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This newsletter focuses on delighting your guests, but it’s hard to delight your guests if you don’t have the right team.

And it’s hard to maintain the right culture in your team if you have high turnover.

I spoke recently with Kris Leszczynski, who leads service operations at Edwardian Hotels, about how he keeps employee turnover low.

One thing that’s working? Only hiring externally at the entry-level positions and then promoting internally from there. Kris is a prime example, having worked his way up from a Luggage Porter to Head of Service Operations. 

“Our recruitment strategy predominantly revolves around hiring the frontline, the entry-level. Then we try to upscale them to grow to that very specific leadership and management seniority that the business requires.”

Hiring frontline staff has evolved over the past year.

Previously, Edwardian Hotels would recruit from Swiss hospitality schools, but having come through the recent COVID crisis, they’ve taken a different route recently. They’ve joined the UK Kickstarter program, an organization that works with young people from London, from less privileged backgrounds, and are working with the Prince’s Trust (a charity supported by the crown) to go out to high schools and colleges to acquire young talent.

They are already starting to see success. “We’ve just hired a 19-year-old who was a great guy but a very difficult character – very opinionated, outspoken – but very talented. He came from a rough area, and most of his friends are drug dealers. I wanted to know what motivated him. He joined Kickstarter because he didn’t know what to do with his life. He started working in our flagship Hotel, the Londoner. For a few weeks, he was very much in his shell, but when he opened up he exploded with so much talent that now everyone is talking about him.”

Compensation is another key consideration for staff retention, and Kris believes it’s an area the hospitality industry needs to revisit.

“You really should not pay people the minimum wage and expect them to provide incredible, five-star customer service.”

You can read our full interview with Kris here.

What do you think? How do you approach tipping in your business?

Finally - I love low-cost ways hotels can share their brand essence, and Kimton’s Spotify playlist series definitely fits the bill. Here’s their latest honoring Black History Month: