To reduce staff turnover in hotels, look at managers before pay. Extra salary holds an unhappy employee about a month, says Cindy Kasanmoeseni, while leaders who give feedback, trust and room for mistakes keep them. Von Nelson and Marcel Petzold add: give every hire a growth path, ask for their feedback at ninety days, and act on early disconnection before the exit interview.
What 3 hotel leaders say
Von Nelson
HR Director, DoubleTree by Hilton Portland
“too often, we're hiring leaders that are good at skills ... But what they're not good at is the soft skills, and that's developing people, creating paths for people to grow, being able to connect with them. ... we get them in, new people in, and then they're just told what to do and with no direction and no, like, how to grow, and they don't see a future, and they quit.”
“Then we do our ninety day feedback, and that's where we have the employee give us feedback. We don't give them the feedback on what they're doing ... As much as we're looking at the feedback of what are you getting from us. Do we need to change our growth? We need to change our path for you.”
CK
Cindy Kasanmoeseni
Head of HR Hotels NL, Corendon Hotels & Resorts
“I think leadership. ... people don't leave the company. People leave their manager or their boss or bosses, kind of. So if you have, like, good leadership within your organization, which makes people feel comfortable that they can make mistakes, that they can grow, that they are mentored, I think that's the biggest key to success by retaining your staff.”
“I can give more salary if somebody's not happy with that, and that will last for a month. And you can give people, like, tips and tricks and tools and whatever they need to do their job, but it all comes down to one thing, and that's the manager or the leader. And if that's not good, yeah, then people will leave because then all the other things also fail.”
“when we talk about talent development, it's really one of those drivers of, retention for us in hospitality ... the moment an associate comes to you and says, you know what? I'm not really sure as to what's next for me, that's already a warning light. ... And if that conversation only comes up during a exit interview, then that's already too late.”
“organizations may be afraid that if you develop everyone, everyone is gonna walk out, but it's actually not the case. Right? Because if we develop them once, it doesn't mean that we should stop there. Right? It's an ongoing process.”
