Journey to Excellence with Hilton

Michael C. Bush (00:00):

So Laura, 100 Best, number one. Congratulations. 

Laura Fuentes (00:06):

Thank you.

Michael C. Bush (00:09):

10th consecutive year making a list. And we started 10 years ago. This is my 10th summit. 

Laura Fuentes (00:14):

That's right. 

Michael C. Bush (00:16):

World’s Best List, number two, in 2024. Been in the top three, seven years in a row. Number one for the first time in 2023. Operating in 140 countries, territories all around the world holding, 39 national list wins. That's how you hit these rankings. 12 countries achieved the number one spot, the US included. How's it feel when that happens and how's it feel for your employees? 

Laura Fuentes (00:41):

Yeah. Wow. What a great place to start. First of all, I'd say the recognition is an amazing validation of our beliefs and our work. And earlier backstage, your teammate Christine, came up and handed me the 10 years of great monument. And it sort of took my breath away for a minute because we've been working at this for so many years before getting on the list, and that's been a journey for our entire Hilton family. And then of course, being on the list is such a source of pride, of joy, of celebration, of learning, of listening, and we never take it for granted and we don't take for granted being here today on stage. I don't take for granted the fact that I get to represent our team members and our Hilton family. We don't take for granted the fact that we're hosting you. And I want to give a big shout out to all of our team members here. 

Laura Fuentes (01:33):

And I hope that you're having a great stay. And if you're not, please come find me. We'll make it right, but we never take it for granted. And the journey really started so many years before ever getting placed on the list for many years. I like to joke that we would come and have the annual Great Place To Work root canal and be told all the reasons why we were good but not great. And so we would lean into those things to try to get that experience for our team members to be what we thought they deserved and truly to be a for all experience. You showed some images and stories of great leaders, and I am very honored to work for a great leader in Chris Nassetta, who more than 10 years ago when he joined, Hilton had this vision and dream that some may call crazy, but that we were going to build the greatest culture on earth. 

Laura Fuentes (02:17):

And he didn't really think about rankings yet at the time, but it was just going to be a culture we would be proud of all around the world that was going to take care of our team members. And then of course, you sort of deconstruct that great vision and it's like how do you do that with data? How do you scale your intuition across that footprint? How do you make sure that we have a mindset that is leadership in every seat? So it's not just the people at the top setting the tone, but every single person. We're active citizens of building the culture that we want to live in. And then storytelling around that so that it feels really powerful and that our team members feel like they're actually building this. This isn't something that is happening to them, that their feedback builds it, that their actions towards one another and our guests build this culture and then we get to have the enormous privilege of celebrating that all together. And you've seen some of our celebrations. We do like to party as well, and it's about infusing joy and pride. It's not necessarily about crossing a finish line and we're done, but just relishing those moments of joy because the world needs it and our team members and our work depend on that virtuous strategy as well. So it's always a moment of humility, of celebration, of joy, of learning and listening, and the journey continues. 

Michael C. Bush (03:37):

And chief people officers, CHROs, were heroic through Covid, absolutely heroic. It was the toughest job among all jobs in companies trying to figure out something that had never happened before, but did it. And now a few months ago, we were all focused on AI coming into the workplace and now a new challenge. And then now we've got additional challenges coming into the lives of our employees. And how do you stay abreast on what's going on to get good information that you can then use that information to make great decisions for the people of Hilton? 

Laura Fuentes (04:23):

Yeah, and I want to correct one thing you said. I don't know that it was only chief people officers that were in the trenches during Covid. I mean, it was everyone working that had to suddenly face the unprecedented uncertainty at a global scale that we had never lived through as humans. And I feel like all the companies, Hilton certainly, but other companies that I spoke with at the time, everyone that was working at that time sort of leaned in and showed their best selves, their most compassionate, their most vulnerable, their most loyal selves. And so chief people officer is like, it was a super stressful time and chaotic time, but it was also a really beautiful time to see the best of humanity at a time when we were all struggling through unthinkable, unthinkable things. Now here we are, so obviously we haven't been quite here before, but we've been in uncertain times. 

