• Posting events, recipes and interesting stories
• Running specials for fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter
• Effectively using contests to increase customer following and email campaign list
• Creating ways to strategically engage with customers, through how-to cooking classes, creating drinks, etc.
• Go beyond Groupon efforts and LivingSocial to really invest in building relationships with customers by offering a free item to customers who do what you ask - book a reservation, subscribe to your page, follow you.

I found the article to be helpful in thinking about meaningful ways to engage the customers that are not limited to strictly promotional efforts.  The article offered ideas that engage the customer to interact in some way.

How are you engaging with your customers?  How difficult is it to keep up your social media outlets?  What has been successful for your operation? 

“…under the amended act, an employee who suffers from depression may be able to function quite normally with the aid of medication but will still be considered to be disabled and will need to receive accommodation….”

 “…the frequency of discrimination claims will likely increase — as will the frequency of litigation losses — but she says the severity of individual claims will likely not change all that much, with class actions in this field being a rarity…”

Existing employment-practices liability insurance policies shouldn’t have to be rewritten or modified, she says. “We would push back on any attempt to limit coverage just because the act has been expanded.”

Employers, however, should be integrating their disability-management programs to include non-occupationally injured and ill employees, and not just workers’ compensation cases, according to Pimentel.

“That is the big trend, and by the way, from an ADA-compliance standpoint, I recommend employers take a close look at doing that,” Pimentel says.

Employers should also be revisiting how much training they are doing among their supervisors on employee etiquette, language and comfort levels in communicating with disabled employees, he advises.

“Talking to them about their needs for accommodation is … an enforced requirement under the law,” Pimentel says.

For more:  http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533338925

At Westfield, we promise to make individuals feel special and to create especially meaningful and memorable moments for them. Corporate entertainment options help set that stage. Whatever option you choose must have broad appeal to your audience. The most typical kinds of corporate entertainment available are music bands, comedy shows and magicians. Interactive venues such as magicians, clowns, caricaturists, and balloon artists are designed to improve corporate communication skills and other management skills in a fun and informal way. The choice of setting can also improve team spirit among corporate clients and music can help relax attendees so they can relate better with each other. Event planners here at Westfield also focus on entertainment that has local flare when at an offsite location. What better way to get to know colleagues than through fun events?

Here’s a few guidelines to stick to when looking for ideal corporate entertainment that will appeal to all. Company events can be very fun and memorable when booking entertainment that’s suitable for the occasion. 

• Always use musicians or entertainers that will put on a good family-friendly or politically correct show. One sure way to create problems is to book somebody who is insulting to anyone at the function.
• Being familiar with your audience is crucial. You need to be acquainted with their personalities from the start to get the right type of corporate entertainment.
• Produce a list of probable corporate entertainment venues. Determine which specific type is ideal for your event.
• You can either do business directly with the performer or you may want to seek out the assistance of a licensed booking agency.
• It’s ordinarily vital to use a signed agreement or contract to ensure you get what you paid for.

What have been your favorite types of corporate entertainment? Let us know!

Christine Warner is the executive assistant of corporate hospitality operations at Westfield Group. She provides administrative support to the group hospitality operations leader and business development leader, and creates the promotional materials for facilities within the department

Westfield Country Club includes a 36-hole private country club, a conference center and a 64-room inn.  Golf and weddings drive a large amount of our business, making our busy time from April to October.  We continue to have guests at our Inn and provide meeting and banquet opportunities throughout the winter.  As an indicator of true seasonality, our variable revenue, which does not include dues for November through March, only accounts for 12.5% of our annual revenue during 41.6% of the year. 

Unlike our golf operations friends in the south and west, we have the opportunity to reflect, assess and plan for the following year while our operations are either slower or closed completely.  Our year can be broken into three parts; November-March we review and plan, April-mid-May- we ramp up, and mid-May to October we make hay, so to speak.

Winter is a crucial time for us to prepare for the thousands of guests that we will have during the summer and the hundreds of seasonal employees who will create an outstanding experience for those guests. 

Our full time employees spend the winter as busy beavers making sure our house is in order when April 1 rolls around.

