At 1 Hotels, our employees work around the clock to deliver a product that is often intangible — an unforgettable experience that our guests will take with them wherever they go.
As a 24/7 business operation with staffers clocking in and out at all hours of the day, having an employee communication platform for our staff is absolutely crucial to maintaining high performance standards across our properties.
In addition to holding non-traditional hours, working in the hospitality business often requires our employees to be mobile throughout their entire shift. This means the vast majority of our workforce does not have consistent access to traditional forms of office communication like email. With the dual objective of building a stronger company culture and minimizing our daily operational pain points, our leadership team decided to pursue a digital solution for our dedicated, frontline workforce.
The Power of Mobile Communication
After weighing different solutions to help us improve the employee experience at 1 Hotels, we decided it was time to migrate our organization’s communication to mobile in order to give our employees immediate access to team members and company resources using a tool they already had in their pocket. Streamlining our communications and operations processes with Beekeeper’s team collaboration app has transformed how we function as a team at 1 Hotels.
The Beekeeper platform empowers all of our employees to participate, giving every employee a voice and a forum to use it in. After adopting this tool, our leadership team has noticed both increased levels of employee engagement and decreased turnover.
Migrating Operations to Mobile
Adopting Beekeeper at 1 Hotels allowed us to migrate several key operational tasks to mobile. With Beekeeper, onboarding new employees is now a highly inclusive process for all team members involved. New employees are given the opportunity to create custom profiles with their picture and interests, and we dedicate time to show them how to get the most out of Beekeeper.
These initial touchpoints provide opportunities for the new team member to integrate with the rest of the staff. Moving HR processes like this over to a mobile platform gives the onboarding experience a personal touch that immediately makes new employees feel like they’re part of the team.
In addition to optimizing HR processes, Beekeeper allows us to instantly share important operational news with relevant team members. We constantly have maintenance projects at various stages of completion throughout the hotel. We use Beekeeper to keep our employees updated about the status of those projects.
1. Beekeeper Employee Communication Platform: Our 24/7 Town Hall
Beekeeper has transformed the way we communicate internally at 1 Hotels. Because our organization is so big and dynamic, daily, team-specific “Morning Rallies” and regular company-wide Town Hall meetings help us stay connected.
For Morning Rallies, each team gathers before they go about their tasks, syncing all of their to-dos on the Beekeeper app before dispersing. As tasks are completed throughout the day, employees can access real-time data on their progress. In addition to tasks, we also store information about our daily arrivals, VIP guests, events, occupancy numbers, and any other pertinent information teams need to get their jobs done.
2. Beekeeper for Communication During Crisis
We’ve also used Beekeeper for communication during a crisis. When our property in South Beach experienced Hurricane Irma, we used Beekeeper to reach out to team members and confirm they were safe. Beekeeper was our go-to platform to communicate with everyone during the time the property was closed. We were able to send out alerts to them on relief progress and timelines of when they could return to work.
3. Beekeeper Surveys
Another fantastic Beekeeper feature we utilize after our company-wide Town Hall meetings is the survey feature. We use surveys in the Beekeeper app to get feedback from our team about the meeting, asking them to evaluate how effective and thorough it was, and to see if they need clarification on any of the content that was covered.
Since our adoption of Beekeeper, our employees at 1 Hotels have been able to unify and share crucial information throughout their work day, regardless of whether they clock in at 9 AM or midnight. Bringing everyone in the company together in a streamlined, mobile app gives our employees and our leadership teams the peace of mind they need. Now, our team can focus on performing at their peak while also taking the time to cultivate empathy, compassion, and motivation every day with their team members.
