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World Café feedback notes – 25th March 2019

Please find below transcribed notes from the HR in Hospitality Conference. We hope

this will help you in taking forward these important questions into your organizations.

Thank you for your active participation!

Question 1 : How can we ensure that HR remains on the top table as an Executive

business partner throughout 2019 and beyond?

Leadership and Brains Together

Show how we add value

Shout our Successes – Dashboard

Help leaders of departments – solutions for issues

Hard dept – not fluffy!

Be out & meet – not in office

Eyes and ears of ‘Top Table’

Get HR in first on opening

Big data Back up

Being commercial

Be out – Be enablers – Be open

Links with all – CFO/S&M

Innovation to changes every day – keeping up with the trend – keeping ahead

of the trend

Move away from paper – Move to technology

Investment in Finance – P&L

Understanding the business element and having a strategic element aligned

to this

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Have an Open Door Policy

Ensure HOD’s understand what HR does and the values. The business

understands HR -= Value in HR- Part of Strategy

Invest in People and resources and show business the output (as we don’t

generate an income)

How does investing in HR invest in productivity

Metrics are not enough. Need to make business case per item to listen

HR should be seen as a wingman

The right GM should support HR

Competence and strength of the HR Team

Influencing skills and communication: by default be on top of everything

Can’t just be sat in an office. Think less about processes

Being a business partner

Be more aware of what’s happening in the world

Partner with all management team not just finance

Technology and finance equally important

Ensure we have a wide knowledge

Strong and open minded, getting right people on team

HR Team fit business culture

Not to allow legislation create HR being robotic rather than culturally aligned

ie GDPR

C Suite need to be true to the culture

HR Support and ensure teams are ‘the culture’ aligned to strategy etc

Need to challenge the ‘Top Table’

Ensure leaders are responsible – it’s not for HR to do it – We are not the

‘form owners’

HR to show we add value

VUCA – HR is trusted and is expert

Good data around people and feedback from employees – make an

understandable format to feed back

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Measurable if you can prove that you achieved

Shout out the achievements you have already

If you haven’t got an HR voice – create one

Involvement in strategy

People component has a massive impact

Look to other industries that are trendsetters

Focus on leavers – need to also to focus on retention

Engagement survey – annual is too long

S&M – Depends but potentially get them on side

Staff perception not traditional

First person to employ HR – Then get the right people

It is a people business

HR on the top table /credibility – understand the business

Broad view

Strategic not reactive

Use people development/not HR

Look at it as an income generator

Must deliver results – measure results

Bigger than people development

HR – Finger on pulse. Local environment

HR – The glue that holds everything together

People and culture

HR isn’t always on the Top table so sometimes needs to get there first -

mediator and challenger

Dynamic in thinking

Communication and teamwork with CEO/GM/Directors – constant touch

points with all levels of business

Talent Strategy – to meet Company goals and business strategy

Not just ‘HR’ – culture/leadership

Statistics and analytics – ROI – Use the same language

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Commercial awareness and involvement

Set out a clear vision – understood and agreed with CEO

Seeing bigger picture and getting basics right from beginning

Connecting business goals, eg profit, strategy, people

Understand all stakeholders and how they think, then address each

accordingly

Stop being paperwork focused

Speak the language of the business

Gain trust of The Board and explaining ROI

Be agile in new world of recruitment and new ways to find people

Bring some certainties of the world

Use analytics- data telling uis – influence commercial

Alignment MVV

What do we do as a function – Use of emotional intelligence

How we can adapt to other peoples’ learning styles/perception of the industry

Selling the Brand to new employee’s ensure people at Top Table understand

that

On top of your game – You are at the top of your game as an example –

ahead of trends and knowledge of what they are

Being flexible and agile – open to change

Research trends – across different sorts of people – different rotas/work times

etc

Better placed to advise long service people vs new people

Know what each generation wants

Be aligned to CEO – hiring – important – align and retention

Ensure point is heard – Listen- joined up thinking

Be fluid in language – speak their language

Align with Finance – but others too – Leadership team and one message

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Be a sounding board – coach MD/CEO – Present options and