 Here is a sample of the work that has to be done:

1. Safety checks and annual maintenance for our golf course equipment fleet and our cart fleet.
2. Creation of our catering and a la carte menus for the next year.  This process includes tasting, testing, reciping, and creating training materials for the culinary staff.
3. Deep cleaning and annual repair and maintenance of our facilities, including each hotel room.
4. Assessment of our standard operating procedures and our training programs including safety, job knowledge, etc.  Any changes to training materials and programs need to be ready for the first of our seasonal staff to arrive in March.
5. The purchasing plan for the golf shop merchandise is created, and a majority of the orders are placed with our vendors so that we get periodic deliveries of new product.
6. Creation of our member events, leagues and other activities for the upcoming year, which includes planning the event and creating the marketing materials necessary to communicate with our members.
7. Our tee sheets and event bookings are created and confirmed in our point of sale system.
8. Menu tastings for each wedding that is booked for the year.

This is not an exhaustive list but I think you get the idea.  Most importantly it is a chance for us to be ready for our guests when they start showing up full force in May.  Our full and part time staff makes up about 15% of our total staff, so it is a lot to do in a short time. Since Punxsutawney Phil says it is going to be an early spring, it is time to get back to work.

Think spring, Autumn

Autumn Keller is the hospitality operations revenue center’s leader for Westfield Group. Autumn has general management responsibility for the Westfield Group Country Club, the Blair Conference Center and Westfield Inn. 

http://hospitality.westfieldinsurance.com/2011/02/what-do-you-do-in-the-winter.html

 Brides and Business: Lessons from a Bridal Show

As with many in the hospitality industry right now, we just got back from participating in several wedding shows. We talked to quite a few potential clients and vendors and I would like to share a few insights from the experience.

1. People are planning more events in 2011 and 2012 than in the last several years. Based on signed contracts for 2011, we are up about 20% from the last several years. I get the sense that people have come to grips with the current economic climate and are ready to carry on with activities that are important to them. We have learned that weddings are not recession proof, but they are not going to stop either!

2. People may be doing more, but they're not spending more. It still felt like clients were searching for more favorable pricing and packages for their events. The tone seems to be that we want to have our wedding, but we aren’t going to go over the top. We talk all the time about hot trends in the hospitality industry. The real trend is “value”. This is a great time for package deals and incentives to create real value for your location. (Side note: Speaking of trends- can we figure out some new colors other than ivory and chocolate brown for wedding receptions. I realize the linen companies are probably stocked up but it’s getting to the point that we don’t even have to ask!)

3. There were a greater number of empty booths at this year's shows. I know that the economy probably will be blamed. I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that online resources may be replacing conventional means of finding information for hospitality events. Now is the time to get as much information online as possible. I realize that this isn’t ground breaking news, but even if you have a website or social media links, are you actively using or updating them? While doing some menu research recently, I saw plenty of catering guides and menus from 2009 and earlier that are still sitting out there on websites. I will take this time to kindly ask you to open a new tab on your browser to check your website and return here when you’re done!

4. Brides want all-inclusive venues. If you have an area for ceremony, reception, and overnight rooms you have a distinct advantage on many properties. This can create a great experience for everyone. I really think one of the influences on this is the changing attitudes towards drinking and driving. Most events serve alcohol and people want to have a good time. However, they don’t want to get in a car and drive home after the good time. Having overnight accommodations then becomes very enticing.

5. Many brides want a beautiful outside ceremony. On-site ceremonies seem to really be becoming popular. More than half of our weddings now have the ceremony at our property. Several years ago we invested in a Losberger tent the back patio of our facility. It has truly been a game changer for us. It is a permanent structure with walls, fans, and a custom pleated ceiling liner that really gives the structure a finished look. The frame is also permanently mounted and fitted to the patio decking. It has been a great spot for all kinds of corporate entertaining. It also happens to be fantastic for wedding ceremonies. This is something that offers great views over our golf course, weather proof, and able to accommodate a large ceremony. Finding a great spot for an outdoor ceremony can really help build the vision for your wedding clients. A rented tent in the parking lot is not the stuff dreams are made of!                        

