Employee Orientation: An Organizational and Experiential Learning Approach

Employee orientation problems for a resort chain were studied and addressed through action research. The implemented solution leveraged experiential learning to foster employee initiative and problem solving to instill a culture of learning, improve customer satisfaction and increase employee retention. Business results were achieved but learner/ management reaction was mixed. “Most of our service businesses don’t serve very well” (Senge, 1990, p. 332). The typical multi-location service company of today faces challenges of engendering a culture of service and of continuous learning to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding clientele. Front line employees turn over the fastest and yet are the critical group for delivering on customer expectations. Typically, employees with the least training and shortest tenure in a service enterprise have the most customer contact. As any customer who has suffered at a hotel reception or a fast food counter can attest, the attitude and level of initiative shown by the front line team of that enterprise can make or break one’s experience there. To meet customer expectations, a modern service enterprise faces the dual challenges of instilling a spirit of initiative and customer orientation in their newest frontline employees immediately after hire, and in bonding the employee to the organization so that they remain on the job. This represents an education and training opportunity as well as an organizational learning challenge. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a practical solution to such typical organizational problems through the application of individual and organizational learning theory. The Problem In 1999, a major worldwide resort company decided to address ongoing resort employee turnover and low retention in its ten North American locations. This company staffs its resorts with an international population of front line employees, attempting to match the ratio of languages and cultures of the guests. These employees work a six-month contract, fall to spring, or spring to fall, with renewal options. The employees live onsite and range from 20 to 50 years in age. From 1996-1999, over 40% of their contracted resort employees quit or were dismissed before the end of their semi-annual contracts, equaling an ongoing 81% annual turnover rate. (Club Med Management Services, 2003a). The cost of replacing these employees in mid-contract (hiring cost + transportation cost + training cost) totaled over one million dollars annually. Aside from such documented “hard” costs, this high turnover had an additional significant but unmeasured impact on productivity and guest satisfaction. Measured in mail-in client exit surveys over the same 1996-1999 period, guest ratings of employee service in the 10 resorts averaged at 30% “very good to excellent,” 50% “good to average,” and 20% “fair to poor” (Club Med Management Services, 2003b). Although expensive employee turnover and unsatisfactory guest satisfaction rates were the principal problems brought to human resources by resort operations, there was also general dissatisfaction expressed by the resort managers themselves concerning the slow pace of