Hotel's success serves as training case study

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The La Ronge Motor Hotel's housekeeper training program has been singled out as a case study by a national research body whose focus is business innovation.

Kurtis Kitagawa, a senior research associate with the Conference Board of Canada, spent two days in La Ronge last month, gathering information for his case study report on the band owned hotel's Workplace Open Learning Fulfillment (WOLF) program. The five-year program, which included the establishment of a learning centre within the hotel and group training sessions led by head housekeeper Angie McDonald, wrapped up last fall, and as a result, all of the hotel's long-term housekeepers (over 75 per cent of the department) are now nationally-certified housekeeping attendants.

After two days of touring and interviewing those involved, Kitagawa was hardly able to contain his enthusiasm for what the program has accomplished.

"What they've done . . . has a huge impact," he said. "The capacity of these people to contribute to the economy, what they can do to better themselves and their family, and (hotel manager) Clarence (Neault)'s success is running his business, has been enhanced . . .. It has raised the bar of what they can accomplish."

The Conference Board of Canada is a privately run, independent, not-for-profit organization with a simple mandate: helping businesses do better.

As part of their mandate, the Conference Board has three major tasks: creating economic forecasts for individual companies, industries, geographic regions or Canada as a whole, helping companies or government agencies improve their management and/or organizational effectiveness, and making recommendations about public policy, including education and skills training. This is where the motor hotel, as a case study, fits in.

"The reason for my visit here is to look at a success story in a small northern economy," Kitagawa said. "It's a success story that involves enhancing management skills . . . developing the tourism and hospitality sector . . . and it's also a success story that involves recognizing and enhancing the skills of Aboriginal workers."

What Kitawaga discovered during his time in La Ronge is that his perspective on what determines "success" and "failure" was a southern model, one that simply doesn't work in the North. For example, the staff turnover rate at the motor hotel is quite high.

Were Kitagawa dealing with a southern business, this would be seen as a problem with "talent retention". Here, hotel manager Clarence Neault has acknowledged local realities: La Ronge is a transient town, with people coming and going away again due to family commitments, or a trapline. In effect, what businesses here are faced with is a "turnstile" approach-people leave, but then they come back, so training them is still worthwhile. One of Neault's trainees left for three years, but then returned to her old job, well qualified and knowing house policy, Kitagawa said.

Those who do receive training, and eventually achieve certification, come away knowing that they have achieved something important. "They see themselves as, 'I have the same level of competency as somebody (working) in the biggest city in the country' . . . and that builds self-confidence and self-respect," Kitagawa said. "It makes them feel proud."

Their success has also made the housekeepers the envy of colleagues, and created a tight bond between them. A shy, retiring woman before the program, one of the housekeepers told Kitagawa that not only would she encourage another housekeeper to take the training, she would even help her achieve it.

For Kitagawa, accustomed to the "every man for himself" attitude in southern business culture, this was a revelation.

"To me that's big because they (the motor hotel) took the (northern) reality of community-minded people who will help each other to achieve a goal," and made that part of the program, Kitagawa said. "It's 'I did this, you could do it too, and I'll even help you.'

The program has also raised the bar in terms of the service the hotel can provide, while allowing northerners to continue living the way they always have: free to come and go as needed, connected to the land and one another.

"They go back and forth between the two worlds, living in a way that they better their families' circumstances, and provide hospitality to nationally-recognized standards to the most discriminating clientele," Kitagawa said.

"This is first-class accommodation, first-class service. People are friendly. You almost feel you've had a glimpse into another culture, and you've also been treated to all the conveniences you could want," he said.

"It's a real treat. And when you know the story behind it, it really makes you feel proud of the people and the accomplishment they've got here."