outcomes/impact

Be leaders – not doing screenings of CV’s, letters etc – empower HOD’S

Didn’t realize that there was a risk HR was not at Top Table . HR always

needs to imprint and not remain stagnant

Educate senior leaders

Senior leaders – what they’ll gain from HR at Top Table

If involved in any OD,L&D, HR needs to be true to shape the HR Strategy to

help put this into place- HR delivers the vision

HR needs to know everything about the Organisation and HR Function

Not just an Admin function. HR can pull all pieces together (the glue) of an

Org

It is such a disruptive world and HR need to help solve some of the

challenges

HR needs to prompt and remind managers they need to make changes (put

quality time together) our role is to get leaders to think

If you build that ‘trust’ leaders will come to you with their challenges

Need to find courage to challenge and know our business

Talk to people outside your network

The Hospitality industry is all about people and integral to the sector. The

people drive the culture of the business

HR = Pulse

Start speaking their language ie measure etc

Senior leaders can be influenced by solid HR data and metrics – know what

you are talking about and show value

Be able to be strategic with your data to ‘join the dots’ ie CTS increases in

line with profits

Understanding the word ‘Investment’ meant from a people perspective

Ensure you are collaborative working relationships with Exec Team

What does the CEO actually care about and how do you link this with your

strategy

Open to change -analyse everything

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How do you bring the Board with your ‘Shaping and Influencing’ – is key to

HR Leader role

Positioning in HR

KPI related

Stats, data ,trends ,local implementation

ROI in business

Ability to have difficult conversations

Don’t work in silo - Visibility, Cost of business partner

Empower and facilitate conversations

How is HR impacting finance, Sales, Ops etc

Demonstrate how HR can impact the strategic

What are the expectations – help to deliver the strategy

Lead by Example

Link what you do back to business objectives

Metrics(relevant) HE Analytics

Evidence based HR

Knowledgeable and Up to date – HR and non HR

Understanding the business – business savvy

Guardian and gatekeeper of the vision and values

What is the ROI & demonstrate how you’ve achieved this

Deloitte 1% increase in engagement – 0.6% sales

HR needs to be the right hand man/woman to the MD/CEO – Truly business

partnering

Be prepared to have the courage to challenge and take risks.

Right hand person of GM – Sense check

Business transfer

Must have background in Ops: critical for business know how

Pushing admin to the line managers, aligning focus

Must be able to influence the Board

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Understand the business

Bring in experience from other sectors

Still need some of the Fluffy Stuff

Q2: Where does the people agenda need change and innovation? How can we

achieve this?

Flexible working policies

Reward and recognition strategies, more generations

L&D strategies, succession planning, career progression, internal pipeline

Wellbeing agendas (link flexible working)

Digitalisation app based

“Returnships” = second career

Reputation in schools and colleges

Opportunities within hospitality

More of a career

Changing the mind-set of the UK

Technology to be more forward

Philosophy on modern day work- modern flexibility

Gender pool? Talent pool, having a leader that buys into change

Can a budget support technology?

Independent business vs large organisations

Organisation structures- multi tasking

Bring in technology more to HR function and how to use it

Use analytics where comments can be analysed to see if it is positive or

negative

Other functions need to take ownership of the people piece ie. Bonus plans

Metrics

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Flexible approach/ partner with GM to make it work for our industry

Keep focusing on innovation- the sooner HR can do the better

Looking at retaining learning in the business

Let people take risks and don’t be afraid to make mistakes

Yes HR needs to change, if you stand still you get left behind, you need to

think outside the box

“ the only thing that is constant is change”

Wellbeing is a reaction to change- all of us will be doing something to stay

ahead

We used to think differently about how we employ people and retain

Are we brave enough to try things? (e-learning platforms)- do we expect them

to do in their own time?

Systems and technology is fast paced but our systems hold us back

Need to embrace new systems

Why are we seeking permission to do these things?

