Subscribe
Previous Post
Have you heard? Last week, three Boston area Hyatt hotels fired 98 housekeepers and replaced them with out-of-state (read: less expensive) workers. The worst part? They tricked them into training their own replacements.
Wow!
The public backlash against this has come from a number of unlikely sources:
- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has talked to the Hyatt CEO.
- Taxi drivers have threatened to boycott the hotels.
- Massachusetts Teachers Association President Anne Wass has even written a letter to corporate, imploring Hyatt to re-think their position. Wass’ letter makes a great point about the ridiculous “random acts of generosity,” that gives a random guest something nice when they can’t even perform “consistent acts of decency.”
Government leaders – taxi drivers – teachers. All standing up for what’s right and sharing their displeasure. Truly inspiring!
So what can we learn about this fiasco? Are there any lessons we can learn to prevent this nightmare from happening as manager?
Lessons from the Hyatt firings
Be up front with employees about problems you’re having. Give them the choice to take a pay cut BEFORE you fire them. If you treat employees well, and you ask for their input, you may be surprised at the things they do to help you make ends meet. This is probably harder to do in a union environment, though not impossible.
Create a solid onboarding program. Instead of tricking employees into training their replacements, take the time to map out each critical skill, how to teach it, and create a program you can be proud of so if you do need to bring in a whole new staff, you can train them.
When you make a mistake, admit you made a mistake. Sometimes you make good decisions, sometimes you make bad decisions. When you make a bad decision, admit it. It’s already been a week since this decision was made, and there has been no public apology that I’ve seen, no righting of the wrongs, so the bad taste is lingering, and folks (like me) are still talking about it. Better to own the mistake, apologize, and FIX THE PROBLEM then to let this fester like an open wound.
What can YOU learn from the Hyatt firings or from other big mistakes of this magnitude?
Hyatt photo from ell brown
Scott has a really good point. People who actually do the job oftentimes have the best perspective.
One thing that Hyatt seems to have forgotten is employee engagement. How can the new workforce be engaged when their employer has not shown any loyalty previously? Without employee engagement, Hyatt’s not going to get the best work out of their team.
Besides being up front with your employees, it could be possible that the employees may have come up with some cost-saving ideas that management didn’t think of. The reason that I say that is thay the house-keepers are on the front lines and closest to the customers along with their service needs and requirements.
But the results were not what Hyatt expected … is it any wonder? The result of an attempt to save money just may cost them money!
I have no problem with Hyatt laying off workers and hiring cheaper replacements from out of state. Tricking employees into training their own replacements, however, is just sleazy. Hyatt should have been up front and honest about their intentions.