Hospitality is a familiar concept for most of us, but it’s historically associated with hotels or perhaps being a guest in someone’s home. In the hotel industry (unironically also known as the ‘hospitality industry’), properties leverage services and amenities that make their accommodations attractive to guests to lure them in. Those same offerings make the experience practical and comfortable to keep guests coming back time and again.
The workplace hospitality concept may apply on some level to all employers with a physical work location but employers with large populations of employees on-site, ideally over 500, will benefit the most from a strategic investment in programs and practices that bring the concept to life.
When thinking about incorporating workplace hospitality into your employee engagement initiatives, answer these three key questions:
When?
Consider the timing of your plan to implement hospitality services in your workplace. When are you aiming to attract employees back to the office? When do you want to encourage an increase in employees returning to the office?
Where?
Take global differences into account. Workplace hospitality may not look the same for companies in the UK. as it does for organisations operating offices in other parts of the world. Understanding the unique social and cultural needs of your business location is key to creating a workplace hospitality strategy that satisfies — or even impresses — your employees and visitors.
Why?
Clearly outline your organisation’s reasons for implementing workplace hospitality. Some parts of this will almost certainly be about building community and enhancing work culture but it’s worth outlining the business benefits you hope to see as well — and creating a plan for measuring progress toward those goals.
These might include better employee satisfaction ratings, improved work-life balance, higher productivity, reduced turnover, and higher employee engagement. Workplace hospitality can also be used to highlight specific commitments, such as support for wellness and other brand differentiators.
Previously we outlined the concept of workplace hospitality. The next question is: What does it look like in practice? Now, we’ll explore some real examples of how organisations can inject hospitality into the workplace.
Much the same way quality hotels build guest loyalty through tailored experiences, workplace hospitality relies heavily on personalisation to provide customised service and a unique human touch.
For example; you can collect preference information to better care for your employees and guests. A VIP can submit their preferences prior to their visit and find their favourite coffee drink or cold beverage waiting upon their arrival. This small extra step helps office visitors feel welcomed and inspires them to visit again.
And before we continue, it’s worth noting that workplace hospitality shouldn’t be an additional burden for your existing HR or people operations staff. An on-site Hospitality Team — specialists in service-driven events, hospitality and experiences — can bring this all together and manage your workplace hospitality program.
A Hospitality Manager not only acts as an ambassador of your physical workspaces and facilitator of hospitality services, they are also responsible for monitoring and reporting on service utilisation — a key element for tracking the ROI of your hospitality efforts.
Take a look at this short guide with some examples of what it looks like to implement hospitality services in the workplace, broken down by category. While some of these activities are already quite common, others are premium services that employees and visitors may not expect. Folding all types of hospitality services into a holistic strategy helps deliver a personalised, yet consistent experience to all types of guests.
If you’re interested in using hospitality to build a thriving culture, ready to see a personalised demo or just want a chat about which solution would best fit your needs, we’re ready to answer any and all of your questions. Simply get in touch here.
