Finding more kindness and connection

A new, unchartered landscape

The pandemic affected all of us - in different ways. For the hospitality industry and its people, it has been an incredibly hard journey - with border closures, lockdowns and regulations closing many hotels overnight and turning others into quarantine facilities with a completely different service model.

For global hospitality group TFE Hotels their 80 properties across Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark and Hungary had to adapt fast (and continually) as the crisis unfolded. 

“You need hope and a positive outlook when your industry is experiencing its toughest moments.”
- Head of People and Culture, Michelle Bevan.

With a brand new employee value proposition (EVP) launched just before the start of the pandemic, we helped TFE adapt the messaging to support their people as they navigated these new horizons with intention and purpose. 

TFE’s Head of People and Culture, Michelle Bevan explained that “you need hope and a positive outlook when your industry is experiencing its toughest moments.” 

‘Find more’ was at the heart of their EVP, and we developed a new set of principles to bring out four dimensions:

These four principles offered a road map to guide decisions, and behaviour during this period of upheaval. They were consciously aspirational and uplifting in their language.

18 months on and with reopening a fast reality, we checked in with Michelle on the journey they faced and how these principles helped to support their people to establish hope and galvanise to Find more. 

Find more connection 

Working at the core of the hospitality industry, Michelle has always had a good sense of how deeply wired for connection people are. So in a time of closed borders, limited physical contact and rising mental health concerns, she knew that TFE needed to take creative action to reignite that connection. 

In partnership with Incorporate Psychology, they developed and delivered the Find More connection series for their people, focusing on strengthening connection with self and in relationships. 

There’s nothing quite like a shared goal to drive connection, and the STEPtember challenge truly brought a sense of unity through community, with 120 teams across the hotel group competing together to a collective 130 million steps, raising over $35K for Cerebral Palsy. 

Harnessing the power of celebration came through with a global team award program: Stronger Together - with team and individual recognition across team categories, including community, grit, innovation, team spirit and leadership that brought team members from across the globe together virtually to celebrate the power of their people.  

Find more kindness

As a global hospitality brand, Michelle says TFE really understands the power of a single act, and how moments truly matter. 

“Small things have a big and lasting impact.  What was so great, is that this just comes naturally in our teams – how our teams support our guests flows through to how our teams support their colleagues.” 

Every location of the global group was being impacted by the pandemic in different ways and the Find More Kindness campaign provided a critical platform for solidarity and shared experience. It allowed TFE’s teams to amplify their support and encouragement to their colleagues across cities, regions and even countries. 

The campaign came to life in so many ways. A range of postcards were designed and delivered across the globe, encouraging recognition of peers through handwritten notes delivered with care. “Small acts of personalised kindness through handwritten postcards or a gif sent through as a text message were being sent across the country.”

Bright, colourful GIFs gave another way to say thanks via text to a colleague.

“Small acts of personalised kindness through handwritten postcards or a gif sent through as a text message were being sent across the country.”

“It certainly made my day, when I received a postcard that said ‘Thank you for being you’” shared Michelle. 

Michelle’s people and culture team also created a host of daily kindness tips to inspire action, from giving a compliment to sharing a smile with a stranger or donating an item to someone in need.  

The actions were amplified through an instagram hub and the stories were truly heartwarming - from selfless support toward colleagues struggling during the pandemic, team moments shared and emergency coffee’s delivered after a long day.

Find more has truly been embraced by everyone across the entire business because it was genuine, people led from the top. What hasn’t been amplified is how the executive team acted with more kindness. One of these ways was through providing low cost temporary accommodation to team members who couldn’t afford to pay rent during lockdowns, and through hardship loans which were made available for those who needed money in an emergency.

EVP guiding the way 

TFE’s EVP Find more has been a cornerstone that guided their people through the challenges of a pandemic. The core of the EVP remained true, it just needed to be activated differently to match up with the context. Designed right, your EVP is a strategic tool that can help you and your people navigate any storm and provide consistency during the tough times. 

We hope that the path ahead carries less challenging days, and that TFE team members continue to find more powerful connections, kindness, possibilities and, of course find more within.