When I joined Care, I realised that all our residents are quite diverse, and they all come from various backgrounds. It was important to find a way to connect with our residents. We had age barriers and to address that we created a program called “All our yesterdays” where we shared stories from 1900s to 2020s. We listened to stories from their parent’s time, their time and their children’s time. We shared with each other how we grew up from different backgrounds and the habits we had as kids, how our parents grew up and the impact that they had in our cultural background. We tried our best to connect through stories with our residents. We started travelling to different countries – tried different food, different cultures, different customs, and different wines!
How do you use cultural diversity in your team or workplace to improve guest experiences or business results?
It is all about resident experience. TLC care is led by residents. We have forums where we give the opportunity to the residents to give a choice. Residents who don’t have a voice, we try to work with their relatives to understand their life stories and habits and try to replicate those in this current home that is their home. What we learnt through these forums is that we all can bring something to the business and the operations and the experience itself will be the greatest feedback. The most feedback we have received – is that you listened, and you helped me achieve that memory that I used to have in my home, through food, through trips, through activity or taking me back to a memory that was very close to my heart. We all have different skills – someone maybe great at planning, someone at connecting through an experience and that diversity helps in creating a personalised experience for all our residents.
Have you faced challenges in hospitality due to cultural differences, and how did you handle them?
In TLC care, things are slightly different than in hotels. In hotels everything is crisper with one guest coming in and out, engaging in conversations and delivering what the guests want. When I joined care, regardless of whatever you have in your mind, and you must understand the residents what. I remember, I decided to change the look of the pantry. Soon after, the residents came back to me and said, “But did you ask us if we like that?”. While the service had to be crisp, it was imperative to understand what do the residents want, how do they want it and when do they want it. I remember doing a resident meeting on how cooked a carrot should be; and then we did a tasting session on 10 different ways to cut and boil a carrot. We took it to a level where everything we did, we did it with the residents. In care, you must take everyone a journey, work with them to deliver consistently and commit yourself to understanding what your residents want.
What advice would you give to others in hospitality to embrace and use cultural diversity in their careers?
Dive in, headfirst, ask a million questions. Especially if you are going to the care industry because it is such a personalised experience. Ask, explore, listen, observe, give back and don’t be afraid to be different. Be yourself because we are all unique and bring something different to one’s experience. It is not just about servicing but delivering memorable experiences and that can only be done in a diverse way rather using copy and paste.
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