Human-resources practices of TQM hotels

H U M A N R E S O U R C E S Human-lKes0urces Practicesof TQM Hotels To develop a culture of total quality management, a hotel company must make its human-resources department a full-fledged player in by Charles G. Partlow the hotel's operations, because specific human-resources practices ntial to a successful TQM program. it" k Making the move from a traditional management philosophy to a total-quality-management (TQM) culture demands much from an organization. Nowhere is this demand more apparent than in the human-resources-management function. Certain human-resources practices are required to support a TQM-based culture. To determine which H R practices are most essential to T Q M , I examined the Charles G. Partlow, Ph D., b an associate professor and the director of graduate studies in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration at the University of South Carolina. © 1996, Cornell University October 1996 ° 87 Exhibit 1 Participating hotel companies (AH&MA's Committee for Quality) Company Title of person interviewed Bergstrom Hotels* Director of human resources in quality ITT-Sheraton Vice president of human resources and director of total quality management Omni Hotels Senior vice president of human resources Opryland Hospitality and Attractions Group* Manager of quality assurance South Seas Plantation Resort and Yacht and Harbour Club* The Salish Lodge* The Worthington Hotel* Treasure Island Inn* Director of human resources Vice president and general manager Quality manager General manager *Quality-resource properties human-resources practices of eight hotels that belong to the AH&MA's Committee for Quality. The committee comprises AH&MA members dedicated to developing, redefining, and promoting the quality process to benefit the hotel industry. The committee members' mission is to promote the quality concept through networking among themselves and sharing information and ideas throughout the industry. To assist in this effort, the committee has designated qualityresource properties, a cadre of hotels within the committee that maintain ongoing quality programs and are available for site visits from other hoteliers and businesses. Each of these six hotels has established H1KM practices that support and sustain a total quality culture. What follows is an H1KM-practices profile based on interviews with management and human-resources professionals from eight members of the AH&MA's Committee for Quality, six of which are also qualityresource properties (see Exhibit 1). A TQM Primer Because there are numerous variations of the definition of"total quality management," I begin with 68 N E L L HOTELANDRESTAURANTADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY a discussion of T Q M as I apply it in this article. T Q M has become so pervasive in the hotel industry today that the term is associated with almost any improvement effort. Maybe that is why there is so much confusion about its application. Authors Marshall Sashkin and Kenneth J. Kiser have identified the following three critical elements of TQM: (1) customer satisfaction as a central focus; (2) the use of tools, techniques, and training to continuously improve organizational processes; and (3) an organizational culture that defines and supports quality. 1They offer the following definition: " T Q M means the organization's culture is defined by and supports the consistent attainment of customer satisfaction through an integrated system of tools, techniques, and training. This involves the continuous improvement of organizational processes, resulting in high-quality products and services.''2 The primary focus of T Q M is not so much on quality as it is on the customer who defines that quality. In other words,TQM is concerned with quality because quality is the customer's concern. Organizations with this strong customerbased focus on quality generally follow an integrated and systematic approach to managing the quality process. This involves recognizing and attending to five quality checkpoints: (1) continuously determining how well a product or service meets customers' needs and wants; (2) inspecting the product or service prior to delivery to the customer; (3) controlling quality during actual production or service processes; (4) assessing the quality of raw materials delivered by suppliers 1 M u c h of this discussion comes from: Marshall Sashkin and Kenneth J. Kiser, Putting Total Quality Management to Work (San Francisco: BerrettKoehler Publishers, 1993). 2 Sashkin and Kiser, p. 39. and vendors; and (5) examining quality-control procedures used by suppliers. T Q M requires certain tools and techniques for improving products, services, and work processes. Such tools as flow charts, fishbone diagrams, and line graphs help people collect and analyze data so they can solve quality problems and make continuous improvements) T Q M techniques like group brainstorming and quality circles help people develop skills needed for effective teamwork. 4 Finally, training is needed on a continuous basis to teach employees how to use qualitycontrol tools and work together in teams. Even with all these tools in place, however, an organization can sustain a total quality program over the long run only when its culture defines and supports T Q M as a management philosophy. This matter of creating and supporting a TQM-based culture is the most difficult part of T Q M to understand and apply, but it is also the most important part. Sashkin and Kiser define eight cultural elements that are crucial for T Q M success (Exhibit 2). Many of the culture elements are implemented through an organization's policies, programs, and practices. For example, designing jobs that give employees greater control over their work actions, referred to as empowerment, directly supports the cultural element of giving employees an ownership stake in the organization. Having employees work together in teams fosters cooperation, and employee participation and open-door communications policies help to create a 3 For example, see: D. Darryl Wyckoff, "New Tools for Achieving Service Quality," CornelI Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3 (November 1984), pp. 78-91. 