The document provides background information on Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang's final project focusing on employee engagement at Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers. It includes details on the company such as its establishment in 2003 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, facilities, awards, and positive customer reviews praising the attentive and helpful staff. The research aims to understand how the hotel can provide a better work environment to promote employee engagement and achieve guest loyalty. Limitations include the use of only an English questionnaire and confidentiality restrictions. The literature review discusses definitions of employee engagement and its link to customer satisfaction and business success. The research methodology describes distributing questionnaires to 100 employees to collect data on work experiences and perceptions of supervision

1. Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang (Jane)
- Final Project -
Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers

2. Background of the Study
 There is no more challenging issue for hotel than achieving
consistent and quality across all elements of guests experience
and getting talented employees to continue meet and exceed guest
satisfaction.
 Many organizations know that salary and benefits is important to
employees, but it is not enough to keep highly skilled, motivation
and engagement of employees.
 An engaged employees stay with the company, speak positives
about the hotel and co-worker, better performance, more motivated
and contribute to the successes and achievements of hotel.
 Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers leads as example in this research
paper to understand the importance of high engagement level.

3. Company Background
 Established in 2003, located in Ho Chi Minh
city, Vietnam .
 472 spacious hotel rooms, studios, and suites
 F& B Outlets: Level 23, Signature Restaurant,
Wine Bar and Nightspot, Saigon Café
restaurant and Li Bai
 The largest ballroom in Ho Chi Minh City at
760 square meters and pillar-less
 Awards:
 “Best Business Hotel in Vietnam 2008”,
 “Vietnam’s Leading Conference Hotel 2007”
 “Best Business Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City
2006”
 named to Condé Nast Traveler’s 2007 Gold
List

4.  The staffs were always friendly and helpful.
 Personnel in the Tower Lounge were especially attentive.
 Services all around, especially concierge
 The attentiveness of the staff, especially in the Executive Tower Lounge
was outstanding. Service everywhere was memorable.
 The staff is very professional, competent, and courteous. It is their
attitude towards their customers that keep us coming back.
 I have scored Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers highly due to the front
desk staff being friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient and generally
making me feel welcomed upon arrival. I am a regular at the Westin
chain.
 The service was exceptional and the staff so friendly and helpful. The
food was divine and the rooms lovely. Thank you for having me!
What customers say about
Sheraton Saigon 1st
Quarter 2009?

5.  Statement of Problem:
“How Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers provide its associates with better
work environment so as to promote Employees Engagement to
achieve its goal of Guest Loyalty?”
 Significance of the Study:
 Employees Commitment and Engagement effects service quality
provided by the hotel.
 By providing/creating a motivating work environment where staff
can contribute to hotel development path, and speak out their
thoughts directly to their supervisors, managers or Executive
Committee.
 Sheraton Saigon will retain its mission to be the place where
employees feel belong.

6. Limitations

7.  Confidential information could not be mentioned as hotel’s policy
 sent out 120 questionnaires in order to get 100 responses from the
staff. employees do not want to fill up the survey except hotel’s survey,
refuse to do as having no time
 Many people give neutral to most of the questions, which mean they
just do the questionnaire as request or have no idea about the
questions. This is one of the salient features that researcher might
encounter with when carrying out survey in hotel.
 the questionnaire were not given out to entire hotel staff which include
management level, non-management level, part timer, hence, the
collected data for this research topic are not satisfied enough to do this
study in Employee Engagement
 The questionnaire is designed only in English, not reach people whose
English is a limitation; therefore, the study does not have an insight of
Employee Engagement level in entire hotel
Limitations

8. Literature Review

9.  The Gallup research (2004) explained that engaged employees work with passion and
feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the
organization forward. Or Harter, Schmidt, and Hayes (2002) defined employee
engagement as "the individual's involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm
for work" (p. 269).
 Larkin (2009) shared that an engaged employee is not only happy in their job though, but
translates that satisfaction into higher productivity. They believe in what the business is
trying to achieve, are eager to help realize those goals and play an active role in making
the company a success.
 A more practitioner-oriented rationale for the influence of aggregated employee attitudes
on organizational effectiveness was presented in the "service profit chain" (Heskett,
Sasser, & Schlesinger, 1997).
 Using an "employee-customer-profit" chain, researchers at Sears analyzed aggregated
data from 800 stores. They found that employees' attitudes towards their company and
their jobs lead to positive employee behaviors towards customers (Rucci, Kirn, & Quinn,
1998).
 Discussed by Metters, King-Metters, Pullman and Walton (2006) an organization
consistently provides good workplace by hiring the right people, educating and training
them well, allowing them to fix anything, recognizing and rewarding them regularly and
telling them everything, everyday. The employee satisfaction index continuously
increases so that the Commitment index increases.

10. Research Methodology

11. Research Participants
 Venue: Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers
 Sample size: 100 respondents - permanent employees
 Selected respondents from in house, whose length of service is less
than 1 year to 6 year working at hotel
 Name will not be indicated in the paper.
 The questionnaire is designed base on key ideas in order to obtain
the needs of the research:
 I know what is expected of me at work.
 I have materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
 At work, I have opportunity to do what I do best every day.
 My immediate supervisor, colleagues, peers seems to care about me as
a person.
 There is someone at work who encourages my development.
 At work, my opinions seem to count.
 I have opportunities at work to learn and grow.
 I am encouraged to work cooperatively with other departments.

