People & Culture 30/44

The Great Retention

Stephanie Doherty
Mar 29, 2022

(I promise, worth the read)

The labor market continues to be as challenging as ever. According to Sterling Hospitality (our Background Check vendor) … job opportunities between December 2020 and December 2021 rose 130%!! However, in that same timeframe, employee hires only increased by 60%. Estimates show that as of 12/2021 there were 1.7million jobs open in the hospitality industry. While we all know that RRI West is experiencing all this firsthand… we do have the ability to combat “The Great Resignation”. (as it’s become known.)

But how do we combat this?

There is a slow, but ever important movement growing across the industry, of which RRI West can be a significant part of… and that is The Great Retention!

What is The Great Retention you may ask? This is a new mindset. A dedicated, coordinated, focused effort to do everything we can within our control to welcome, value, train and retain those that are working for us! Industry leaders predict that 2022 will be a key year for companies to show how much they value employees or risk losing them. Employees aren’t really leaving because they’re unsatisfied—maybe some are—but most are leaving because they want to see what’s out there at a time when it seems far less risky to try. So, what can we do to begin The Great Retention?

Make employees feel comfortable, every.single.day. While you may be desperate and grateful that they actually showed up… you need to hide all of those “desperate emotions” and simply make your employees (especially new hires) feel like the most important person in the room on that day. Greet them, clear your calendar to spend time with them while completing a new hires’s onboarding, give new hires a property tour, surprise a long term employee by helping them do their job, bring donuts in, call your night auditor every once in a while to say hello, anything to make them feel like we are rolling out the red carpet for their shift!
Be flexible. When recruiting, be open to schedule flexibility. 3 years ago – we had the power to say, “you must be able to work XXX”. In today’s world – we need to figure out how to use the employee’s schedule requirements for our benefit.
Give new hires time to learn. They will not be perfect and this needs to be OK at the beginning. While this doesn’t mean they can skip changing the sheets on a checkout or not following safety and security protocols, retraining is just as important as training at the beginning. Be receptive to small mistakes, coach them as to the expectation and let them try again.
Other key contributors to Retention:
- Make Day 60 as Important as Day 1!
- Optimize Your Benefits… Paid Time Off is a benefit many companies don’t offer!
- Recognize Your Employees' Hard Work... Thank you still works wonders!
- Make Professional Development a Top Priority… Have a stellar employee? What West Edge classes can they participate in to grow their skill set, either personally or professionally? Contact Training for help!
- Communicate… employees want to be heard and know what’s going on with the business!
- Encourage Teamwork and Collaboration

This effort takes time and it takes… well… effort. But the rewards can mean the difference; not only to you, the GM, but to the employee who feels valued and begins to wake up each day and say, “I can’t wait to get to work and see what happens today!”

Do you have a GREAT RETENTION TIP? We’d love to hear it! Email Stephanie or Tamara in the month of April and be featured in the next Gazette! You might even win a gift card for your submission! 😉

Integrity | Accountability | Empathy | Passion

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