BC Hospitality Tradeshow Invitation

Invite For Associated Clients:

Sponsorship Opportunity and Complimentary Tickets

The BC Hospitality and Industry Exposition will be held November 23rd and 24th at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. This is the largest hospitality event for BC, drawing thousands of industry leaders.

As an exhibitor, Target Professionals is offering sponsorship opportunities to our associated clients. With a donation, your company logo and name will be displayed prominently at our "Bean Toss" event. Successful participants will receive donated prizes, such as a complimentary hotel stay, dining certificates, event passes or other promotional items of your choice.

This is an ideal opportunity to promote your company's brand image.

Along with this request, I'd like to extend an invitation to the Tradeshow compliments of Target Professionals! Please respond by October 30th to receive your free tickets and provide a promotional prize.

See you there!

For more information contact me directly: Colleen, Target Professionals, 604.552.2377 or colleen[at]targetprofessionals[dot]com.

Planning for the Upturn

When faced with a downturn in the economy, the obvious reaction is to cut costs and typically that involes a lot of firing. However, in studying the successes and failures of hundreds of companies as they navigate downturns, numerous reports suggest that this approach is a short term savings that doesn't justify the larger and long-term negative impact of cutting the employee numbers.

Most executives understand the potential damage of massive cuts to employee numbers and see the negative impact of the firm’s reputation and the goodwill of their employees. However, the oft used method to cut the wage bill is with lay-offs.

In a recent survey of HR directors conducted by Hewitt, 81 per cent of companies said they plan to further cut costs this year even though they have already made significant reductions. Furthermore, 28 per cent say they are planning to do so by “restructuring” and 25 per cent are considering lay-offs.

Meanwhile, a recent Towers Perrin study of 600 HR executives found that while cost pressures remain intense, cutting too deeply into an organisation’s muscle – its talent – could seriously hamstring a fast return to growth.

As economists and reports have stated, we have entered this downturn very quickly and may come out of it equally as quickly. The Hewitt study showed that 54 per cent of HR directors believe the US’s economic upturn will begin at the end of this year or in early 2010 and most believe their own company’s economic improvement will coincide with that upturn.

So it seems that the logical solution for companies under economic pressure is not to buckle under the pressure in the search for a quick fix, but rather be creative and innovative in looking for other cost-cutting strategies that will keep the company not only alive, but strong for the upturn.

There are many other options companies can take that will either cut costs, or counter the need to cut costs by increasing productivity and performance.

Below are five cost-cutting strategies proffered by various HR directors, academics and survey findings, which will help companies avoid the dreaded lay-offs.

Strategy 1

Purchasable annual leave

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) have had their “equilibrium” program in place for the past four years. It was introduced as a flexible work arrangement whereby indi viduals could elect to work in a range of flexible ways. But, as the company felt the pressure of the downturn, they opted to offer additional purchasable annual leave for an extended period of seven months, until the end of January 2010.

The offer was made to 4500 employees and was communicated in a transparent way, so that each employee knew the reason for the offer – to avoid having to lay people off.

The results of the offer were significant. Ninety per cent of the 4500 employees accepted the offer to take between 10 and 15 days unpaid leave.

“It was an amazing response,” says HR director of PWC, Nicole Brazil. “It really said a lot to us about the fabric of our organisation and that people know we are all in this together.”

Exactly how much money the strategy saved the company – and in turn how many jobs it saved – is difficult to quantify, however, with more than 4000 employees taking an extra 10 to 15 days unpaid leave it’s easy to say it would have a huge impact on overall savings. This measure will be far more beneficial to the company than letting people go in preparation for when the economic pressure eases.

Strategy 2

Job sharing

At the outset it might not seem like a cost-cutting strategy, but, job sharing can actually work as a means of saving cash.

If two people are doing the one job, in one sense there are the same costs involved because a company still has to pay the same salary for a particular role to be performed. However, the savings in benefits normally paid to a full-time employee are significant, so in that sense there is a cost saving to be had.

Job sharing also leads to reduced absenteeism and increased productivity. Having two people doing the one job means they work out a schedule to do certain hours and they therefore have more time off work and tend to turn up for those scheduled hours, leading to decreased absenteeism.

Job sharing also tends to motivate people. Loyalty is up, productivity is up, but where the customer is concerned it can be less predictable. However, overall the advantages over-ride the disadvantages.

