This document discusses employee engagement in the hospitality industry. It defines engagement as employees harnessing themselves to their work roles both cognitively and emotionally. Engagement is important for the hospitality industry as customer relationships are closely tied to individual service providers. However, traditional hotel hierarchies can act as a barrier to engagement. The document advocates developing engagement through ensuring job fit, psychological safety, meaningful work, and commitment in order to increase discretionary effort and reduce turnover intentions.

1. THE PATH TO HIGHER COLLEAGUES
ENGAGEMENT
PIERRE O. BOTTERON, VP HUMAN RESOURCES EUROPE, FRHI
1
June 2014

2. Fairmont
• Operating hotels 7
• Under dev. 2
Raffles
• Operating hotels 2
• Residences 1
• Under dev. 2
Swissôtel
• Operating hotels 17
• Under dev. 2
Total
• Operating hotels 26
• Residences 1
• Under dev. 6
= Under development
FRHI EUROPE REGION
• 3 Brands and 31 hotels
• 10 countries
• 8 different languages
• Many different cultures

3. 3

4. ĝčĎćĎęȴǜŠ˜•”“‰Š“™˜

5. ‰Š“™ŽʮŠ‰†‘Š“™†“†ŒŠ’Š“™†“‰Š†‰Š—˜Ž•†˜™Š”˜™—Ž™Žˆ†‘
”•ŽˆƾŠžŠ›”™Š™Š
—Š†™Š˜™ʫ”—™™”—†Ž“Ž“Œ
EUROPEAN TRENDS IN MANAGING PEOPLE
Training and people
development
HR communications
and social media
HR target
operating model
Sample size: 2,304
Strong
need
to act
Medium
need
to act
Medium
need
to act
Low
need
to act
Effort invested
Low High
Talent
management and
leadership
Engagement,
behavior, and culture
management
HR analytics:
strategic workforce
planning and
reporting
Recruiting: branding,
hiring, and onboarding
Performance
management
and rewards
Labor costs, flexibility,
and restructuring
Diversity and
generation
High
Low management
Future
importance
High Low
Current capability
Source: 2013 BCG/EAPM proprietary Web survey and analysis.
Note:›Š—†ŒŠ›†‘šŠ˜”‹ˆ”š“™—ŽŠ˜œŠ—ŠœŠŽŒ™Š‰†ˆˆ”—‰Ž“Œ™”™Šˆ”š“™—ŽŠ˜Nj—Š†‘
ǀ
ĝčĎćĎęȵǜ†‘Š“™†“†ŒŠ’Š“™†“‰Š†‰Š—˜Ž•ƽ ”‘‘”œŠ‰‡ž“†‘ž™Žˆ˜ƽ†“Š‰ŽŒŠ˜™Ž“
”˜™”š“™—ŽŠ˜
High National GDP Low
4
Source: BCG, Oct 2013

6. THE STATE OF ENGAGEMENT TODAY
• Khan (1990) defines engagement as: “The harnessing of
organization member’s selves to their work roles”
• For Schaufeli et al. (2002) engagement refers to a more
“persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state that is not
focused on any particular object, event, individual, or
behavior”
• These definitions are completed by Saks (2006) who
identifies three dimensions: cognitive, behavioral and
emotional

7. KAHN (1990) ENGAGEMENT DEFINITION CONCEPT
6 02/07/14
Psychological
MEANINGFULNESS
Psychological
AVAILABILITY
Psychological
SAFETY
“our real selves show up when we say what we think and
feel in the service of doing the work the best way that we
know how. When we deeply care about what we are doing,
and are committed to doing the best we can, we feel
compelled to speak rather than remain silent”

8. TWO SPECIFICITIES OF THE SERVICE INDUSTRY
The luxury hospitality industry has this specificity that “customer relationships are
associated more closely with the individual service provider than with the
organization“ Tax Brown (1998)
One potential barrier to reach this relation and obtain a high level of engagement
is the hierarchy, traditionally very heavy in this industry

9. ENGAGEMENT AT THE CENTRE OF OUR PEOPLE
PRACTICES
Job Fit
Affective
Commitment
Psychological
climate
Employee
Engagement
Discretionary
Efforts
Intention to
Turnover
Conceptual model of employee engagement (Shuck et al., 2011)

10. THAT’S HOW IT ALL STARTED
9

11. Thank You
QUESTIONS
ANSWERS
10