From the desk of Signature Parking Founder & CEO Michael Holmstrom. The Weekly Drive is a collection of company news, ideas & inspiration that can drive us all to be better humans.
Signature Updates
Our leadership team is always looking for ways to improve the employee experience at Signature as we build our people-first culture. Your input and feedback is important to us. Please take a moment to complete the anonymous employee engagement survey. We’ll report back in a few weeks on our biggest takeaways from everyone’s responses.
Signature Moments & Customer Feedback
Another great trip advisor review at Kimpton La Peer. “My experience was lovely and I look forward to coming back to this amazing hotel. This young lady, I believe her name was Maria, she was nice, kind, and sweet and I loved that”.
Insights
Last week I talked about the pitfalls of “faking it at work” and shared how we can tap into our emotions to help us be more authentic and avoid the burnout associated with emotional labor in the hospitality industry. If you missed that post, you can revisit it here.
We’re continually trying to distill what it is that makes Signature Parking better than its competitors and how we can continue to build on that competitive advantage through a people-first culture. I’ve been inspired recently to see the way many of our team members find meaning in their work through giving. In the article below, learn how people (including some of our own) are finding more meaning in their work, more happiness, and ultimately delivering higher levels of service through “job crafting“. I would be interested in hearing what you think about it. Are you a “job crafter”? Are you already doing the things mentioned in this article?
Read: To find meaning in your work, change how you think about it (Harvard Business Review)
Leveling Up
We did a survey of team members a few years back and here were some of the examples our team shared about how they are job crafting in their roles with us…
“When I first started as a valet, I didn’t get much training. A lot of new guys were hired after me and since I had developed a good grasp of the job and expectations of the company, I took it upon myself to help the new guys learn their jobs so they would have a good experience coming into the company. Now it’s just expected that I’m the trainer for new guys. I did this in my previous job, so I have experience with it, and I like it because I’m able to help and work with guys from different backgrounds and make new friendships”. – Valet Team Member
“I take on as much event planning as I can, even though it wasn’t originally part of my job. I do it because I enjoy it, and I’m good at it. I have become the go-to person for event planning, and I like my job much more because of it”. – Office Manager
“At my hotel, guests are always asking for local recommendations. Since this is my hometown and I know the town inside and out, I’ve become the default travel agent for guests at the hotel and everyone sends them to me for the best recommendations on where to eat, sites to see, best beaches, golf courses and adventures. I really like taking on this role of tour guide and love seeing people’s faces when they return from a great restaurant I sent them to”. – Hotel Valet team member
“I work as a hospital valet and we encounter a lot of elderly and sick patients who park with us. I’ve always been really good at empathizing with these patients, probably because I had a serious illness myself when I was younger, so I can totally relate to them. Anyway, it makes me feel really good when I can show compassion for others and I notice that the patients and their families really appreciate it. It’s become sort of my mission at the hospital to look for patients in need and just be that source of support and empathy for them”– Hospital Valet Team Member
“I noticed a lot of equipment in the company that was broken or damaged and sort of took it upon myself to fix things up. I’m pretty good with mechanical things; I’ve always enjoyed working on cars and taking apart things and putting them back together. At Signature, I’ve replaced handles, locks and wheels on podiums and sanded and painted sign frames. One of our restaurant managers knew I was pretty handy with mechanical stuff and I helped them fix a broken door handle inside the restaurant. I’m sort of the go-to guy now for many things that need to be fixed at the sites I work at. I like having that role since I’ve always loved fixing things”.
– Valet Team Member
If enacted properly, job crafting is a way for team members to improve their lives at work in several important ways, as well as make valuable contributions to the workplace. As you can see in the examples above, our team members did not quit doing their jobs, they simply reframed their roles in a way that allowed them to accomplish their jobs while also focusing on tasks or roles they enjoyed and got fulfillment out of. Everyone is different and it is difficult for organizations to create optimal job designs for every single person. But with room to job craft, job designs are not fixed, they can be adapted over time to accommodate team members’ unique and ever-changing backgrounds, motives, and preferences. Job crafting theory does not devalue the importance of job designs and descriptions handed out by the company and management; it simply values the opportunities team members have to change them. Managers at Signature can play a key role by helping team members to unlock and encourage their own resourcefulness as a key to reaping the benefits of Job crafting while still meeting the objectives of their job.
Watch: Creating meaning in your work (Amy Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, re:work) Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, discussing the art and science of job crafting
Are you currently job crafting? We want to hear about it. Be an inspiration for other team members and share your story. Email me and let me know how you are job crafting and I’ll share it in next week’s email.
Quotes worth pondering
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
Reach Out! I love to hear from our team members. Please feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts, feedback, or ideas for discussion.