Aimbridge Hospitality President and CEO Mike Deitemeyer said he was consistently the one who arrived at work super early and left super late. He realized others around him began to emulate that because they felt that was the culture.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, that began to shift. Much like the rest of the world, Deitemeyer had to become comfortable with the evolution of flexible work schedules.
Prior to COVID, "I wanted everybody in the office, I wanted to see you or I wanted very specific productivity measures," he said in an interview for HNN's "Pandemic Reflections" series.
"The reality is, the world's shifted, our employee base has shifted, so we've modified how we work and how we function."
Deitemeyer said the Dallas-based company reopened its office pretty quickly after the onset of COVID-19.
"We had people at the front lines and I felt like we needed to be here to answer the phones," he said. "What I learned just from the empathy perspective really is just understanding all the unique situations and the fearfulness people had around family members or themselves. There's a lot of growth that came out of that."
Sometimes people just need a sounding board, and at times the organization they work for needs to be that, he added.
"To me personally, probably the biggest area of growth would be ... around work-life balance and empathy, and just being more aware of what people are dealing with," he said.
Restructuring While Maintaining Collaboration
In March 2021, Aimbridge moved into its new 175,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas.
At the new office, Deitemeyer said Aimbridge "programmed the hell out of our space."
The goal of that was to allow people to feel like they want to come to work, he said, by promoting interactive and cross-departmental collaboration. They also made a point to provide amenities such as an on-site gym that's open seven days a week for employees.
"So not just flex schedules, but also what can we do to make our environment, our culture a part of their life in other ways?" he said.
The other change implemented was making leadership teams more accessible to associates.
Aimbridge has a series of opportunities for employees to spend time with managers within the organization through roundtables, which are then followed by a cocktail or coffee hour for more of a social and casual interaction, he said.
In 2022, Aimbridge implemented its new operational divisions structure to more quickly meet the needs of hotel owners.
Deitemeyer said an Aimbridge employee raised a concern during a leadership roundtable: "With our new divisions, is that separating us and creating silos?"
"We chatted about how the meeting I was holding at the time was cross-divisional ... how we program the building and how we program activities is all around people working together," Deitemeyer added. "Part of any community is understanding the value that the different groups bring from a diversity not just in workforce but diversity in experience and expertise."
He said it's also about tailoring support to the needs of all 55,000 employees within the organization, which can be difficult. A general manager at an economy extended-stay hotel does not need the same type of support as a general manager at a luxury, 400-room hotel, he said.
"We can still be part of one family, but we have to also understand that we don't speak with one voice to everyone," he added.
One of the most rewarding feelings for Deitemeyer, he said, is seeing associates celebrating their achievements together. When an associate completes a class offered by Aimbridge and receives a certificate, they often line up in hallways and share a round of applause with each other.
"I love to see people posting the videos [of the celebration on social media]. People are posting them as a badge of honor. That's pretty exciting to me, and it's part of this investment [in people] we're making," he said.
For our full conversation with Aimbridge Hospitality's Mike Deitemeyer, listen to the audio below