Hilton Worldwide Inc

Introduction

Hilton worldwide Inc. has proven to be the one of the most resilient corporations in the world. Founded in 1916, the corporation celebrates over 100 years of excellence as the world’s largest hospitality company. With over 500 branches worldwide under its name and more hotels being established every day across the world, Hilton has established and embedded its footprints in the hospitality industry worldwide. In the UK, the Hilton has over a hundred and twenty branches ranging from four star hotels to five star hotels. Success of the Hilton hotels has been attributed to their quality service delivery and customer satisfaction and this is evident by the numerous prestigious awards Hilton has won over the years (Balmer & Thomson, 2009). Its recognition as the most established hospitality provider in the world is evident in the awards they have received ranging from awards of excellence, best travel finalist, most recognised hotel brands, top hospitality brand, executive travel awards, best spa and interior designs. In the UK Hilton operations are based in Watford with a variety of brands such as hotels, resorts and inns. This paper aims to explore rewards as an activity that has highly contributed to the high performance and success of Hilton as a franchise (Balmer & Thomson., 2009).

Argument in relation to activity rewards

Rewards are an important aspect of motivation in recognition and acknowledgement of employee’s performance and efforts. In an organisation, the main aim of rewarding employees is to attract qualified staff motivate them and retain them in the organisation. While rewards benefit employees directly, the overall benefit is to the organisation. While rewards are of monetary value, they are mainly divided into tangible and non-tangible rewards. Being a completely optional choice by the supervisors to reward or not to reward, rewards have been recorded to boost morale of employees; through creation of incentives and team building, a positive working environment makes employees feel acknowledged for their effort and input in the organisation. This positivity is reflected in overall performance and output of the organisation (Balmer & Thomson, 2009).

Increased productivity is an outcome of a rewarded staff. While measured against set objectives, rewarding small and large achievements in the organisation are completely beneficial. Increased productivity can only be measured when an organisation has set clear targets, goals and objectives. Rewarding can be used as an influence to attract a qualified workforce either through recommendations from other employees or directly from other organisations. Technology has eased communication and comparison between employees of their organisations and rewards. Applications such as ‘’glassdoor’’ have made it easy for professionals to compare work environment and give honest opinions of their work experiences. While rewarding is still optional, rewarding a workforce is important in building a brand name most professionals would be happy to be associated with. The cost of training and coaching staff is expensive and time consuming to most organisations. Through rewarding, organisations are able to retain their already trained and qualified workforce and keep their loyalty; this ensures steady and performance of the company and resilience against competitor organisations. Feedback is an important aspect of reward in that it provides communication that their service is acknowledged and appreciated. Rewards may not be an official feedback to employees on their performance but it gives employees the impression on communication that their services are great or they should aim to do better (Lee et al., 2015).

Theories of reward

Motivation theories and the broad’s forms of motivation are used by organisations to establish rewards by an organisation in acknowledgment of well performing workforce.

There are two broad forms of rewards namely; the intrinsic and extrinsic forms of rewards. Intrinsic rewards are physiological stimulations and implemented by the employee while extrinsic rewards are tangible rewards implemented by for example a work supervisor or manager. In relation to motivational theories, forms of rewards apply differently in a work organisation. Motivational theories that align to physiological fulfilment of an employee apply intrinsic forms of motivation as motivational theories that are reward driven apply extrinsic forms of motivation as illustrated; (Skinner, et al., 2009).

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow states that a people will be highly motivated if their need s is fulfilled. These needs range from the lowest to the highest in order of physiological needs, Safety needs, social needs, self-esteem and Self-actualization. In relation to the order of needs provided in this theory, it’s important to note that the most important needs and basic needs are made mandatory in the provision for fringe benefits. This theory is evident in physiological motivation (Poston, 2009).

Hertzberg’s two-factor theory

Hertzberg’s theory classifies needs into two broad categories namely hygiene factors and motivating factors. Hygiene factors are needs provided to ensure that an employee is not dissatisfied. Motivation factors are needs ensuring employee's satisfaction and employee’s motivation for higher performance. This theory is demonstrated in incentive motivation (Alshmemri et al., 2017).

McClelland’s theory of needs

McClelland states that there are three motivating drivers, which are;

Achievement: an individuals need to accomplish and demonstrate competence; people with. People with a high need for achievement prefer quick acknowledgement of their effort and prefer personal tasks and responsibility based on their own efforts Affiliation: affiliation is the need for social belonging, acceptance, and love. People with need for affiliation are highly motivated and are more accepting of others in an organization. They work well as a team and are comfortable in social gatherings (Raeisi, 2012).

Power- power reflects on need for people to control their own work and that of others. Such people exhibit desire to express authority and influence over others, they aspire for positions with status and authority and would work hard only as a motivation to climb corporate ladders (Raeisi et al., 2012). These theories are demonstrated in competence and learning motivation, attitude motivation and achievement motivation.

