Motivation in the Hospitality Industry

8/3/2019 Motivation in the Hospitality Industry

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/motivation-in-the-hospitality-industry 1/11

Motivation In The Hospitality Industry

Published by: Incentive Research Foundation

A new study on employee motivation and performance lays the groundwork for

creation of the SITE Foundation Motivation Index™.

• Introduction• About the Research• The CANE Model• Implications for Employers• About the Researchers• Where to Get the Study

Click here to view and download a PDF of this page.

Introduction

Employee turnover within the U.S. fast-food and hotel industries costs those industries inthe neighborhood of $140 billion annually. In more bite-sized terms, it will cost roughly100% to 200% of an employee’s base salary to recruit and train a replacement. Althoughthe turnover rate for these industries hovers between 78.3 percent and 95.4 percent on anational basis, some fast-food restaurants and hotels experience much lower rates, andhave significantly greater success retaining employees. Overall, higher levels of motivation and motivated performance translate into a 53 percent reduction in worker turnover.

It is generally understood that employment in these industries is often considered to betemporary, or stop-gap employment, with workers leaving eventually for what they willconsider "greener pastures." And certainly, different economics are at work depending onthe region, the type of establishment, etc. However, turnover rates also vary within thesame economies, the same chains, the same cities, and the same regions. All things beingequal, then, what accounts for the differences in turnover rates? And more importantly,what can managers do to reduce turnover at their properties?

The Site Foundation is seeking to answer those questions by studying employeemotivation and performance in the fast- food and hotel industries. The study - Motivationin the Hospitality Industry - measures key indices of motivated behavior using the widely

recognized CANE (Commitment And Necessary Effort) Model of Motivation. Thefollowing describes key findings from research to date and offers methods managers canuse to reduce turnover in their fast-food or hotel operations.

[ Return to Top ]

http://www.incentivecentral.org/employees/whitepapers/motivation_in_the_hospitality_industry.1903.html#1%231






http://www.incentivecentral.org/pdf/Motivation-IRFfinal.pdf

http://www.incentivecentral.org/employees/whitepapers/motivation_in_the_hospitality_industry.1903.html#top%23top







http://www.incentivecentral.org/pdf/Motivation-IRFfinal.pdf




About the Research

Hotel and fast-food employees from twenty-two job sites located in the Orlando, Floridaarea were surveyed in October 2003. All told, 545 responses were received. Mid-scale

hotels contributed 14.9 percent of the responses; fast-food restaurants contributed 85.1 percent. A follow-up phase conducted in February 2004 surveyed the same job sites.

The survey instrument was modeled after the CANE Model (Richard Clark, 1998). TheCANE Model helps us to understand the various aspects of why people are motivated to perform a specific task.

[ Return to Top ]

The CANE Model

The following chart illustrates the dynamics at work in the CANE Model. It is followed by an explanation of the ten predictor variables and questions in which the employeemight express the effect of the variable on his or her behavior.

THE CANE MODEL

Ten predictor variables identified by the CANE Model guided the investigation of the hospitality industry.These included: self-efficacy, agency, emotion, mood, importance, interest, utility, choice, persistence, andeffort.

Self-Efficacy The belief that one can organize and executecourses of action to obtain desired goals (Bandura,

1997).

Can I Do This?Do I Have What It Takes?

Agency The belief that you will be supported in doing a task or allowed to perform the task in accordance withyour goals.

Will I Be Permitted To Do Thisand Be Supported?

Can I Do This Under TheseCircumstances / Conditions?

Emotion Negative emotions produce avoidance behaviors (tardiness, inattentiveness, jobabandonment); positive emotions energize(choosing a task, staying longer on a task, etc.)

How Do I Feel About This Task Or Job?

Mood Moods bias people’s thoughts, not their actions. How Am I Feeling In General?

Importance People tend to commit to tasks when they identifywith the task.

Is This Task "Me"?

Interest People can commit themselves to tasks even whenthe only thing they get out of it is pleasure fromdoing the task.

Do I Like This?

Utility Willingness to perform A to secure B. Task utility isoften the most powerful motivator. If the answer tothe question at the right is "nothing," people areunlikely to commit to the task.

What’s In It For Me?

Choice Buy-in or the first step. This is that actual goal that people have selected; it differs from intention in that

Do I Agree With This?





it involves some sort of action or response and notmere thought or words (Kuhl, 1986).

Persistence Continued choice in the face of obstacles. When people persist, they generally succeed.

Can I Continue To Do This?

Effort An energy-based behavior involving actual thinkingrather than rote performance. When people exert

effort, they increase the likelihood of succeeding ina task.

Is It Worth The Effort?

