OAKLAND, CALIF., March 16, 2021 — At the request of SH Hotels & Resorts, an affiliate of global private investment firm Starwood Capital Group, Beekeeper has added Bucketlist Rewards to its mobile-first employee communication platform marketplace. By publicly recognizing and rewarding its frontline hotel workers in one place, the hotel management company operating 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels, and Treehouse Hotels is heightening employee engagement and productivity, increasing retention, reducing voluntary turnover, and boosting morale.
SH Hotels & Resorts began using the award-winning Beekeeper workplace app in 2016 to connect with its colleagues across brands, locations, and departments in real time via mobile or desktop devices. Beekeeper has grown to become the one secure, intuitive hub that brings operational communication and systems to the frontlines. In 2019, SH Hotels & Resorts implemented Bucketlist Rewards to motivate, celebrate, and retain its workforce. Unlike other programs, Bucketlist provides employees with thousands of rewards designed by each hotel that make sense for each individual.
“We’ve been working with Beekeeper and Bucketlist Rewards independently for some time, but we realized both platforms would be more effective if they operated in tandem,” said Dan Waite, SH Hotels & Resorts Vice President, People Operations. “Rather than having one channel for operational communications and another for recognition and rewards, we can now celebrate our global employees in front of their peers and the entire organization in Beekeeper. People like to know that what they did matters, and that management and their peers are paying attention.
“By connecting Bucketlist to Beekeeper, everyone can see when their coworker does a good deed or a great job,” Waite said. “A person working at 1 Hotel Central Park may redeem accrued tokens for a behind the scenes tour of Farm.One and their organic, sustainable platform for Sustainable Food Delivery, while an employee at 1 Hotel South Beach may choose to tour the Everglades or enjoy a spa or yoga session. I am a big advocate of experiential rewards. In these challenging times, frontline hotel workers deserve to be recognized and rewarded often if we want them to remain loyal and take special care of guests. Token programs like Bucketlist are critical to employee retention, and they are proving to be extremely effective when shared publicly on Beekeeper, since that is digital tool where our employees actively live.”
According to Survey Monkey, 82% of employees are happier when they are recognized at work; 68% think that public recognition has at least some impact on their ability to get a raise or promotion; and 63% of employees who are recognized are very unlikely to look for a new job. OGO reports that 40% of employed Americans would put energy into their work if they were recognized more often.
“These two platforms are enabling SH Hotels & Resorts to bring our core values — to love, include, respect, delight and trust — to life through recognition and transparency,” Waite said. “We are keeping our employees loyal and motivated by reinforcing these values in our Beekeeper communication and through Bucketlist Rewards. Although we are operating with a lean staff today, soon our furloughed workers will return. So, it is especially important that we also stay connected to them so they can remain engaged with the entire organization. They are still a central part of the SH Hotels & Resorts family.”
Waite said 30 to 40 percent of SH Hotels and Resorts employees do not have a company email and cannot communicate via text messaging, so mid pandemic Beekeeper is serving as a lifeline to all. Furloughed employees rely on Beekeeper to know when restaurants will reopen or when they will be added back on the schedule. They attend digital Town Hall Meetings to remain connected to the organization. And they can view photos and videos of their peers sanitizing rooms and using UV wands on luggage or guest car upholstery to reinforce the extra efforts being taken to keep everyone safe.
“Furloughed or active, we post to everyone on Beekeeper,” Waite said. “It’s instant communications to the masses that won’t bounce back or get caught by spam blockers. With Beekeeper we can reach 100% of our people 100% of the time, and with Bucketlist Rewards now on Beekeeper, we can express our appreciation to those who put themselves at risk each day in the name of hospitality. I’m glad to have played a small part in bringing these two companies together, and I look forward to collaborating with them together on future projects.”
Jason Lindstrom, Bucketlist Rewards CEO, said he is excited to be integrated with Beekeeper. “By connecting the two platforms we are helping companies effectively communicate with their employees and build a great culture,” Lindstrom said. “When you take great care of your employees they perform better and stay longer.”
Andrada Paraschiv, Beekeeper head of hospitality concurred, saying: “We are delighted that SH Hotels & Resorts is experiencing such high employee engagement through Beekeeper and that our new integration to Bucketlist Rewards is helping to boost morale and keep employees happy as they navigate their way through this new normal. Bucketlist on Beekeeper makes it easy and fun for employees and managers to recognize and reward one another for milestones, achievements, and jobs well done. We look forward to hearing about the many new ways that SH Hotels & Resorts will be using our joint solutions soon.”
