Top hosts in Bavaria are taking the reins when it comes to employee matters. Dennis Imhof, Managing Director of Imhof Privat Hotels and Ambassador of the Young Hosts Forum (Forum Junge Gastgeber), has paved the way and tells us about his and his team's experience with PERSENTIS:
Process: fast and straightforward
A major advantage of PERSENTIS is the minimal time required for the employer. After registration, you receive a ready-made invitation message with a link to the survey as well as a QR code, making it very easy to participate via mobile phone. We slightly adapted the invitations and sent them to all employees – which meant our part was largely done.
Regular updates on participation rates kept us informed on a daily basis, and those who hadn't yet responded could be reminded promptly. Filling out the questionnaire took only a few minutes and was easy to understand and use for both our trainees and long-standing employees. Participation was not a digital hurdle even for those who do not work regularly at a PC. In addition, everyone could take part in the survey in their native language – a huge plus, especially for our industry. The PERSENTIS team was supportive at our side at all times and expertly answered any follow-up questions we had.
Knowing what works: Insights & Actions
What makes PERSENTIS unique is its differentiation between the three pillars of emotion, calculation, and growth, which provide fascinating insights into team preferences and their commitment to the company. We found that our team is predominantly emotionally oriented and places great value on loyalty and a positive working atmosphere. To better address our corporate culture and values, we subsequently put our mission and vision into writing and made them available to all team members. In addition, we increased the frequency of feedback sessions. This enables us to deploy our efforts toward high employee retention in a very targeted and efficient manner.
A concrete example: In a feedback session following PERSENTIS with one of our first-year apprentice chefs, it turned out that he had been closely studying our menu and the underlying concept since the beginning of his training. He told us that he had already researched various recipes and come up with his own creations. We went through them with him and put a dish based on his ideas onto the menu.
The increased one-on-one meetings following our PERSENTIS analysis not only led to greater motivation and loyalty, but also allowed us to create an even better offering.
Conclusion: Clear recommendation
The effects of staff shortages are omnipresent and causing difficulties for many business owners in the service sector. Furthermore, it is much more efficient to retain a committed core team in the long term than to continually search for new talent. Therefore, being an attractive employer should be at the very top of every hotelier's or restaurateur's agenda. For DEHOGA members, there is also an attractive price advantage. Combined with the minimal time investment, I see only advantages and great added value in participating.
We will definitely repeat PERSENTIS on a regular basis, as the implementation of the results was closely followed by our employees, and we witnessed great interest in the optimizations made. To maintain this momentum and continue working on ourselves, we will now use PERSENTIS once a year for a valuable stocktake.