[ Return to Top ]

Implications for Employers

Simply put, the study demonstrates that certain behaviors have various impacts onturnover in various ways, and these differences suggest strategies employers might use toreduce turnover. These include:

• Turnover is less when employees have a high level of value for their work. Theseemployees persist more than colleagues who report low levels of value. Employerscan help employees value their work through consistent praise, recognition, andspecial incentives.

• Turnover is less at work sites where employees feel supported by the organization.Organizations can increase the level of support their employees feel by listeningmore, understanding employee issues, and taking action accordingly.

• Employees who feel better about their jobs persist more, exert more effort, and areless likely to leave.

• Older employees tend to be more motivated, persistent, exert a greater effort, andare less likely to leave in the face of difficulties.

• Salaried employees are more motivated than hourly employees.

• Women are more likely to say their work is more interesting, more important, andmore useful; however, turnover for women is higher than men.

• When employees feel they cannot perform certain tasks, managers should reducethe size of complexity of the task into smaller "chunks." This helps the employeeto build self-efficacy.

• Employees who perceive their work conditions to be unfair and/or unreliable needevidence that the system is there to help them be effective. If negative perceptionsare cor rect, management should rectify them.

Conclusion: When tasks are being avoided or devalued, a carefully targeted incentivesystem can solve the problem in both the short- and long-terms.





[ Return to Top ]

About the Researchers

This summary of a SITE study is an edited version of a full report by the same namewritten by Steven J. Condly, Ph.D., Educational Studies Dept., College of Education,University of Central Florida, and Robin DiPietro, Ph.D., Rosen School of HospitalityManagement, University of Central Florida.

[ Return to Top ]

Where to Get the Study

For copies, contact The SITE Foundation:Frank J. Katusak, Executive Director

304 Park Avenue South11th Floor New York, NY [email protected];http://www.sitefoundation.org/

Published by: The SITE Foundation Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserv e d . This paper is an edited version of a full report by the same name written by Steven J. Condly, Ph.D.,Educational Studies Dept., College of Education, University of Central Florida, and RobinDiPietro, Ph.D., Rosen School of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida.

[ Return to Top ]

Copyright 2008, Incentive Performance Center

These training ideas will successfully:

• Build morale in your wait staff.• Provide a way for you to reward your

restaurant employees in an exciting, yetcost effective way.

• Allow you to customize the education,incentives, motivation and training of your restaurant staff with games andchallenges according to your specificteamwork needs in selling your products.



mailto:[email protected]

http://www.sitefoundation.org/




mailto:[email protected]

http://www.sitefoundation.org/




• Motivate your restaurant staff to personal success and prosperity of your diningestablishment.

• Make your restaurant server team consistent in their knowledge and performancefor the benefit of your customers.

Authored by a restaurant manager at the Walt Disney World Resort, these pages containcreative and innovative ideas to educate your restaurant staff. This information can becustomized to fit any type of hospitality or restaurant location. Restaurant managers canutilize this tool to educate their staff on the issues they choose in a fun way that will buildmorale and bind them as a team.

This easy to follow wait staff training manual can show you intriguing, innovative waysto capture the interest of your restaurant employees and help them retain vital informationto make them more productive as a team.

With over 14 years in the restaurant business, I personally know how vital it is to havemotivated restaurant employees. Moreover, your sales people will be equipped with theinformation they need to up-sell your products to your customers. For the past two years Ihave been responsible for incentive, education, training, and motivational programs for my restaurant staff. Many larger companies charge hundreds if not thousands, to come toyour location, interrupt your schedule and attempt to provide these kinds of results. Youwill find these programs to be simple with minimal cost and maximum results!

About the Restaurant Server Motivational Tools:

Jeopardy Game

The game revolves around a display board that depictscategories such as restaurant history, menu items etc.The game can be customized to fit your needs. Thewait staff must answer correctly the question from theselected category. The rewards are as creative as thegame and I give you many options for these prizes.There are fun and exciting twists and turns to the gamethat really create a fun training environment from which the servers take valuable sales

information. Dramatic results have been realized from the simple playing of this gameand using it as a motivational tool. You won't want to miss this one!

The Grand Tour Game

The basic premise of "The Grand Tour" is to send each of your wait staff membersthrough various learning stations, each one designed to focus on one particular aspect of your agenda. This game will take your staff to a new level of higher education,



communicate the same information to all departments in your restaurant and form a morecohesive team, and make learning about your location fun and exciting so your staff will be more apt to receive and retain the information. This game is a favorite among therestaurant staff!

Southwest AirlinesEmployee Motivation

The Southwest Airlines employee motivation phenomenon is no accident – thiscompany is a well-oiled, high performance organization.

