A summer holiday working experience of two young adults reinforces the simple theory that management makes the difference when it comes to employee engagement.
Have an authentic interest in you people
If you leap out of bed on a Monday morning with a sense of expectation about the working week ahead, then not only do you have extraordinary powers of self-motivation, the chances are you have a great boss. My own working life, across all types of company – large publicly owned, small and medium sized privately owned and the public sector, has borne out this super simple theory. It’s one that Best Companies, the organiser of one of the country’s best-known engagement benchmarking surveys, also appears to support. Among the seven categories of engagement driver their survey reports on, The Manager score is consistently identified as the one that has the strongest correlation with overall levels of engagement. I’ve seen and heard the supporting evidence through the eyes and ears of my two children.
My son, on his summer break from his first year at acting school returned to working at a local pub restaurant. He genuinely enjoys the job. This is largely due to the existence of a great team spirit, encouraged in no small measure by the General Manager, Kate. Kate is no magician. She just does the basics of team management extremely well. It all starts with an appreciation that every member of the team is an individual with their own contexts, interests and personalities. She communicates her expectations clearly, provides guidance and training where necessary and tries to be flexible in managing the rota to accommodate specific individual needs. That’s all good and helpful, but the big one, the thing that really makes a difference is this: she shows an authentic interest in what drives her team members and what they get up to when they are not working. In other words, she tries to get to know the human being behind the uniform. Consequently, my son endeavours to do his best, not just for himself, but for her too. He’s one of a group of regular returning students, who want to come here to work in their holidays. Multiply this ‘feel good about working here factor’ across his other colleagues and you have an operation that delivers a consistently good customer experience and that continues to grow and exceed its financial targets, despite an influx of new competition into the area.
A little empathy is all it takes
Contrast his experience with that of my daughter. Upon graduating she took a summer job as a housekeeper at a local hotel. In complete contrast to the business described above, team spirit was largely absent. That which did exist was at an immediate colleague level, rather than across departments and levels. The General Manager did not even learn her name. He once entered a room she was cleaning, in conversation with another colleague, and for several minutes completely ignored her. That’s right, he didn’t even say ‘hello’. This lack of empathy with and interest is those who work under him is apparently endemic. Other managers may be less cold, but any interest shown in team members as individuals seems fleeting and inauthentic. One colleague will openly comment how he ‘hates’ working there. It’s no more than a job that pays a wage. The impact on the guest experience will be obvious. Some will enjoy the service provided by individuals that can keep their personal motivation levels high, but a consistently good experience will be rare, as staff come and go, hopping on for a while, but hopping off as soon as something better comes along. My daughter, with her own drive and motivation, carried out her duties diligently for the rest of the summer. At that point, she will hopped off, never to return. I don’t have access to the hotel’s financials, but I wager they are rather like the working atmosphere: flat at best.
Service drives loyalty
My daughter’s experience is somewhat saddening for me as I know it’s not typical of the hotel business and very much at odds with my own four wonderful years with Marriott hotels. From what I see and hear Marriott continues to place great value on managers who build teams. These managers take time to get to know their individual team members and can find a way to communicate with each of them at just the right level. The guest sees and experiences the difference and the business continues to outperform the competition. Simple.
I’m pretty sure I know where my son will be working when he graduates thhis summer. As for my daughter, she joined L’Oreal on their graduate scheme in January 2020. She absolutely loves it. Not least because each manager she has come into contact with has shown all the behaviours described in Kate above. I have a feeling she will be there a long time.
