Page 74 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

54 Building a High Morale Workplace

tive and be involved with the décor and overall improved
appearance of their workspaces—even if they’re the ones doing
the sprucing.

Keep It Interesting—Redesign Jobs

What do employees want? They want good jobs that keep their
interests high and maximize their talents and abilities. They
want jobs that will help them to develop and fulfill their greatest
potential. And when they find themselves in undesirable, dead-

end jobs, they will most likely disconnect or leave.
Like anything else, jobs can get stagnant, so managers need
to come up with inventive new ways to redesign jobs if they are
to keep their stars and motivate them to perform at their per-

sonal best.
One manager who’s mastered the technique of job redesign
is Jeff Jobe, General Manager of Portland’s trendy, upscale
Heathman Hotel. In an effort to keep things creative, interesting,
and more efficient for guests, Jobe says, “We literally blew up

our front desk consoles and then eliminated three key positions
all at once.” The key positions are bellman, concierge, and
front-desk person. According to Jobe, the dramatic workplace
changes created an even more desirable opportunity for those

whose positions were slashed.
“From the three positions we eliminated, we created one
really great position called ‘Personal Concierge,’” says Jobe.
“You can say we allowed our employees to automatically
upgrade themselves and their previous jobs by taking on a
more specialized job with greater combined responsibility.” It

takes just one person, in the newly designed position, to
encompass all of the following responsibilities: checking guests
in faster and with greater ease, escorting them with their bag-
gage to their rooms, and then providing each guest with a busi-

ness card and letting him or her know that the staff member will
be that guest’s personal concierge for the entire stay.
Jobe says the success of redesigning his employees’ jobs,
as well as the Heathman’s traditional work environment, rests in