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Technology talent remains highly sought after across the United States jobs market.
With many facets of our everyday lives being continually reinvented, these are the people bringing new, innovative solutions to life.
Travel is no different as the industry undergoes its biggest transformation in generations.
With the ongoing move to the cloud, the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI), an accelerating rollout of biometrics, and more reshaping the ecosystem, having the right people in place is vital for success.
Accordingly, we work each day to create an environment that is attractive to top talent, fostering a purposeful, inclusive, and engaging culture, one in which employees can become their best selves.
Personalization plays a huge part in this, recognizing each colleague as an individual, with different needs, ambitions, and abilities. Here we look at the benefits of personalization and how flexibility, mentoring, feedback, and advocacy can help build an organization in which talent can flourish.
What are the benefits of a personalized employee experience?
There are tremendous advantages to be realized by recognizing employees as individuals, not the least of which is driving engagement, productivity, and retention.
Effective personalization allows businesses to align tasks with employees’ strengths, boosting productivity and fostering a sense of ownership. A reputation for personalized experiences can also enhance retention, while, when it comes to training, tailoring learning based on individual career goals keeps employees motivated.
Personalization also fosters innovation, as employees feel encouraged to share their unique ideas, and helps to build a positive company culture, one where colleagues feel supported and included, which strengthens collaboration.
How do we create an atmosphere where colleagues feel valued?
With these advantages in mind, how do we provide a people-centric approach, allowing for a personalized experience? There is no one-size-fits-all answer in 2024, which is why flexibility is key, in terms of both when and where people work.
Effective personalization allows businesses to align tasks with employees’ strengths, boosting productivity and fostering a sense of ownership
At Amadeus, our people can decide to work from home for up to half of their working time, while also getting regular face-to-face office time, allowing them to connect, be inspired, and achieve a sense of belonging with colleagues. In addition, we continue to roll out our ‘Global Workcation’ policy, which allows employees to work from anywhere for up to 30 days a year. Initiatives such as these allow our teams to create a schedule that works for them, without losing sight of business priorities.
In the office, unassigned desks and diverse workspaces, including open-plan collaborative areas and more private zones, are a must, creating opportunities for both interaction and deep work. Businesses should also be on the leading edge with new tools to optimize the way we work individually and collectively, both at home and in the office. This can be everything from desk booking to socialization apps, including Viva Engage, Slack, and Google Meet.
Employee benefits also play an important role, including access to gym memberships, health insurance while traveling, or even the chance to earn monetary rewards by participating in an annual health checkup with a dedicated provider. All can foster healthy habits and can be accessed in ways personal to each colleague.
One-to-one guidance from business leaders
Mentoring is a vital tool. What could be more personal than a one-to-one guide for your career? We have found this to be one of the most successful ways to develop employees, along with specific training sessions to upskill participants.
Businesses must work to offer a variety of functional, local, and regional mentoring programs, covering different profiles and development needs, from technical to leadership roles, from junior to senior profiles. Leaders also have a wide range of contacts to help connect more junior colleagues to resources across the organization.
Our people can decide to work from home for up to half of their working time, while also getting regular face-to-face office time, allowing them to connect, be inspired, and achieve a sense of belonging with colleagues
Mentors can share their insights, knowledge, and experience with the mentees, focusing on supporting both their professional and personal growth. It is important to consider the background, current development needs, and role challenges of mentees to pair them with a mentor who has been through similar experiences and knows how to effectively support them.
Listen, learn, and implement
It has never been more important to listen to colleagues, to get their personal feedback on what is important. We have been measuring engagement for over a decade to adapt and evolve the way we work.
Today, we understand building a strong company means constantly working together, because teams are better at building meaningful relationships, overcoming challenges, and operating effectively.
With the aim of improving our engagement process, we increased the frequency of our engagement surveys in 2023 so we can get a better and faster understanding of the views of our people, in turn enabling us to be more agile on best practices and areas for improvement.
Finding like-minded support
Employee resource groups can be a great avenue to drive personalization and to find and offer support. With the Amadeus Women’s Network (AWN) employees have created a system of role models who support each other, conduct mentoring, and contribute actively to Amadeus’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy.
At the same time, our Amadeus Proud employee group works to support the community and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
In addition, our dedicated Amadeus Digital Accessibility team builds internal awareness of the importance of disability inclusion through organizing awareness sessions, coaching, and the annual Digital Accessibility Forum.
In ways such as these, our teams can be who they are—and get the support they need.
Recruitment, retention, and return
With these tools – flexibility, mentoring, feedback, and advocacy – businesses have an opportunity to create a personalized work experience for colleagues, delivering advantages both for the business and employees.
Indeed, at Amadeus, we see many ‘boomerang’ employees (those who come back after leaving to pursue new opportunities) demonstrating our success in building the personalized experiences our teams enjoy.
If you can get personalization right, employees will be with you for the long haul.
