10 Easy Tips to Improve Employee Satisfaction in The Hotel Industry

When you have engaged and satisfied employees working at your hotel, everything and everyone benefits. Customers are happy. Managers are happy. And the employees are happy. This kind of positive working environment creates a positive attitude for hotel staff and as a manager, it’s your duty to make sure this continues. 

The statistics speak for themselves:

• Happy employees are 37% more productive and three times more creative
• Happy employees lead to a 12% increase in a hotel’s profitability
• Hotels with a positive company culture experience 24% less turnover

However, it is known that employee satisfaction in the hotel industry isn’t always the easiest to implement or maintain.

Now, it is entirely possible to boost employee satisfaction in the hotel industry without spending thousands or creating more chaos. We outline 9 easy tips on how you can significantly improve job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Let’s get to it!

No, don’t just throw a million staff parties or have party balloons everywhere in the hotel. Instead, make sure you create a work environment where your employees enjoy working with one another. This will help you build a great company culture and encourage employee satisfaction. Create opportunities for everyone to bond and establish relationships, such as team lunches, happy hour, or even team building games. 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: When you invest time and effort to create an enjoyable atmosphere at the workplace, you are creating tangible positive benefits for your employees.

For example, a study found that “happier employees are more productive by an average of 12% and, in some cases, up to 20% more than a control group. This difference is significant, given that in term so national GDP or economic growth [productivity] rises of 3% or so are considered very large.”

If employees are feeling sad, whether for personal or work reasons, their motivation is significantly lower which means they won’t communicate as much and won’t be as productive. It’s true that sometimes events in our lives cause us misery but as a people, we can cope better if we’re surrounded by happiness and support. That’s why an employee’s mood can change as soon as they clock in because they know they’re in an environment that promotes fun and happiness. 

When employees feel appreciated, their self-worth grows, and that creates a more productive and happy employee. So let your employees know when they’ve made a difference, give them a shout out when they do a good job, let them know how the company is doing, and celebrate achievements together. Recognition doesn’t have to be a complicated act either, share exciting news on your social media channels, have a team meeting where you share positive reviews, share customer feedback, and more.

Additionally, have great incentives and rewards to keep employees engaged, happy, and satisfied. These can really energize your employees and the rewards don’t have to elaborate either – host a team lunch, give scratch-offs, offer a free Netflix month subscription, bring in puppies and dogs from a local shelter, and more.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: There are more than a dozen reasons why employee recognition and rewards are so important but we’ll focus on three main ones. 

• Recognition and rewards create happier employees. 

When you take the time to show your employees that you acknowledge and appreciate their efforts, they will feel great about what they do and those positive vibes will carry on long after they clock out. 

Oh yeah, studies also say, “We find that human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity. Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings.”

• Recognition and rewards build trust and appreciation for management.

In order for a team to work as a productive, cohesive, and successful unit, trust in one another is incredibly essential. Once trust is established and reinforced, your business will experience lower turnover, improved morale, decreased workplace anxiety, and can help improve the products and services of the company. And all of this leads to higher earnings, stability, and carrying a reputation as an amazing place to work. 

• Recognition and rewards create company loyalty and lower turnover rate. 

Here’s the honest truth, on-boarding new employees is time-consuming and costly. In fact, most estimate that a new hire can cost as much as $3,500 for recruitment and around $1,200 and 32 hours a year in ongoing training. All of this combined means that a new hire could cost $4,129 and around 42 days in lost or compromised productivity. We don’t need to point out that these statistics are something you just can’t afford.

If you were to ask employees why they chose to switch careers, many said they felt a lack of respect and autonomy, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics report. 

In the tip below, we dive into how using the right tools can make a big difference as you work to improve employee satisfaction in the hotel industry. Why am I mentioning this now? Because there are a lot of tools that allow you to offer employee recognition in real-time and in an engaging, fun way. For example, you can use a Kudos Board to create a virtual group card for big occasions. Or you can download Connecteam’s free employee communication app to put your team front and center. Connecteam allows you to engage in employee ‘spotlights’, create a space for peers to recommend coworkers for upcoming company awards, celebrate personal milestones like birthdays or anniversaries, and share organizational achievements where everyone can like and comment.

Running your hotel efficiently involves a lot of moving parts but with the right tools, you can effortlessly manage one aspect of your already busy day – your employees. With 5 billion people owning smartphones, your employees are very likely a part of the five billion which means that the tools you offer them make a big difference. And this is even more relevant when you employ the younger generation in your payroll. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Studies have found that employee management software can increase engagement, boost transparency, and helps improve the employer brand. Let the statistics sum it up:

• 85% of employees lose one to two hours of productivity, weekly, searching for information.
• 80% of employees feel stressed due to ineffective company communication.
• 78% of employees said communication must be a higher priority for their company.
• 52% of employees have witnessed poor financial outcomes (like lost sales or a hurt company reputation) due to ineffective communication.
• 36% of employees don’t know where to find information just to do their work.
• 36% of employees have been in an unsafe situation due to poor communication.
• 63% of employees are frustrated by their company’s communication that they want to quit.