We’ll never change otherwise. We know what we are doing works so why

change it? Unless we change our HR approach/ thinking we’ll stand still

We need to ensure tools (time, space and trust) to make this happen

How can we adapt to what staff want (sabbaticals, changes in some sectors-

remote working, flexible working)

Trust- Nike/ Netflix, you can take as much leave as you want

Are we too focussed on employing full time people on split shifts

Ditch appraisal

Culture- what is it? Informal/ formal ongoing chats

Always questions what we do

Training- should be interactive eg apps in training if not IT literate

All systems should mix

As a guest AI log in not personal – if use AI need to communicate to make

positive

AI good if enhances guest experience

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Approach to recruitment, talent scarce and going to get scarcer- how will we

do it differently?

Personalising approach to talent development

Ask the questions why? Understand what you are implementing

Use new technology- improve quality of the output

Mobile app- feedback from employees eg. Millennials

In danger of overlaying technology

Change in communication- app

Communicate in terms of benefits and progression, younger and older

women- business appealing that matters to them

Educate young people, back to the beginning

Change within culture- industry change behaviour- two prong approach

Linking it to the strategic priorities, 5-year plan

Change culture around recruitment and ER

Relationship focus

Empowering/ change way we view. Guidance to empower/ change

Value added job descriptions

Write job descriptions 6 months in

Relooking at our values

Communication

Hotel working hours and unsociable hours- line manager stating flexible

working won’t work. Help them to think outside of the box

Technology and communication- e-learning

AI need to be more people focused

Be mindful not to lose human touch with technology

Understanding that different guests want different things

Need to promote hospitality as career of choice in UK particularly with Brexit.

What is the people agenda – being happy – want to come to work

Happiness is the key

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Look at individual for guide not continue alter approach

Happiness is linked to good pay

Trust staff

Become more flexible

Young people learn differently, eager to learn and get involved, contribute

their own ideas. Changing the approach

Facebook style communication internal intranet, apps

Easily accessible

Constant feedback

Confidence building, coaching, mentoring

Side dreams – create in ways to make it work

Flexibility – how does this work/what does it look like – how to succeed in this

Education on how to do a rota and other options

AI = free up HR to coach, mentor, emotional intelligence, actual human

interaction

Balance for compliance – comfort in a policy?

The work environment

o Promote flexibility & what does it mean

Fill the skills gap

o Kitchen – changing environment

o Exciting times – home brew

Hospitality is changing there is a lot more focus on why people are

leaving/staying

Front of house v back of house

o How we treat guest v how we treat staff

Cared for

HEART OF HOUSE

L&D Greater enhancement and investment

Augmented reality, products, price will drop, we need to be ready

Parent evenings

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Make more conversations with people

Get more direct feedback from colleagues

Get frequent feedback – on line (happy sheets/clicks)

User friendly technology – give accurate up to date feedback

AI is against hospitality (people focused) people want to deal with people

Use pulse to shape our actions/focus for our people agenda

HR to be art of setting the people agenda i.e. KPI’s

H& and GM need to be more aligned

HR to influence GM with innovative thoughts etc. aligned to overall company

strategy

HR get involved with forecast of business

Technologies

Tech allowing you time to do the good people stuff

Used in L&D in some cases it’s ‘great’ Millennial’s love it

Use it to make our job easier

Great to measure and see how we’re doing

Artificial

Huge…Thomas International. Normal working styles, under pressure etc.

Flexibility in HR/Job share

Perception of industry needs to change/schools & colleges

Apprentice needs to be introduced offered more

Sponsor Qualifications

HR need to be better at PR skills

Sustainable for the future

Look at sharing employees/students

Talent pool, who we think can join the business, are we open minded

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Skills set from outside the industry

Finding out what people, passions are, engage inside and outside the

business. Attract talent

Tools and tech are great but must be used properly

L&D must be supported by people

Technology must be switched off, it is a xxx addiction

AI (hospitality is a people industry)

Droids

Question 3: “Three Quarters of the UK millennial employees say that the option of

working flexibly would make a job more attractive to the, while nearly a third would

prefer flexible working to a pay rise”. In light of statistics and commentary like this,

how can HR overcome the traditional barriers that exist in the hospitality industry to

flexible working?

Allow people to assign their own shifts

Allow people to be on standby like Airlines industry

Bank of Agency workers - preferred ones

Allow encourage Cross Training of people

Regulate maximum hours allowed at work

24/7 But managers “no we can’t do that” immediate barrier removing that by

creating understanding

Showing by example – turning negative into positive

Casual workers allow flexibility

Treating people as individuals

Use of technology don’t need to physically be in the place. Ie couple of hours

out of the day and do it later. See it in action and demonstrate to others.