Wikipedia mentions these three facts:

Southwest Airlines (SWA) is one of the world's most profitable airlines, posting a

profit for the 36th consecutive year in January 2009.

SWA is the largest airline in the United States by number of passengers carried domestically per year (as of December 31, 2007)

SWA has carried more customers than any other U.S. airline since August 2006

for combined domestic and international passengers according to the U.S.Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Southwest Airlines employee motivation is a magnificent-living example of whatmost companies are striving for.

The business press has continuously celebrated SWA outstanding performance.

Fortune magazine has called it the most successful airline in history, and it ranks it inthe top spots of its 100 Best Companies to work for.

Despite the fact that SWA is one of the most highly unionized airlines in the US

airline industry, it has consistently enjoyed lower turnover rates than other US

airlines, it has high levels of employee motivation and satisfaction, and it has thelowest absenteeism and tardiness rates of any business in the area.

In no particular order, here we mention key elements that play a critical role in the

Southwest Airlines employee motivation visible fact.

7 Key Elements inSouthwest Airlines employee motivation

1) STRONG SET OF VALUES



Values are people’s deep “sacred” convictions about how they must behavethemselves – values are behavior guidelines.

The SWA set of values are not wishful thinking – on the contrary, this company’s

values determine the behavior of all employees at all levels in the organization – notonly front line workers must behave according to these values, but especially top

management as well, who maintains credibility by walking its talk and keeping 100%its integrity – the values’ discipline is strictly enforced across the company. In SWA,values are mandatory behavior guidelines.

Why are values important for Southwest Airlines employee motivation? For thefollowing reason: The top three SWA values are – in this order of appearance:

Employees

Customers

Stockholders

Translation: The SWA organization exists first and foremost, to exceed its

employees’ expectations; in a close second, to exceed its customers’ expectations;and in close third, to exceed its stockholders’ expectations.

Stop and think for a moment:

In your company where you work right now, are the employees’ values that they

live by every working day, identical to the company’s corporate values?If your answer is “no,” your company has a clear area of opportunity.

If you don’t even know what your company’s corporate values are, your company has a gigantic are of opportunity.

2) EMPLOYEES COME FIRST

Just underneath SWA mission statement – on the SWA web site – it reads:

“To our employees: We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and

innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude

within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.”

According to SWA values, employees come first – this is not some lip servicepayment to workers from top management – and SWA workers know this for a fact.

The employees’ personal well being is a most important matter for SWA leadership –the entire company places significant importance on every single job. All employees

are highly valued and respected as individuals, which in turn, this engenders strongfeelings of mutual belief, trust, and certainty (read motivation) to perform.

Top management is meticulously careful to invest heavily in training, indevelopment, and in the creation of opportunity for everybody – the company is

willing to take risks on its people to a degree that might seem extreme for outsiders.



No wonder Southwest Airlines employee motivation is outstanding.


Are employees, customers, and stockholders among your company’s most important corporate values?

If your answer is “no,” your company might want to redesign its value system and its corresponding culture (culture boils down to this: “the way we do things

around here”). Among other authors, John P. Kotter and James L. Heskett in“Corporate Culture and Performance” (Simon & Schuster, New York, NY: 1992) found

that the high performing companies have value systems that REALLY care about allthree constituencies (employees, customers, and stockholders).

3) REWARDS & RECOGNITION

Workers know that the company provides meaningful recognition and rewards for

their performance – they know exactly what it is the company gives them in returnfor their exceptional work – there is no doubt about it.

The entire company (read everybody at all levels in the organization) placesparticular importance in exploring every conceivable technique, approach, and device

to recognize excellent performance – this is an ongoing effort where everybody isinvolved.

The organization recognizes all employees directly in proportion to their personalaccomplishments – and SWA does so by rewarding and celebrating them in many

different ways, by direct supervisors and peers as well as upper management.

This generates a contagious collective energy across the whole organization – and as

a consequence, the work environment is animated with eagerness, enthusiasm, and

joy – it is an environment that employees love.

In this Southwest Airlines employee motivation context, formal compensation is of

secondary importance.

By profusely rewarding its employees for excellent performance, SWA is able tomaintain loyalty, job satisfactions, and high levels of personal motivation.


When was the last time your boss honestly and personally recognized your

performance? How did you feel? Did his/her genuine recognition motivate you?

When was the last time you honestly and personally recognized the performance

of your direct reports?

4) MISSION

“The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and

Company Spirit.”



However, SWA accomplishment is NOT in the writing of its mission – any companycould have written the very same mission statement – Southwest Airlines employee

motivation does not reside in its mission itself.