12. Research Instruments
 Survey methodology is the most suitable choice than the others to
experience this topic.
 Questionnaires is used to collect necessary information and data.
Questionnaires will be delivered to employees and collected directly
from the respondents.
 Consists of 20 questions including open – ended questions, closed
questions. Opened question is to get opinions of employees about
what hotel can do to make a better work place. Closed question is to
ask to make choices among a set of alternative: Ranking or Scale
questions (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree and Strongly
Agree), Multiple Choices questions and so forth.

13.  Research Procedures:
• The questionnaires were given randomly to the staff from Front
of the house in Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers, who interacts
daily with customers, handle all the guests’ complaints and
represent for the hotel’s image to customers.
• The questionnaires in this paper was delivered to employees
and collected directly from the respondents.
 Data Analysis:
• Collected from 100 respondents.
• Used percentage to analyze and interpret the data through 20
questions.
• Graph and charts are used to demonstrate the result of
question, all the data is categorized based on respondents
profile of length of service: less than 1 year, 1 year but less than
2, 2 years but less than 6 and 6 years.

14. Data Analysis of Research
Findings

15. Sheraton Saigon Hotel
& Towers Questionnaire
Gender □ Male □ Female 1. Length of Service
Figure 1: Gender Figure 2: Length of Service

16. 2. Which department you are
currently working in?
3. Primary shift
Figure 3: Department
Figure 4: Primary Shift

17. 4. I would prefer to stay with my property, even if offered a comparable
job with another company.
Yes
No,_______________________
8% leave to Intercontinental hotel nearby because of higher payment
2% because of personal problem
90% satisfied with the property as place to work, satisfied with their job –
the kind of work they perform
90%
Yes
90%
Yes
10%
No
Figure 5: employees are willing to stay with the hotel

18. Please tick (√) in the box which will be your answer for the questions, with SD
= Strongly Disagree, D = Disagree, N = Neutral, A = Agree and SA = Strongly
Agree
5. What is your feedback about your immediate supervisors?
SD D N A SA
My immediate supervisor is an effective listener
My immediate supervisor treats me fairly.
My immediate supervisor provides me with timely and
helpful feedback.
•New comers are uncomfortable to
give feedback on supervisor.
•Supervisor should be careful in
giving any comments or behaving to
the staff
•Conduct small talk with the staff to
make them clear and understand
•Chance for supervisor to be careful
in treating othersFigure 6: Employee’s comment on immediate supervisors

19. 6. What are your evaluations of team work spirit in Sheraton hotel?
SD D N SA A
I feel as if I belong here.
I feel as if I am understood here.
My co-workers are part of my extended family.
I receive support I need from other work groups to
provide high quality services to customers.
•A successful team building in
the workplace often translates
into success for everyone.
•Offer more activities: one day
trip, Care for Associates day
activity, to strengthen the
relationship among team mates
in Sheraton.
•Opportunities to work together,
understand their members’
works, thoughts and to become
a family.
Figure 7: Employees think about team spirit

20. SD D N A SA
7. In general, my team treats mistakes as learning
opportunities.
•Sheraton itself sees mistakes as
learning opportunities
•Managers and supervisor tailor
and provide new coaching to
retrain, remind and suggest
alternatives to solve problem.
Figure 8: Treat mistake as learning opportunities

21. SD D N A SA
8. My property does a good job of dealing
appropriately with associates whose performance
fails to improve.
•clarify why that associate’s performance
need improvement.
•HR will work closely with department
head or immediate supervisor of the staff
to have a discussion between 2 parties,
staff and hotel, give the staff chance to
explain, never assume anything in
judging someone.
Figure 9: Feedback on dealing with employee whose performance needs improving

22. SD D N A SA
9. My property (Sheraton) does a good job of
promoting the most qualified associates.
employees are satisfied with hotel’s
reward and promotion procedures.
Figure 10: Feedback on promotion program

23. 10. Do you have sufficient training and information you
need to do job effectively?
Yes
No
•provide soft-skill training where employees learn about
empathetic listening, communication styles and English class to
enhance speaking and listening skills.
Figure 11: feedback on trainings and information provided by hotel

24. 11. Does the hotel give you resources (e.g.: material, equipment,
technology, etc.) that you can access to fulfill your need at work?
Yes
No
•Few associates find it is difficult to access online resources.
•After joining a short training course, they can keep up with the new
technology applied in their field.
Figure 12: Staff Satisfaction on resources provided by hotel at work

25. 12. Are you satisfied with the physical work environment
in which you work? (e.g.: work area, locker rooms,
cafeteria, cleanliness air conditioning, lighting, etc.). If
there is any request, please state:
Yes
No,_________________
93%
Yes
7%
No
Figure 13: Employee satisfaction on physical work environment