Hope the information helps and I would welcome any thoughts as the wedding season kicks off! What trends are you seeing from brides and event planners this year?

Chad Caplinger is manager of the Blair Center at Westfield Center. He has 14 years of hospitality industry experience in corporate and private restaurants, conference centers, event planning and hotel/restaurant management.

Hotel operators, public-health officials and leaders of an industry spawned to combat bedbugs urged tighter U.S. regulations and development of effective pesticides during the second National Bed Bug Summit.

“It remains a huge concern,” said Joseph McInerny, chief executive officer of the American Hotel and Lodging Association at the two-day conference in Washington that ends today. Housekeeping and maintenance staff are the “first line of defense,” spotting speckles of blood that signal rooms may be closed for weeks by an infestation, he said yesterday.

Bedbugs -- wingless insects that feed on the blood of sleeping animals -- invaded stores of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Victoria’s Secret and Nike Inc.’s Niketown in New York City last year as well as hotels, offices and homes.

The insects can cause reactions through bites, as well as blister-like skin infections and, in rare cases, asthma and anaphylactic shock, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“2010 was definitely the year of the bedbug,” Natalie Raben, marketing director of M&M Environmental, a New York pest- management company said at the conference.

The Environmental Protection Agency convened the meeting as New York City Council members urged the agency to set regulations for better use of insecticides.

“Given the difficulty of exterminating bedbugs, we are calling upon” the EPA “to conduct further research and development of effective pesticides,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to the EPA with fellow members.

Abercrombie & Fitch, the teen apparel retailer, in July temporarily closed its South Street Seaport store in New York to eliminate bedbugs. Time Warner Inc. in August said it treated its offices at Columbus Circle after bedbugs were found “in a small contained area.”

Commercial pest-control products may be insufficient to kill the bugs, said Liza Fleeson, program manager of consumer protection for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“I wish we could just tell bedbugs that ‘you are not allowed in this state’ and regulate them out,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomber.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

Smoke-free law not hurting hospitality industry, study says

Wisconsin’s six-month-old smoke-free law seems to be working well, according to a new study of the experience of five cities by the University of Wisconsin.

    The study – focusing on the effects of Wisconsin’s municipal smoke-free ordinances in Madison, Appleton, Eau Claire, Marshfield and Fond du Lac – found no adverse economic effects throughout the hospitality industry including bars and restaurants.

    Performed by the UW Carbone Cancer Center, the newly released 15-page study compared economic data between the five Wisconsin cities that enacted smoke-free ordinances before the statewide law took effect in July 2010 and similar cities where workplace smoking was still permitted.

    The results showed bars and restaurants in the smokefree cities continued to do well under the ordinances. In fact, in virtually every smokefree community the number of Class B alcohol licenses rose after the ordinances took effect and employment remained strong despite the recession.

“This is excellent news for employers and employees in the hospitality industry,” says Gail Sumi, Wisconsin government relations director for the American Cancer Society.

    “This study, like dozens of similar studies nationwide, offers more proof that going smoke-free does not pit business against health, but rather is a common sense health law that keeps workers and employers both physically and fiscally healthy.”

    Among factors, the study examined:

    -- The number of alcohol licenses issued to bars and restaurants

    -- The number of establishments operating before and after the ordinance

    -- The number of employees in the year before the ordinance took effect and the following years after

    Despite the significant economic recession of 2008, the study found the hospitality industry to be the most economically successful industry in the smoke-free cities. Employment in the industry remained high and overall there were no significant differences in economic trends between those with and without smokefree ordinances.

    One study conclusion was that by the very low level of fines, there is no indication that alcohol license holders believed it was necessary to violate the law in order to maintain revenue.

By NN.N Editorial Staff

Published 01/30/2011 -

 “…public accommodations must ensure that no individual with a disability may be “treated differently than other individuals because of the absence of auxiliary aids and services.”

