The Making of a Great Place to Work – the Story of Marriott International

The make of a nifty pose to Work the story of Marriott International A ace was narrating his story of an realize at the Ritz Carlton hotel. He was suffering from a sore throat and decided to take his mothers advice and forebodeed room service asking for a glass of hot milk mixed with a remove of turmeric. Three years later after checking into the same hotel, he promptly receives a phone call from the room service, Sir, would you like your favorite hot milk with turmeric Much as he scorned drinking hot milk with turmeric, my friend was impressed by the memory of the hotels staff. The Ritz-Carlton is one of the numerous tags of Marriott International. Take c ar of the associates, and theyll take good c atomic number 18 of the guests, and the guests go forth come back. This was what J Willard Marriott said galore(postnominal) decades ago. The founder of Marriott has since been vindicated many times over.Today, Marriott International has nearly 2,900 lodging properties loca ted in the fall in States and 67 other countries and territories. Between now and the end of the year it will add another nose candy properties to take the tally to 3000 properties. Marriott International, Inc. , is a leading lodging company. Its heritage can be traced to a settle down beer stand opened in Washington, D. C. , in 1927 by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott.Today, the company manages and franchises hotels and resorts under the Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Bulgari, The Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites, and Fairfield Inn brand names develops and operates vacation ownership resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club International, The RitzCarlton Club, Grand Residences by Marriott, and Horizons brands operates Marriott Executive Apartments provides furnished corporate housing by dint of its Marriott ExecuStay division operates conference centers and manages golf courses.Marriott consistently makes it to Fortunes scoop E mployers List. And it is number 5 amongst the Top 25 Great Places to Work in India. Visit a Marriott property and you will sense the enthusiasm and energy of their Associates (They call their employees Associates). I decided to visit their Juhu property and talk to a few employees to find out what makes this hotel an employer of choice. Heres what I found. 1. A hearty Brand Marriott International does not own the hotels it operates. It owns the brands and runs the management. In this sense it is a true professional service firm.A lot of people can construct a world class property it takes a Marriott management team to make it a world class hotel. When I was working with a affect chain, I kept on wondering, if Marriott can do it, why cant we, confided a fourth-year manager. When I decided to shift from Delhi to Mumbai, I had a colleague who used to work in Marriott in Mumbai. She al intimately forced me to come for an interview at Marriott, shargond the current head of Training. Great Place to work Institute,India 2. True Empowerment Empowerment is the buttocks of the Marriott way. Marriott has numerous examples of how their Associates feel empowered. Employees decide when to give a fruit basket or other complimentary items to guests. There is a high degree of arrogance in the unique relationships they form with their guests. One example quoted was how an Associate in a restaurant offered the most expensive bottle of champagne to an unhappy guest- as a complimentary gift Such examples are applauded and recognised. In the employee website, as well as, the company website you will find a number of stories of exemplary conduct of Associates. . Guarantee of fair treatment Marriott employees feel empowered because they sock that fair treatment is a cornerstone of the Organisations philosophy. This is what J W Marriott, Jr, current Chairman and CEO has to say, I want our Associates to neck that on that point really is a guy named Marriott who cares somewhat them Bill, as he is affectionately called, makes sure these are not empty words. Each manager has to give an undertaking of fair treatment. There is a forge of escalation of employee grievances (Speak Out process), right up to him.Indeed, as the current HR Manager found out, getting a call from Bills office to enquire about an employee grievance is not surprising. Considering that Marriott employs over 150,000 employees globally, this is a strong example of the emphasis come to the fored on fair treatment. And for employees too shy to write to Bill, in that location is always the option of anonymously calling up the Integrity hotline, a 24 by 7 toll free number. As one employee commented, A very unique thing in this place is the work culture. I think all Associates are treated equally.At an individual level there are differences but no one turns their back when someone actually needs help. 4. Communication If truth ensures that employees are not penalised for doing the right t hing, communication processes are what ensures that employees know what the right thing is. This is what Bill Marriott says in his blog (http//www. blogs. marriott. com), Many years ago, Marriott did something revolutionary at the time for hotels. We not only began asking guests about their stays, what they liked and didnt like, but we also took that information and created databases and tracking mechanisms so we knew how each hotel was doing. Marriott is the only hotel I know of which has a daily newspaper, called the Daily Packet. The Daily Packet is a communication tool which comprises of the Hospitality raw material of the Day, Events for the day, Daily Birthdays, Special guest recognition of associate efforts, HR eye opener for the day, Daily job rate, etc. Great Place to work Institute,India So the chances are the Associate who offered the bottle of champagne to the customer, did it with the encompassing knowledge of how well the business is doing, and whether she can affor d to spend that much on service recovery.An main(prenominal) part of the communication process is the public presentation communication. Every quarter the GM addresses the associates and shares the Balance Score flier which comprises of the Revenue, Guest Satisfaction Survey results, Turnover rate, Audit Scores etc. The winners for departmental and individual recognitions schemes are awarded during this Quarterly Associates Meeting. This is followed by the department head along with the line manager conducting a quarterly performance review with the Associates.This is to give the Associate feedback and an overview of the last quarter and set his goals and action plan/development for the future(a) quarter. 5. The Marriott way I cannot end an article on Marriott without emphasising their 12 rules of success. Like any other expectant Organisation (Remember J&Js Credo), Marriott has defined its 12 rules of success as under 1. continually challenge your team to do better. 2. Take go od care of your employees and theyll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back. 3. Celebrate your peoples success, not your own. . Know what youre good at and mine those competencies for all youre worth. 5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action. 6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors. 7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, paseo around, make yourself visible and accessible. 8. Success is in the details. 9. Its more important to hire people with the right qualities than with detail experience. 10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does. 11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Dont just clean it up. 12.View every problem as an opportunity to grow. The above rules are back up by 20 Basics basic behaviours that exemplify the above rules. Marriotts brand beliefs can be summarised in one line as their spirit to serve- their Associates, Customers and residential area. In line with the abo ve Marriott have awards for Community Service and Diversity. Do not be surprised if you see hundreds of Marriott employees (joined by enthusiastic guests) descending on Juhu beach to clean it up. They did precisely that. Just as they took care of 26 school kids and many others during Mumbai floods. Great Place to work Institute,India I recall visiting a friend of mine in the HR department of a reputed five star hotel in the beginning of my career. The HR department was in the basement. My friend took me to the staff canteen, a dimly lit place where we were served some beaten rice (Poha) from an Aluminium Container, in a steel plate. I was amazed to see the difference between the basement and the other floors. propagation have changed. The HR department in Marriott is at the same level as the Reception. And the basement is no less.For Marriott the Heart of the Organisation is as important as the Front of the Organisation. As you walk through the Associate Corridor which is designed to make you proud to be in Marriott, and enter the Associate canteen, you cant help exclaiming, Are all restaurants in this hotel as good as the Associate canteen? ____________________________________________________________ ____________ The precedent is CEO of The Great Place to Work Institute, India. He can be reached at emailprotected in Views verbalized are personal. Great Place to work Institute,India