Aiming at excellence at the Forte Hotel Group

Aiming at excellence at the Forte Hotel Group

A sum of £10 million for an excellence programme sounds considerable. But a complete “makeover”’ of a corporate culture was never going to be cheap.  The program paid appreciable dividends in terms of customer and employee satisfaction and staff retention rates.

A question of culture change

The excellence program goes far beyond training – it  seeks to change the very culture.

Cau, the new CEO’s, plan was is built on seeing people development as the route to customer satisfaction because .

1.      Prior to 1998, employee turnover was high and, while staff might have felt some loyalty to their own hotel, there was very little understanding of what Forte stood for and very little pride of being associated with the brand. It was just a job. This needed change.

2.      Meanwhile, internal research at Forte had already determined the strong correlation between employee and customer satisfaction.

The first change was to abandon getting classified in London’s general hotel listing and get  rebranded into four distinct chains: Le Me´ridien, Posthouse, Heritage, and Travelodge. For each brand the target customer was different and the intended experience provided through employees, servicescapes, blue prints, locations was different. This created an identity which created an appreciation which was identifiable to both the staff and the customers.

The organizational excellence strategy then proposed 8 steps to quality

1.      Initial research among existing and potential guests and existing and potential employees

2.      Standards setting

3.      Training programs

4.      Leadership Commitment

5.      Internal communication

6.      People development and appraisals

7.      Service recognition

8.      Measures of Excellence.

Key findings were that both employees and guests wanted to be treated like individuals. The  program provided 24 hours of training to every single member of staff. This included classroom sessions, on-the-job training and team meetings. Each hotel was free to adapt the training where appropriate to mirror its own strengths. General and senior managers underwent their own three-day “Leading the Change” training program.

The need to share the vision throughout the organization led to a major communication exercise and creation of a special communications department. Newsletters kept staff up to date with success stories and promoted best practice. A “buddy” system enabled sharing of experiences between hotels that had undergone the process and those about to embark on the program. A new magazine, Forte First, was launched. Covering all four hotel chains, it targets 47,000 employees and promotes identification with the Forte name.

Recognition of the importance of employee behavior in customer expectations led Forte to introduce a “Screening for excellence” questionnaire for use in recruitment. Trainers also emphasize commitment to excellence in the induction process and have introduced appraisal processes for employees and managers.

Having determined the excellence goals and the means of achieving these, the group then needed a system to measure progress and to recognize outstanding achievement. Monitoring of quality progress is ongoing with a “check list” of customer priorities such as service at check-in and check-out and response to complaints. Performance reports are then drawn up for each hotel and hotel chain. Employee performance is similarly monitored.

To recognize achievement, the “XL” system was devised. This works on an Olympic principle of bronze, silver and gold medals. While the bronze award goes to all employees following completion of training, silver and gold awards represent particular excellence and outstanding performance respectively. Such awards are given following nomination of individuals by colleagues.

The net result of all these initiatives has been much improved employee satisfaction rates (running at an impressive and record breaking 85 percent), a consequent marked improvement in employee retention rates and, as can be expected, a 10 percent upturn in customer satisfaction scores based on how “welcomed” and “valued” guests feel. Complaints have dropped by 15 percent and compliments have risen 24 percent.

So the end result has been, as hoped, happier staff and more contented guests – and the success of Antoine Cau’s initiative makes £10 million sound more than worthwhile despite the challenges of the planning and design phase.