“We are a family”
At the ECOINN Hotel in Esslingen, employees from many countries have grown together into a strong team. Not least thanks to the support of hotel manager Thomas Puchan, who relies on appreciation and conversation for integration.
The two large tables are generously laid: there is coffee, tea, juice, fresh rolls, scrambled eggs, jam and all kinds of cold cuts. There is something for every taste. The breakfast offering at the “ECOINN Hotel am Campus” in Esslingen is plentiful and of the finest organic quality. Everything that was prepared in the kitchen for the guest buffet and left over is now offered in the staff room. For half an hour, the hotel’s employees sit down together for breakfast with their boss, Thomas Puchan. The atmosphere is relaxed. There is a lot of talking and laughing before everyone gets up and goes back to work.
This morning ritual takes place every day at the ECOINN. “It brings us together and promotes the working atmosphere and intercultural competence,” says manager Thomas Puchan. The latter is important in a hotel where 20 of the 24 employees come from abroad, most of them from southern Europe. An Afghan refugee has just been hired. There are hardly any German applicants, but nationality plays no role at the ECOINN anyway, says Thomas Puchan. “What matters is that applicants are professionally suitable, willing to learn German and fit in well with the team.” In this way, he sets the course for successful cooperation right from recruitment.
Only those who already show a certain degree of intercultural competence fit into the team. “We don’t want men who are unable to accept that a woman is their boss or who have a problem with women and men being paid equally here. The same applies to employees who have problems with other ethnic groups.” As in the case of a Serbian employee who would not take instructions from her Bosnian supervisor and thus caused unrest in the team. “We had to part ways,” says Thomas Puchan.
It is extremely important to the hotel manager that his employees support the philosophy of the hotel. This means they have to stand behind its sustainability concept. After all, according to its current CO2 footprint, the ECOINN Hotel is the most ecological hotel in Europe. Electricity and heat for the historic building are generated by its own power plant from 100 per cent Neckar hydropower. Since the conversion, all rooms have been furnished with materials that are harmless from a building-biology perspective. “Even if ecological awareness is not there at first, it develops over time through the work,” Thomas Puchan has observed.
Her boss has a knack for choosing the right colleagues, says Drazenka Luz approvingly. “We fit together like the pieces of a puzzle,” says the Croatian-born employee, who came to Germany 45 years ago. Ten years ago, the trained seamstress started at the ECOINN on a one-euro job and has since worked her way up to head housekeeper. She draws up the rotas for the six cleaning staff and inspects the rooms. At 67, she is not yet ready for life as a pensioner. “Partly because I feel so at home here. In the hotel, everyone stands up for everyone else. If an employee has to go home to her sick child, the others work longer instead,” she says, adding: “Even though we come from different countries – we are a family.” To grow together as a family, Thomas Puchan relies on an informal approach. “You have to show employees how intercultural cooperation works by setting an example, and show appreciation for their work. Regardless of whether they work at reception or clean the rooms. Everyone is equally important here.”
For him, appreciation means not only fair pay and permanent employment contracts, but also that employees receive praise and recognition for what they achieve. And that problems are addressed openly and objectively – in a one-to-one conversation with the boss or in one of the regular team meetings. Twice a year there is a meeting of all employees in which all problems are put on the table and, if necessary, the willingness to work together is also discussed.
To create a good working atmosphere, it is also important that there is a “human touch”, as Thomas Puchan puts it. “I take time for my employees, sometimes get personal, ask about their family, their health or their holidays.” The daily breakfast is ideal for this. “It also gives the employees and me the opportunity to take an interest in other cultures and to ask: ‘What is it like where you come from, in your country?’”
The human touch continues outside official working hours, too, as the management regularly organises small events to strengthen the sense of togetherness. Every three months, Thomas Puchan invites Drazenka Luz’s cleaning team to an Italian restaurant, where, as the head housekeeper confirms, it is always very cheerful. There are also outings with the entire staff, and employees can contribute to planning the joint Christmas party. This clearly has an effect. “Here I experience every day how well different cultures can work together,” says Drazenka Luz.
The hotel’s eight trainees have the same experience. The young people all come from Spain and Croatia. They were recruited as part of the government’s special programme “MobiPro-EU”, which aims to help reduce high youth unemployment in other EU countries while at the same time addressing Germany’s need for skilled workers. They live together in a specially rented house near the hotel. Although, as Thomas Puchan noted, this generation already knows a lot about other cultures thanks to Instagram and the like, they were given some guidance at the beginning.
The hotel’s operating company, which is dedicated to youth social work and the promotion of education, provided them with an in-house social pedagogue. She explained very practical things to the trainees: how to greet people, what to eat, how the working world works here. And she accompanied them to the authorities and on bus journeys to show them local public transport. The eight have long since become integrated and part of the hotel team. The hotel manager’s various measures have proved their worth and benefit both the hotel and the employees.
Staff turnover is significantly lower than at other hotels, says Thomas Puchan. And head housekeeper Drazenka Luz knows: “Many have now also become friends privately and spend their free time together. Just like a family.”