Vroom’s theory of expectancy

Victor Vroom determines that people will be highly productive and motivated if two conditions are met: these conditions are if people believe that their efforts are likely to be successful or would produce successful results and if people believe that their efforts would be rewarded as demonstrated in achievement motivation (Parijat & Bagga, 2014).

McGregor’s theory X and theory Y

Douglas McGregor formulated two theories with a positive and negative view on human beings based on participation. Theory X is based on the assumption that a worker lacks ambition, avoids responsibility and only works on establishment of reward for their personal goals. Theory Y is based on the assumption that workers are self-driven and require little supervision to perform their duties. In reality, both individuals exist and require different management approaches to deliver (Lawter et al., 2015).

Theory X: The traditional view of the work force holds that workers are inherently lazy, self-centered, and lacking ambition. Therefore, an appropriate management style is strong, top-down control.

Theory Y: This view postulates that workers are inherently motivated and eager to accept responsibility. An appropriate management style is to focus on creating a productive work environment coupled with positive rewards and reinforcement. This theory is demonstrated in fear and power motivation (Lawter et al., 2015).

Organisational application

Intrinsic rewards

Intrinsic motivators give a sense of meaning and purpose to employees in their various lines of work, with that into consideration, the Hilton group has applied various intrinsic rewards to motivate its 169,000 workers across the world. Workers who are mostly are in the blue collar line of work at the hotels. While strategies may differ between facilities to the other, some core values remain unchanged, in a bid to express job satisfaction and acknowledgement of their employees (Giauque et al., 2013). The Hilton group applies the following intrinsic rewards;

Advancement- Promotion being one of the main core philosophies of the Hilton group as founded by Hilton Conrad himself has been in use since 1919. The Hilton group does not only view its staff as workers but as a team. The hospitality company has a board under its human resource management team in charge of internal recruitment where new job opportunities are first communicated to the workers at the hotel. These communications are strictly made available to workers through their internal career and membership websites where only they can access hence giving them an upper hand in job availability before information is taken public. This creates room for change amongst workers who are not satisfied with their existing positions or workers who are willing to take up more challenging activities other than what they do (Kwon et al., 2013). Internal promotion was a good invention by the organization to exploit full potential of all employees while at the same time making sure the employees are satisfied, happy ad comfortable with their responsibilities. While internal recruitment has benefited workers immensely, the company has also benefited by recording less resignations, that to which they owe to professional satisfaction of the employees (Kwon et al., 2013). During recruitment, human resource managers make a mandatory requirement to be informed about future employee plans in terms of long term career growth with the company. By knowing how far part time workers would like to grow in their careers, their goals and aspirations, the company puts their data and information in the company website for future consideration into full time employment and job advancement. Advancement at the Hilton does not only reflect an increase in salary but focuses more on job satisfaction and fulfilling personal career goals of the team (Hilton, 2020).

Recognition- one of the greatest challenges in the hospitality industry is recognition of all workers and the effort they put daily in their jobs. While some workers have a highly visible impact in their lines of duties, some workers efforts may not be seen directly for example, workers with direct contact to customers may receive quick recognition and acknowledgement not only by the customers themselves by offering tips but also supervisors. This does not necessarily apply to dishwashers, stewards, laundry staff and more. Owing to this discrepancy, the Hilton group came up with the heart of Hilton campaign to recognize not only the less visible workers, but all workers in their effort to deliver services to clients. In recognition of workers at Hilton hotels also commonly known as teams as the most important and valued assets to the hotels, the heart of Hilton campaign was a rewarding campaign targeting various aspects of team satisfaction and comfort in the work environment. One of the most important aspects of the heart of house campaign was to address the urgency with which issues affecting workers were handled and attended. For example after the heart of house campaign, a leaking bathroom at the staff washrooms would be repaired with the same urgency they would have repaired guest bathrooms. The heart of house campaign also focused on the aesthetic value of staff working and social arrears so as to refresh and enhance their sense of creativity which may be reflected in their work as well Team. Aesthetic enhancements were achieved through creation of new architectural designs, painting and renovation of old staff cafeterias, while all that never impacted the lives of workers directly, comfort and creation of modern working arrears has made Hilton hotels one of the best places to work in the world. Maintenance of staff spaces such as locker rooms, offices and outdoor relaxation spaces was a great boost of morale as well. Provision of work and life balance has been a key aspect of the heart of house campaign. Rewarding workers through provision of free Wi-Fi has been adopted by Hilton hotels so as to enable connectivity amongst team members and their friends or families while at work. In line with communication, the Hilton group has adopted the art of playing a wide music at workers rest arrears to prevent boredom and provide general entertainment, the hotel has also campaigned towards building team’s confidence and self-esteem through provision of a variety of fun apparels and gowns for various workstations. This move has improved flexibility in uniforms for workers improved utility and comfort as they are consulted and their input is weighed in with relation to design and fit of the uniforms. The pride in which employees have in their uniforms reflects on their pride in working at the Hilton. The level of commitment and investment Hilton puts forth for their workers has greatly paid off as most teams have expressed their satisfaction, energy, and inspiration achieved through these investments (Hilton, 2020).

