Culture

At Innisfree Hotels, our culture underpins our success. We foster a workplace that promotes personal growth and service to humanity. We create opportunities for our employees and associates to participate in the creation of a more civil society and place great value on creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Our culture resonates from our corporate office to our properties, resulting in great experiences for our guests.

Management Style

  • Nurturing, encouraging and empowering.
  • Intrapreneurial (behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization).
  • Consultative. Seeking the input of employees at all levels.
  • Servant leadership.

Rules and Customs

Hosting frequent FYIs to share virtues and announcements with team members and using ‘tools’ in Innisfree’s Culture Tool Kit to shape how we interact with each other such as:

Behavior that negatively impacts others, voluntarily name and acknowledge it, explain the reason for it and commit to an alternative course of action in the future.

  • Check-in: This is an activity used in small gatherings with the aim of increasing the quality of communication and cooperation among team members, enhancing feelings of recognition, caring and intimacy.
  • Cooperative Mode:  This is an integrated set of behaviors geared at enhancing communication and increasing intimacy.

Commandments

Every Innisfree Hotels’ employee carries a business sized card with our corporate commandments listed on it at all times – either in their wallet or on their person. On one side is our customer service commandments and on the other is the working together commandments.

10 Customer Service Commandments

  1. Greet guests immediately
  2. Know and use guests’ names
  3. Be knowledgeable and informative
  4. Make eye contact
  5. SMILE!
  6. Listen to the guest.  Own the problem. Solve the problem.
  7. Always say “Yes”
  8. Answer the phone in 3 rings.
  9. Thank every guest for their business
  10. Invite every guest to come again

10 Working Together Commandments

  1. Start with trust
  2. Help one another
  3. Say “Please” and “Thank-You”
  4. Give ‘strokes’ often
  5. SMILE!
  6. Acknowledge each other as human beings
  7. Communicate
  8. Work to resolve differences before end of each day
  9. Treat everyone with respect
  10. Never say “It’s not my job.”


Cooperative Mode Tools

The Cooperative Mode and its tools can be used in workplace and family settings. Each tool must be studied and practiced with intention if we are to be successful in actualizing its transformative power.

  1. No Power Plays

A power play is the desire to impose the will of one person over another by attempting to force someone to do something the person basically doesn’t want to do or is not ready to do.

  1. No Rescues

A rescue is doing something for others that they can easily do for themselves. While a rescue can occur because a team member expects assistance, or asks for help, rescues can also occur when the team member has no expectation of receiving help. Whether you voluntarily provide a rescue, or a team member asks you for help, rescues can damage the relationship.

 

  1. No Secrets or Lies

Keeping secrets, telling lies, and withholding information jeopardize trust and damage relationships. These behaviors are detrimental to building an inclusive work environment and can lead to lack of trust in the workplace.

 

  1. Being Accountable

Acknowledging that you have made a mistake, taking ownership of the mistake and taking the steps necessary to find a solution, demonstrate what it means to be accountable. If the mistake cannot be corrected, you learn from the situation and choose an alternative course of action under similar circumstances going forward.

 

  1. Give Strokes Often

Strokes (affirmations/compliments) are freely exchanged statements that acknowledge and recognize others, making team members feel understood, valued, and noticed. When you affirm the importance of others, you help build and strengthen relationships. The giving of positive affirmations is critical to the success of cooperative environments.

 

  1. Inclusion

The intentional act of fostering a work environment where every team member feels as though they belong, their voices are heard and their opinions matter. Remember, it hurts to feel left out or ignored.

 

  1. Checking Out Paranoid Fantasies

Paranoia is distrust of an individual or group based only on your feeling-it is about what you think others are thinking, without any proof. When you have suspicions about the intention of behaviors of others, check out your feelings with the individual or group before jumping to conclusions. By checking out your paranoid fantasies, you can identify, reduce, or eliminate your suspicions.

  1. Sharing A Resentment

A resentment is a negative feeling toward an individual or group, that you feel, treated you poorly or unjustly. When you hold on to a resentment, negative feelings can fester and grow. Rather than holding on to the resentment, share that resentment with the person or group involved. In cooperative work environments, you should not fear judgement or retaliation. When you release the pent-up negative feelings, the relationship can be restored to one of mutual love, sharing and trust. A team member may respond no to your request to share a resentment.”  Should this happen, you might want to check in again later.

  1. Confidentiality

Confidentiality offers protection that information about the feelings or experiences of someone else will not be shared unless the person gives you permission to do so. Keeping conversations private creates a safe and caring environment for everyone.