Service insincerity is the reputation killer.
A HYVVU client recently came to us saying that, while she knew her employees were the company’s most important asset, she was concerned that, day by day, the significance of that assertion was not evident in the workplace.
She understood that lip service and occasional enthusiastic recognition of superior performance are not enough and can make employees sense and reflect corporate insincerity, which can produce shallow play acting in the employee, that is readily observed by the customer.
At HYVVU, we are pragmatic designers and operators, with a keen focus on commercial viability; however, we are also engaged in Romanticism and believe fervently in the ideology of sustainability ~ creating a better world for all. HYVVU’s purpose and goal is the holistic success of the entire project and that purpose has to be understood by everyone involved, from top down.
In an earlier HYVVU article, we explain why the most successful hotels and resorts are designed around operations from day one, detailing the flow → designing the vision → constructing the asset, → handing it over to operations. People are an integral part of this process, as they breathe life into the physical entity.
HYVUU’s system has every employee involved, knowledgeably, at every level. It starts with ensuring that everyone is always clear about the role – what he or she must do – and the standards required.
This clarity enables the individual to communicate with others intelligently and with appropriate authority about work issues.
Such informed communication gives the trained individual an agreed degree of control and encourages decision-making at that level, close to where the work is done.
This way of working is respectful, efficient, and, normally, helps the considerate manager hold back from interfering in the work of subordinates.
Above all, it means that the leaders don’t do the work their more junior colleagues are employed to do; rather, the leaders, who know and understand the work, can “show” their colleagues what to do to the required standard.
Initially, inputting the system makes considerable demands on everyone at all levels; but when in operation, it has been shown to make work life smoother and more thoughtful – and it strengthens teams.
Because it involves everyone employed in the company, from bottom to top - all of us - it is called How We Work Together; or, since everyone likes abbreviations, we coined the term HWWT.
This is not the place to produce the detailed blueprint but a sample of what it requires would be:
Meticulous, time-consuming selection of personnel
Colleagues are aware and content that with HWWT, there is no ‘Master and Servant’
A practical, relentless understanding of what leaders must do
Initial and continuing task and HWWT training, geared to the individual
Careful employee development, guided by the employee’s leader
Regular communication with everyone, in teams, about everything that affects their work