Rather, Southwest Airlines employee motivation exists in the fact that SWA has beenable to frame its work as part of a deep and rewarding purpose (its mission) that

employees find fulfilling.

In the mission arena, SWA accomplishment is this: Southwest Airlines employeemotivation exists in the fact that SWA has been able to place its mission as a noble

purpose in the eyes of its employees, and as a consequence of this, its employeesvisualize a dignified mission for their organization that rises above any short-term

financial profits.

The force of a mission – any mission statement – is not found in its wording

(however, a mission statement must be well written), but in the organization’scapacity to transform its mission into a live force embodied in every single worker –

and Southwest Airlines employee motivation is fueled by this.


Is your company’s mission statement alive in the everyday behaviors of your company’s entire workforce?

If your answer is “no,” your company has a clear area of opportunity.

If you don’t even know what your company’s mission statement says, your

company has a gigantic are of opportunity.

5) HIRING

SWA has a VERY rigorous hiring procedure – nothing and nobody is left to chance

and/or to gut feeling.

The SWA search and selection processes are by far much more meticulous than at

most other companies – the selection is purposeful.

Deciding who becomes a permanent worker of the company is a significant decision– SWA goes to great lengths to make certain that they get the best of the right

candidates.

Plus, a permanent rehiring way of thinking prevails – employees are expected to

maintain top performance, or else …

In other words, Southwest Airlines employee motivation is not an option – if yougenuinely like it here, you stay; but one thing is for sure, if you don’t like it, you cannot fake it for long.

SWA is not for everybody – and so it goes for all high performance organizations

with strong corporate cultures.




Does your company also have rigorous search and selection processes in order to guarantee your company gets only the best of the right candidates? Or do managers

make gut decisions when hiring new employees?If gut decision-making plays a role in your company’s hiring practice, your

organization has a clear area of opportunity. Remember, any team is as good as theplayers it is made out of.

6) DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP

SWA has a strong leadership at the top AND throughout the management hierarchy

– top executives genuinely take for granted that everyone is able to lead insignificant ways.

Most employees at most organizational levels play leadership roles as needed – mostworkers start actions that other employees will follow.

Becoming skilled at leading is everybody’s duty at SWA – and to make this happen,top management invests a great deal in front line leaders.

What does distributed leadership has to do with Southwest Airlines employeemotivation? SWA doesn’t hire candidates who don’t get thrilled with the possibility of

leading. In this context, leading is inherently motivating.

Since the essence of leadership is change, a positive organizational change index

creates a higher degree of adaptability, which is necessary now more than ever –only cultures that help organizations anticipate and adapt to environmental changes

will have superior performance over the long haul.


Does your company have a broad-base leadership? If not, your company has a clear area of opportunity.

If your company’s top management denies this fact, your company might not be

able to adapt to the increasing number of incoming environmental changes. Whatdoes this mean in the medium to long-term time frame for your company? A

possibility: becoming a dinosaur – extinct.

7) PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

A key feature of SWA performance management is its performance transparency.

To begin with, SWA obsessively measures three dimension of performance:

Employee well being

Customer satisfaction

Shareholder gain

Hence, in order to reach their clearly articulated goals, the performance of theaverage worker is critical; therefore, SWA emphasizes a rigorous tracking and

rewarding of individual performance, coupled with clear, immediate and straightfeedback.



It goes without saying that goals, roles, and responsibilities are crystal clear – acrossthe SWA organization, anybody (anytime, anywhere) can spell for you performance

metrics that matter to the company.

All employees at SWA have a clear image of the background in which they work,they clearly comprehend how performance is measured, and what it is they can do in

order to improve it.

The focal point on performance begins with recruiting and hiring, and it goes onthroughout the performance appraisal, recognition, and reward processes.

The understanding of current individual performance, current departmentalperformance, and current organizational performance – in other words: having the

big picture – is a key factor not only in Southwest Airlines employee motivation, butalso in any employee motivation setting.


Do employees at your company enjoy this degree of performance transparency? If not, why not?

The Southwest Airlines employee motivation phenomenon is the result of all thesefactors (and perhaps others) combined.

Bibliography:

Kevin Freiberg: “Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success” (Bard Press, Austin, TX: 1996).

Jon R. Katzenbach: “Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your

Employees” (HBSP, Boston, MA: 2000). Note: this book inspired me to write this

article.

Lorraine Grubbs-West: “Lessons in Loyalty: How Southwest Airlines Does It - An

Insider's View” (CornerStone Leadership Institute, Dallas, TX: 2005).

Jody Hoffer Gittell: “The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance” (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY: 2005).

Documents

Motivation in the Hospitality Industry