By Nicole Di Tomasso
The concept of employee wellness isn’t entirely new, but its role within the hospitality industry has garnered significant attention in recent years. Driven by the growing recognition that happy, healthy employees are key to successful operations, hotels are embracing wellness programs as a strategic priority.
Several hotel companies are leading the way in implementing exemplary wellness programs. Here, Hotelier takes a closer look at some key components and a few notable examples.
Mental and Physical Health
Mental and physical health are intricately connected, underscoring the importance of treating the body and mind as a cohesive unit rather than isolated entities.
“The pandemic really brought to light the burnout [rate] of people working in the hospitality industry,” says Shannon Richards, Operational Training manager, Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver and KML Top-30-Under-30 winner for 2024. “Many of our associates are doing strenuous jobs, both physically and mentally. We often think about the physicality of jobs but we rarely think about how jobs affect an individual’s mental health.”
Among its many initiatives, Richards says the hotel is currently running bi-weekly yoga classes and has registered a team for a soccer league this summer.
“We’re flexible and we listen to what our team wants. If there’s a number of associates who are interested in a particular sport or activity, we try and get behind it as much as possible.”
Additionally, Fairmont Pacific Rim’s onsite dining area for associates encourages healthy eating habits and fuels productivity.
“In addition to foods that everyone knows and loves, we also have a salad bar and fresh fruits and vegetables,” says Richards. “Fresh produce in Canada is expensive so having a staff dining room that’s accessible and open 24/7 has been valuable to our team.”
Earlier this year, Fairmont Pacific Rim collaborated with GreenShield to offer six hours of free counselling (personal, family, financial, et cetera) and raised its mental-health benefit to $5,000 for every associate through Manulife Health Insurance plans.
“One of the biggest pieces is education around how to access these supports, such as helping associates understand how to do video counselling. When we’re onboarding new associates, we make sure they have access to all the tools they need and understand how to use Manulife and GreenShield to make the most of their benefit.”
Furthermore, authenticity is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of a thriving organizational culture. Be yourself is arguably some of the oldest advice in the book, but it’s taken a long time for that notion to penetrate the workplace.
“As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, if an individual is in a mental space where they can’t come to work as their authentic [self] then they can’t be present at work. Hospitality is about genuine connection. The bottom line of what people want when they go to a restaurant or a hotel is somebody who will be present in a conversation with them, who actively listens to them and takes time to be with them. If an individual is showing up to work terrified of being who they are, thinking in fight or flight mode, trying to protect themselves and displaying an image to a guest that isn’t authentically them, so much of their energy is spent keeping up that image. If we can break that down for associates and tell them that we want them for who they are, our associates will feel safer.”
Mandy Farmer, president & CEO, Accent Inns expresses a similar sentiment. “Being Real is one of our core values, and that’s never changed for us. We don’t script our people or force them into strict dress codes because we hire awesome people. We hire them because they’re awesome, so why would we want to suppress what makes them unique? When your housekeeper gets to sing to themselves at work without stressing about how they’re perceived, they can focus on getting you the cleanest room you’ve ever seen. When your front-desk agent isn’t hampered by boring scripts, they can give you the best advice on the most amazing hole-in-the-wall burger joint, or where to get the best weed. Nobody wants to feel like they’re talking to a robot. Authenticity is the answer.”
Work-Life Balance
The hospitality industry is known for its demanding nature, with long hours being one of several contributing factors to burnout, high turnover rates and job dissatisfaction.
“We need to acknowledge the pressures of the industry instead of ignoring them,” says Richards. “We need to acknowledge that 10- to 12-hour days take a toll on people, and if some people are going to have those kinds of days, how can we counteract that?”
In 2021, Marriott International and Marriott Canada introduced the Benefit of Balance: Your Work, Your Life flexible work arrangements for leaders who were offered either the flexibility of time, which could be every other Friday off, or the flexibility of place, which includes up to two days working remotely per week.
“Sixty per cent of managers in Canada have chosen a flexible work arrangement and 91 per cent of managers said the program retains them to Marriott, reducing our management turnover in 2022 by 50 per cent,” says Robin O’Hearn, area director of Human Resources, Canada, Marriott International. “Eighty-seven per cent of managers believed they were more productive/efficient and the remaining had no impact – it was never negative. Ninety-two per cent agreed that their stress, health and wellness was positively impacted,” adding that the company is aiming for 75 per cent total participation, with roughly 25 per cent of managers preferring to work a typical nine-to-five day due to other obligations.
