Empowering People and Elevating Hospitality Careers - Guillaume Benezech

Josiah: Over the past few days, we've been learning from Guillaume Benezech, a top leader in luxury hospitality with over a decade of experience at the Ritz-Carlton, where he now has a global brand leadership role. Today in this episode, Guillaume shares his observations and insights on the heart of hospitality: its people. We discuss the big shift that has happened and is happening on the skills that matter, the importance of empowering employees through learning, and how hospitality leaders can create career paths that inspire and attract top talent. Guillaume also shares powerful advice for anyone pursuing growth in their hospitality career, which is very timely as we head into a new year. So let's get into it.

[intro]

I'm curious what shifts you've seen unfold when it comes to the hospitality talent landscape in recent years. What's been going on?

Guillaume: I think a lot is going on. First of all, I think before we were prioritizing technical skills, and we are now prioritizing emotional skills. By this, I mean—and I've said it for years—don't hire on the resume; hire for the person you have in front of you. If this person showed genuine care, if this person smiled naturally, you can feel by interviewing a person what is the level of emotional intelligence. So I think that's a big switch today because that's where we are going more and more with the guests. So we need this to be understood very well by the employee.

I think the other switch which worries me a little bit is this flexible and hybrid work model. So we are doing—again, I have difficulty thinking how we can work from home managing a hotel. It's not really compatible for me because you need—a salesperson needs the support of the operation. You sell a dream; you need to make sure that your operation will deliver the dream and not the nightmare. So that's something we need to think about because unfortunately, the new generation is looking at that. So how are we going to adjust and what processes are we going to find to comply with their request?

We talk about the importance of sustainability skills. I think this is going to rise very quickly. What is very interesting as well, there is a request for learning. It's very interesting to me to see—I remember when I started in hospitality, we had to do those trainings. "Hey, this is the deadline for this training." And now our employees are coming saying, "We want to be trained. We want to be developed." It's not—so there is like, the new generation wants to evolve extremely fast, wants to learn extremely fast, wants to have independence, empowerment at its highest level. So that's a big switch as well that we are looking at.

Josiah: Guillaume, can I just ask a follow-up to that? Because I've heard people want more flexibility before. I haven't heard the learning piece. That is really interesting to me. And I'm curious, it could be about younger workers or just in general. What have you found to be the most effective types of learning or feedback you've gotten from your team saying that was really helpful? What does that look like?

Guillaume: I had many employees that were working on projects. I think it always starts with empowerment. They love to own. They want to be part of the success of the hotel. And I remember when I opened the Ritz-Carlton in Geneva in Switzerland, we had to open a restaurant. Of course, as a general manager, I have to discuss with the ownership and the brand, okay, what concept it is, what vision we have for the restaurant. But I asked the manager of the restaurant, I said, "You're going to ask the team how they want to set up the tables. We're going to decide the plates, the glasses, but I want them to find their way to set up in a creative way the table."

And so it was very interesting to see how we put this restaurant on the map very quickly. And so I think they want to learn. They want to be empowered. They want to be developed. They want to take over some project. They want to be proud. And I have to say, as a manager, it's very different as well, because we have to accept to give more. We have to accept to trust, which is not easy when you manage a property and you have so much pressure from many sides. It's not easy, but the result is beautiful.

Josiah: That's great. Now, I'm always trying to think about what does it take to make a career in hospitality more attractive? And again, we can focus this on luxury hospitality. Are there any industry-wide changes you think need to take place to get more people to say, "I want to work in this industry"?

Guillaume: Yeah, I think this industry has—first of all, there is a very negative perception of the job. And if you take, for example, like housekeepers or roles that are on the similar level and you take similar level on different industry, I don't know why, but there is a very different perception. It looks harder. It looks like you work seven days a week, you work on holidays, on your birthday. So I think the challenge here is really for us to adjust to that and show a different perception. Try to switch this perception, which is not something easy, because at the end, the work is the same. It's just, okay, how we make the atmosphere, the working conditions more attractive. And I think it all starts by that.

Josiah: What you've described, I think, has applicability on all levels, but we need to think as an industry, how do we make this attractive to all functional areas within a hotel, all levels of seniority? You referenced younger workers, housekeepers. There needs to be a sense of not only can this be a good job, but there's a career path here, it feels.

Guillaume: Yeah, and I think this industry is seen as well like a very slow career corporation. So if you work as an operational role, which is, you know, for example, a bellman, and okay, what is next and what is the path? And I think some companies have done a very good job at making mandatory, what we call performance reviews, where, you know, every employee should have a career growth, a plan for him to grow, or at least to discuss that with the manager. Some of them don't want to grow and that's fine, but some of them want to learn something different. And we have seen amazing talent moving from a department to another, being extremely successful in what they do.

So it's—we have, again, it comes from the, okay, are we ready to give this option and this, you know, commit to the development or to commit to the change. It's something that is not easy to do, I have to say.

Josiah: Well, I mean, over your career, you've mentored a lot of frontline workers and a lot of leaders. And I'm curious if you had to sum up some of the advice that you give people, some of the people you've mentored with regards to career and how they can advance in their career. What do you share with people, if you had to summarize that?

Guillaume: So, any member of my team would tell you he's crazy, but I think the best advice I could give is if you want to succeed, if you want to grow, you have to think like crazy people. You have to go. You have to try. You have to take risks. You have to jump. You cannot care about, you know, what people say and if it's right or not, but just believe in what you believe for yourself. And you have to go in what is expecting you in the future.

And I think that's the best advice I can give them is to believe in themselves. Sometime on their path, they're going to find some mentors, some people who are going to tell them, who are going to take care of them. And they should take the opportunity to go with them, as I had the chance to find on my way. And sometimes they're going to feel a little bit lonely. But that's fine. Don't give up. They're going to fail. They're going to fall. Stand up again and go.