the same way you treat your guests,' Mr Dietschi said. They are 'ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen', which is the company motto on the staff credo cards. 'It's making them understand how important they are, that we are not servants, but we are the best professionals serving other professionals,' Mr Dietschi said. By making staff equal to guests, the company tells employees that they are respected and trusted to do the right job. Bestowing ownership and trust become key elements in staff retention. The Ritz-Carlton, Shenzhen's public relations manager, Jane Cai, said of her experience with the company: 'Sometimes staff stay with a company not for the salary but for psychological reasons and job satisfaction.' As an example of this, The Ritz-Carlton has a policy that every employee is empowered to use their judgment in spending up to US$2,000 per guest if needed, either to enhance the guest experience or to rectify problems, without seeking permission from a supervisor - an unusual policy in the hotel industry. 'I have been working in the hotel industry for a long time and I was so impressed by this,' Ms Cai said. Citing one of several incidents, Mr Dietschi recalled that a valued guest had forgotten his mobile phone in his room. Rather than sending it back by express courier, as most hotels would have done, the 'gentleman' (hotel staff) took a flight to deliver the phone to the customer himself. 'That's customer service and that's what makes customers loyal to the brand and to the hotel,' Mr Dietschi said. 'This is unique and we want to wow the customers and [let them] know that they can trust us in any situation.' And staff are encouraged by these policies. Director of sales and marketing Lucinder Ng said: 'Because the staff feel the ownership, if they feel accountable and have that kind of ownership, they will do well and this ties into trust. All the staff feel trusted.' But trusting your staff to be the best they can is not enough. The Ritz-Carlton prides itself in being an employer of choice because the training programmes mean that staff are given the environment to be successful, offering a career rather than a job. Mr Dietschi said: 'We believe strongly in promoting from within. We want to give opportunities to our people to move on and move up and allow them to see that they can be part of something bigger and higher in their careers.' Besides the three-day orientation training, which covers The Ritz-Carlton culture, philosophy and why the employees are different from others, a buddy is assigned to each new staff member to provide on-the-job training. Feedback from the new recruit is collected on day 21. On day 365, an annual acknowledgement of a staff member joining The Ritz-Carlton family is celebrated. More training follows. There are also about 250 training hours a year and every day staff spend 15 minutes going over the credit card sized employee credo card, which contains The Ritz-Carlton philosophy and service values, the three steps of service, the hotel's motto and the employee promise. Staff gather round and every division and department will review the service values, resolve issues and discuss ways to improve service. Mr Dietschi said that these human resources initiatives accounted for staff retention because employees felt engaged. 'We want them to understand who we are, integrate them, make them feel comfortable, good about being with us, see that we trust them and they trust us and that we walk our talk. That's important,' he said. Honing staff was important, Mr Dietschi said, because the key to a hotel's success was its people. 'We value our employees as partners, as important elements in the service process. They are the most important commitment to our customers.' Success as an employer of choice recently led to the publication of a book called The New Gold Standard where The Ritz-Carlton talks about its five leadership principles for creating a legendary customer experience. It was written by the author of The Starbucks Experience, Joseph Michelli. It shows that the secret to success of this high-end hotel group ultimately lies in its people.