26. 13. In your day-to-day at work, does the hotel give you
the clear link between work and hotel’s objectives?
Yes
No
90%
Yes
90%
Yes
10%
No
10%
No
Figure 14: Employees understand a link between work and hotel’s objectives

27. 14. If you have way to doing things, are you able to
make change?
Yes
No
Neutral
Figure 15: Employees are able to make changes

28. 15. Are you comfortable voicing your ideas and
opinions, even if they are different from others?
Yes
No
Neutral
•Supervisors can be an effective listener and leader who listen carefully
and give positive comment or feedback on employee’s opinions to
make them feel free to speak out
Figure 16: Employees are comfortable voicing ideas and opinions

29. 16. Does the management make an attempt to understand the
challenges that you encounter doing your job?
Yes, supervisor and managers give me encouragement to do
job.
No, they just want the good outcomes as soon as possible
and do not care if there is any obstacle when performing tasks.
I have no idea.
employees appreciate management’s timely and
helpful encouragement to get over obstacles when
doing job, regularly receive appropriate recognition
when they do a good job
never receive any encouragement or appreciation of
managers and supervisor, so that they feel unsure of
what they are doing, what they should do to
overcome impediment
“No idea” feel hesitate when evaluating the
management
Figure 17: Employee’s evaluation on the management

30. 17. Do you think you have opportunity to advance working in
Sheraton Saigon hotel?
Yes, I can see my growth and development here.
No, I’d better switch to other organization where I can get
promotion.
•Offer employees opportunities for continuous learning and development
and ensure that managers schedule times for employees to attend training
Figure 18: Employees see their advancement in Sheraton Saigon

31. 18. What do you think about benefits package? Does it
meet the need of you and your family?
•Sheraton hotel’s management tries to remain
benefits package rather than cut down
•Adjust some unnecessary factors to save cost
•Hotel consider health package, funding of
education, profit sharing and other specialized
benefits
Figure 19: Employee Satisfaction of benefits package

32. 19. Are you proud to work for Sheraton?
•Provide a positive work environment with fairness, giving supportive
and positive feedback, reasonable benefits package and etc.
•One of the most famous brand name in Vietnam
Figure 20: Associates who are proud of working at Sheraton Saigon

33. 20. What can we do to make this is a better place to work?
The management and Human Resources may consider carefully and all
decision are made should base on suggestion and well-being of hotel’s
associates.
Figure 21: Suggestion of employees to make hotel as a better workplace

34. Conclusion,
Recommendations,
Suggestions for Further
Research

35. Recommendations
 Involving staff in decision making, soliciting employee’s suggestion, and
showing that manager/supervisor is care enough to listen and act on
employee’s feedback.
 There are different ways to communicate because of different age,
education, position of staff that supervisor should notice when interacting
with them.
 “short, simple and clear messages” lead towards the most successful
results, commented Mr. Regan Taikitsadaporn, Vice President of Human
Resources for Marriot International.
 conduct briefing to keep update the staff the upcoming events, training
courses to fill up gap between theory and practice to help improve product
knowledge, skills of associates or cross training program that employee is
trained in other function or department to get experience and to be flexible
at work
 offer more ‘soft-skills’ classes monthly to entire hotel staff – entry staff as
well as supervisors/managers to enhance communication skills, time
management, dealing with angry customers, negotiation skills etc.

36.  A good reward and recognition is to maintain commitment of
employees who want to feel valued and appreciated.
 employees want to be acknowledged and hear a sincere “thank you”
from their managers when they have done a good job.
 managers make decision to offer some more benefits, for instance
child care, mother care and so forth. good health that leads better
productivity on the job, hotel may think about giving health benefits to
attract and retain talent. For e.g.: Marriott hotel provides prescription
drugs, medical, vision and dental coverage to 150,000 covered
associates and dependents in the US.
 keep associates challenging with doing jobs and give opportunities to
growth in career. So that they won’t feel bored and tiresome when
going to work every day.

37. Conclusion
 There’s a link between Employee Engagement and Customer
Engagement, management take it as priority and important objective to
boost engagement.
 Result of this research has shown the significantly different level of
satisfaction and engagement base on different age, education, work
position, length of service and salary. The performances of the groups
with different level of employee engagement are significantly different,
i.e., the higher the employee engagement, the better the performance.
 Hotel management and HR have strategy to create and maintain
happy and healthy environment at work.
 All employees want to do right by the customer, and when encouraged
and supported, employees will do amazing things.
 Hotel with higher rates of employee engagement have increased
customer engagement which leads to higher profits and more stability.

38. Suggestions for Further Research
 Try to spread out this kind of questionnaire to all the associates in
hotel to get more exact data to fulfill the need of topic
 The questionnaire should include the position of the employees as
management, non-management, or associates to get more appropriate
data.
 Questionnaire should be designed for part timers as well as casual
labor, one of the most important labor forces of a hotel in F&B and
Front Office department who represent the hotel and provide standard
service to customers.
 If the survey held in countries that English is not official, the
questionnaire should be translated into mother language of that
country so as to the survey can approach different types respondents
from Heart of The House, whose English is not so influence as Front
Of The House staff.