Strategy 3

Pay cuts and reduced hours

A recent Employee Insights Survey of 560 professionals showed that nationally, 70 per cent would prefer to stay at their current employer and work reduced hours than face alternative cost-cutting strategies.

One of the most successful strategies globally has been to cut both pay and hours. But the key to success when taking this strategy is to cut it across the board – by including every person in the organisation. The management must tell the employees what the situation is and explain the environment they are working in. They must explain that everybody is going to cut back in order to save jobs.

If pay cuts are not across all levels of the organisation, he says, it creates a level of cynicism and consternation among employees. People want to see that the situation is affect ing everybody – including senior executives – and that those strategies are a genuine and sincere attempt to save the company.

People need to buy in. If you have employees buying in and they see what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and it has a good level and degree of fairness, then people will work with you.

Strategy 4

Work with employees – not against them

In a lot of cases, cost-cutting measures are driven from the top down,. but sometimes it's better to go to employees themselves and ask them how they think they could save money or increase productivity.

The staff know their own jobs themselves and each of them knows where there is corporate slack, so if you can work on a system and involve the employees on eliminating slack – eliminating non-value-adding components of their work – it produces a lot of buy-in and goodwill.

The differentiator between companies in times like this is getting out there and growing the business and seeking opportunities to expand and grow when every one else is hunkering down.

A suprising statistic suggests that increasing performance by 1 per cent has a much greater impact than reducing employee costs by 10 per cent, so moving the focus to increasing performance under economic pressure is a better cost saving method.

The other big way in which HR can make a difference is through talent management.

HR can really make a difference by identifying who your best players are, who will bring you through this period and how you can help these employees, coach them, and position yourselves to ensure you keep them and mitigate the risks of them leaving.

Because of the speed with which we entered this down turn, and the possibility that we may exit from it just as rapidly, if a company doesn’t have the right people in place to respond when the upturn comes, it will be in danger. Therefore, there are a lot of dangers involved in cutting costs too much. If you’re just cutting costs and cutting costs … when the upturn comes you don’t have the people or the structure in place to respond.

Everybody turns to cost cuts as a good way to go, or taking out numbers as a good way to go – but it’s got a huge cost in terms of brand damage and reputation and that’s one of the hardest thing to get back.

Strategy 5

Avoid layoffs and utilize alternative measures first as a means to cut costs.

Lay-offs must be the very last resort. It has such a huge impact on the culture of a company and people don't forget.

It impacts staff motivation and although productivity may not be impacted short-term, in the long-term loyalty gets affected, work satisfaction gets affected, innovation gets very much affected.

You have all these negative aspects which sometimes are very difficult to quantify. You spend years and decades building a corporate culture and then a bump occurs in the economic cycle and managers jump straight to employee lay-offs.

While lay-off are not always wrong, companies must look for a solution that is creative, that will work in the short, medium and long-term and keep in mind that the economic downturn is only temporary and will pick up again.


[Source: Human Resource Leader, 25 June 2009]

Recognition in a Dowturn

Rewarding and recognizing performance is especially important in a downturn.

The economic downturn has impacted on companies and their approach to reward and recognition in a variety of ways. Some companies have actually increased their spend and efforts to reward and recognize staff in a bid to boost performance, some have kept their investment in such programs steady, while others have rationalized their spend as part of cost-cutting programs across the entire organization.

Most companies have maintained their commitment to rewards and recognition, despite others cutting back. Still, companies realize that recognition, maybe less so reward, is an integral part of business. Despite economic conditions, companies still realize that they need to invest in their teams.

Recognition plays an important role in an economic down turn. There are people who have missed out on bonuses or who are missing out on pay rises as a result of a pay freezes, but one thing companies can do is to continue to recognize their people. The authenticity of how an acknowledgement is made is really, really important – much more so than an award that someone gets just because they’ve spent so many years with a company.

Improving discretionary performance is important in an economic downturn – a particularly good time to make a strategic investment in performance improvement. When employees perform better, the company performs better and while there has been some affect on non-sales generating areas, companies are still recognizing that the people generating income need to be motivated. Those sorts of programs haven’t been affected either on the incentive or rewards side.

Return on investment

Return on investment in reward and recognition programs is being scrutinized more closely in the downturn. Companies are looking more closely at the level of return, which also needs to be more tangible than it has been in the past. Most companies, now more than ever, have a clear understanding the reward and recognition program they have in place and what they want out of it. Companies don’t run them just because it’s good to look after employees.