4 See, for instance: Christophe Orly,"Quality Circles in France: Accor's Experiment in SelfManagement," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3 (November 1988), pp. 50-57. Exhibit 2 Eight cultural elements that support total quality management Element 1: Information for improvement Performance and quality information must go to those who use it to understand problems, develop solutions, and take action. Such information must not be used to judge individuals' performance. Element 2: Authority equal to responsibility Employees responsible for doing the work and attaining certain outcomes must have the authority they need to carry out their responsibilities effectively, Element 3: Rewards for results Results must be rewarded. Individuals, teams, and all members of the organization must share equitably the fruits of their efforts. Element 4: Cooperation, not competition Cooperation must be the basis for working relationships. To the extent possible, people in an organization must support one another's efforts, not compete with one another. Element 5: Job security Employees must know that their jobs are secure, and that they will not be discarded at management's convenience. Element 6: A Climate of fairness Everyone in the organization must perceive that a climate of fairness exists, based on the behavior and actions of managers at'all levels. Element 7: Equitable compensation Pay should be equitable across organizational levels. Top-executive pay should not be much more than about 20 times the pay of the lowest-paid full-time permanent employee. Element 8: Employee ownership Employees should have an ownership stake in the organization. Source: Marshall Sashkin and Kenneth J. Kiser, Putting Total Quafity Management to Work (San Francisco: Berrett-KoeNer PuNishers, 1993), pp. 77-109. climate of fairness. Top management's commitment to the T Q M philosophy is imperative for these values to become part of an organization's culture. Cultural Transformation Human-resources-management practices in T Q M organizations must be congruent with a cultural climate built on the shared assumptions of employee and management dedication to quality and customer satisfaction. When asked to describe the importance of cultural transformation to their hotel's T Q M effort, all of the respondents interviewed said it was paramount. At ITT-Sheraton, for instance, the cultural transformation was described as one of gradual cultural change. All respondents emphasized October1996 • 69 the importance of taking time to establish a culture that supports TQM. The Worthington Hotel chooses not to call its process T Q M , believing that to be another faddish industry buzzword. Instead, its focus on continuous improvement is referred to as the "Quest for Excellence. ''5 The Worthington began its Quest for Excellence initiative three years ago by putting employees into groups to discuss what the compaw's mission and vision for the future should be. Progress was not being made, however, because management had failed to consider the current organizational culture and the individual needs of each employee. Management realized that before it can get employees to ask, "Who are we as a company?," it first must get them to ask,"Who am I?," "What are my goals and expectations?," and "What is my role in this organization?" By answering those questions,Worthington employees gained a better understanding of themselves and their co-workers and learned about working together in teams. At that point, the employees were able to determine the company mission and vision. Bergstrom Hotel's culture has always been based on quality improvement (e.g., using quality circles to give employees a sense of'involvement), but management wanted the company to become more fully involved with T Q M . After consulting with colleagues at South Seas Plantation, which was further along in its T Q M effort, Bergstrom had all its managers and supervisors receive 18 hours of training in the T Q M philosophy. Only then did top management meet with the employees to get their buy-in. Quality circles were replaced by quality teams that met regularly to discuss quality issues 5See: GlennWithiam,"Reaching for the Star," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (June 1993), p. 17. ,o and solve problems. Management even appointed quality advisors or facilitators from employee ranks. Two years after that change many of the teams had experienced success in making quality improvements, but the company was still not satisfied. The original number of teams established and the size of each team precluded some employees from participating on a team. So, management decided to revamp the team approach to give every employee a chance to participate. Bergstrom concluded that quality has to be for everyone and not just a select few. The company also realized that quality improvement must involve every area of the hotel to be effective. Communication The respondents reported that once top management decided to develop a T Q M culture, each hotel worked on communicating the new mission