How a group of 11 hotels solved their Employee Engagement problem

A prestigious Hotel Group in Thailand headquartered in Singapore operates 11 hotels in Thailand. One central HR team is in charge of managing and caring for employee needs across all hotels. It was no surprise when management discovered that employee morale was dropping and turnover rates increased (especially in the front office and sales roles).

Employee engagement became a #1 priority to ensure they could continue providing the highest levels of customer service. Customer feedback and reviews directly impact their revenue and occupancy rates. Concerned about employee well-being while being conscientious about ratings, the Company approached Happily to discuss how better they could:

• engage their workforce,
• provide and receive valuable feedback from their employees,
• measure and track employee well-being,
• give recognition to key members

Here are some of the challenges they faced and how Happily helped overcome them:

Challenge 1: Low morale and a lack of recognition for back-end staff and team members

Front staff interact with guests and regularly receive recognition first-hand, which is essential to boosting morale. Meanwhile, back-end staff, such as chefs, do not get directly recognized and are left feeling under-appreciated. After identifying this issue, management searched for a recognition platform employees could use to reward their peers with positive feedback.

Happily allows hotel employees to have daily check-ins, give recognition, voice their opinions, provide feedback and build better work relationships. Managers and the HR team can oversee employee health and well-being in real-time through a dashboard  —allowing them to know who is feeling low or demotivated, getting recognized by peers or management, and more. Employee insights have allowed management to spot at-risk employees and proactively retain key talent.

83% of hotel staff used Happily weekly, averaging over 130+ recognition interactions per month; the employees see value in engaging with Happily to improve their work-life.

Challenge 2:  Poor and delayed communication across teams

Hospitality staff have limited access to a work e-mail or an official workplace communication channel. Voicing opinions is uncomfortable for many, and a lack of a feedback channel hinders honest and effective communication.

Employees usually need to wait for weekly or monthly updates from their line managers on various issues, typically slow and one-directional. Employees have little chance to share feedback, leading to decreased morale and a toxic work environment if critical issues are left unattended.

With Happily, all hotel staff benefited from direct communication with their managers. Feedback is quick, honest, and constructive. Meanwhile, managers understand their team's overall well-being, risk levels, and happiness rates from Happily reports. Finally, the management team and HR have access to Happily Dashboards that provide people analytics (e.g., on recognition) that help identify & reward top talent —a considerable leap!

Conclusion

The Hotel Group increased organizational health and engagement metrics by investing in an Employee Engagement Platform that allows their staff to:

• Provide open feedback directly to managers
• Receive recognition (in-app) and awards (Employee of the Month)
• Have needs met by a central HR team that understands employee health and well-being across all hotels
• Spot dissatisfied staff at risk of leaving, allowing managers to retain talent proactively

Hospitality businesses succeed by providing the highest levels of customer service to ensure the best customer feedback and ratings. Management and the HR team from this Hotel Group used Happily to become data-driven and people-first —focusing on key factors such as employee engagement, recognition, and feedback. The math was simple: Happy employees provide better service to customers.

Happily is a one-of-a-kind platform that drives unprecedented feedback, recognition, insights, coaching, and more. Visit our website to learn more, request a demo, and experience a better work culture and life.

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