Marriott also launched the Benefit of Balance flexibility of time for hourly and frontline associates who can decide when they work and the length of time they work. O’Hearn says the company is “attempting to distribute a minimum two-week schedule and aspiring to a multi-week schedule,” adding the program will be rolled out across Canada by the end of the year.
“We collaborated with 7Shifts to introduce technology that makes it easier to schedule. Associates can enter their work preferences, limit their number of shifts and drop or pickup shifts. Red shifts are identified when leaders are scheduling over people’s preferences, so we aim for no red shifts. However, we’re in the process of switching to a global platform, Atlas Enhanced Dimensions.”
From a recruitment perspective, O’Hearn says, “The flexible work arrangements not only retain, but are also an encouraging value proposition for potential candidates.”
Career Development and Education
Fairmont Pacific Rim offers an Interaction Management course, designed in collaboration with Development Dimensions International (DDI), to teach leaders how to have coaching conversations and the importance of coaching versus performance managing.
Last year, Accent Inns launched its new leadership development program called Emerging Leaders. “This program is comprised of three sections (leading self, leading the work, and leading others) and combines in-person and online learning,” says Farmer. “The objectives of Emerging Leaders are to grow confidence in our employees both inside and outside of their roles and really develop the whole person, not just the work person. Since we launched last year, 25 per cent of our graduates have been promoted into leadership roles, and, more importantly, 100 per cent of our graduates report that they have more confidence in their work and personal lives after participating in Emerging Leaders.”
In addition to more traditional academic scholarship programs, Farmer says the company also “offers a scholarship program to help our people enrich their lives. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to make authentic sushi, we’ll cover your course. We’ve paid for folks at all levels of our organization to follow their passions in everything from pottery to holistic nutrition to guitar lessons. Last year alone, 22 per cent of our employees used this program.”
“Our people brand is Be: Begin, Belong, Become,” says O’Hearn. “Become is a really important focus for us ensuring that every associate has the opportunity to grow their careers with us in whatever way that might mean to them. Sometimes people like the job they have, sometimes people want to try different things and our job is to encourage them and give them the pathways and support to do that.”
The Power of Mindset Shifts
Building exemplary wellness programs requires leaders to re-imagine how they package and offer services. Feedback is also a crucial element as Richards says all of the answers should come from a hotel’s most valuable asset: its staff.
“The old phrase, ‘Leave whatever is going on at home at the door’, isn’t a mindset that should exist, especially within the hospitality industry,” says Richards. “We all have back-of-the-mind thoughts that are happening all day, every day. If we can acknowledge that our associates have other things going on in their lives and create an environment where an individual can openly say, ‘I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and I’m in a bad mood,’ then we can help uplift that individual and find a way to make their day better as a team. The shift from, ‘leave everything at the door’ to ‘leave everything with me or your team if you’re comfortable to do so’ has helped our associates feel more comfortable and confident. Confidence goes a long way in hospitality.”
Richards continues, “We have monthly departmental meetings and departmental trainers who are great resources in so many ways. A front-desk agent trainer is a front-desk agent so I feel as though we get a lot more raw feedback from the trainers because they work as an advocate for their team. There’s a direct link between the colleague level and the leadership level. Understanding what our colleagues need to be more fulfilled in their health and wellness comes mostly from face-to-face conversations with the team more than anonymous surveys.”
Impact on the Guest Experience
The benefits of wellness programs extend beyond the health and happiness of the employees. When hotel staff feel supported and valued, they’re more likely to be engaged and motivated, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction. This positive attitude translates directly into the guest experience.
“Employee happiness isn’t a nice-to-have or in conflict with business metrics: it’s a business strategy,” says Farmer. “I believe that when you’re loved hard, you love hard. The love we give to our people ripples out into their lives, their work and their communities. That’s why leading with love has helped our retention, our guest satisfaction and
our bottom line.”
“Prioritizing employee wellness can feel overwhelming. Training is another area where people might think it takes up too much time,” says Richards. “But when you really think about it, if employees come to work because they want to be there then everything else falls into place. People who love what they do make other people love what they do. Prioritizing employee wellness means that other things that may be taking a lot of energy, such as guest recovery, complaint handling, figuring out disputes within the team, will start to fade. Those things will never be completely gone but many things will fall into place when a team feels supported.”