throughout the organization. The cultural shift towardTQM requires top management to share all relevant information with employees. While this is sometimes threatening to those who perceive information as power, the management of T Q M hotels believes that frequent, honest, and open communication with employees is needed to reinforce a culture of quality. Clear and consistent communication is achieved only when managers act on their quality pronouncements. Employees observe carefully how top managers allocate their time and attention. Bergstrom Hotels uses the familiar expression "walk the talk" to emphasize the importance of consistency between the words and deeds of top management. To keep employees up to date on company performance in general and quality activities and objectives in particular, the T Q M hotels in this survey use a wide variety of corn- EIIRNELLHOTELANDRESTAURANT ADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY munication channels and media. Bergstrom Hotels developed its own video tapes of 10 to 15 minutes to communicate the quality message. Each video covers one of the 16 "Bergstrom Basics," a set of principles governing employee conduct that embody Bergstrom's commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, as well as other quality issues. A video is shown each month at employee team meetings, and new videos are developed on a regular basis to help keep the quality message fresh and alive. Every HIK director in the Omni Hotel chain receives a bulletin called" Issues and Answers," which is faxed to them on Mondays. Each bulletin describes a different quality issue or problem and solution that the corporate office receives from anyone, anywhere in the chain. The bulletins help keep Omni's people on top of what is happening with the chain's T Q M efforts and how quality problems are being solved. Video tapes and faxes can supplement face-to-face meetings as an important means of communicating quality topics, but nothing can replace personal interaction. Several of the companies surveyed conduct allemployee meetings throughout the year. At South Seas Plantation, all employees attend three meetings each year where they reemphasize the quality mission and goals and review the accomplishments of the past four months. Employees at the Worthington Hotel meet quarterly, with a different group of employees responsible for putting on each meeting. Each group incorporates quality principles into the meeting and demonstrates positive changes that have occurred as a result of the group's quality effort. O m n i hosts an annual humanresources conference where HIK professionals throughout the chain come together to share ideas on the best H R practices and hear how quality initiatives have been successfully implemented at individual properties. Employee Involvement Formal communication from the top keeps employees abreast of their company's quality initiatives. H o w ever, top-down communication represents only one direction for information flow. T Q M hotels encourage bottom-up communication to ensure that employees' voices are heard by management. These hotels facilitate upward communication through focus groups, employee committees, open-door policies, and suggestion systems. When employees have a problem or complaint that cannot be resolved by their immediate supervisor Bergstrom's open-door policy gives the employees direct access to all levels of management, including company president Richard Bergstrom. Annual employee-attitude and employee-satisfaction surveys represent another mechanism for upward communication. Sheraton, Omni, and Bergstrom use comprehensive employee-attitude surveys to monitor employee satisfaction and identify problem areas. These surveys typically ask employees to rate their supervisors on such dimensions as leadership, communication, and support. Managers develop action plans to address employee concerns. In some of the hotel companies examined, employees participate in advisory groups to voice concerns and exchange views on quality issues. For example, Omni Hotels and South Seas Plantation use employee focus groups, called "employee exchange communication meetings," as a means of providing employees an opportunity to address their concerns or to give input about upcoming issues. Similarly, Opryland's Employee Communications Council provides each employee a forum to discuss problems and concerns on any topic from pay to parking. 6 The Worthington and Bergstrom both use a suggestion system called "opportunity for improvement" (OFI) that goes far beyond simply asking employees for ideas. At Bergstrom, employees receive an OFI book, similar to a checkbook, for submitting and recording ideas or suggestions for improvement. The "check" portion identifying the suggestion or problem is turned in to an action team responsible for addressing the issue. Checks are returned to employees when the issue is resolved. Employees then mark their "stub" for that check number as either "completed," "planned," or "declined" (not all ideas can be acted upon). Issues involving pay, benefits, or personalities are inappropriate as OFIs, but may be handled through other means. Company policy states that a quick response to an OFI is essential--no more than 72 hours for an acknowledgment or "thank you" and one week for a response (whether completed, planned, or declined). Although employees receive no financial reward for submitring OFIs, they are seen as a valuable tool for listening to employees, increasing their level of involvement, and improving the way work is done. Over 1,600 OFIs have been submitted in the past two years at Bergstrom, with better than an 80-percent completion rate. Job Design At the operational level, changes in the way work is done serves as the catalyst for changes in many human-resources processes. In the 6 See also: Michael R. Evans, "Opryland Hotel: Managing Nashville's Complete Destination," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly,Vol. 25, No. 4 (February 1985), pp. 44-55; and John J. Hogan, "Turnover and What to Do About It," CornelI Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly,Vo]. 