As the economy improves, managers in most sectors, including hospitality, find themselves again challenged with finding, and keeping, the best people to run their businesses, and serve their guests. The last few years have given rise to the mistaken notion that we don't really need to worry too much about how we treat our employees. Things like staff training, merit increases, and employee recognition have slipped from the priority list. Recognizing the need to recommit to the people practices that we know improve business results, this article lists nine practical ways to stabilize and enhance the team, starting with ideas for retaining the good employees you've already got on staff, and then tips for finding, attracting, and hiring the best to build your team. READ MORE

If history repeats itself, your employee turnover is about to shoot up. This has been true during the recovery periods after each recession in the past 20 years, and it makes sense that workers who have slowed their urges to change jobs now have pent-up drives to do so. Various studies indicate anywhere between 50% and 90% of workers plan to change. Who is held accountable for undesirable turnover? Does your company solve retention with processes driven from the top or with programs driven by HR? Learn the "secret sauce" - three key solutions that will help you solve this problem. READ MORE

A 17 year old cook working with a 40 year old sous-chef. A 65 year old housekeeping supervisor working with a 22 year old room attendant. A 35 year old front desk manager working with a 50 year old reservation associate. These are all realities within the hotel and hospitality sector, where multigenerational teams need to work effectively together. All four generations are in the workplace (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Ys), and often you may have younger generations managing older employees. In such a diverse age environment, it is important for executives to realise that people strategies can no longer take a 'one-size fits all' approach. READ MORE

Even in today's challenging economic environment, many hotels and other companies are bringing on new staff and hoping that they will be able to make a real difference as quickly as possible. There's plenty of work to be done and, in a time of real budget constraints, there's even more pressure to make the best hires and get the most out of every employee. But all too often we begin these new and very important relationships with a set of old and tired ideas. Ideas that fail to unlock the real brilliance and potential of every new hire and, in the process, fail to build the type of connection that will earn their engagement and loyalty. READ MORE

Turnover and retention topics have lost their appeal with the recession, but not their relevance. Even in high turnover environments like leisure and hospitality, most employees do indeed elect to stay on average a minimum of 2.5 years, with greater tenure found in the management and professional ranks, as well as with workers over age 35 . Exploring what compels staff to stay with a company offers employers the unique opportunity to understand what is actually working well. A review of retention and turnover drivers provides further insight as to what existing programs - or investment in new ones - are likely to drive a better return on investment and retention of the right employees. READ MORE