By Brian Marcus
Last blog (link here) we covered Staff Engagement and the Divisional Forum. This blog takes another best practice that worked for me and put them into play to increase your staff’s engagement.
An idea that my administrative assistance thought was nuts; Breaking Bread. A simple and old concept that we put into place and saw nothing but a huge success. Each month we asked for line staff to sign up to have breakfast or lunch in a small group (6 or 7 max) with the department director. This was done without the GM, departmental managers or supervisors, just line staff. The makeup of the group was not predisposed or planned, just who signed up.
We started with small talk, me learning more about the staff, their families, what inspires them, what makes them tick and what they are passionate about. Guess what happened! You got it, work product flowed soon after without coaxing or planning; just organically. I took notes along the way and let me tell you some of the best ideas in my career came out of these meetings. At first, I was afraid it would become one big complaint session, but boy was I wrong. It was constructive, positive and most importantly productive.
After “breaking bread”, I personally got back to each person that had an idea (in person) and updated them as to what would become of it…honestly. Along the way I would keep them up to speed on the progress and I made sure they got the credit for the idea. You talk about engagement!
Give it a try and break some bread.
Email me for more best practices about Staff Engagement or your best practices for staff engagement; I love it!
Brian Marcus is one of our executive recruiters specializing in private clubs and hospitality. Brian has over 10 years of club experience and 25 years of hotel, restaurant and F&B experience in numerous countries. For more information contact Brian at 626-836-1222 or brian@globalhospitality.com