Developing Talent and Culture in Hospitality

Mike Stover, Corporate Director of Talent & Culture, PCH Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

Mike Stover, Corporate Director of Talent & Culture, PCH Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

Through this article, Mike Stover explores the critical role of emotional intelligence and genuine care in building a thriving workplace culture within the hospitality industry. Drawing on his diverse background in recruiting and career development, Stover emphasizes the importance of treating employees well, fostering cultural fluency and providing exceptional career growth opportunities.

Supporting Talent Growth and Retention Strategies

My professional background is varied in roles and across industries, but the majority of my experience has been in recruiting and career development in some fashion. I have worked in hospitality, higher education, consulting, manufacturing and even spent some time in professional sports.

My current role with PCH Hotels & Resorts is within our corporate HR team, providing strategy and support to our property-based teams in recruiting, employee engagement, leadership training, and other activities to support how we find, develop and retain our talent. Additionally, on rare occasions when we have a senior leadership role open, I put my previous executive search skills to work in identifying new leaders for our company.

Leading with Emotional Intelligence

I think my diverse experiences have helped me better understand all levels of our organization, from entry-level and front-line roles to senior leaders. Many years ago, I worked in hotels doing event management, as a bartender and banquet server, and other roles. In my current position, this gives me a great perspective on what “a day in the life” really looks like for our teams. Also, in my current role, I try to spend time on our properties, meeting our people and learning about the things that impact their work and lives. Our company truly believes in leading with care, compassion, collaboration and accountability. These are among our core values and the traits we work to develop in our leaders. They are not just words painted on the wall; we work hard to help our managers understand what leading with emotional intelligence and our core values look like in the daily life of a busy hospitality leader.

“Talent and culture at the foundation are about genuine care for people, whether it's connecting someone to the right role or managing complex situations with empathy.”

Living the Company’s Core Values

When I interviewed for this position and knew “culture” would be in my title, I was cautious to ask everyone, particularly our president, questions about the reality of the organization’s culture. I have worked in companies where the mission statement and values existed on the website but not in the hallways. Fortunately, our core values are reinforced daily and talked about constantly. The values are embedded in our leadership development programming, which helps strengthen the company's culture from top to bottom. Our managers are held accountable for how they communicate and lead our teams, and the basis of that is our seven core values.

Fair Treatment and Strong Benefits

We have an outstanding reputation among the talent market in our industry. Despite the scale of the hotel and restaurant industry, it is a tight-knit group where people always seem to be only one or two steps removed. A bad reputation in the talent market can be crippling as bad reviews spread quickly. Our approach is likely not considered innovative as we stick to the basics of treating our people well, working to create an exceptional candidate experience, and providing a robust total package of fair compensation and strong benefits options. We hope that our culture, leadership, stability and working to offer growth opportunities for our people is enough to keep them for as long as we can. Our company has exceptional tenure at all levels of our organization, which is rare in our industry.

Fostering Cultural Fluency in Hospitality Teams

We are very fortunate that our teams have long been diverse regarding not only race or gender but also multicultural backgrounds and a welcoming environment for all. Like many hospitality companies, we have programs that bring talent from around the world into our hotels to support our operations and provide learning experiences for aspiring hospitality professionals. Most of our properties intentionally bring in talent from around the country and internationally to help develop cultural fluency among our teams. It is not uncommon to walk into one of our hotel kitchens and have team members from more than 4-5 countries, ages 18-65 and a mix of genders. This is common among hospitality companies as our customers also reflect tremendous diversity, and we want our teams to provide the same level of service excellence to anyone who walks through our doors.

Navigating Work Style Challenges

In our industry, the shifting expectations of work styles and environment will continue to be challenging. Very few of our roles can be remote or hybrid. Our business is service – in person, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This has already created some challenges and those will continue. It is imperative for us to work with students beginning well before college and at all stages of their career exploration to show them the rewarding aspects of hospitality and the career trajectory available and to help them envision their place in our industry. Our culture will always be about caring for each other, developing our people and taking great care of our guests. As long as those are our core areas of focus, I feel confident that our company can continue to identify, develop and retain the best people.

The Human Element: Caring at the Core of Talent

Talent and culture at the foundation are about genuine care for other people. This could be in talent acquisition as a recruiter who wants to help connect an individual to a role that will help them grow in their career or as an HR leader who has the emotional intelligence and empathy to manage complex situations with people in a way that shows you understand they are humans. Developing that EQ, the communication skills to effectively share a message, whether good or bad and the care-for-people-first attitude needed to connect with others are vital skills that many young professionals are losing in their digital-first environment. We have to help people realize they still need those age-old people skills that are still necessary in our workplaces, regardless of level or industry.