What can an employer do to help its employees reach their “peak”?
That was a question presented to North Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain Resort.
And through their quest for the answer, they have earned go2’s annual “Employees First” award for their exceptional practices in human resources and people management. The company was recognized on February 12, 2009 at the tenth annual BC Tourism Awards gala.
Grouse Mountain employs more than 700 employees at the height of its season and is the largest youth employer on the North Shore. The company realizes that their employees are an important asset and key to the company’s success. Hence they strive to help the staff find their own peak performance and offer a variety of ways to support this mandate.
Employee Communications
“Communication with our employees is key to developing their career goals, and enhancing their general well-being and advancement,” says Charmaine Carswell, Director, Human Resources at Grouse Mountain. The following are a few of their initiatives:
- “MyGrouse” – the employee intranet that keeps staff informed of new initiatives and serves as a central forum for staff engagement and corporate culture development.
- Surveys - annual job satisfaction survey and exit interviews are conducted. Many employees say the best part of working at the company is the people they work with.
- Staff inputs - on a regular basis, workers are solicited for inputs to help the executive team assess and implement new ideas and review ongoing projects.
- “Peak Performers” - an employee brand book that serves as a guide and reminder of the company vision and values. It is designed in a fun, pictorial style to reflect the diversity of their employee base, and phrases from this book are used as tag lines for job ads that are tailored for specific target groups.
“Our ‘Peak Performers’ brand book has helped us better define our brand with job seekers, and our annual employee survey results have demonstrated consistent improvement in meeting and addressing the needs of our staff,” adds Charmaine.
A Smoke Free Facility
In caring about employees’ health and well-being, Grouse worked with the Canadian Cancer Society in the “Tobacco Free Workplace” pilot project to help employees stay smoke free and assist those who want to quit. With a goal to become the first smoke free mountain resort in BC by May 31, 2009, also the annual “World No Tobacco Day”, Grouse implemented the following strategies:
- Conducted a trial run by declaring the mountain smoke free for one day on May 31, 2008.
- Travelled across the mountain, asking guests and employees to butt on in exchange for a package of licorice.
- Launched two contests with cash prize incentives where employees pledged to stay smoke free for six weeks. The company would provide each participant with a starter kit of smoking cessation products, licorice and informational material.
- Reimbursed purchases of over-the-counter smoking cessation products for all staff, including young, entry-level and seasonal employees who are not enrolled in the company’s benefit program.
- Provided words of encouragement to staff and acknowledged their efforts regardless of the outcome.
- Paralleled the program at Grouse Mountain’s sister company.
As a result, fifteen employees have quit to date and Grouse Mountain recently received a Recognition Award from the CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society and the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport. And to encourage and support this initiative, Marnie Henne of Springbrook Resort in Skookumchuk has generously offered any Grouse Mountain staff and their partners a six-night stay at her resort if they have stayed smoke free for six weeks starting March 1, 2009.
Health and Safety
In order to provide a safe and healthy work environment for their staff, Grouse Mountain has an extensive two-day orientation program for new staff, which includes:
- A one-day general workplace training including customer service training, health and safety training, WHMIS training, bear awareness and intranet training.
- A one-day task-specific training covering emergency procedures, a worker’s right to refuse unsafe work, hazard identification, the use of personal protective equipment and department-specific safety.
- Showing the “New and Young Workers” videos featuring Grouse Mountain that were produced in 2008 and 2007 by WorkSafeBC.
- A checklist for workers, trainers and supervisors to acknowledge the completion of the training program.
With this orientation program, Grouse received the annual award from the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) for Best Training/Orientation Programs for Young and New Workers.
In addition, improvements were made in both salary and non-salary compensation that includes an RSP program and an extensive incentive program involving team outings, gift certificates and store discounts. Creating many channels for employee communication and a healthy, safe work environment has been paramount to Grouse Mountain’s success and ability to continuously improve their business. It helps translate into positive guest experience which will be vital to the company as they welcome the world during the Olympics in 2010.
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