Trade up

TradeWinds Island Resorts President Keith Overton discovered a disturbing trend in the last year: The nationally known hotel had slipped in online reviews, social media rankings and customer comment cards.

More than a source of pride, Overton, president at St. Pete Beach-based TradeWinds, says the skid could be the start of an unacceptable slide into mediocrity. Overton and other TradeWinds executives trace the issues to a substantial fall-off in the employee base. “I don't think we've maintained enough quality employees to deliver the luxury experience,” says Overton.

At a resort such as TradeWinds, which carries a storied history — and average daily room rates that have jumped 20% in the last three years — the problems, says Overton, require an aggressive approach. The core of that strategy lies in an overhaul of both how the company attracts employees and its pay structure. It also includes a marketing campaign to lure good employees from competing resorts to work at TradeWinds. All told, the program will cost TradeWinds at least $2.5 million in marketing and salaries.

“We've been struggling to get great employees for the last three years,” says Overton, who has been with TradeWinds since 1994. “Everyone who is working or is capable of working already has a job. This is the (tightest labor market) I've seen in my entire career.”

The first part of the overhaul comes from the recognition of a mistake in that the hotel hasn't hired people quickly enough for its busy season, which is basically in March-April. That led to poor training, which in turn led to poor customer service. “In the past we waited to hire people until we needed them,” says Overton. “But now we realize that was an error.”

The company, instead, has made January its big month for finding employees, up to 100 people, which will push the total payroll to at least 1,000. Officials plan to spend February training, so everyone is ready for March. The plan is to hire as many permanent jobs as possible, says Overton, but some will be seasonal. Positions range from housekeepers and cooks to reservation agents and security personnel.

The next part of the overhaul, and the most significant step, is to increase the base pay of all non-gratuity employees to $10 per hour — up 17.6% from $8.50 an hour. Officials also boosted the pay of hundreds of other employees who already made more than $8.50 an hour, to create a fair scale. At a $10-an-hour base, TradeWinds is now one of the highest-paying employers on Pinellas beaches. The salary increases, say hotel officials, is a $2.4 million investment.

“We decided this was our No. 1 priority and if we wanted to attack it, we needed to do this,” says Overton. “We've never done something like this before.”

TradeWinds, independently owned by a small group of private equity backers, includes the Island Grand resort and the Guy Harvey Outpost, in addition to more than a dozen dining options. The hotel was founded in 1985 from a combination of five smaller mom-and-pop properties that had been operating since the late 1960s.

The final part of the new hiring strategy is to publicize it. The hotel's internal marketing department created a campaign that highlights why current employees love to work at TradeWinds. The campaign includes TV and radio ads, in addition to Pinellas County billboards. There's also a website devoted to the hiring program, ilovemyjobbecause.com. The campaign cost $150,000 and was the first time the hotel designed a marketing effort for people other than targeted guests.

While Overton hopes the strategy pays off, fast, he's also mindful that finding talented people is an ongoing struggle for nearly any company. “Our business isn't rocket science,” Overton says. “We can teach pretty much anything we do to any employee. The one thing we can't teach people is to care.”

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon