'The Making of a Great Place to Work – the Story of Marriott International\r'

'The making of a with child(p) Place to attain® †the story of Marriott spherewide A hotshot was narrating his story of an experience at the Ritz †Carlton earnestel. He was suffering from a sore throat and intractable to ready his m separate’s advice and called room overhaul asking for a glass of hot milk mixed with a spoon of turmeric. Three historic period later after checking into the same hotel, he quickly receives a ph unmatched call from the room service, â€Å"Sir, would you uniform your favorite hot milk with turmeric! such(prenominal) as he hated drinking hot milk with turmeric, my friend was impressed by the reposition of the hotel’s staff. The Ritz-Carlton is one of the many brands of Marriott International. â€Å"Take carry on of the associates, and theyll take good cargon of the guests, and the guests leave alone devolve back. ” This was what J Willard Marriott said many decades ago. The fo under of Marriott has since be en vindicated many times over.\r\nToday, Marriott International has nearly 2,900 living accommodations properties located in the United States and 67 other countries and territories. Between now and the end of the year it allow add another 100 properties to take the correspond to 3000 properties. Marriott International, Inc. , is a leading lodging company. Its heritage hobo be traced to a root beer stand undefendable in Washington, D. C. , in 1927 by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott.\r\nToday, the company manages and franchises hotels and resorts under the Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Bulgari, The Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites, and Fairfield Inn brand names; develops and operates holiday ownership resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club International, The RitzCarlton Club, atomic lean 19 Residences by Marriott, and Horizons brands; operates Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate house through its Marriott ExecuStay division; operates conference c envisions; and manages golf courses.\r\nMarriott consistently makes it to Fortune’s Best Employer’s List. And it is number 5 amongst the Top 25 outstanding Places to Work® in India. Visit a Marriott property and you will sense the enthusiasm and energy of their followers (They call their employees Associates). I mulish to visit their Juhu property and talk to a few employees to find out what makes this hotel an employer of choice. Here’s what I found. 1. A strong Brand Marriott International does not own the hotels it operates. It owns the brands and runs the management. In this sense it is a true professional services firm.\r\nA divide of people provoke construct a world class property; it takes a Marriott management team up up to make it a world class hotel. â€Å"When I was inclineing with a rival chain, I kept on wondering, if Marriott can do it, why can’t we,” confided a senior mo torcoach. â€Å"When I decided to shift from Delhi to Mumbai, I had a colleague who employ to work in Marriott in Mumbai. She almost squeeze me to come for an interview at Marriott,” shared the on-going head of Training. © owing(p) Place to work® Institute,India 2. lawful Empowerment Empowerment is the cornerstone of â€Å"the Marriott way. Marriott has numerous examples of how their Associates olfactory property empowered. Employees decide when to portray a fruit field goal or other gratis(p) items to guests. There is a high degree of pride in the droll relationships they form with their guests. One example quoted was how an Associate in a restaurant offered the most expensive store of champagne to an unhappy guest- as a complimentary gift! Such examples are applauded and recognised. In the employee website, as wellhead as, the company website you will find a number of stories of exemplary behaviour of Associates. . Guarantee of bonnie treatment Marriott employees feel empowered because they know that honorable treatment is a cornerstone of the arranging’s philosophy. This is what J W Marriott, Jr, current Chairman and chief operating officer has to say, â€Å"I want our Associates to know that there sincerely is a guy named Marriott who cares about them…” poster, as he is affectionately called, makes sure these are not invalidate words. Each manager has to give an undertaking of second-rate treatment. There is a process of escalation of employee grudges (Speak Out process), ripe up to him.\r\nIndeed, as the current HR theater director found out, getting a call from Bill’s office to enquire about an employee grievance is not surprising. Considering that Marriott employs over 150,000 employees globally, this is a strong example of the emphasis placed on fair treatment. And for employees also shy to write to Bill, there is always the preference of anonymously calling up the Integrity hot bend, a 2 4 by 7 toll throw overboard number. As one employee commented, â€Å"A very queer thing in this place is the work culture. I think all Associates are treated equally.\r\nAt an individual train there are differences entirely no one turns their back when someone truly call for help. ” 4. Communication If fairness ensures that employees are not penalised for doing the unspoilt thing, communicating processes are what ensures that employees know what the right thing is. This is what Bill Marriott says in his blog (http://www. blogs. marriott. com), â€Å" legion(predicate) years ago, Marriott did something revolutionary at the time for hotels. We not only began asking guests about their stays, what they liked and didnt like, hardly we also took that information and created databases and tracking mechanisms so we knew how individually hotel was doing. Marriott is the only hotel I know of which has a mundane newspaper, called the Daily Packet. The Daily Packet is a confa bulation tool which comprises of the Hospitality Basic of the Day, Events for the day, Daily Birthdays, redundant guest recognition of associate efforts, HR ticker opener for the day, Daily occupancy rate, etc. ©Great Place to work® Institute,India So the chances are the Associate who offered the bottle of champagne to the customer, did it with the full knowledge of how well the business is doing, and whether she can afford to spend that practically on service recovery.\r\nAn important part of the communication process is the performance communication. Every quarter the GM addresses the associates and shares the Balance Score Card which comprises of the Revenue, Guest cheer Survey results, Turnover rate, Audit Scores etc. The winners for departmental and individual recognitions schemes are awarded during this Quarterly Associates Meeting. This is followed by the department head along with the line manager conducting a quarterly performance review with the Associates.\r\nT his is to give the Associate feedback and an overview of the last quarter and set his goals and satisfy plan/development for the next quarter. 5. The Marriott way I cannot end an article on Marriott without emphasising their 12 rules of achiever. corresponding any other great cheek (Remember J&J’s Credo), Marriott has defined its 12 rules of success as under: 1. Continually challenge your team to do better. 2. Take good care of your employees and theyll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back. 3. hold your peoples success, not your own. . Know what youre good at and mine those competencies for all youre worth. 5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action. 6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors. 7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself macroscopic and accessible. 8. Success is in the details. 9. Its more important to mesh people with the right qualities than with spec ific experience. 10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality neer does. 11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Dont just plumb it up. 12.\r\nView every problem as an chance to grow. The above rules are supported by 20 Basics †basic behaviours that exemplify the above rules. Marriott’s brand beliefs can be summarised in one line as their spirit to serve- their Associates, Customers and Community. In line with the above Marriott have awards for Community Service and Diversity. Do not be surprised if you see hundreds of Marriott employees (joined by enthusiastic guests) descending on Juhu beach to clean it up. They did precisely that. Just as they took care of 26 school kids and many others during Mumbai floods. Great Place to work® Institute,India I recall visiting a friend of mine in the HR department of a reputed five star hotel in the beginning of my career. The HR department was in the basement. My friend took me to the staff canteen, a dimly lit place where we were served some get the better of rice (Poha) from an Aluminium Container, in a trade name plate. I was amazed to see the difference amid the basement and the other floors. Times have changed. The HR department in Marriott is at the same level as the Reception. And the basement is no less.\r\nFor Marriott the â€Å"Heart of the Organisation” is as important as the â€Å"Front of the Organisation”. As you walk through the â€Å"Associate Corridor” which is knowing to make you proud to be in Marriott, and enter the Associate canteen, you can’t help exclaiming,” are all restaurants in this hotel as good as the Associate canteen?! ” ____________________________________________________________ ____________ The author is CEO of The Great Place to Work® Institute, India. He can be reached at [email protected] in Views expressed are personal. ©Great Place to work® Institute,India\r\n'