Motivating Hotel Employees

Abstract

To learn what hotel employees want out of their jobs, the authors asked 278 workers at 12 hotels in the U.S. and Canada to rank the following ten work factors: good wages, tactful discipline, job security, interesting work, feeling of being "in on things," sympathetic help with personal problems, opportunities for advancement and development, good working conditions, personal loyalty to employees, and appreciation for work accomplishments. Overall, hotel employees reported that the three things they most wanted from their employers were: (1) good wages, (2) job security, and (3) opportunities for advancement and development. There were differences among the hotel workers, however, based on their age and the area in which they worked. While all respondents ranked good wages as the single most important job factor, younger employees reported opportunities for development and interesting work as the second and third most-wanted job factors. In contrast, employees over 30 reported job security and working conditions as the second and third most-important job factors. The top-three job factors for F&B servers were good wages, developmental opportunities, and job security. Front-office employees gave similar emphasis to wages and opportunity, but placed appreciation in the third spot, followed by job security. Human-resources, accounting, and sales and marketing employees tended to emphasize interesting work and opportunities for advancement more than the other groups.