The ROI on an incentive program is obvious: low fixed cost element and a high variable cost element, so that when people generate revenue, such programs pay for themselves because people are hitting their targets. It doesn’t really matter what the budget is, however, with a smaller budget you have to be more clever about how you put the elements of the program together.

Boosting discretionary effort is vital in tough times, and companies need to think about the “loyalty mirror. The more the workforce is engaged, the higher the customer loyalty, and this absolutely goes to profit and the bottom line. Gallup has given us the figures. Engaged employees deliver 27 per cent higher profit, 50 per cent higher sales and 50 per cent higher customer loyalty. So it’s just a commercial decision,” she says.


Human Resources’ role in reward and recognition

HR is in a prime position to help make the most of any reward and recognition programs. Now, more than ever, leadership teams want increased discretionary effort. And the only way to get that is if people feel engaged with the organization.

To get engagement you've got to go through the three basic steps. Firstly, do people have all the performance development tools hat people need - that's the HR role. Secondly, are people emotionally connected to the organization? And, thirdly, are they connected to the brand?

Te key role for HR is in championing an initiative to the executive team to help them understand how reward and recognition can contribute to a broader strategy. HR has to put it in the context of the business. Obviously there is a cost to such programs, and, if these come into question, HR's role is in helping the business understand the non-financial benefits.


Elements of successful reward and recognition

Reward behaviour as well as performance, because behaviours such as exhibiting company values or excelling in customer service contribute to outcomes.
Everyone should have access to the reward and recognition program - not just high achievers or sales professionals.
Increase frequency of rewards and recognition to reinforce positive performance and behaviour.

Secure strong executive support, so a company's leaders own and drive the program.

[Source: Human Resource Leader, 8 July 2009]

Retention in the Hospitality Industry

Retention Retention Retention

Some numbers for you:
Cost to recruit and train one mid level manager 10K - 14K
Time to find and train on average 6 months
Current turnover average in the industry 40%

I hear from clients and contacts in the industry often about the difficuties and costs when it comes to keeping quality people, especially of late. While I have a distrinct advantage in targeting candidates in the market, it's up to the client to implement methods to retain that person. It's a real crisis in the Western Canada market right now and I don't see it getting better any time soon. You needent think you're alone in this increasingly difficult task of retaining people. Everyone in the hospitality industry feels the impact of the exodus of front-line staff and management to Oil in Alberta. BC is affected by this and is also not all that far behind with 2010 only 2 years away. So what does it take to minimilzie the impact?

As much as it seems to have come down to money, money money, the companies that are succeeding in winning over quality candidates and keeping them on board are using a few methods, including money, and are continiously seeking out alternatives to keep people.
The approaches that I see working are comprehensive and target these goals: attract, challenge, and compensate.

I don't really need to say you'll attract greater candidates using an industry focussed recruiter, right? Attract the best candidates by putting effort into presenting your company in the most favorable light possible. This is not always accomplished with a job advertisement and job fairs but they certainly make a first impression for good or bad, so take the time to explain the position and the company culture. Too many people don't consider just how much appearances mean to candidates. They want to be valued and that is first demonstrated with your putting the effort into presenting the opportunity and company well in print, web and in person.

Once you've got their attention, they will likely be thinking, "How can this company can help me build on my work experiences". For those who didn't get the memo, IT'S AN EMPLOYEES MARKET! And the candidates know the tide has turned and they're in the driver's seat. The pros and cons of that and how to deal with it may be a future topic. Most candidates I've spoken with over the years want to develop and be challenged in their work and this comes across as the number one priority above all other concerns. This is especially true with the younger workers just coming up the career ladder. The point is, you must have either a succession plan for the position to put forward or be offering a position somehow beyond their current scope.

Compensation. It's really not going to work to continue to say, "We want people who don't value money over all else". I've heard this more than a few times, but would you work for 30K? At the end of the day, we all look for a good compensation package - and yes - the fair, good and excellent candidates all consider this before taking a position. And rightly so. Anyone who thinks they don't have to respond to the increasing salary ranges the industry demands will have difficulty attracting, and most certainly retaining, great people.

Consider again the time and cost to get a new person on board along with the turnover rate in the indstry as noted above. Is it clear that those who succeed in targeting and retaining the best candidates are paying attention to how they attract, challenge and compensate people? It is to me, I've seen it working.

Happy hunting,
Colleen