In an unpredictable world of remote working and restrictions on travel movement, the biggest question right now is how can hotels find the right staff, keep them engaged, and retain them?
What development can be offered, and what skills could help staff build confidence and encourage long term loyalty? Perhaps you can’t rely on your employer or your boss for your development? With all the challenges, employers & managers de redundancies, kept pay low and cut back training? Not very inspiring for employees? How can companies focus on people? Happy employees are happy clients, but employees also need to take care of themselves.
Our founder, James Lemon, focused on Hospitality people taking charge of their careers during a broad industry discussion on the challenges of retaining people at the latest edition of I Meet Hotel, a virtual conference organised by Kristian Lupinski, Events & Hospitality Partnerships Manager at I Meet Hotel & Bidroom.
How to set your own goals for work, get support, be happier in your career and stay longer in your company – here are the event takeaways.
Start at the end: we all need help - accept it
Stuck in our routines
Sometimes we’re so busy at work that we neglect those who offer help and we tend to miss opportunities this way. Accept that you are stuck in your routine and without help, you lack taking risks and you lack perspective.Sometimes, we just get stuck and we can’t succeed on our own. Success is a strong team effort, a together learning process.
Do ask for help
It’s okay to ask for help, just formulate clear intentions – what do you need exactly? Be honest, authentic. Helping in return is also very important. Care for others the way they care for you. Help them the way they’d help you if you needed. This way, you can build long-term and meaningful relationships. Have people’s back the way they’d have your back. How do you find that help? Mentoring, coaching, networking. Spend between 30 minutes and 1 hour on a mentoring session each week. Share something interesting that you learned (once a week) with your team or your mentor. For instance, schedule a quick Loom video to give guidance on a tool you learned.According to Olivet Nazarene University, 76% of people think mentors are important and would have an impact in their career development, but only 31% of professionals have a mentor. More stats here.
Takeaway – Your company needs you. Other companies want you. Focus on your skills and opportunities, and amazing things will happen. Enjoy your job and eventually, you will get paid more!
Why you can’t get everything you need from your boss
You only know what you know – companies mostly circulate the same ideas – same old mentors, classroom or online training - where’s the fresh perspective? Take the first step – attend as many industry events, discussions, podcasts, external mentors as you can.If your boss hired you, it’s to take some weight and responsibilities off of his or her shoulders. You were hired for your valuable skills and they saw your potential in growing the company. Your boss won’t have all the keys to reaching your targets, you will.
Self-learning for problem-solving
Self-learning helps identify problems and look for effective solutions on your own. Indeed, challenges provide you with opportunities to learn something new at your own pace and time. This is great manner to build your learning curve and personal development plan.Problem-solving progressively leads you to become an expert in your area, as you gain more skills in the process and you can better assess your learning curve and share learnings with your team. Once you have that mindset, you can all focus on growing the skills to build the business. It’s so important you find your inspiration, put your development first and add mentoring sessions to your routine.
Takeaway - Build experience on a project or in a new role. Startups develop people fast which is an amazing opportunity for you to try different things. This way, you see more of the business and you work with diverse teams.
External perspective - Mentoring helps make the right decisions and keep motivated
Naturally, it’s not because you can’t ask your boss everything to succeed in your role that you have to get all the answers on your own. Many like-minded professionals encounter the same challenges! Mentoring is an excellent way to get another perspective, as you may face a more complex blocker at work. Whether you’re the mentee or the mentor, you’ll always learn something new.
Takeaway - If you want to lead a team or a business: do you have an inspiring woman or man to learn from? We all need role models to succeed in our careers. If you don’t get that essential fresh perspective, then you need an external mentor.
Have you reached your limits yet?
Yes, you can do more
One way of limiting yourself is to say that you can’t or won’t do something, but no one is 100 percent capable when starting their career! Your skills are valuable, but there’s always something new to learn, and risks to take! And you’re capable of achieving more and better – we all are! It’s just a matter of pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone and not being scared of taking risks.
Remote work boosted online learning
Remote work being the new normal, learning new skills has never been that easy - thanks to the zillions of resources available online. During the pandemic, working from home stimulated home workers satisfaction by 50%, according to a Stanford study conducted on 16,000 home workers. Enjoying the quiet at home and the time saved in transport can be a great time to read more and sharpen your knowledge, to increase your impact and reach new levels.
Takeaway - How are you using your commute and break time? Do you share thoughts with a community, review your goals, listen to podcasts, read articles?
