About the Book

In The Confetti Culture Playbook, a book written by and for a hotel manager, James Ferguson, employee experience author, shows you how to boost your team’s contribution and impact. He guides you through the process of building a strong company culture of valued employees who are engaged, enabled, and empowered to be at their best and deliver their best daily. He provides a measurable framework designed to improve your financial position by realigning your priorities and putting employees first. 

By giving top priority to the interests of your employees, they will then give top priority to your guests, which will deliver top priority results to your ownership. As you reap the rewards of this framework you will increase employee retention through recognition and reward, allowing you to save on recruitment costs, all while boosting contributions and impact.

Although this book is directed towards leading teams in the hospitality industry, the areas of opportunity discussed in each chapter apply to anyone in a leadership role. So if you have interest in improving your leadership skills and strengthening your team culture I encourage you to join us on this journey!

After years of experience in effectively leading and managing hotel operations, I decided to redirect my leadership path. Through working alongside multiple ownership groups, operating flagged and independent properties, at limited and full-service levels I developed an ability to cultivate positive relationships and build successful teams across the hospitality spectrum. 

My experiences helped me realize that in our industry we are taught to focus on guests and the all mighty dollar, not the people working hard to earn it for us. That's when I decided to start my own business to change the narrative, vowing to be the change I wanted to see in the industry by challenging the status quo. Now, I share my passion and experience with hospitality management teams to create a personalized and measurable framework designed to improve their financial position by realigning their priorities and putting employees first. 

By giving top priority to the interests of your employees,  they will then give top priority to your guests, which will deliver top priority results to your owners. As you reap the rewards of this framework, you will increase employee retention through recognition and reward, allowing you to save on recruitment costs, while boosting contributions and impact. 

Employee turnover in the hospitality industry is an escalating and urgent concern. Our industry alone experiences an employee turnover rate of roughly 73% which is exponentially higher than the annual average which typically sits at around 11%. This eye-opening statistic not only impacts your operations efficiency and guest experience, but also the financial stability and growth of your business. 

In our customer-centric and guest facing industry, having employees constantly coming and going like a revolving door can make it difficult to meet or exceed guests' expectations. Let alone build loyalty to your business and brand. Not to mention the costly financial implications of constantly finding, hiring, and training new employees. While a certain degree of employee attrition is expected, there are things you can do to minimize it. In order to first understand how to keep employees around, you must first understand why they are leaving. 

In this book, I outline a series of purpose driven employee initiatives that are designed around and expand beyond the 7 biggest causes of employee turnover in the hospitality industry. Those seven leading causes are as follows:

 • Unclear Job Expectations

 • Disconnect with Managers

 • Toxic work Environment

 • Inefficient Communication 

• Lack of Flexibility

 • Minimal Growth Opportunity

 • Lack of Recognition & Reward 

While these seven strong reasons to leave are hard to argue, they don't stand a chance against the initiatives I provide ahead. Allow me to guide you through the process of building a better culture by infusing what I know and what we’ve learned from both our parents and teachers and applying it to your daily operation. I hope you are as excited as I am to start this journey together. Let's start the transformation process, or as I like to say…

Let's get it!