It has been inspiring to hear stories of how hospitality companies have helped team members who are furloughed or working from home, in terms of managing both their wellbeing and professional development. We spoke to three companies who are part of our Company Sponsored Membership (CSM) and asked them to share their initiatives ahead of the full return to work.
It’s good to talk
At The New Forest Collection, general managers and heads of department were tasked with keeping in touch with team members weekly. Support groups and hotel centric WhatsApp groups have also been a positive way for teams to informally keep in touch. The company has also utilised a FLOW platform with news articles, recipes and wellbeing tips. There was also a hidden gem in the team as their company secretary is a qualified yoga instructor and has been available for free yoga sessions via Zoom.
Getting reopening ready
More recently, the focus at The New Forest Collection has been on their ‘get-fit-get-ready’ campaign. With some team members anxious about a return to shifts and being on their feet, they set a weekly physical and mental challenge throughout a four-week period. The teams completed millions of steps, whilst mental challenges ranged from re-naming their e-training platform, a quiz relating to stories about their hotels and the wider New Forest and a Zoom cocktail-making task.
Communication is key
With nearly 2500 staff, under four different sets of Government guidelines, keeping them informed was no mean feat but Amaris Hospitality ensured that their updates were always timely, honest and clear. At a local level, they ensured that every GM engaged with their teams personally. The most popular method was to host “drop in” Zoom sessions. Amaris ensured that employees had access to a dedicated and confidential email address to raise any concerns or queries. For a more informal and relaxed communication they sent out newsletters, which included advice, stories, recipes and charitable initiatives with all of the content being supplied by teams to promote engagement and a sense of inclusion. Video messaging was used to launch things like their Covid-19 training modules, ensuring that they had clear, robust and people focused protocols in place.
The power of Zoom
Interstate Hotels accessed 4.5 million minutes of Zoom during 2020 using it to its full capability to keep up with communicating the sheer pace of change. They also set up two dedicated email addresses to help answer employees’ concerns; one was for day-to-day enquiries around HR whilst the other focused on operations which were directed to the senior leadership team.
Life in lockdown challenges
To help with team engagement, Interstate Hotels ran three big challenges over the last 12 months. The first was around fitness where staff were challenged to get out into the great outdoors with videos to engage and motivate. In late summer, they completed a creative challenge which resulted in a ‘life in lockdown’ scrapbook including poetry and art. In the winter, the company set the challenge of completing miles to take the business ‘around the world’. This saw staff doing regular fitness activities such as walking, running, outdoor swimming, horse riding and kayaking. One team member even cracked the frozen ice on a Loch! Engagement was so high staff did enough miles to have got around the world twice.
How have these businesses supported staff learning and development?
Whilst it was vital all businesses followed the furlough guidelines; opportunities were given to staff to use the time for their own personal development. For example, Amaris Hospitality extended corporate membership to the IoH so that general managers, Graduates and the management committee had access to all of the development and resources that the Institute has to offer. For those on their Graduate scheme, whilst in person training and experiences have been unable to continue, they have done a series of online training to ensure they completed their functional modules together with mentoring sessions.
As well as their corporate IoH membership, senior leaders at The New Forest Collection completed internal weekly get togethers, where they focussed on developing everything from management accountability, re-writing strategy and driving their new purpose through effective communications. Teams were provided with access to their digital training platform, which was loaded with appropriate workflows and training. This was optional owing to the furlough restrictions, however, it had positive uptake and the drive for self-learning was inspiring to see.
At Interstate Hotels, the majority of their learning has gone online and the legal mandatory training, as well as refresher training, has been done at the end of the furlough period. Additional training on things like cocktail making and wine tasting was also offered. As they have reopened parts of the business, they have introduced their revamp strategy which involves half a day’s training for all staff about how things have changed e.g. PPE, new uniforms, clocking in and new ways of working.
The long-term impact on well-being
As a professional body, the mental and physical well-being of those working in the industry is something that’s really important to us which is why our membership includes dedicated welfare events and resources. To help us support our members, we wanted to understand what lasting impact the pandemic will have had on the mental health of those working in hospitality.
Hazel Hogben, senior vice-president human resources at Interstate Hotels said: “Without over-dramatizing, I believe there will be a bit of survivor syndrome. Even in the last few weeks we’ve seen articles in the trade and national press about a shortage of staff. At the end of last summer there was a surge in redundancies, and this will have created anxiety and uncertainty for those in hospitality. Hospitality, leisure and travel has taken the full brunt of the pandemic so there is going to be nervousness around job security for some time. The situation has made us look at how we are operating our hotels and we have changed the structure of our teams. We have moved away from very specific roles and looked at more general roles with some upskilling. This will give us a broader base to be able to have faster, more holistic promotions which I think will be a really positive move for us long-term.”
Garry Baldwin, managing director at The New Forest Collection told us: “Hospitality is resilient, we are always good at adapting, however, this will be the biggest challenge for our teams. Rules that change, the changing consumer and a mixture of team feelings needs careful management and support. This will be required for some time and sadly for some the pandemic has changed the perception of our industry, with team members seeking alternative employment. The mental health of our teams remains a priority, it is not just a case of relying on resilience, but providing guided support and signposting. The spirit of community is essential, workplace bonding and real team spirit, and being back together will really assist.”
Paul Harnedy, chief operating officer at Amaris added “We are already seeing physical and mental health issues linked to long-COVID, anxiety and bereavement and it’s important that we continue to communicate and support all our employees as we go through the journey of reopening the hospitality industry. However, given the spirit of the industry and the passion of our people we know our teams are keen to see some normality and provide exceptional service to our guests. Our focus in the short term will be on re-inducting our teams to the business and taking our time to ensure that they are comfortable in the changed environment. Our leadership team will continue to utilise our membership to the IoH for their personal development and engagement and we intend to become more engaged in the various events of the Institute in the year ahead.”
All members of the Institute of Hospitality have free access to the Health e-Hub app and online portal from Health Assured, the UK and Ireland’s largest employee assistance programme (EAP) provider. It includes wellbeing resources, 4-week self-help programmes and online health checks.
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