Page 16 - ARUBA TODAY

A16 LOCAL
Monday 21 May 2018

Hotel Hustle

Column by: Shanella Pantophlet

Motivation through Celebration

The one thing that is important to know about the Aruban people, is that we
love to celebrate. Be it a small accomplishment, a holiday or a personal
goal there is always cause for celebration. At all hotels on the Island cel-
ebration is used as a way to bring colleagues from all departments together
and to motivate staff performance throughout the year. One of the most im-
portant celebrations being employee of the month/quarter/half, whatever or
however it is called at that specific property. Anywhere you go you are sure
to find a placard with the photo and name of the best performing employee,
as voted by the guests through their comment cards or survey feedback.

The recognition is important and is often used as a tool to let that employee
know their hard work, extra efforts and pleasant attitude have not gone un-
noticed or unappreciated by management or guests. Sometimes just nomi-
nating someone is enough to puff them up and let them know they’ve been
seen, it also makes them strive to work harder and do better in order to win the next time around. The celebrations obviously vary by company and
the type of event, but the overall goal is always the same, building a stronger team bond and encouraging others to continue to go the extra mile.

The issue that I have noticed in my time at my resort is that our cause for celebration, can ignite some rather negative responses from our mem-
bers. I first started to notice this during our New Year’s celebration, where when we lit the “Pagara”, a firework to ward off negativity and welcome
in a prosperous New Year on the last official work day of the year, there were a few guests heading in the opposite direction and grumbling about
“burning” or “wasting” their money on something like that.

In the time since I have been helping with posts on our social media pages, we have learned to be more selective about what we post as those
same negative comments would appear on our posts and cause rather heated discussions on our page. Effectively besmirching what we felt
was a way to give people insight into what is happening at the resort and showing them how we are rewarding the employees for their good
service throughout the year.

Playing Devil’s advocate, I do understand where the negativity is coming from to an extent. Timeshare resorts aren’t exactly profit generating
properties, the money that is taken in goes right back to cover operational expenses and many may feel that throwing a party or lighting some
fireworks is wasteful. However, what some may see as a frivolous use of their money, is actually an effective means of keeping up staff morale and
building staff loyalty. It improves service, because a happy employee is a productive and engaged employee and reduces costs by reducing
staff turnover. At the end of the day, looking at the bigger picture, the greatest return on investment any company can have are loyal, happy
employees who work together to enhance the guest experience, no matter what department they work in. q

Aruban born and bred Shanella Pantophlet is passionate about tourism. That is the world she studied and works in, so we might as well call her a
specialist. Luckily for Aruba Today Shanella also loves to write. And together with the fact that the majority of our readers are tourists, we found
ourselves a perfect combination for a column: Hotel Hustle.