Want To Create A Great Culture - Think Small

The Ritz Carlton is famous for its service culture. Every team member has a budget, and the purpose of that money is for that team member to provide the Ritz Carlton's guests with the most exceptional experience possible at the moment of need. There are legendary stories of how team members have gone above and beyond for guests. For example, the staff at the Ritz Carlton have gone outside the hotels to purchase items that they somehow know the guests need, the walkie-talkie messages delivered from team member to member, or providing a message or experience in the exact moment of need.

You've probably heard about Ritz Carlton, and some of you may have had your teams trained under their guidelines, but what Ritz Carlton has done for guests' experiences, companies could replicate to make a great culture for their employees. While we are not in the business of creating hotel experiences, we are, in fact, in the employee experience business. It is the job of the HR/People Operations team to develop great "micro" experiences for the company. Too often, HR thinks about BIG programs to launch within our companies. An extensive training program, company-wide benefit & wellness, and other programs that have broad exposure across your entire organization. While these programs are essential and needed (we need to provide benefit programs to our teams), the real culture-building happens with custom micro-experiences with your team members.

Every employee is different; while we could generalize that Boomers like this or Millenials like that, we are humans and complex. Traditionally HR would look at programs that transcended groups of employees. We would try to be fair in fear of discrimination, and frankly, it's a lot easier to provide more extensive programs and check the box - done! Instead, we must start thinking of every employee's experience as a micro-experience that ladders up into your larger organization experience. We need to think about this, more importantly, during the current Covid situation.

So how do we turn macro-experiences into micro-experiences?

• Listen Carefully and Always - there's a great exercise that improv groups do - you have to respond to someone by starting your response with the last word they said - try it - you'll realize you don't listen to the end of sentences. Your listening skills must always be on, and employees will share lots of information with your front-line leadership.

• Micro-Experiences - think of employees' experiences as micro-experiences, not macro. The things they experience daily, their interactions with their leaders and the HR team. How can we enhance those experiences through automation and, in some areas, a more HUMAN touch?

• Suprise and Delight - the Ritz Carlton magic happens because it's a surprise, rarely expected. When an employee mentions something very personal or specific to them and the next thing they know, there's an invite to training or a gift on their porch - they are sure to be surprised and delighted. See "Listen Carefully and Always" above.

• Simple Gestures - it's not always about money - Cuba Gooding Junior famously exclaimed to Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire - "show me the money!". The fact is that enhancing your employee's micro-experiences doesn't always require money or an investment. For example, imagine a surprise call from the head of people ops asking how an employee is doing because she just heard that you were having trouble with your new WFH situation. At first, people may freak out, "why is HR calling me," but when they find out it's a check-in, they are pleasantly surprised.

So, today, make a list. Then, think about how you, your leaders, and the People Operations team can listen better to create simple micro-experiences for your team members that ultimately surprise and delight them.