I can’t say that we do anything drastically different than Zingerman’s when it comes to communication – we started our monthly employee newsletter after our General Manager and Dining Room Manager went to Zingerman’s “The Art of Giving Great Service” almost two years ago (was it really two years ago?). It has been very successful and we reach more staff members throughout the resort this way than any other way. We include our “high fives” (staff kudos from other staff members and guests”, calendar dates, training dates, a healthy living article, a “green” or environmental based article, any news related to the resort, the coming month, contest information, welcomes to new employees, staff interviews, etc. The newsletter comes out with the paycheck closest to the first of the month.

We recently started an M.O.D (manager on duty) log on our main server computer – there are only 5 of us that fill this role on a regular basis, but we were struggling with communication (amazing for a bunch of talkers). If you work an MOD shift, you write in the log – and the next shift any of us works, you read the log. We’ve only been doing it for two weeks and it has been very beneficial to us so far. Only the five of us have access to the log, that way we can include any information as detailed as necessary. Our Guest Services staff uses a shift log – they pass information via the written word from shift to shift on a daily basis – and if there’s something to watch for on any particular date, they’ll go to that date and make a note. Our security staff (overnight) also uses a shift log to communicate to the “day shift”.

We put notices and information in paychecks, and we post a lot of communication up by the time clocks, and e-mail is always helpful in getting the information out (but not as wide-spread as other options). Our management team (department managers) meets once a month – and our food and beverage group meets once a week (and some non-foodies come too).
Machele J
Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa, Pray, UT