Extrinsic rewards

Following assessment and evaluation of workers performance of hotel set goals and targets and within the right time frame, the line managers may decide to directly reward employees on the performance individually and not as groups as reflected in intrinsic rewards above (Giauque et al., 2013). Extrinsic rewards, which are in monetary value, are delivered in three categories as follows;

Financial rewards- employees at Hilton receive a wide range of financial rewards given especially at the employee appreciation week. Some of the finals rewards are insurance coverage. While insurance coverage may be a mandatory requirement by various governments to large corporations, these requirements limits them to basic healthcare provision for workers and their families. The Hilton group however provides full medical insurance coverage and dental coverage to all its employees, that is a reward and added bonus some corporations do not offer or may offer managerial position workers only. Another reward Hilton group offers its employees is full paid parental leave for both salaried employees and part time employees of up to ten weeks for new mothers and paternal leave of up to two weeks for fathers through their expanded leave benefit program. With a guarantee of payment during leave days, Hilton group provides competitive offers making it one of the best hospitality groups to work in, such offers are also attractive especially to young couples who plan to have kids in the future as it releases a financial burden while giving them time to relax and bond with their children, In line with parental leaves, employees at the Hilton also receive discounted daycare rates upon their return to work on respective daycare providers in partnership with the Hilton corporation (Hilton, 2020).

Material rewards – material rewards at the Hilton may not necessarily be of much financial value to workers but generally focus on their physical wellbeing. Over the past couple years, health, and welling has achieved a positive concern amongst corporations and even in the media. This upward trend in concern enabled the adoption of lifestyle choices by the Hilton group so as to improve their workers wellbeing. One of the important aspects under this trend is the adoption of free gym membership programs. While most Hilton hotels provided gym services, their mai target initially was to their clients. Hilton hotels have built gyms for their members and created programs to enhance their participation and utilization of such facilities. For hotels that have not been able to make such adjustments and offer gym services, partnership with other private gym providers has been enabled for Hilton workers. Another important reward offered under general wellbeing is nutrition. Hilton hotels generally provided various meals for their staff over the years; however, the focus of this provision was the availability of food itself and not the nutritional impact it had on its consumers. Hilton employees are not only rewarded free food but also more nutritious and healthier options than previously offered before. While food may not be a sole reason to consider Hilton as a the best working place, the general impact of these healthier options and its consideration as a choice of reward is appreciated by most Hilton employees (Hilton, 2020).

Social rewards – the bonus points reward is a long serving reward choice practiced by various corporations and initially offered to loyal customers, this practice has since been adopted as a reward option for employees as well. With a range of hotels around the world to choose from, the Hilton hotel provides discounted rates to its employees who stay at their hotels for example during vacation. This reward does not only apply to an individual but extends to family and friend of the hotel employee. This reward has been sealed by the development of the ‘’ Go Hilton website which is accessible to all Hilton workers across the world and in which they book other Hilton hotels making them eligible for discounts. Discounted rates on hotel stay also extend to long serving employees who have retired or resigned. Constant need for learning and career development has been enabled through the creation of Hilton University. This e-learning and training programs offer 2500 courses among five colleges around the world for employees to choose from. These ambitious education programs are offered for free to select group of teams and discounted on other teams (Hilton, 2020).

Conclusion

As companies have invested in workforce satisfaction and general comfort in work environment, Investment towards employee satisfaction at the Hilton has been widely attributed to higher number of qualified applications on their vacancies every year on both existing and developing hotels. Employee satisfaction through rewards has also contributed significantly to the high retaining of staff at Hilton properties worldwide While (Law et al., 2017). this low turnover cannot be attributed to any specific rewarding activity by the company towards its employees, an average 6% fall in turnover was recorded in 2017 at all Hilton properties in the world and this translates to 30 million dollars in savings that would have otherwise been incurred in employee recruitment and training. Despite lack of ownership of all Hilton properties, the Hilton Inc. which manages all properties on behalf of private owners recorded a 7% increase in its leadership index, making it amongst the top best hospitality providers in the world (Lee et al., 2015). Through creation of employee benefit policies, Hilton does not only treat employee benefits as a reward but also as a mandatory need in order to achieve full potential and output of their acknowledged employees. With benefits ranging from comprehensive benefits and employee focused rewards, Hilton employees have a variety of benefits offered to them. Over the past decade and through adoption of new technology, restructuring its human resource practises and providing easily accessible and centralised education through its university programmes, the Hilton group has achieved a competitive advantage over its competitors, while addressing issues comprehensively (Lee et al., 2015).

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