“While awareness of Swine Flu among Canadians was nearly universal, we see that the health concerns associated with this specific flu were not strong enough to convince Canadians that cancellation of their immediate travel was necessary,” says Dave Pierzchala, Vice President of Travel and Tourism Research at Ipsos Reid.

How will consumers respond should the Swine Flu situation worsen? Among those surveyed who had travel plans, only 7% responded they would cancel those plans without question. Twenty-five percent (25%) reported being willing to take a wait-and-see approach; and the remaining 68% intend to travel as planned.

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Women keep their personal lives and business lives very separate when it comes to social media, according to the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage, and Compass Partners. While women consider blogs great sources of information, especially regarding purchases, the vast majority of women use social networks solely for keeping in touch with family and friends.

Over half (55%) of the women surveyed in said they participate in some kind of blog activity (publishing, posting comments, reading), and 53%use social networks.

But here’s the kicker: Women use social networks in the purest sense only; 75% use them to keep in touch with friends and family, and not so much as information sources or for making purchase decisions. That’s a major insight considering this is the half of population making 85% of purchase decisions in the US.

In contrast, women rely more on blogs for the business of life, and are twice as likely to use blogs rather than social networks as an information source (64%), for advice and recommendations (43%), and opinion sharing (55%). Women are 50% more likely to use social networks merely as a means of keeping in touch.

If women prefer blogs and Facebook to Twitter, how does this impact your market strategy?

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The January 2009 study Fully on Board from the Aberdeen Group showed us that 83% of best in class companies use recommended onboarding processes and realize:
•    31% year-over-year increase in retention rate of new employees.
•    31% year-over-year increase in new employee engagement.
•    24% year-over-year decrease in time-to-productivity for new employees.
•    12% year-over-year decrease in cost per employee for onboarding.

Some of the recommendations that came out of the research:
•    Focus on assimilating new employees into the organization’s cultural and social frameworks
•    Measure new employee engagement and retention frequently in the first year.
•    Standardize the onboarding process and centralize its management.
•    Extend the application of onboarding beyond new hires. Include transfers and acquisitions.
•    Start earlier and make it last longer.

So now that you have made your new hires, what practices have you put in place to retain them?

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As one columnist put it “We need to be like ducks on the pond - floating calmly on the surface but paddling fast underwater. Keeping our smiles on and urgently thinking through the implications.”

At this point medical community is telling us that ‘Swine influenza viruses are not spread by food. You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe’ and that ‘there is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu - take the recommended everyday steps to protect your health (e.g. wash your hands properly and thoroughly, if you get sick with the flu, stay at home and avoid contact with others as much as possible)

It would be prudent to develop contingency plans in case customer numbers drop suddenly or they start rejecting pork dishes or you have a large number of staff stay at home. Do you the information you need to reassure customers that everything is OK? It is also a good time to review your Food Safety Policies and ensure that they are effective.

Managing customer and public relations will take time and energy – what strategies and tactics do you have in place to deal with the impact of the swine flu on the H & T industry?

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Over 60 percent of respondents from six different regions of the world in both general manager and executive positions reported that the human resource issues of attraction, retention, training, and morale were key areas of concern. Other problems include economic and environmental matters, understanding customer needs, rising operating costs, and thinking strategically in a competitive environment.

The study provides an update to a similar study conducted in 2001. Certain issues identified in that earlier study, including information technology and branding, have dropped from hotel executives’ list of concerns.

Are you concerned about staff attraction, retention, training and engagement?

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Leslie found that unlike Facebook, where many of my “friends” are indeed friends, Twitter is more about following people whose interests mirror your own.

Now she is “focused on the comings and goings of the many excellent food writers and food bloggers. Twitter has become the go to spot to catch food world luminaries like Reichl as well as Emeril Lagasse, Martha Stewart and Giada De Laurentiis. Then there’s author Michael Ruhlman, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman, cookbook author Paula Wolfert, baker/blogger David Leibovitz, and baking author Dorie Greenspan tweeting about everything from their latest book release, to a ruined dinner party, to the hot macaron flavour in Paris, to the skill required to make.”