33, No. 1 (February 1992), pp. 40-45. past work was organized to maximize efficiency. Managers normally defined jobs and closely monitored both quality and productivity. In a T Q M company, the focus of jobs must be on quality, which does not necessarily preclude efficiency. Job design emphasizes innovation, creativity, and problem solving aimed at maximizing quality as well as quantity of output. For example, individual jobs may be combined into cross-functional work teams that can address short-term quality problems on the spot. Interview data indicated that T Q M hotels have embraced empowerment as an underlying framework that enables individual employees to solve problems and satisfy customers without time-consuming management approval. Employees at South Seas Plantation are encouraged to take ownership of a guest's problem, to "own the opportunity" to do whatever they feel is necessary to resolve a situation and make the guest's experience "naturally unforgettable. ''7 Bergstrom refers to guest comments as "Lunch of Champions"; they may not taste good, but they include essential ingredients for success. Bergstrom views front-line employees as "experts" in the service process who are able to respond much more quickly to guest concerns or suggestions than can managers or supervisors. Teams are changing the way work is done at many of the T Q M hotels in this survey. At the Worthington, a team of employees in the food and beverage department decided to flatten the department's hierarchy as a way of improving communication and facilitating access to information. No jobs were eliminated in the restructuring 7 See also: Gail Christensen, "Managing Workforce Diversity: Changing Culture at South Seas Plantation," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Admim'stration Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (August 1988) pp. 30 34. October 1996 • 71 Salish Lodge, for example, has only four teams active at any time. One team calls itself D R A C U L A (Dining R o o m Action Committee Under Loy's Administration) and has adopted a dracula symbol as its logo. Helmly has been known to show up at team meetings on occasion wearing a dracula costume. The team is allowed to function with considerable autonomy and has been given control and responsibility in areas previously reserved for department managers. One of DtCACULA's projects involved revamping the scheduling procedure, which resulted in cost savings for the unit. Members of the team also police each other, coming down hard on cohorts who fail to show up for a scheduled shift# At Treasure Island Inn, Bob Davis emphasizes the importance of having his employee teams get away from finger pointing and work tos For another approach to employee scheduling, see: Gary M.Thompson, "Controlling Action Times in DailyWorkforce Schedules," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 2 (April 1996), pp. 82-96. 72 I~RNEIL HOTELAND RESTAURANTADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY gether to fix problems. One of his teams, the FROGS (Front Desk Reservations, Switchboard Operators, Guest Services, and Security), has revamped the hotel's keycontrol system and redesigned employee scheduling to improve elevator efficiency. The "In the Weeds" team, comprising employees from the Food and Beverage Department, has taken on the responsibility of increasing F&B sales. Shortly before my survey, the team hosted an employee forum to gather ideas and feedback from coworkers on how everyone in the hotel can work together to promote the hotel's various foodservice outlets. The GMs of both of these hotels agree that giving teams the responsibility for and control of their own work generated employee pride, commitment, and task ownership. M e a s u r e m e n t . While teamwork and empowerment programs are underway in each of the T Q M hotels, only a few emphasized the impact that measurement of individual and team performance has had on changing the way work is done. Bergstrom tracks 82 key service-delivery points on a daily basis.The measurements come from restaurants, rooms, banquets, catering, and sales via guest surveys, comment cards, and personal interviews. Bergstrom surveyed over 30,000 guests in 1994, for instance. Each department receives an overall rating, called a "quality service index," which is shared with the teams. Sheraton uses a balanced score card, called a "dashboard," to measure and display key performance indicators at each organizational level. In both hotel companies these measurement tools help employees become more responsible for the quality of the work they do by allowing them to track their perfor- H U M A N mance. Reward systems are also tied to these measurement tools. Training Kedesignedjobs in a T Q M environment place new demands on employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities. A variety of communication techniques heighten employees' awareness of the company's quality objectives, but without the requisite ability to pursue quality objectives, even the most conscientious employees can become frustrated. Therefore, once employees understand the company mission and quality objectives, they must have or be encouraged to develop the skills and abilities necessary to carry out quality mandates. The T Q M hotels represented here view training as a crucial step in the process. While most organizations train their employees in functional and managerial skills, T Q M hotels focus their training efforts on quality. For example, Opryland Hotel provides dozens of training sessions each month on quality topics including empowerment. 