Ramada Demonstrates Its Personal Best
Ramada’s individual property owners do their own hiring. The process differs widely from property to property. Ramada called on research firm Predictive Index to identify characteristics that were indicative of self-motivated performers. Ramada also brought in American Hotel and Motel Educational Institute to learn what other companies were doing correctly to identify and hire the right people.
RFS also wanted direct, face-to-face employee input into the process of developing new programs in hiring, training, and motivation. “But this was a daunting prospect with more than 31,000 employees, many of whom spoke a language other than English,” explains Pigsley. Twenty-four researchers spanned out to visit each of
Ramada’s 900 properties within a six-month period. “To bring about change in corporate culture and mindset would take more than employees checking off boxes on a piece of paper,” claims Pigsley. So Ramada launched the research project more like the opening of a new hotel—a festive atmosphere, complete with food and comedic entertainment. Headquarters staff arrived at each property, usually spending the morning extracting issues and information from management. Then in an atmosphere evocative of a new hotel launch, employees were invited to share their ideas and concerns about the three initiatives. Employee suggestions and needs flowed as freely as the food and beverages. The information collection team recorded employee and management input on a detailed summary form generated for each property. Research with employees revealed the current training approach was boring and ineffective. Most training involved videotapes, developed internally or purchased, with new hires or groups of employees watching the videos. RFS’s benchmarking research with the hospitality industry’s stellar examples of