Page 149 - The New Gold Standard

Build a Business Focused on Others
or other quality indicators. By asking our Ladies and Gentlemen
how they perceive our efforts to create an environment where they
can grow and make a purposeful difference, we can make adjust-
ments in the work environment that help our people drive our
key business objectives.”
Because Ritz-Carlton leaders have executed action plans that
were developed at the department level for each of the company’s
properties (including making employee engagement part of man-
agement’s performance rewards and prioritizing staff engage-
12
ment as a key business factor), Gallup Q scores of engagement
have continued to show steady improvement. Kevin McConville
of Gallup puts the Ritz-Carlton results in context: “In our over-
all database we have about 40 percent of people engaged, about
45 percent not engaged, and about 15 percent actively disen-
gaged. At Ritz-Carlton, the numbers are approximately 63 per-
cent engaged, 28 percent not engaged, and 9 percent actively
disengaged. In essence, most workplaces have considerably less
than half of their people engaged in their work and a larger pro-
portion disengaged to varying degrees. At Ritz-Carlton that ra-
tio is more than reversed, and from a business outlook, the effort
of leadership to drive greater employee engagement is showing
important financial benefits.”
According to Kevin, “In Ritz-Carlton properties where em-
ployee engagement improves, the hotel’s revPAR (revenue per
available room) increases at a rate higher than in hotels that did
12
not show Gallup Q improvement. If you look at it, their entire
business model is really not for the passive employee. At Ritz-
Carlton, you need employees to be owners, not renters or squat-
ters. Their fundamental attention to the engagement of their
people shows not only in their numbers but in the way we are
treated when we visit their hotels.”
Kevin shares an experience of a fellow Gallup consultant who
was delivering a speech at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds
Plantation, in Georgia. “As he was driving to the hotel on that
hot day, he drank a blue Gatorade and tossed the empty bottle in

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