9 Bergstrom requires all employees to attend "team training" and "continuous-improvement concepts" workshops. Similarly, South Seas Plantation requires T Q M training for all quality-team leaders and members, and is in the process of developing leadership and professionaldevelopment training for all employees. At Sheraton, all managers receive one week of T Q M training, and T Q M figures prominently in the company's annual executivedevelopment conference. Quality symposiums are also held that bring together managers from different properties to work on case studies, participate in T Q M exercises, and 9 For example, see: Marc Clark, "Training for Tradition at Opryland Hotel," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4 (February 1991), pp. 46-51. listen to guest speakers. Employees with Omni Hotels receive total quality assurance (TQA) training (totaling 75 hours per employee in 1994) and quality-managementskills training is required for all managers. Employees have adopted the training function in some T Q M hotels. At the Worthington Hotel, 75 of the 525 employees have completed train-the-trainer workshops and are designated as certified trainers. Those employees are responsible for developing and conducting training sessions based on a set of performance standards that are strategic to the property's critical success factors. While employee training is often customized to meet individual needs, every worker receives weekly standards training to reinforce the organization's quality goals. The effectiveness of this training is measured through guestcomment cards distributed at the front desk. Items on the card relate specifically to the standards covered in training. Using a scanner to read each card and computer software for detailed data analysis, the Worthington analyzes an average of 775 guest-comment cards each month. Bergstrom has established the "Coaches Club," a team of certified trainers from within the employee ranks who conduct certified position training for all new hires. Employee trainees must pass both a written and skill-demonstration test on their position before receiving certification. Training effectiveness is measured using both guest- and employee-satisfaction surveys. The Treasure Island Inn provides training certification to its employees through the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association. A majority of employees at the hotel have received a Certified Hospitality Supervisor (CHS) designation. R E S O U R C E S Performance-ReviewSystems While quality training provides employees with the tools needed to identify and solve quality problems, employees must also be afforded the opportunity to use those new skills and to be recognized and rewarded when they do so. The T Q M hotels in this sample have created humanresources policies and practices that permit employees to apply their quality skills, to assume ownership for solving quality problems, and to receive appropriate rewards and recognition for their accomplishments. South Seas Plantation bases its performance reviews on how well each department's quality effort is progressing. Managers are evaluated on leadership skills and their ability to support a participative work environment. Sheraton's performance-review process has evolved over the years from being focused solely on financial measures, to a 40-percent focus on T Q M dimensions, such as employee and guest satisfaction. Similarly, Bergstrom rates its employees on a variety of quality dimensions, including internal and external guest satisfaction, coaching, and creative problem solving. L o o k i n g ahead. Evaluating employees solely on their past performance may prove detrimental to continuous-improvement efforts. In a T Q M environment, managers should help employees solve performance problems and reward continuous improvements, rather than focus on past performance mistakes. Thus, several T Q M hotels replace backward-looking performanceevaluation systems with forwardlooking personal-planning and personal-development systems. Bergstrom replaced its traditional performance reviews with a "personal-development planning process." Managers meet with em- October 1996 • 73 :C- ar- he Y o to the :n lp managers develop a more complete picture of each employee's contributions, Bergstrom routinely considers peer reviews as a part of performance evaluations, as well as information from both internal and external customers. The surveyed hotels have implemented changes in performance reviews so that the reviews will support a T Q M culture. Revisions include incorporating quality dimensions into the review process; using information from customers, peers, and self-assessment; and, in several cases, changing the focus from past performance to futureoriented development and continuous improvement. Consistent with the T Q M philosophy, these hotels are continuously working to improve the performance-review system and the quality and timeliness of feedback to their employees. Rewardand RecognitionPrograms Maintaining a T Q M culture requires recognizing and rewarding quality improvement and quality 74 CURNELHOTELANDRESTAURANTADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY