LOUISVILLE, KY—Communication is essential in running a hospitality venture. Information is shared constantly—between management and staff, between team members and between staff and guests. And, when the majority of employees are out and about in the building—from housekeepers and groundskeepers to restaurant workers and, in some cases, casino employees—reaching them in a timely manner may be a difficult proposition.
Advances in technology through the years have led to new forms of communication behind the scenes. The antiquated system of putting memos and fliers into mailboxes or cubby holes in the back office was put out to pasture, for the most part, by the emergence of group email and text messaging, as well as private social media groups on the Internet. But, there’s no personalization with group email or text messages. And, social media groups usually turn into places where baby pictures, family reunion photos and humorous videos are shared and the important posts about workflow are lost in the shuffle.
The Red e App communications application—which is available for the Android and iOS platforms, as well as through any web browser—was designed to streamline communication in one place, and users can access information on their own personal device.
“We are a private workflow communication and file-distribution platform designed to create operational efficiencies related to the non-desk workers of the world that mainly sit in the industrial, retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors,” said Jonathan Erwin, founder and CEO of Red e App, based here. “These specific workers have never been targeted before for technology adoption. They’ve never had
@company.com email addresses. Yet, for the kind of companies that are in our audience, these workers are primarily responsible for two really important things in operations: customer satisfaction and product quality.”
Erwin noted that the app works ideally in sectors where employees are scattered throughout a facility, or multiple facilities. “One of the main features is real-time communication not only between the employer and employee, but also managers in specific locations,” he said. “In hotel environments, you have people who run restaurants; people who run housekeeping; people who run facilities; people who run the front desk; and back- and front-of-house personnel. Those managers need a way to connect to those groups. We help employers organize and reach all of those employees using the app.”
He continued, “Typically, they have known who all of their employees are, since they have a human resources system, but Red e App takes the employees and maps them out to the company by job, or by location, or by function, and then we group them and assign them to their authorized managers. We create a symmetry whereby there is direct communication and direct accountability.”
Eliminating the need for group emails or text messages, Red e App creates a private network whereby the client has control over whom has access to the messages that are dispersed. They can include information on human resources, legal compliance, operations and risk management, as well as training and employee education.
“We allow employees to come in and participate and get involved with their employer via private mobile network. We organize and group them. And, then we provide a tremendous amount of accountability,” said Erwin, who added, “Training may be done in the hotel, but it needs to be reinforced with communication, and sometimes there are schematics, diagrams or floor plans that can be driven home with images that can reside on any employee’s device, which they can access at any time. We take everything that a company does operationally and drive it home to a specific place on personal devices.”
One of Red e App’s most visible clients is Seminole Gaming, which owns and operates, among other properties, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, FL. Dustin Maurhoff, F&B training manager for the Tampa facility, noted, “At this time, approximately 65%, or more than 2,200, of our team members have joined and are using Red e App.”
Erwin said, “They are a great example of a company that was dedicated to employee participation and engagement. That was the primary driver for them. What we see with Hard Rock is the ability to talk about pay increases; VIP people coming into their hotels; concert venues; etc. Hotels and casinos are highly dynamic places depending on the events, trade shows, meetings or conferences that are happening at any given time, and the coordination between all of those people is amazing. We take all of those groups and bring them together and create a single page of information and connection that really allows those places to operate more efficiently.”
The property features a 12-story hotel with 240 guestrooms and suites; a casino with tables games and slot machines; numerous F&B options, including seven restaurants, a food court and four bars; an outdoor pool; a full-service spa; and retail outlets. Needless to say, there are plenty of departments where communication is essential to operations.
When asked how team members use the app, Maurhoff replied, “Depending on which department you ask, it may be a different response, but messages such as scheduling; team member engagement questions; and property-wide and/or departmental updates that affect any and all team members are being shared through the app. We also ensure that there is a depository of information available for team members to access important information 24/7 via the app.”
Red e App recently introduced a new feature, Shifts, that enables employees to easily swap shifts or alert fellow staff of an open shift. It also allows managers to approve or deny any shift movement, and post a shift that needs filling.
“Shifts is the way for hundreds of people in specific groups to communicate and exchange available shifts based on a location or job,” said Erwin. “Bartenders can swap jobs with other bartenders, but bartenders cannot swap jobs with housekeeping staff. We group people in a way that allows them to post a shift to be picked up, and then everyone can see shifts that are available and submit to pick up that shift. The big difference here is that we loop in the management team. So, the management team can approve or deny that shift swap, and it is very clean and very quick, and once shifts are swapped between employees, we wrap up that deal by sending real-time reports through the app to management, so they know what shifts were swapped and who is responsible for what shift.”
Red e App also provides detailed usage reports that show which team members are engaging their colleagues and supervisors most often, and that group has its own nickname.
“We provide a whole bunch of information related to the participants. Let’s say you have a hotel of 1,000 people, you can know in real time how many people are participating in the Red e App network,” said Erwin. “You can see who comes and goes out of the app every day or night. You can see the people who have a very high read rate; we call them Red e Champs. At any given time, the administrator can go into the Red e App portal and see who the Champs are. They are also the people who responding fastest. They send the most messages. So, if you are a company that wants to roll out new products or new features, or you have new training to do, you know who the more highly engaged people are across the whole company fairly instantly.”
For the Hard Rock in Tampa, the app has been an essential tool that has helped keep the property running at optimal efficiency for both team members and guests. “Using Red e App has truly allowed us as a property, more specifically as a management team, to connect with those who we previously were not able to connect with directly other than when at work,” Maurhoff said. “Additionally, the communication and information we are able to provide through Red e App has proven to be a great resource for team members and, in return, our staff is more engaged at the workplace.”
Erwin summed up the ultimate benefit of using Red e App: “It builds a deeper connection and, when you do that, it lends an open ear for all employees.”