Do you talk about your team?
Do you mention them on your business website or showcase them on social media?
Do you share their skillsets, expertise and amazingness?
Do you have team meeting shout-outs, or go around the room and recognise someone on the team that’s been helpful, fabulous or done something special?
Do only the executive leadership team or board get a mention on the website as if no-one else exists in the business?
Yes, maybe staff do come and go and there is ongoing maintenance and effort required to keep your website and socials up to date, however do you know why it’s important to have this “staff showcase” there?
Whenever potential new talent or a possible recruit is looking at your business, they’ll always do one or all of these 3 things;
- Checkout your website and socials,
- Look at company review websites,
- Talk to people they know who have experience with, know your company, or have worked with the company already.
So if they’re doing these, here’s what they’ll notice:
If your website and socials don’t mention, recognise or acknowledge team members, the roles and part they play in providing an amazing tourism experience –
They’ll think “Maybe this business doesn’t actually really care about their people. Is it only just about the owner, founder, CEO or executive team? What about everyone else? I wonder who else is on the team? Oh – management love themselves, what about the team? I wonder if I’d get to stand out if I work there, or will I just be one of many? Will they care about me or not?”
If reviews are negative and current or past staff have nothing much nice to say about the business, or the business has absolutely no online ranking or presence –
It plants the seed of doubt and people will be unsure, just like customers look at Trip Advisor, staff look at these review sites like Glassdoor, Seek or LinkedIn. If they read negative feedback or the company scores lower than ideal it will have an impact. People say to themselves “I don’t want to work somewhere that doesn’t care about their people, or the leadership is poor, or communication is terrible…. Or if the recruitment process is awful” – that alone can stop people from applying.
If their friends tell them not to work there. People always like the personal feedback, so whether friends, family, colleagues, or friend of friends, people will start to ring around and ask the questions –
“Do you know XYZ company, what was your experience? I’m thinking of going for X role… what do you think about that business?” A great internal question to ask your staff is “Would you tell your friends or family to work for us or to work here?” Obviously with some context around role / timing etc, as Grandpa might not be a match for the role, however as a generalisation, would your staff recommend to others to come and work at your business?
Potential employees, volunteers, casuals – staff of all kinds are looking, reading your website, getting to know the business and who you are as a tourism operator and leader.
Most people don’t leave roles because of the pay, they leave roles because of the leaders and a dismal lack of leadership.
Do these things to help ATTRACT great people to your tourism team:
- Ensure you’re showcasing how the business is “approachable, flexible, caring, communicative, hard-working” – get the business values across, showcase your leadership and the amazing team you already have in place.
- Perhaps if it’s not “amazing” and there are gaps to work on. Do that. Stop ignoring the important signals existing staff or potential staff are giving you.
- Leadership is everything – invest in getting it right!
- Never leave a review / recommendation without comment or feedback.
- Communicate, communicate and communicate.
- Keep socials and website up to date and be real and honest. Glitz and glamour only gets found out in the long run and causes more problems with retention.
- Do exit interviews or surveys to understand the truths as to why staff leave. The real reason, not often the spoken reason.
- Take all the feedback, learn and improve from it.
Otherwise the mouse-wheel of recruit, hire, exit will continue because you’re missing the vital steps of attract, recruit, train and retain.
P.S Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you develop and work on your business leadership capabilities:
- Grab a free copy of Smash Indecision and Overwhelm, 4 Steps for Better Business Leadership E-book
It’s the road map to overcoming doubt and indecision, how to deal with “overwhelm” to improve your business leadership capabilities. —Click Here - Join the Tourism Business Leader’s Facebook group and connect with like-minded leaders focused on building highly effective teams
It’s our Facebook community where smart leaders get to learn more about creativity, leadership and performance for tourism business success. —Click Here - Join our Tourism Pro-Team Program
Helping tourism business leaders develop their skills to improve engagement, accountability and performance of the team. If you’d like to work with me so you can stop being reactive, have the difficult conversations and drive performance to get the results you want and know the business need then…message PRO to me here and I’ll get you all the details. - Let’s get the Whole Team Together
Would you like a different perspective and someone else at the front of the room or on zoom/teams to lead regular and consistent team building, accountability, and engaging learning experiences, that drive results and outcomes for individuals, teams, and the business? If you feel a little challenged with everything going on, maybe sounding like a cracked recorded saying things repeatedly, or actually not 100% how to motivate and inspire the team, given the current nature of business, it may be useful for us to chat. Message TEAM to me here… and tell me a little about the business, your team, and what you’d like to work on together.