customer service. Examination of T Q M hotels reveals a variety of formal and informal financial and nonfinancial rewards for individuals, teams, and, in one case at least, the entire property for making a contribution to the total quality effort. At Sheraton, the annual Hotel of theYear Award is given to the one property that is furthest along in its T Q M program. The Opryland Hotel strives for a balance between individual and group recognition through its Award of Excellence Program that honors both individual employees and teams. South Seas Plantation hosts an annual "Night of Stars" awards ceremony similar to the Academy Awards. A Golden Palm Award is given in 15 different categories, such as Outstanding Employee in a Housekeeping Role. As with the Motion Picture Academy, the winners are selected by their peers. In addition to the usual employee- and manager-of-theyear awards, the Worthington uses a more spontaneous approach to its recognition and rewards program. Managers hand out rewards, such as gift certificates, movie passes, and tickets to sporting events, on the spot whenever they catch an employee going above and beyond the call of duty to satisfy a guest. The employees themselves are also allowed an opportunity to catch each other "in the act" and can request that their manager reward a coworker. This approach reinforces positive behavior on the part of employees who perform good deeds and also those who witness them as well. The Treasure Island Inn uses a similar approach, in which employees doing good deeds can receive "pirate points" that can be accumulated over a period of time and then cashed in for prizes ranging up to a color TV or VCR. H U M A N In contrast to the other hotels, Bergstrom refuses to reward individual effort, preferring rather to focus recognition solely on team performance. Bergstrom executives feel that recognizing individual contributions breeds competition among employees, which they feel is harmful to a cooperative team environment. Richard Bergstrom lets his employees and managers know that they are important to the company in many ways. Last year he reserved a restaurant in a nearby town and hosted all company managers and their spouses for dinner and a play. Bergstrom also treats his 800 employees to a free night's stay in the hotel for them and their families. Instead of offering cash bonuses, Bergstrom believes in providing fair and equitable pay for all its employees and managers. 1°Annual salary surveys are conducted among competing properties in the area to ensure that Bergstrom salaries remain above those of the competition. In addition to giving monetary awards, these T Q M hotels also highlight excellence through publication of success stories in newsletters, through spontaneous awarding of prizes, and through awards banquets to celebrate special accomplishments. Por instance, South Seas Plantation holds an annual qualityassurance-awards banquet to honor all quality teams. Treasure Island Inn, on the other hand, recently held a private breakfast for the housekeeping and maintenance teams to reinforce the importance of cooperation between teams as well as within each team. culture by providing a safe and healthy work environment. The T Q M hotels in this survey all employ a prevention-oriented approach to safety and health.Wellness is a major focus at South Seas Plantation, which last year hosted a resort-wide health fair. Employee assistance programs are made available at all the hotels in this survey, with Opryland Hotel providing its employees with an on-site counseling department. 11 With respect to promoting a safe work environment, each of the hotels surveyed has a safety program in which committees or teams address issues related to guest and employee safety. For instance, Bergstrom's safety program, called "zero-accident culture," or ZAC, requires that every job-related accident be investigated, even if no work time is lost. The ZAC team makes regular job-safety observations, such as checking to see how a housekeeper flips a mattress, and every two months the team conducts safety audits of the entire hotel. Any department that goes accident-free for a full 30 days receives scratch-off"lottery tickets" for each of its employees. Prizes on the tickets range from a dinner for two to a cruise on the company's executive yacht. Treasure Island Inn's safety program is headed up by the "Keepers of Property and Security" (KOPS) team, which recently completed a comprehensive hurricane plan for the safe evacuation of employees and guests. Health and Safety 11For further discussion of employee assistance programs, see: R.C. Quick, "Employee Assistance Programs: Beating Alcoholism in the Dishroom and the Boardroom," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 4 (February 1989), pp. 62-69; and Andrew M. Klebanow and Robert C. Eder, "Cost Effectiveness of Substance-Abuse Treatment in Casino Hotels," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. l (February 1992), pp. 56-67. Companies reaffirm the value of their employees in creating a T Q M 1~For a similar perspective, see: Ray Hankamer, Jr., "Ban the Bonus," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1 (February 1995), p. 80. R E S O U R C E S Selection, Promotion,and Career Development With all the progress the respondents have made in humanresources practices it came as a surprise that only a few have adopted selection, promotion, and career-development processes that are consistent with a TQM-based human-resources perspective. Most of the hotels still use a traditional selection process, for example, in which they look for the best employees available and