Trusts and confidence

Working from home bad connotations

Wellbeing mental health

Reprogrammed all of the managers

Who’s trained the managers to do the roster and who checks them

Education

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Depends on the property

Element mindset shift

Focus on headcount no on the number of hours.

Shout more of the successes

This isn’t the main job what are the values adds.

Working with them what are their dreams

These are the shifts but what are here are all the other benefits.

Mindset in the decision making process

Education they will get it soon. Making people work the hours they are

contracted and make sure they are paid.

More people on flex working more input better business.

It bugs the hell out of me that we do the rota. Allow them to do their own!

3 week rolling rota – 1st week fixed/ 2nd week check with manager/ 3 week

change

Look at people we are hiring

Promote flexible working

It means juggling a little bit.

Everyone at adopt an open mind

Understand what drives a person

Balance the workforce in life - pays back

Remove perception that its for parents or colleagues with children

Outline what would like to be – Not have Job Descriptions

Also what flexible working might look like for you

Possible technology solutions for colleagues to select their own shifts

Invest in L&D to hire working meters refine etc to get them into our workforce

Compact hours

Look at traditional contract and make a change.

Skills shortage and Tech

Constraints below levels needed

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Flexible working/ Look at different hours

App/ Booking for people onto app - hours / pay

Employee Bank

Temp Agency

Stay on the books

Presentations very important/ Problem.

Millennials “ We trust everyone with flexible working”

Part Time/ Flex is a must

I feel like a trail blazer hotel

2/3 examples to set the culture.

Flexible working and Work Life balance – In focus groups

Taken information from Floor

Presents to HODs

Be flexible

Negative reaction – Cant plan – Push out rosters.

Looks at difference – Not 40 hours

Open Mind make suggestions

Guidance for mangers

“We always did it this way”

Continental hours in kitchen - Still have T/O

Create roster around them

Create hours - allow flexibility.

Everyone should appreciate flexibility

Open-mindedness to flexibility

Understand that there is greater focus therefore greater productivity

Make flexible working an approachable subject

Employ more people to create greater flexibility

Celebrate the opportunities though shift pattern

Don’t make this a scary subject

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Greater buy in to working remotely

Be more open to casual contracts and flexible working request for all

Create innovative shift patterns

Develop a greater use of technology

Let people write their own rotas for how they want their shift to be

Offer every employee a work from home day to focus on training, admin tasks

etc. Competitive collaboration

Demonstrate a top down approach to the possibilities of working flexibly

Really understand flexible working

Utilise ‘plan day app’

Promoting flexibility within the industry and to the wider world

Talk about the openness of career breaks and the opportunities that this can

provide

Define which roles can and cannot be flexible or how they can be made

flexible

Challenge manager on consequences of declining Flexible working request

Train managers better on flexible working requests

Introduce more job shares

Why can’t more senior roles be on a zero hours contract

Discuss product icy of working from home

Understand what people want

If hotels are open 24/7 and can be flexible and expect their staff to be flexible,

why can the staff expect the same of the hotel

Old school attitudes of managers who do not have first-hand benefit of

flexible work themselves

Managers need to be brave and break the barrier

Identify a way to effectively measure flexible working productivity

There needs to be a culture in the industry of flexible working

Support those who are looking to come back into work who need flexible

arrangements

Understand what the value is to the business by having flexible work

Greater presentation of business cases to educate HODs

Show willingness to try

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Give something back and trust others

Stop long working hours full stop

Assigning different demographics to different shifts

It is not just a millennial concern and disregard this word. Flexible working is

becoming more of a priority for everyone

Can you make roles and requirements more flexible

Board buy in

Lunch shift only in restaurant

Focus on looking at the end of someone’s working life

Have just one core shift and fit other requirements around this

Question 4: Work-related stress and inadequate mental health support are

among the top reasons for poor people performance and turnover - it is

imperative for organizations to reduce the pressure and support employees.

How can the HR profession support to reduce stress and support mental

health at work?

