Having failed to achieve an iMatter report in 2018 and again in 2019, the management team took a proactive approach to iMatter for 2019. As a Hotel it was difficult to get all the staff together at one time so we tackled this in departmental sizes that involved each departmental manager requesting some feedback from the wider team and their ideas and thoughts on areas we could explore further for our action plan and continuous improvement.

Towards the end of 2018 and into 2019, many changes were made within the senior team in the Hotel and a new management structure was put in pace to enable better succession planning and identify a management team to meet current and future demands for the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel.  We have been working through these changes and working as a senior team to understand and be clear on the different portfolios which the department managers have. 

Our team consisted of the department managers who are responsible and accountable for the effective working of the kitchen, food and beverage, rooms division, centre for health and wellbeing and events.  As a team we set out and discovered some key items that required further development.

• Role clarity
• Visible and consistent leadership
• Valued as an individual
• Effective team work.

Our action plan was developed to include core themes such as inclusivity, visibility and accessibility. This shift in approach was led with the staff member at the core, ensuring all staff were included in decisions, management was not only visible but also accessible to staff.

We developed staff led focus groups such as “Service Excellence” meetings with a direct link to shaping and developing our customer service policies – this allows staff to input to any changes to improve our service to our hotel guests. Staff representation at other focus groups such as our Corporate Social Responsibility group was also a way for us to have staff input into how we shape our business to a more sustainable future.

The Hotel management made a commitment to ensuring staff were valued as an individual as well as a team. In April 2019, we held our Staff appreciation day for all the hard work staff had put in that resulted in the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel having a record breaking year.  This motivated our staff and gave us the opportunity to thank them for their hard work and we will continue with these events in the future.

We have been through a lot of changes over the past twelve to eighteen months and it was important to us as a management team we are visible and more engaging with staff, and this shift in focus was led by the Senior Hotel Management Team.

The shift in approach would not achieve a report on its own, we also identified that iMatter must be built into the daily routine. This meant that departments that typically had a low engagement response would allow staff some dedicated time during their shift to complete forms in a safe and confidential space and as a result we as a Hotel we able to increase our employee engagement.

The hard work will not stop there as we now look forward to ways we can continue to improve as a team and also how we continue deliver and improve the hotel experience to our guests and customers.

Denis Flanagan, Hotel Manager, Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel