5 top tips: How to make staff feel proud

Creating an environment that fosters a sense of professional pride amongst your staff will ensure a raft of great contributions and see them willing to commit themselves to achieving your business goals.

So, how does one encourage, and most importantly maintain, it? Here are five tips to instill a clear sense of pride in the workplace:

1. 1. Team values – think of your staff as a gold medal winning relay team. Winning teams are those that smoothly pass the baton, stride in perfect alignment, time their hand over to perfection, show unswerving focus and ensure that the final outcome of success is a given. Getting your team to work together in unison will encourage those more prone to marginal effort to up their game and be team players, as they won’t want to let the side down.
   2. Engagement – instil a sense of worth in staff by providing positive feedback on recent work and discuss areas of improvement with them. Share issues that have recently arisen with regards to guests, procedures or complaints and ask your team to consider how changes can be made, so that they too can feel part of the business.
   3. Communication – be clear with your team as to your expectations, reward progress and improvement and encourage openness by creating a safe environment in which to exchange ideas that could be of value to the team as a whole.

1. 1. • Support – never allow staff members to become disengaged, feel left out or be overlooked. Deal with issues before they escalate and put procedures in place to ensure that staff feel appreciated, valued and respected.

1. 1. • Enthusiasm – encourage your team to have an upbeat, proactive and solution-oriented attitude towards their daily activities and reflect this in your own work. A harmonious team significantly reduces workload and saves time, allowing for focus on areas of development and forward planning.

Keep your staff focused, committed and confident. Instilling team values and professional pride is essential to the maintenance of great standards and also for a harmonious and progressive workplace environment. Unhappy staff result in falling standards and disappointed guests – ignore it at your peril.

Franklin is a household management, lifestyle assistance and staffing organisation helping high-end establishments and private households operate seamlessly. This feature first appeared in the August 2015 issue of Hotel Owner.