Page 33 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

20B RE-ENGAGE

especially how it has achieved such high survey scores.
We’ll feature Gaylord throughout the book. Its views on
how employee engagement links directly to key business
outcomes mirror the sentiments of the other Best-Places-to-
Work employers we’ve studied:

Gallineau: We believe that if we get the right people on the
bus and in the right seats, and we then invest in those people,
it will pay off in great service to our customers. We explain
to our Stars (the company’s term for its employees) that our
success starts with them. They understand that we will make
money if we invest in them. Our assets—the hotel itself and
all its attractions—are first class, but it is our staff that makes
the difference. So, that basic philosophy is a major factor.

Ellis: When we opened the hotel in 2002, it was our first
venture outside of the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Our CEO,
Colin Reed, saw the opportunity for us to build a strong
brand from the inside out as a great place to work. He was
also a true believer in the service-profit chain—that taking
care of employees equates to taking care of customers,
which results in better profits. That means it’s important that
we create emotional connections with our people so they
will do the same with our customers. That’s my role—to help
people make connections. The other thing I need to point
out is that even though both Colin and Kemp are very results
driven and have a head for business, they both have a heart
for people. They are both very committed to creating those
emotional connections.

Gallineau: Our turnover is the lowest in the entire hotel in-
dustry—28 percent here at the Gaylord Palms and in the low
30s nationwide. Part of that has to do with the property itself
and how impressive it is and the rest of it about our culture,
I think. If you asked the average person in the community