Making time for you - not up for negotiation
Just because it’s healthy – it improves mental health by increasing happiness and reducing work-related stress. Booking time for yourself is vital to know to take care of yourself. You have to make time for fitness, diet and do something different that’ll spark your creativity. Exercise, meet at least one person who’s not in the business, or read or listen to something new. Otherwise, you won’t sleep and won’t be any good to anyone in your team. So, taking at least a 30-minute break to focus on something else, preferably no screens, coupled with a minimum of two 15-minute breaks during an 8-hour shift, will not only increase your productivity but also your overall happiness at work.
It’s a people business… now you need its people
When you think about it, plenty of people are giving back to the industry – leaders from Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Accor, regional brands, etc.If you got a big mission and you want to do something bold, you’re not going to get far on your own. The initial steps where you do everything yourself as you know one person is exciting and really important.
Takeaway - You have to do a job first before giving it to someone else. But if your mission is big enough and you want to keep your health, it is so important to surround yourself with great people.
Are you on the community trend yet?
Lockdowns and the obligation to work encouraged the need for people to stay connected, to be a part of a community. Why? Because it is a powerful way for people to build relationships in a faster, more scalable way. By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal or objective, you motivate each other to push yourselves and go beyond your limits much more than you’d have done on your own. When others believe in you and support you, you build a greater self-confidence, you get new ideas and you’re more inspired.
Getting started - your weekly 45-minute ‘career workout’
The most efficient way to start taking risks is to change your routine. Commit to learn something new 30 minutes to 1 hour a week, and stick to it. Read something, listen to a podcast, have a chat with a mentor.
Join that community – Otolo, Lunchclub, The Dots, Allbright, product school, Sanctus (mental health), search Facebook or LinkedIn for people LIKE YOU.
Reflect and review - Share knowledge with your colleagues, ask for feedback, grow your network with meaningful connections, in the industry you work in. These are quick and easy habits to adopt, and you’ll rapidly embrace the positive impact it has on your life.
Wrap up
Take charge – With less time than you think, you can get ahead.
Connect – Many mentoring and communities are out there and wait for you – all it costs is a little contribution and time.
Take the first step – Those who join and introduce themselves are 10 times more likely to get ahead.
What’s Otolo
Mentoring – Make deep connections as it’s free for individuals, or ask us to power your mentoring programme
Community – Find your club: network, events, content, discussion, questions, etc.
Courses – Take our CPD-approved courses, attend our training sessions across key skills, learn how to be a mentor, and more.
It’s free to join!- Whether an individual, a team leader or an HR manager looking to engage and inspire your people!
I Meet Hotel Takeaways: Recruiting and retaining people in Hospitality
In an unpredictable world of remote working and restrictions on travel movement, the biggest question right now is how can hotels find the right staff, keep them engaged, and retain them?
What development can be offered, and what skills could help staff build confidence and encourage long term loyalty? Perhaps you can’t rely on your employer or your boss for your development? With all the challenges, employers & managers de redundancies, kept pay low and cut back training? Not very inspiring for employees? How can companies focus on people? Happy employees are happy clients, but employees also need to take care of themselves.
Our founder, James Lemon, focused on Hospitality people taking charge of their careers during a broad industry discussion on the challenges of retaining people at the latest edition of I Meet Hotel, a virtual conference organised by Kristian Lupinski, Events & Hospitality Partnerships Manager at I Meet Hotel & Bidroom.
How to set your own goals for work, get support, be happier in your career and stay longer in your company – here are the event takeaways.
Start at the end: we all need help - accept it
Stuck in our routines
Sometimes we’re so busy at work that we neglect those who offer help and we tend to miss opportunities this way. Accept that you are stuck in your routine and without help, you lack taking risks and you lack perspective. Sometimes, we just get stuck and we can’t succeed on our own. Success is a strong team effort, a together learning process.
Do ask for help
It’s okay to ask for help, just formulate clear intentions – what do you need exactly? Be honest, authentic. Helping in return is also very important. Care for others the way they care for you. Help them the way they’d help you if you needed. This way, you can build long-term and meaningful relationships. Have people’s back the way they’d have your back. How do you find that help? Mentoring, coaching, networking. Spend between 30 minutes and 1 hour on a mentoring session each week. Share something interesting that you learned (once a week) with your team or your mentor. For instance, schedule a quick Loom video to give guidance on a tool you learned. According to Olivet Nazarene University, 76% of people think mentors are important and would have an impact in their career development, but only 31% of professionals have a mentor. More stats here.
Takeaway – Your company needs you. Other companies want you. Focus on your skills and opportunities, and amazing things will happen. Enjoy your job and eventually, you will get paid more!
Why you can’t get everything you need from your boss
You only know what you know – companies mostly circulate the same ideas – same old mentors, classroom or online training - where’s the fresh perspective? Take the first step – attend as many industry events, discussions, podcasts, external mentors as you can. If your boss hired you, it’s to take some weight and responsibilities off of his or her shoulders. You were hired for your valuable skills and they saw your potential in growing the company. Your boss won’t have all the keys to reaching your targets, you will.