Open Door Policy and have a culture of “its ok to talk” – openly publicize

contact details of those that can help

Proactively track indicators such as sickness

Line managers to have regular chats with the team around wellbeing

Make a mandatory 10 mins chat with a mental health support worker on a

regular basis who can spot issues and pick things up

Keep a closer eye on night workers

Enable managers to know “how” to deal with issues

Casual conversations – “how are you” and making time to talk

Get to know your people

Have trusting relationships with managers

HR are not the experts on mental health – it needs to be external support

Return to work interviews need to be done properly and not just a tick box

exercise

Line managers also need to build in space to think in their days to support

with these types of initiatives

Its great to support work life balance as managers but if they send emails

early or late in the day and at weekends, this sort of behavior undermines this

message

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Phones, laptops etc are disconnected after a certain time in the day

Act in a way that supports the message

Education is needed to spot the telltale signs of mental ill health

Talk about this in orientation

Encourage all people in the industry to engage with Hospitality Action

Be aware of negative influencers within our business that impact on mental

well being

Mental health experts don’t necessarily have to be HR, Managers, etc….

Invest time to understand the causes of stress

Are we being realistic in what we are asking of our colleagues and managers

in their time

Call it “mind Health” not mental health

HR have a huge role to play in the mental health conversation, influencing the

exco team for their support

Run workshops to create awareness

Have difficult conversations away from the workplace

Create an open culture

Conduct surveys to assess stress levels

Prepare managers - train and develop and educate them in “what not to do”

and equally what to look for (the signs). Manager attitude to stress and their

approach is key (their attitude and how do they deal with someone with a

broken leg for example is often sympathetic compared to someone off with

stress is often not believing them)

Wellbeing days/weeks – not just a one day/week event in the annual

calendar, it needs to go beyond and include the other 51 weeks, need

constant activities. Focus on not only how many ‘steps’ have you done, but

how many ‘hours’ have you slept? What sort of food have you eaten as

nutrition is key to wellbeing?

Run training sessions – mental health first aiders should be in every

organisation (Hospitality Action), dedicated champions is key along with

education

Technology – use Apps, post sections on wellbeing ‘Lifeworks’. Set up your

EAP as an App (test alcohol levels, refer team to counsellors) via Apps or set

up financial management Apps as many staff in sector often work ‘hand to

mouth’ or send money home and need to be supported with financial

awareness and money management

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Flexible working – worklife balance strategies, sabbaticals, career breaks,

unlimited holiday policy (24 days is taken on average), create a real focus on

worklife balance and understanding life outside work.

Positivity – change the narrative so people are not fearful about going to HR

and remove the stigma. Make sure others are safe and reassured as some

colleagues may be concerned after witnessing an ‘episode’ or may turn

violent

Talking about it – encourage open dialogue and feedback, HR has an open

door. Help people to discover their best self’s

Help people with their dreams – “time to do that marathon”,

Caring for your staff as people - “here is some time to give back to you go

and enjoy”, “what is it you need to recharge your batteries?”

Culture – change from a blame and shame culture, stop senior leaders and

managers sending emails late at night break that bad habit as this creates

stress in the teams. Remove the stigma of frowning at people who actually

leave on time (5.30) is that so bad?

Band width – concept where busiest line manager can call out to senior

leader to support, need to set up a 2 pronged approach with Help &

Prevention

Get social – encourage participation in social events to help build

relationships and have friends at work

Get social media – encourage employees who are willing to share stories

and write blogs about their experiences

Identify triggers – understand what stress means to different people, what is

it? Sleep, anxiety or other causes, what does it feel like for people? What is it

like on a day to day basis? Resilience levels will vary for every person

Right tools – resources or lack of adds pressure to many roles and if there is

a lack it puts people out of balance and both work and home pressures add

up

Org Design – when did we last take away some tasks from people when

doing job design, we often add to workload but forget to take things away.

When did you last measure how long things actually take, we keep adding

‘stuff’ for people to do?

Manage journey – support return to work carefully, not rushed, what has

changed, help them to be more resilient

Mentoring – use senior team members to mentor younger members of team,

many of whom do not often have family close by

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