TM - August 2007 - (Page 45) Insight, from page 43 and the partnerships that exist there. We have also noticed a decrease in our turnover rate for the front-line staff, as well as a decrease in the absenteeism rate. We hope that the reason the absenteeism rate is so low is because our employees are feeling better about who they are, about what they are doing and, more importantly, about the collaboration. When you feel good about your team, that encourages you to come to work every day. The overall environment is very encouraging and extremely exciting. When we as an institution make these types of investments, it shows our employees that we care about them, and that makes our employees want to perform better for the company. scenes, and it’s important for us that the waiters, captains and maitre d’s understand the work behind it so they can share the same passion and motivation.” There have been challenges to ensuring this since Groupe Alain Ducasse expanded globally. For example, the company ran into a few hurdles when it opened a restaurant in Tokyo. Aside from the obvious language barrier, the cultural differences were overwhelming, even for the most seasoned key employees. Because of the traditional sense of hierarchy, Japanese employees were eager to follow orders but less willing to take initiative without guidance. More time was needed before the restaurant’s launch to try and instill a proactive and creative nature in the restaurant, Casanova said. “We noticed that once the employees are told what to do in such a way, especially in Far-East Asia and Tokyo, they do it exactly the way you want it, which is good, but many times you have to improvise, so it’s been a challenge to say it’s OK to improvise and go one step forward, trying to take initiative,” he said. “That was a challenge because there is not that mentality as much in their culture. It was more of a respect issue than a lack of will from their part.” At the other end of the world, Groupe Alain Ducasse also recently opened Mix in Las Vegas. Where the opening of the Tokyo restaurant was an exercise in respect and patience, because of the higher American turnover rate, the fear at Mix was that it would be a struggle to keep employees in the door long enough to complete the company’s rigorous onboarding program. To meet this challenge, the company used its recruitment system to train in-house staff members. “We take key employees from our organization that we move up from one site to another,” Casanova said. “Based on their career objectives and motivations, once these people are ready to live our philosophy and perfectly understand our standards, we move them up to a location or an opening that fits them.” As a result, most of the servers and runners are still at Mix. This came as a relief to Casanova because there is little room in the high-end restaurant world for second chances — Groupe Alain Ducasse must be sure that when it opens a restaurant, the staff is not only well-trained but enthusiastic. “The first year is the most important for the life of a restaurant, and if the opening is well-done and set, the clients’ perception and the word of mouth are tremendous,” Casanova said. “It gives us a very strong base to get the restaurant going.” TM: Are there incentives to get employees to participate in these programs? For The Biggest Loser, we had incentives. We partnered with our Pepsi vendor, and we were able to get a couple of bikes to give away. We partnered with McDonald’s to get coupons for salads, and we also partnered with our special events department to get a couple of overnight stays at hotels in downtown Chicago — our employees were able to win some pretty decent prizes. Now, when you talk about the fitness center, the incentive is just being physically fit. I believe that, in itself, has been a motivating factor for our employees. August 2007 White: talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 45 http://www.TalentMgt.com
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