At the Heart of It All: Investing in High-Impact Employee Programs

Laura Fuentes - Senior VP of Talent & Rewards, Hilton

Session date/time : TBD

Learn how making high-value investments in people and building a strategic, employee-centric communications campaign can transform your company’s culture, deliver outstanding business results and ultimately, inspire your employees to become your company’s staunchest advocates.

While it is often easy to focus first on tactics, Hilton has taken a strategic approach to building employee loyalty and engagement by developing benefits and programs that truly resonate. Hilton started with one goal in mind: for every Team Member to understand that they are the “Heart of Hilton.” Rooting its campaign in a clearly-defined Team Member value proposition (providing a Great Environment, Great Careers and Great Rewards), Hilton created an experience that would be meaningful for both hourly and salaried Team Members across five generations in the workplace. Hilton continued to build a culture of collaboration by collecting feedback, engaging in dialogue and listening to Team Member stories. This enabled Hilton to develop the benefits and programs under each category that would be most valuable for Team Members.

This work continues to be a key differentiator: best-in-class Team Member programs that support the health, happiness and success of a diverse team, with a clear focus on hourly employees – Hilton’s largest Team Member population. Industry-leading parental leave, adoption assistance, GED support and travel discount programs have significantly impacted employee satisfaction – and are benefits that many companies only offer to their salaried workers. Moreover, the company has introduced these benefits at scale across the 100+ countries where it operates.

Today, 91 percent of Team Members report they are proud to work for Hilton and 86 percent are motivated to do more than just their job – far above the average of other companies – and employee engagement increased by a record-breaking four points on the company’s annual internal survey. Hilton has won numerous awards for its workplace culture, including Great Place to Work® recognition in 13 countries to date, recognition as one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials by Great Place to Work® and Fortune and, for the first time ever, recognition as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Three key learning objectives: 

• Learn how to invest your resources in the employee programs and rewards that will have the greatest impact.
• Go beyond traditional feedback mechanisms to create an authentic dialogue with employees.
• Gain the tools necessary to inspire employees to be your staunchest advocates, both internally and externally.