With all of the above, it becomes even more abundantly clear that you need the right tools in order to improve employee satisfaction in the hotel industry. Your employees need instant access to their employee schedule, company regulations and policies, training materials and more. On top of that, you need a two-way communication tool when you’re always on the go.

Don’t just throw employees in the deep end, give them a lifeline! Offer constant interaction, regular check-ins, one-on-one meetings, and hands-on advice. Employees should feel like they can come to you with concerns, that if they need help meeting goals, they know they have your support to help them succeed. That kind of connection helps create a positive attitude for hotel staff which only benefits your customer experience. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Create an open-door policy to help encourage open communication, feedback, and discussion on any matter. Employees should be able to come to you with concerns, questions, or suggestions without worrying. This relationship helps build trust among employees and employers and helps fix issues head-on before they spiral out of control. Using an employee management app, like Connecteam, means your employees can use the virtual suggestion box to anonymously send in their feedback and allows them instant access to you to share questions or suggestions without worry. 

If employees feel like they’re in a dead-end job, they will always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Therefore, make sure you have advancement opportunities and the criteria needed to advance – this creates more of an incentive for employees to stay at your company. Note that if an employee is interested to move up, be sure to address areas where they can improve so they have a shot. However, give this advice privately and consider using employee evaluation forms on a regular basis and not just once a year. When you invest in your employees and promote from within, you are creating a strong positive attitude for hotel staff which leads to employee satisfaction. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: If we haven’t said it enough, career advancements motivate and help retain your top employees. In addition, studies found that 37% of U.S. and Canada companies found that their employees understood how to shape their careers, and 44% of companies reported that their employees can even obtain career advancement opportunities they want. 

Employees need a healthy work-life balance so it’s important to share the schedule as far in advance as possible. When you need your hotel to be staffed 24-7, employees need to know when they’re on the schedule and if life happens, they should have enough time to find someone to cover a shift. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: A schedule that’s done right creates happy employees, better efficiency, and saves you a ton of dough. On top of that, you need to be using a more modern tool to create that employee schedule and Connecteam makes that a real possibility. Using a scheduling app helps to boost employee retention, increases employee performance, and brings in revenue instead of losing it.

Hospitality managers need to understand this, if employees feel micromanaged and like they can’t make a basic decision without consulting a manager/supervisor, they will only feel dissatisfied with their job role. When employees are properly trained, they should be able to handle any situation all on their own. 

Exercising responsibility can increase an employee’s pride and job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Achieve this by teaching employees the value of their position and the company’s goals. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: When employees are trained properly, it leads to improved employee performance, improved satisfaction and morale, addresses weaknesses, builds consistency in experience, increases productivity, reduces turnover, and enhances the company’s reputation. 

Listen to your employees! They are smack dab in the middle of everything, from every customer concern, complaint and compliment. They know it all so make sure you’re using that to its full benefit.

On a regular basis, ask your employees for feedback whether it’s about customer experience or sales ideas, or even employee experience, listen to it all. Plus, if your employees raise concerns or problems, you’re able to tackle them straight away instead of letting it spiral out of control.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Without feedback, your company can’t grow, the company culture is stifled and employees become frustrated that they aren’t being heard. It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t wait for an exit interview to gain feedback from employees, it should be done on a regular basis. 65% of employees think the company is behind the curve and 82% have ideas on how to better this but no one is listening. 

And be sure to give feedback about employee performance, because it is crucial to an employees’ ongoing development, it helps clarify expectations, helps them learn from mistakes, and builds confidence. With an employee app, like Connecteam, you can create channels to give and receive feedback through surveys or a suggestion box. Plus, you can send company-wide updates and announcements, start group conversations, or a private chat. This kind of communication in the workplace helps build trust, boost satisfaction, and leads to better engagement. 

Make sure that your employees are functioning at their best – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Why? Because your employees are the very core of the company and without them, your hotel just couldn’t function. Be sure to offer resources, tools, and on-site opportunities for your employees so they can live their healthiest life.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Creating in-house programs or assistance plans helps your employees, that’s it. These programs help your employees to better handle stressors that are related to work, family, relationship problems, financial woes, legal issues, and drug or alcohol struggles. Employees gain the help they need and can find the best solutions so they can be better in the workplace and also carry that same energy home.

Training and implementing the right approach to this is EVERYTHING for your employees so that they can do well emotionally and performance wise. You want to ensure your team is on top of their game professionally so they can deliver superb customer support and this includes ensuring all training material is readily available and updated at all times.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Great training paves the way for happier, motivated, better performing, and loyal workers, which only leads to satisfied customers. 

Create videos, quizzes, handbooks, and more for all job roles – like a video on how to address an unsatisfied guest or a video that shows the cleaners how to prepare the hotel room. Remember that when it’s peak season, you have to train many employees within one short time frame so training cannot be stressed enough.

The entire workforce is a reflection of a hotel’s hospitality culture, which is why everyone needs to be trained from top to bottom on certain specific values and standards.

 

The Bottom Line On Employee Satisfaction In The Hotel Industry

By implementing the 10 tips we laid out, your hotel is on the right track to creating a more positive attitude for hotel staff. Following these tips won’t break the bank and once you’ve perfected the technique, everything will run on auto-pilot so that employee satisfaction in the hotel industry isn’t just some far-fetched dream but a reality.