Laura Fuentes (05:17):

So I like to draw back on that strength that we all exemplified and really live through in those years. So personally, I mean, some of the things that I'm really focusing on are one, widening the aperture of where I get my information and knowledge. So I think I'm subscribed to more news outlets than ever before, and really trying to look at many different perspectives so that you're never surprised or blindsided by what is happening in the world. International, blue, red, more business perspectives, more social perspectives. So really widening that aperture. I will say I'm consolidating times in the day where I'm going to solicit news proactively because if not, I find this always on faucet that's overwhelming. So that's sort of the first thing. Where do you get your knowledge? How do you expand those perspectives? I try to also future proof are our future business and individuals by really doing a little bit of scenario modeling. 

Laura Fuentes (06:19):

Sometimes it's literally just in my head, okay, if this happens, what would we do? Sometimes it's more specific modeling, business scenarios, Excel spreadsheets, but really trying to think about, look, there's many different outcomes. Let's just categorize two or three. And how as a culture, as a company, as a leader, do I want to show up if this happens or this happens? And then I'll say the third pillar is one that you've been really a huge partner on is building community and resilience in these times and resilience for ourselves as humans and leaders, for our organization as well. I heard recently this quote that really resonated with me, which said, “resilience is the strength that we draw from one another.” And so in these times I find that I tend to not just go into my little quiet, safe gravity blanket, although I do that in the evenings and it's very safe and comforting there, but really try to expand my network, expand my relationships. 

Laura Fuentes (07:13):

You brought us together for a CHRO call recently, and we joked it felt a little bit like group therapy, but it was so immensely helpful to also share perspective with all of us who are trying to understand what is happening, protect our people, protect our business. And so finding those moments of community, of resilience and frankly of joy, I mean, we need to give ourselves a little bit of permission to have moments of joy and hope. That is why we do the work. That is why we fight the good fight is to be able to preserve the things that as humans and as businesses, really allow us to thrive. So those are some of the things that I'm really thinking through in these times and trying to help our business of course come out stronger on the other side and help our individuals, our team members, our culture really thrive in these times of uncertainty. 

Michael C. Bush (08:00):

So thinking about, for example, the last few months, how do you find out what's going on with the people, especially where you've got how many people?

Laura Fuentes (08:12):

Close to 500,000

Michael C. Bush (08:13):

Okay, so that's a lot of people. 

Laura Fuentes (08:14):

Yeah. 

Michael C. Bush (08:15):

So what do you tap into to try and get an understanding of what your teammates are experiencing?

Laura Fuentes (08:23):

Yeah. You talked a lot in the intro session and the video, which I thought was so beautifully done about listening. And I think in a way, we're having a global listening crisis right now. I think we're speaking past one another. We're shouting opinions. We're in this massive sort of listening deficit. So I like to first of all start with a mindset, and I gathered our TMRG leaders a couple of months ago as we were really examining the impact of executive orders and all the things that we needed to do. And I asked them to please be chief listening officers and to bring to the forefront the stories of our team members, their sentiment, their feelings, their reactions, their ideas. So starting with this notion of at any position really of leadership, you need to be the chief listening officer. And that means honestly, and I try to catch myself doing this too, listening twice as much as you're speaking. 

Laura Fuentes (09:19):

If I find myself in a meeting, at a conference, at a gathering and I'm doing all the talking, which can be an instinctual reaction because I feel like, oh, I'm here to remove obstacles. I'm here to give advice, I'm here to have solutions, and if I find myself talking too much, I'm not doing my job well. So first of all, putting on that mindset of I'm here to listen. I should be listening to all, leveraging tools that allow me to do that at both the macro level. So of course the Great Place To Work survey is a great tool for that. Our own global team member survey we activate annually helps us do that. So that's sort of the macro, but then also at the sort of intermediate and micro level. So things like, we have a monthly newsletter that we put out for our team members, and we always have a prompt in there that asks them a moment of leadership, a story they want to share. 

Laura Fuentes (10:09):

And as I get that back, I personally respond to each of those stories that I hear back and that allows me to form micro connections. But that really helped me understand what are our team members feeling and experiencing. When I go out to our markets and properties like here, I always try to connect, obviously in large group settings, open it up to Q&A, even if it's very rushed. It's like, no, no, there's no time for this. It's like, let's open it up, let's listen for a minute. There's always time to listen. And that allows for some really powerful connections, but also some really powerful insights on what is the reality. I was just in Japan last week and meeting with so many of our team members there, including new graduates. They have a beautiful tradition in Japan, which is a national start date. 

