Meetings and events depend on quality hospitality teams to work their magic.
Although it may seem like staffing issues flew in on the winds of the COVID-19 pandemic, in reality, they were already in the works. The hospitality industry was challenged to examine employment practices and come up with creative hiring and retention solutions like never before.
C Lazy U Ranch
“Our industry was facing employment challenges pre-pandemic due to age demographics, and certainly the pandemic made it even more challenging,” says Denver-based Tom Mulholland, president of Executives by Sterling.
“Creativity with remote work, schedule flexibility, travel perks, and benefits are increasingly important,” he emphasizes.
Ranches Leading the Way
Employers everywhere are being challenged “to come up with new ideas every day,” confirms Kate Jankoski, director of human resources at C Lazy U Ranch near Granby.
The ranch has secured a pool of employees through word of mouth and the hiring of previous guests. “We have had individuals who were staying on the property for a week as a guest, get recruited while they were here, go home for a week, and then come back and work a season for us,” she says.
“We also look at properties (mostly ranches) that have closed due to circumstances out of their control, like forest fires, and reach out to see if they have people who need somewhere to go,” Jankoski says. “Since we went through something similar in 2020 with the East Troublesome forest fire, I find our staff who went through that can help provide comfort to those who are recently experiencing it.”
In terms of retention, C Lazy U Ranch strives to create extra value for staff by updating employee housing, offering horseback rides and other outdoor fun, and providing festive seasonal activities.
Spruce Mountain Events is also diligently making sure staff stays engaged and feels recognized for outstanding work with clients who are booking space at Spruce Mountain Ranch in Larkspur.
Spruce Mountain Events
“Our managers go out of their way to make their staff feel important and valued,” says Tara Ames, owner and operator of Spruce Mountain Events. “We take the time to learn about each of our staff members so we are able to meet their personal and professional needs. We do this by working side-by-side with one another.”
Weekly team meetings that give everyone a voice, flexible work schedules, cross-training, regular staff reviews, incentive programs, and opportunities to interact outside of work have been key.
“We have team-building events, holiday parties to meet the families of our staff and significant others, and nonprofit projects to give back to our community. Through these experiences, we have grown close as a team,” Ames says.
Team-building activities have included wine tasting with Peak Beverage, cake decorating with The Makery Cake Co., floral arranging with Plum Sage Flowers, and outings that involve comedy shows, go-kart racing, and escape rooms. Farther afield, the management team has traveled to California’s Napa Valley for wine tasting.
Spruce Mountain Events also is very involved with Mount Saint Vincent, hosting a Santa Brunch and Easter Brunch with all proceeds benefitting the children’s home. Staff also invited the kids to the ranch this fall to enjoy a pumpkin patch, hayrides, crafts, and collect Christmas gifts. The Spruce Mountain Events team was recognized for these efforts at Mount Saint Vincent’s Silver Bell Ball in November.
Evaluation and Communication
Destination marketing organizations not only have to be creative in attracting groups and leisure travelers in today’s world, but they also must be savvy in building their teams.
“Emerging from COVID-19, we have had to rethink everything,” says Jason Lusk, CMP, associate vice president of convention sales for Visit Denver. “I believe if organizations do not do this, they are missing a great opportunity.”
The organization has reevaluated several areas of its operations to ensure it remains a relevant and desirable place to work, including assessing wages and making necessary adjustments; examining time-off policies and increasing vacation time for every team member; and offering a hybrid work environment.
“We spent a lot of time listening to our team about what they seek in an employer and workplace, and we provided changes as we could,” Lusk says. “In this journey, we became much clearer about who we are as an organization. When we interview people, we are upfront about work schedules, expectations, and the office environment; it does not serve us to overpromise and under deliver.”
It’s also about communicating that Colorado is a great place to live and play, and that hospitality is an industry full of opportunity.
“People want to live here, so we are hiring more people from out of state, which broadens our candidate pool,” Lusk says. “Also, hospitality is a diverse field encompassing many career jobs with bright futures. There is a place for everyone, from school-aged young adults to retirees. This message is one that needs amplification; we need to combine efforts to market the myriad opportunities within our industry.”
Workplace Flexibility Is Key
The days of being rigid with employees about when and where they work are pretty much over.
“I think the biggest challenge for associations today is being flexible regarding their staff wanting to work from home,” says Marsha Temple, chief operating officer for the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. “It is a new world with COVID-19. Some potential employees want to either work from home all the time or hybrid. I am fine with hybrid, as long as they get their jobs done. Organizations are having to be very flexible about this if you want to get good people.”
Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel has deployed a work-from-home strategy to retain employees and recruit new hires for the events, group housing, and billing teams. The property allows associates in these departments to work remotely at least two days a week, if staff coverage on-site is sufficient.
Kim Hall-Barry, the director of event management at Sherton Denver Downtown Hotel says that even though the work-from-home strategy can be tough to operate with a 24 hours a day, seven days a week hotel, the hybrid approach keeps employees happy and helps encourage new applicants.
Q&A with a Recruiter
Tom Mulholland, president of Executives by Sterling, shared thoughtful solutions, helpful tips, and experienced observations regarding hiring and retaining hospitality staff in today’s competitive marketplace. Working from Colorado, Mulholland is a 20-year veteran of the hospitality executive search business and has held key management positions at Vail Resorts, Keystone Resort, Hilton, Clarion, and Stouffer Hotels.
What are some creative recruitment and retention solutions you are seeing?
Example 1: There is a practical limit on compensation to maintain profitability, so my clients are increasingly flexible on work arrangements. For example, many housekeepers are working parents. Traditionally, they were scheduled for early-morning shifts, which created challenges for many who need to get kids to school. Allowing later shift start times was an easy fix and gives these employers a leg up on the competition without changing compensation.
Example 2: A Denver hotel has challenges filling shifts at their front desk. Their solution came through the hiring of flight attendants who wanted to work just enough to qualify for Hilton travel benefits to pair with their flight benefits. They brought great customer service experience and were happy with the prevailing wage.
Example 3: Another mountain resort client has a program for the recruitment and retention of managers. The owners pay the down payment on the employee’s home purchase contingent on staying with the property at least one year. If they leave the property, it is transferred to the resort’s owner. For each year of employment, the employee’s ownership of the home increases by 20% until they own the property outright. If they were to leave before then, any profit from the sale would be split on the same vesting schedule.
Is the challenge unique by sector?
The challenge is more unique to the size of the metropolitan area. We do a great deal of work with destination resort properties, and they generally have the most challenging employee markets. In a metropolitan area, there is a relative ocean of candidates, whereas
in a resort area there is a pool of candidates (if not a hot tub).
What are some of your top tips?
Flexibility of schedules and work rules, training, and rapid career advancement, travel perks, dining privileges, and more should be points of emphasis to foster employee loyalty.
A Denver-based, third-party meeting planner with limited base salary flexibility competes by offering maximum flexibility in work rules and allowing employees to work remotely as needed over any hours desired, as long as tasks are completed. As the song goes, “Money Isn’t Everything.”
There is a paradox about not clinging to your best employees. My mentor, Art Mangual, promoted more than 100 frontline employees—usually away from his own hotel—along their journey to becoming general managers, regional managers, and eventually vice presidents and presidents of hotel companies. … Art would never hire an employee who was not interested in a career in hospitality versus a job in hospitality.