• Included as examples of “auxiliary aids and services” are closed caption, rear-window captioning and open captioning for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.
• With the advances in technology, it is argued that at least one form of captioning is now required in virtually all hotel rooms, meeting rooms, bars, restaurants, and other accommodations with televised services. 
• Nearly all television sets built since 1993 with screens of 13 inches or more that are sold in the United States have closed captioning embedded in the television set. The closed captioning becomes visible when you use a special decoder, either as a separate box or built into the television set

If your hotel meeting and conference facilities appeal to a broad range of groups or organizations, which include disabled individuals (as nearly all do), are you providing auxiliary aids and services for visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing guests? 

• Have you implemented plans to protect yourself from this type of “new frontier” ADA litigation?
• Have you had an “ADA audit” done by an expert team looking to protect your interests? 
• Have you taken action to stay on top of the technology for hearing and sight impaired guests/conference attendees? 
• Have you specifically investigated your hotel’s needs to provide auxiliary aids and services? 
• Do you have written policies and procedures for providing auxiliary aids and services to guests/conference attendees? 
• Do you have written policies and procedures for training staff on the need for and use of auxiliary aids and services for disabled guests/conference attendees? 
• Do you have the necessary auxiliary aids and services on site? Are there aids and services available from sister properties if you run short? 
• Do you have policies in place for testing auxiliary aids and services to be sure they are working and properly maintained? 
• Do you have plans to investigate and purchase the latest in closed captioned technology

I highly recommend going to the original article as there is compelling information regarding this trend.

For more:  http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/01/hotel_ada_defense_conference_centers_

Brian

As an employer, you have a duty of care to ensure that employees are not injured during the course performing the duties of their employment.  It can be tempting to funnel resources into areas where immediate profit is realized. DO NOT make that mistake.

A well run safety management program will not only improve the efficiency of your staff, it will also improve your bottom line by reducing costs.  Injury to an employee can cost you in at least three ways: 

1. Money (uninsured costs)
2. Staff (employees may leave for safer working conditions)
3. Time ( accident investigation, training new staff if lost)

5 steps to managing the safety risk of your employees:

1. Identify, characterize, and assess threats.
2. Assess the vulnerability of critical assets to specific threats.
3. Determine the risk (what are the expected consequences of specific types of threats).
4. Identify ways to reduce those risks.
5. Prioritize risk reduction measures based on a strategy.

With the help of your staff, identify the hazards that exist in you establishment.  They are able to observe potential threats as the work is occurring.  When risks have been identified, evaluate how frequently and how long employees are exposed to the hazard.  Evaluate how severe the consequences will be if a loss occurs. 

After hazards have been identified and consequences determined, develop controls that will minimize the risk of someone getting hurt.  Where possible, take measure to eliminate or avoid the risk. For example, a broken floor board that poses a tripping hazard should be repaired.  Substitutions can also be made to reduce exposure.  Older equipment can be replaced with new equipment that has better safety guards built in. Develop a system of employee training that ensures that all employees are well aware of how their jobs are to be performed to avoid and minimize injury.

Develop a written policy that establishes the safety criteria that must be maintained by all employees.  This includes identifying all personal safety protection that must be used by employees while performing their duties.  Monitor the controls and determine whether adjustments should be made to increase the effectiveness of the policy. 

One of the most important steps in a safety management program is the records process.  When properly maintained, the information collected to the accident reports, investigation records, inspections, and training records will be invaluable in evaluation the success of your safety program.  These reports will also aid in identifying areas that need improvement or adjustment. 

Be aware of new equipment or functions within your operation that require a change to the safety program.  Reviewing your safety program on a regular basis will enable you to put more dollars in your bottom line as you maintain a safe and efficient workplace for you employees. 

Additional information can be found in the following web sites.

http://www.osha.gov/index.html

http://hospitalityrisksolutions.wordpress.com/

Ruth Knopf is the business sector manager of the Research and Development team at Westfield Insurance, and is responsible for development and continued profitability of targeted marketed segments, including hospitality. Ruth has 17 years of experience in the insurance industry working as an insurance commercial underwriter. Prior to beginning her insurance career, she worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years. 

You can find more articles like this at:  http://hospitality.westfieldinsurance.com