Laura Fuentes (10:56):

So all college graduates start on April one. So it was this amazing gift to be there last week when you had these hundreds of team members joining us, starting their careers for the first time, and they had such hope and vision for the future that I really wanted to listen to them. Why did you decide to join us? Why hospitality? How are you feeling in the world right now? So those micro and group connections are super helpful. And then I'll tell you, if you really are going to be a chief listening officer, it's what you do after the listening that matters, right? So I'm not just here to collect all your stories and write up a newsletter, though that's powerful because I think the shared storytelling and the connectivity through storytelling is what builds culture. But we also want to show that stories, that feedback drive action. 

Laura Fuentes (11:49):

And so I always like the saying of you need to have a tight say do ratio, but we also need to have a tight listen act ratio. And sometimes it doesn't mean that every single idea somebody shares with me is something I can implement at scale or really do something meaningful about, but at least be able to tell them, I hear you and this is what I can do. This is what I cannot do. Or when we do launch a program based on our team member survey feedback, which we have done over the decade many times, thanks to a Great Place To Work, we even have things like a really cute little stamp that we'll put out on the communication that says, “Fueled by Your Feedback.” You told us our team member travel program was flawed for years and now we fixed it. Your feedback did that. 

Laura Fuentes (12:34):

And at a micro scale, I'll tell you, a couple of years ago I was traveling with Chris and we were visiting our markets in France and Spain and Portugal, and we were coming off a big town hall and a team member asked to speak with me, and it was like high energy, super positive. And suddenly he brought me down to a moment of grief and trauma that he had experienced, and it brought me to tears. And he was saying, “Listen, this was the most devastating moment of my life from which I will never fully recover. And the Hilton family was there for me in so many ways, but you miss the mark in a couple.” And he told me the things we could do better. And so we shared a hug, we shared some pictures, we shared some tears. I came back to McLean and I was like, okay, what are we going to do about this now? And so connected him with our benefits team and we worked together. He helped us design what we then launched a few months ago, which was our crisis concierge, to help our team members navigate these moments of intense trauma where you're so blinded by grief that you can't really even activate the things that we do have in place. That story started a program and changed, I hope not many people's lives. I hope no one has to go through that kind of trauma, but a few dozen people's lives already. So listening, I think is, 

Laura Fuentes (13:56):

Thank you, his story, his impact, and he's so proud. In fact, he's like, I want to come over to HR now. I'm like, Hey, it wasn't meant to be an act of recruiting, but we do wonderful things in HR. But so listening is a superpower. Being chief listening officers is what we should all be doing, especially in these times to keep our finger on the pulse. And I always like to think, look, listening to individuals is how you build culture. That's how we did it through a Great Place To Work, through our surveys. As you build culture, and if you build a thriving culture, you're going to build a thriving business. And so listening is your strategic superpower as individuals and as a business. And I was really struck by the beautiful video you kicked off the conference. So if all else fails, just listen. 

Laura Fuentes (14:49):

Like you give a damn and listen like a human, right, because I don't have all the answers. There are times people come to me with things that are really hard, really difficult, they're giving me feedback, and I don't always have like, oh yeah, we're going to do these XY three things. Here's the formula, here's the HR stance. I like to not respond like a robot. I will tell them, this is really hard and I sit with your pain, or I see you. I can hold the tension. Or I can tell them, I don't know what we're going to do exactly in this moment. In Covid, I mean, literally who was going to follow the leader that was like, ah, yes, global pandemic, the world shuts down. I know what we're going to do. No. So you have to show your humanity, your vulnerability, sometimes not knowing, but that we're going to do this thing together and I care about your experience and your feedback. I give a damn. And I think that will ultimately help save our cultures, help save and have our businesses thrive, and frankly help save our world and humanity. And that's what we need right now. So thank you for encouraging us to be listening machines at scale.

Michael C. Bush (15:56):

The one and only Laura Fuentes. Give her a thank you. Round of applause. 

Laura Fuentes (16:00):

Thank you.