Jellystone Symposium Focuses on Employee Development – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
Betsy Allen-Manning, the keynote speaker at Camp Jellystone’s annual Symposium, challenged Jellystone Park operators on Wednesday (Nov. 13) to take a close look at the work “culture” they create at their parks because it has a direct impact on their ability to attract and retain talented employees.
“Care about everyone and everything. A leader’s character is contagious,” she said, adding that it’s important for the leaders of each park to “invest in yourself to be the best you can be. … Develop yourself so that you can develop others.”
Allen-Manning is an internationally known leadership speaker, best-selling author, and company culture expert. Her specialty is helping leaders attract, engage and retain the best talent in a hyper-competitive marketplace. Her company, Destination Workplace, is one of the top leadership training companies in the Dallas area. Camp Jellystone invited her to be its keynote speaker because of the challenges park operators always face in attracting and retaining talented employees.
Often it is managers themselves who need training, Allen-Manning said, noting that most people could stand to improve their communication skills, their coaching skills, their time management skills and even their ability to delegate tasks effectively or simply manage change.
Allen-Manning cited Jellystone Park’s “core values” of committing to be the best in the industry, employee empowerment and team accountability as being noteworthy. But turning these values into reality requires more than writing them down.
“Ask (your employees), ‘What does it look like to share these core values in your role?’” she said.
In other words, in what specific ways can each employee apply a park’s core values to the work they do each day?
Equally important, Allen-Manning said, is recognizing the efforts employees are making to do good work.
‘Make appreciation part of your culture,” she said.
Allen-Manning even suggested having employees fill out an employee recognition questionnaire, which asks them about their favorite retail store, favorite coffee or tea, party spot and other favorite things because this information can help guide park operators when it comes time to reward their employees with gifts that recognize their efforts in a personal, meaningful way.
It’s not enough and may not even be appropriate, she added, to simply give out Starbucks gifts as small tokens for jobs well done, particularly when another type of gift could be a much more effective way to get the employee’s attention in a positive way.
Such efforts to recognize employees for jobs well done are important, Allen-Manning said, because “people will repeat what they are recognized for.”
Today’s younger employees also have different objectives when it comes to deciding where they want to work.
“People are no longer seeking to work ‘just’ for a paycheck,” she said.”They work to work at a ‘destination workplace.’”
A “destination workplace,” she added, is a place where employees feel valued, engaged and eager to contribute to the company’s long-term success. Jellystone Park locations that do a good job of attracting and retaining employees should market their efforts by sharing their employee reviews online because this is valuable information that can help with recruitment efforts, she said.
Allen-Manning also held a second keynote address later in the day that focused on how to resolve conflicts by understanding different personality types.
Camp Jellystone’s three-day Symposium concluded Wednesday night with the annual awards banquet, music and dancing.
The event took place at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tenn.
