Super 8
In September 2009, we travelled to participating tourism businesses in the city of Prince Albert, including Super 8, a limited service hotel that offers rooms, a continental breakfast, and complimentary fitness passes to guests; Prince Albert and District Tourism, an organization that provides a variety of services for visitors to Prince Albert and district; and Comfort Inn, a limited service hotel that offers rooms and a continental breakfast to guests among other amenities.
A common theme arose when speaking with interviewees from the above three locations. All interviewees said they hope the Transforming the Tourism Workforce project will instill feelings of confidence and empowerment in their employees.
"Staff [who] attain an industry certification that says nationwide they have skills empowers [them]," Flora Larson, General Manager at the Super 8, said.
Likewise, Debbie Honch, Executive Director of the Marketing Bureau at Prince Albert and District Tourism, highlighted the importance of credential recognition in achieving certification, saying that recognition promotes "feelings of empowerment and confidence" among staff.
While attaining certification and credential recognition are two important ingredients to empowering staff and increasing their self-confidence, so too is the knowledge that staff gain in the certification process, Kendra Brown, General Manager at the Comfort Inn, said.
Brown further explained that while the staff member she has enrolled in the project performed well prior to her participation, the training she is undergoing and the knowledge gained in the process, is reinforcing her commendable behaviour and self-confidence.
The fact that all three managers are seeing similar results with their employees speaks to their positive relationship with staff, who they say should get a healthy dose of encouragement and recognition while on-the-job. Saying "thank you" is a simple way of recognizing employees for the extra effort they put in, Larson emphasized.
