This article was originally posted by Insider Louisville. To access the original article, please click here.
Louisville is experiencing an undisputed hotel boom.
According to Louisville Tourism, more than 1,800 new rooms have opened in the last 18 months including the recent openings of the Omni, Homewood Suites by Hilton and AC Marriott. And another nine hotels are under construction in the Louisville and Southern Indiana region with nearly 1,000 more rooms to follow to support the convention center’s expansion and the region’s growing bourbon tourism.
With this growth comes the need for hotel employees in numbers that Louisville hasn’t experienced before. And not just any employees, but engaged employees who willingly go the extra mile. So, what can hospitality leaders do to attract and retain top-shelf team members in an extremely tight labor market?
Turnberry Associates
A good start would be to take cues from an industry leader who knows what it’s like to thrive in a crowded hospitality environment. Miami-based Turnberry Associates has spent the last five decades developing over $7 billion worth of “extraordinary properties” including the famed Fontainebleau Miami Beach. They have a well-defined people strategy that is powered by employee engagement research provided by Louisville-based research and data analytics firm, IQS Research and technology developed by web technology firm, Net Tango.
Turnberry surveys their employees annually using new best-in-class research on workplace motivators, and they are one of IQS’s first clients to use a new web-based engagement portal to disseminate engagement scores and manage action planning across their footprint. The online tool helps leaders understand and improve the drivers of employee engagement in their respective properties. Users can easily filter data to answer questions like how engagement differs across generations, racial/ethnic groups or regions across the company. Informed by specific results, Turnberry’s leaders can create instant reports, develop action plans and track progress inside a single system where automatic notifications and reminders enhance accountability and ensure progress is made toward action plan goals.
Proven track record
The result is that the Turnberry leaders have a track record of capturing candid employee opinions and effectively using that data to make improvements on issues that matter to their team members. This responsive feedback system gives them a strategic advantage in the war for talent.
Adrianna Silva, senior manager of Turnberry Associates’ leadership and performance programs, describes the engagement portal as “a valuable new tool for our HR team to better understand employee engagement throughout our organization. The visual approach and ability to create custom reports helps us answer questions on the spot about our culture and allows us to truly understand where to focus our efforts. We can also easily track and manage our action plans for change, aligning them to specific opportunities that will create the biggest impact in employee satisfaction. We are confident this strategic tool will help us improve employee engagement.”
This new portal is a collaboration between IQS Research and Net Tango, which specializes in enterprise-level web solutions. It is intended for companies not only in the hospitality arena, but across the industry spectrum, where it serves as a critical tool for measuring and improving engagement in the workplace. Leaders in Louisville and beyond are encouraged to learn more about the ways this system can be applied in their organizations by contacting Shawn Herbig at 502.244.6600 ext.300 or by visiting www.iqsresearch.com.
For companies looking for enterprise-level web solutions like what Net Tango developed for IQS, contact Stephanie Minier at 502-245-1750, extension 235 or visit www.nettango.com for more information.