Self-learning for problem-solving
Self-learning helps identify problems and look for effective solutions on your own. Indeed, challenges provide you with opportunities to learn something new at your own pace and time. This is great manner to build your learning curve and personal development plan. Problem-solving progressively leads you to become an expert in your area, as you gain more skills in the process and you can better assess your learning curve and share learnings with your team. Once you have that mindset, you can all focus on growing the skills to build the business. It’s so important you find your inspiration, put your development first and add mentoring sessions to your routine.
Takeaway - Build experience on a project or in a new role. Startups develop people fast which is an amazing opportunity for you to try different things. This way, you see more of the business and you work with diverse teams.
External perspective - Mentoring helps make the right decisions and keep motivated
Naturally, it’s not because you can’t ask your boss everything to succeed in your role that you have to get all the answers on your own. Many like-minded professionals encounter the same challenges! Mentoring is an excellent way to get another perspective, as you may face a more complex blocker at work. Whether you’re the mentee or the mentor, you’ll always learn something new.
Takeaway - If you want to lead a team or a business: do you have an inspiring woman or man to learn from? We all need role models to succeed in our careers. If you don’t get that essential fresh perspective, then you need an external mentor.
Have you reached your limits yet?
Yes, you can do more
One way of limiting yourself is to say that you can’t or won’t do something, but no one is 100 percent capable when starting their career! Your skills are valuable, but there’s always something new to learn, and risks to take! And you’re capable of achieving more and better – we all are! It’s just a matter of pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone and not being scared of taking risks.
Remote work boosted online learning
Remote work being the new normal, learning new skills has never been that easy - thanks to the zillions of resources available online. During the pandemic, working from home stimulated home workers satisfaction by 50%, according to a Stanford study conducted on 16,000 home workers. Enjoying the quiet at home and the time saved in transport can be a great time to read more and sharpen your knowledge, to increase your impact and reach new levels.
Takeaway - How are you using your commute and break time? Do you share thoughts with a community, review your goals, listen to podcasts, read articles?
Making time for you - not up for negotiation
Just because it’s healthy – it improves mental health by increasing happiness and reducing work-related stress. Booking time for yourself is vital to know to take care of yourself. You have to make time for fitness, diet and do something different that’ll spark your creativity. Exercise, meet at least one person who’s not in the business, or read or listen to something new. Otherwise, you won’t sleep and won’t be any good to anyone in your team. So, taking at least a 30-minute break to focus on something else, preferably no screens, coupled with a minimum of two 15-minute breaks during an 8-hour shift, will not only increase your productivity but also your overall happiness at work.
It’s a people business… now you need its people
When you think about it, plenty of people are giving back to the industry – leaders from Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Accor, regional brands, etc. If you got a big mission and you want to do something bold, you’re not going to get far on your own. The initial steps where you do everything yourself as you know one person is exciting and really important.
Takeaway - You have to do a job first before giving it to someone else. But if your mission is big enough and you want to keep your health, it is so important to surround yourself with great people.
Are you on the community trend yet?
Lockdowns and the obligation to work encouraged the need for people to stay connected, to be a part of a community. Why? Because it is a powerful way for people to build relationships in a faster, more scalable way. By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal or objective, you motivate each other to push yourselves and go beyond your limits much more than you’d have done on your own. When others believe in you and support you, you build a greater self-confidence, you get new ideas and you’re more inspired.
Getting started - your weekly 45-minute ‘career workout’
The most efficient way to start taking risks is to change your routine. Commit to learn something new 30 minutes to 1 hour a week, and stick to it. Read something, listen to a podcast, have a chat with a mentor.
Join that community – Otolo, Lunchclub, The Dots, Allbright, product school, Sanctus (mental health), search Facebook or LinkedIn for people LIKE YOU.
Reflect and review - Share knowledge with your colleagues, ask for feedback, grow your network with meaningful connections, in the industry you work in. These are quick and easy habits to adopt, and you’ll rapidly embrace the positive impact it has on your life.
Wrap up
Take charge – With less time than you think, you can get ahead.
Connect – Many mentoring and communities are out there and wait for you – all it costs is a little contribution and time.
Take the first step – Those who join and introduce themselves are 10 times more likely to get ahead.
What’s Otolo
Mentoring – Make deep connections as it’s free for individuals, or ask us to power your mentoring programme
Community – Find your club: network, events, content, discussion, questions, etc.
Courses – Take our CPD-approved courses, attend our training sessions across key skills, learn how to be a mentor, and more.
It’s free to join! - Whether an individual, a team leader or an HR manager looking to engage and inspire your people!
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