Her advice “Local chefs and restaurateurs would be smart to start Twittering. They could slip in a card with the bill asking customers to “Join the chef on Twitter.” What a great way to promote daily specials, discuss favourite ingredients or share a story about something fun that happened during last night’s service. “

Sounds like good advice to me; how are you using Twitter to generate conversation about your business?

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You may have followers and conversations, but most of your tweeps are on the surface.

So, how do you build stronger connections? Here are some things to consider:

Add Value - People do not want to be sold, spammed or overwhelmed with tweets of little value. Think before you tweet. Ask, will this add value? Will thishelp someone?
Listen - Use the Favorites to save things you are listening to and might want to talk about.
Get engaged. Start conversations. If someone in your stream asks a question – Reply - Share your knowledge.
Give Thanks – A little thanks goes a long way. When people Re-Tweet something you said, thank them.
Be generous, it’s contagious - when you give on Twitter (contacts, valuable information, encouragement) it seems to come back. You’ll be remembered.
Go beyond Twitter - Click on links in personal profiles. Read and comment on their blogs.  Friend them on Facebook or connect with them LinkedIn.

What are you most excited about right now? What is your biggest challenge?

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Today’s leaders have to adapt to a rapidly changing work environment. Those who can effectively demonstrate strong people skills will succeed. Effective leaders can no longer rely on their own expertise however. They must be able to meet goals by collaborating with others to develop solutions with flexibility and energy.

Diane Brown recommended five strategies critical in effective leadership in Talent Management:

Share a unified vision and purpose. Sharing a clear and compelling vision helps the team understand the purpose of your business. It helps the team see what differentiates your business in the eyes of your customers.

Strategic goal alignment and prioritization. Organizations underperform due to internal competition as much as or more than external competition. Giving your team knowledge about the goals and rewards that come from meeting goals fosters alignment and collaboration.

Learn motivators, and use them to help your team. First, acknowledging that people do things for their reasons and not ours is critical to identifying what matters most to those you lead.

Provide tools for success. The first step in equipping people for success is ensuring you “get the right person in the right seat of the bus.” Match required job attributes to a job candidate’s natural strengths.

Determine realistic and measurable outcomes for a collaborative climate. Effective and memorable leaders demonstrate a keen ability to create challenging and exciting goals that are also realistic and achievable.

Great leadership is a progressive journey. Start by picking one tip from the above list and concentrate on developing that strategy – which one will you chose to start the journey?

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Brownell outlines the critical connection between effective listening and service excellence in a new report.

‘Managers in the survey did not think that members of their organization listen all that well,’ said Brownell. ‘While listening training would improve employees’ skills, our survey identified two challenges. First, most people overestimate their ability to listen effectively and, second, the managers in this survey were unsure exactly how to go about developing the listening skills of their service staff.

Fortunately, listening competence can be significantly improved by implementing the strategies in this report. Brownell is able to offer specific guidelines for improving skills at each point in the listening process due to her analysis and creation of a framework for effective listening.

What are you doing to help your staff listen more effectively?

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The Conservative government will nearly double its tourism spending to keep domestic travelers at home and attract foreign visitors seeking outdoor adventure and Canadian culture, Sun Media has learned.

“It’s a global industry, so the global recession has really impacted it,” Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy said. “A lot of people don’t really know how much tourism contributes to Canada’s economy and it’s fiercely competitive.”

Ablonczy said tourism brings as much into Canada’s economy as forestry, fisheries and agriculture, but doesn’t get the same attention because it is so diverse.

“This is one of the economic drivers of our country, and I’m pleased that tourism is getting the recognition and support it very much deserves,” she said. “It’s really a bright light in our economic future.”

This is welcome news – what are you doing about your brand to get the message out?

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