Page 252 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

The Never-Ending Source of Engagement C239

Howard: It has been that way since Chip Conley started the company,
before I joined almost 10 years ago. Valuing employees was never a
conscious business decision. We are just conscious of our values, and
one of them is valuing employees highly. We are a very people-centric
business, and our people are not as highly paid as in other industries
or even as highly as some in the hospitality business. Our philosophy
has always been to at least pay at mid-range of what competitors
are paying. We are vulnerable because boutique hotels are the first
to be hurt by a declining economy. So we have to do something to
keep a competitive advantage. For us, it is simple—we treat people
so well that we don’t have to be the highest paid. We believe in the
concept of emotional bank accounts and the importance of making
regular deposits. As human beings, we need appreciation, so recog-
nizing people is something we are committed to do, and not just for
business reasons.

Q: How do you go about recognizing your employees?
Howard: One thing we do is have an employee recognition week every
June. We plan and hold more than 100 events up and down the state
of California at or near our hotel properties, such as trips to Giants
baseball games and, trips to theme parks, and each property has its
own event, like ice cream socials. Some hotels do something differ-
ent every day. For our big end-of-the-year holiday party, we give
out lots of awards—for Rising Stars and for Extraordinary Service
Providers (our biggest award includes an extra week of vacation plus
an extra week’s vacation at our domestic location of the employee’s
choice). We also have the Manuela Ramirez Back-of-the-House
Service award, named for an former employee now deceased, and our
Above-and-Beyond award.

Q: What are some of the less formal ways you recognize
employees?
Howard: There are so many ways that I hardly know where to start.
One thing we regularly do is, at the end of our weekly executive