Implementing Hospitality Assured: some lessons learned

1. Implementing Hospitality Assured: some lessons learned Barbara Rousaki Prof. Andrew Lockwood Dr. Angela Roper

2. Presentation outline • Continuous improvement implementation (manufacturing sector evidence based) • principles, benefits, challenges. • The project: examining HA implementation • Findings • drivers, enablers, challenges, benefits. • Conclusions • Implications for • HA users, • Institute of Hospitality, • Hospitality Industry.

3. 1. Continuous improvement (CI) implementation • CI: an organisation’s company-wide process of sustained and focused incremental innovation • Continuous improvement capabilities • involving the wider workforce in the innovation activities, • learning and unlearning of routines, • making small and frequent changes, • systematic focus on displaying, measuring and formalising tacit knowledge and • enhancing structured reflection. • Continuous improvement tools • EFQM & HA, IiP, Balance Scorecard, ISO9000.

4. 2. The project: examining HA implementation • 8 Hospitality Assured organisations • New and experienced/established users. • Meetings industry, contract catering, industry, hotel industry, hospitality services. • Interviews and meetings with 38 hospitality managers and employees • What are the drivers, enablers and challenges of the HA implementation process? • Benefits? • Lessons learned?

5. 1. Drivers “We did a teambuilding exercise with the senior exec team and we highlighted the fact that we had probably reached a flat line. We needed something to set our sights on so we started climbing again, and the boss came across this programme and he went through it.” Coordinator2007 • Desire to improve • Competitive benchmarking • “We also feel that we want to be the best in the UK, and now we want to be world class, and the only way to be world class is to never be happy, to constantly re-assess, to constantly measure…that’s all about research, is about honesty and is about allocating the right resources to do it all the time.” Facilitator2007

6. 2. Enablers • “I think it is the simplicity of the standard and also it talks a language, is the language of hospitality people, people understand when I say: “service delivery”, is our jargon, it is an ordinary concept that people in the industry are using.” • Coordinator2007 “One thing which I think we have done pretty well is instead of having two people effectively responsible for Hospitality Assured which we did four years ago, we have filtered it all out and now everybody understands that they can contribute to Hospitality Assured, in much the same way, everybody contributes to us achieving our business plan and our targets.” Facilitator2007 • Leadership functions and company-wide engagement • initiators, coordinators, facilitators. • Collective practices • influenced by CI experience. • Attributes of HA • compatibility, • adaptability, • relative advantage and • divisibility.

7. 3. Challenges ““I think primarily because lots of people see that as extra work. You know, it is always the same…whenever you come to any cultural change, any work ethic, or method or change, the people instantly will be negative about it.” Initiator/ Coordinator2007 “Whenever you staff turnover is high then your standards are vulnerable, and when your standards are vulnerable then your preparation for an assessment is vulnerable too.” Facilitator2007 • Low staff engagement • high turnover culture, lack of skilled or career minded staff, lack of CI understanding. • Knowledge related problems • in (un)learning, transferring, sustaining and codifying knoweldge. • CI not linked with strategic objectives • lack of competitive strategic posture. • HA attributes • complexity of the language, • reliability of accreditation process.

8. 4. Benefits “The benefit is the continuous improvement. The reason why we say continuous improvement is that it is good to be assessed, right? Because it is only during assessment that you can measure. Coordinator2007 “It has united us, not just within departments… We have actually worked close with departments we wouldn’t have …and everybody is very keen”. Coordinator2005 “It is of no great value to us in the sense of advertising it doesn’t bring in any new business. So it is really just being used as a business improvement rather than a marketing tool.” Coordinator2007 • Effective in • increasing organisational interaction, • structured continuous improvement, • organisational alertness, • proactive behaviour and • encouraging internal best practice benchmarking. • Ineffective in • raising market value and • promoting consistently ways for external best practice benchmarking.

9. Conclusions • HA enables Continuous Improvement (CI) • Development of CI capability • new HA users towards structured CI, i.e. “developing an understanding towards CI”, • experienced HA users towards strategic CI, i.e. “CI is goal oriented and linked with strategy”. • It is not so much the experience in tools that counts but the underlying changing behaviours that support collective practices. • although these organisations have a CI tool, they have not necessarily reached continuous improvement. • Special characteristics of hospitality context do inhibit the process. Source : Bessant (2003:56)

10. Implications for HA users • To make most of HA as a CI tool • Top management commitment and company-wide engagement. • Dedicated meetings on CI. • Develop and reward CI champions across and within the organisation. • Recognise and promote the enhanced capability to deliver customer promise. • Create an (un)learning culture.

11. Recommendations for IoH • The assessment process should become more transparent and the recommendations clearer. • Experienced hospitality practitioners could also participate as assessors. • The language of the tool should become more user-friendly. • It is clear that the Institute needs to offer more opportunities for sharing best practice/experiences within and outside the industry. • The Institute needs to raise the market value of the tool and work on promoting the scheme to customers.

12. Implications for the hospitality industry • Invest in innovation • The development of regional, national and international innovation promoting incentives. • Continuously develop and adopt new products, services, business models, work processes and management techniques. • Raise the industry standards • Through the usage of CI, benchmarking tools and peer-to-peer learning within and out of the industry. • Make work environments more attractive for employees • Invest in the careful selection of employees. • Employee training, empowerment and strategic human resource management.

13. Thank you for your attention Any questions?