then assume that those new hires can be trained to function effectively in a T Q M environment. A T Q M approach, on the other hand, focuses on selecting employees based on their motivation and ability to perform effectively in a T Q M environment. Employees should be able to demonstrate skills in customer service, self-direction, problem solving, and team development. The hotels should develop selection procedures to find employees with these competencies. South Seas Plantation stands out in the sample by using a targeted selection process in which applicants are screened to determine whether they have the core values that are consistent with the resort's quality-related mission. T Q M hotels must also consider their promotion criteria. Employees traditionally receive consideration for promotion to management based on their experience in the company, individual job performance, and assessment of their ability to function in a managerial role (i.e., directing and controlling the work of others). In a T Q M environment, promotion criteria must be broadened to include such leadership skills as helping teams clarify goals, empowering and coaching others to solve cross-functional problems, and encouraging innovation. Employees at South Seas Plantation can enhance their promotion October 1996 • 75 chances through active involvement in quality teams, which helps them strengthen their leadership and communication skills. Both Bergstrom and South Seas Plantation use developmentalaction planning in which employees of those properties meet with their supervisor or department manager to map out a course for promotion to the next level. Current skilllevels of employees are compared to skills needed for advanced positions so that training needs can be identified. Career development traditionally means promotion to higher positions. Because T Q M organizations are flatter than typical hotel operations, the focus is less on upward promotion and more on horizontal moves to prepare managers for solving cross-functional problems and provide them with a more holistic view of the organization. Career development also must emphasize opportunities for continuous learning. The Salish Lodge reimburses employees' education costs. Treasure Island Inn promotes employee growth and development through its "Literacy in the Workplace" program. Begun three years ago, the program offers opportunities for employees who cannot read or write to be taught by coworkers who have received special training as literacy tutors. A recent graduate of the program went on to finish her high-school-equivalency degree and then chose to attend a local community college while still working at the property. Treasure Island Inn is paying for her education and encourages other employees to follow in her footsteps. Despite many progressive humanresources programs, the data suggest that most of these T Q M hotels have not fully considered the implications of T Q M for selection, promotion, and career development. Those ,, interviewed were quick to acknowledge that they have much to learn in these areas. Benefitsof TQM Implementing a T Q M culture is an involved and demanding process for any hotelier, as the discussion in this article makes clear. Such a discipline must have a measurable positive outcome for it to be worthwhile-and, indeed, the respondents to my survey indicated that T Q M deftnitely pays off. Some adduced specific improvement measures. For example, Bergstrom increased ontime orders from 90 percent to 96 percent, reduced defective linen from 12 percent to 2.9 percent, increased sales by 9 percent, and lowered employee turnover from 86 to 39 percent in five years. South Seas Plantation has seen a reduction in employee turnover each year for the past six years. The Salish Lodge credits employee involvement in teams for an increase in food and beverage sales coupled with a decrease in labor costs, both in dollars and as a percentage of sales, from 1994 to 1995. In fact, all respondents reported that having their employees work together in functional and cross-functional teams to solve operational problems resulted in major cost savings, in part because each team project has to be thoroughly researched and justified by cost-benefit analysis. Intangibles. Others in the survey were unable to provide measurable or tangible outcomes of T Q M because their hotel's top managers do not wish to track those numbers. Yet they were quick to point out the intangible outcomes of T Q M . Top management at Opryland H o tel sees a definite benefit from having a core group of employees who know how to identify qualityrelated problems and are empowered to solve them. Opryland em- EflRNELLHQTELAND RESTAURANT ADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY ployees feel a sense of unity because they work together in crossfunctional teams and learn to appreciate their compatriots from other departments. Sheraton's customer- and employee-satisfaction indices have steadily risen over the past several years. Similarly, the Worthington has seen increases in employee satisfaction, and its guest-satisfaction index rose each month for the two years preceding my survey. All respondents indicated that they saw work still to be done with their T Q M programs. In fact, they all see T Q M as a never-ending process of improving what is done and how it is done. The challenge facing the responding hotels is getting all employees committed to T Q M . At the corporate level, Sheraton has been careful not to be overzealous in promoting T Q M so employees won't see it as "just another program." In 1994 Sheraton chose seven hotels as pilot hotels responsible for demonstrating to other properties within the chain the effectiveness of T Q M methods. That program was expanded in •995 to 50 Sheraton properties that have formally adopted T Q M . The company in •996 is extending that effort to its hotels in Europe and Asia. Sheraton's approach is to show the results first, and then demonstrate the methods used to achieve those results. Bergstrom focuses on continuous improvement of systems and processes to provide °'total guest enthusiasm." The company continuously strives to impress upon employees that they are part of a service system in which they are all customers and suppliers of one another who must deliver quality service. HRM's Role in TQM Human resources is a necessary subtext of this entire discussion of H U M A N T Q M practices, but it is also important to focus specifically on the role of human-resources management in moving a company toward T Q M . The central theme coming from my interviews is that human-resources management in a total quality environment must evolve from a narrow personnel function to a broad leadership function. Human resources plays four important roles in T Q M hotels: strategic partner, quality manager, change agent, and employee advocate. Strategic partner. Coupled with increased competition, a dynamic labor market, and a changing legal climate, T Q M has led to the inclusion of human-resources professionals as full partners on the strategic-decision-making team. For human-resources managers to succeed in this role, however, top management must supply continued support, increased opportunity to interact with other departments, and more formal training in areas other than human resources, such as marketing and finance. 12 Quality manager. While assisting others to implement processes in support of T Q M , human resources must continue to be managed under the same principles. This means having the human-resources professional look internally at the H R function to see whether it is employing the same T Q M techniques being followed by other units within the organization. Change agent. Change agents are responsible for the day-to-day effort of fostering change. 13 12Mark D. Fulford and Cathy A. Enz, " H u m a n Resources as a Strategic Partner in Multiunit Restaurants," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3 (June 1995), pp. 24-29. 13For more detailed discussion, see: R o b e r t H. Woods and Judy Z. King, Managingfor Quality in the Hospitality Industry (East Lansing, Mt: Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association, 1996), pp. 334-337. Human-resources managers' ability to see the organization from a broad perspective and their experience working with other departments within the organization make them prime candidates to manage the process of evolving a T Q M culture. Human-resources managers should also have the ability to influence others, especially senior managers, to see that T Q M makes good business sense in terms of profitability, employee satisfaction, and customer retention. E m p l o y e e advocate. The human-resources function has always been an advocate of employee rights. In a T Q M environment, the H R department must also provide opportunities for employees to participate in the quality process and to communicate their ideas and concerns about quality issues. In a situation where the change process is still occurring, H R must be able to anticipate, identify, and address any people problems associated with change. HR PracticesSupportingTQM Analysis of the information provided by the respondents yielded the following list of 10 humanresources strategies in support of total quality management. These strategies should provide humanresources professionals with a chance to evaluate their own departrnent's contribution to T Q M . (1) Top management's vision of a total quality culture is communicated throughout all levels of the firm in a variety of ways. (2) Systems are in place to allow employees to express their ideas and concerns regarding quality initiatives. These systems might include employee focus groups, suggestion opportunities with quick response, and attitude surveys. R E S O U R C E S (3) Jobs are designed to empower employees, working either individually or preferably in teams, to solve quality-related problems. (4) T Q M training, supported by top management, is provided to all employees. (5) Performance-review systems focus not only on past performance, but on what management can do to assist employees in their future job-related quality efforts. (6) A rich variety of symbolic and material rewards are provided to individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole for achievements in quality and customer satisfaction. (7) Health and safety programs are proactive. Other services (e.g., counseling and employee assistance programs) are also made available to promote employee well-being and to boost morale. (8) Employee recruitment, selection, promotion, and career development reflect the changing realities of a T Q M environment. (9) Measurement tools are in place to track job performance, employee satisfaction, and internal and external customer satisfaction. (10) Human resources not only manages the H R function, but provides assistance to others in implementing processes to support T Q M . Human-resources management can become a driving force behind the move toward a T Q M culture. Following a traditional humanresources approach, however, will minimize the effectiveness of a company's quality effort. The challenge lies in changing not only the perceptions of human resources, but also the practices themselves. CQ October 1996 • 77