Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has long been lauded as a great place to work. It was honored in 2009, for the eighth straight year, as one of Canada’s top 100 employers, and also selected for the first time as one of Canada’s 10 most admired corporate cultures.

Carolyn Clark, the senior vice president of human resources for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, says there are many reasons why the company wins such accolades, from its values to its human resources platform. The benefits, she says, are obvious: Guests stay with Fairmont and so do employees.

Clark is a prime example. She started working at Fairmont in 1974 as a supervisor of recruitment and has never left. She’s not alone; the GM at the Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa just celebrated his 50^th anniversary with the company.

We chatted with Clark about how Fairmont has built such a successful corporate culture and why that matters, maybe more than ever, in these challenging times.

What does being honored as one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures mean to you and the company?
We were very proud to be one of the recipients. We really believe it’s a reflection of and tribute to our 30,000 colleagues around the world. It’s really our Fairmont people who make the difference, our colleagues who create the culture. One thing about corporate culture is it’s something that cannot be prescribed; it grows from within. It’s a grass-roots creation of the 30,000 colleagues who make up our company.

Why is it important?
I think the culture of our entire organization is emulated in every single one of our 59 hotels. One of the key differentiators about Fairmont Hotels and Resorts is our colleagues and the guests tell us that. We believe there is a direct correlation because our colleagues are the heart and soul of our company. When we get feedback about what makes Fairmont so special, it is always about our service, our colleagues. It’s never about the color of a bedspread; it is always about our people.

How would you describe the culture?
It starts with Fairmont values … We have four core values: respect, integrity, teamwork and empowerment. These core values represent the cornerstone of our culture and our hotel operations around the world. The result is an engaged and empowered workforce that feels valued and motivated.

How does that extend from the corporate offices in Toronto to all 59 locations?
We have a very strong integrated human resources platform, which is based on four key principles. We want to lead with the best, train and develop, recognize and reward and select the best … So the four key principles are: select, lead, train and recognize and together they form the foundation of our culture. Every single colleague at all levels throughout the organization is selected through a ‘Fairmont Selected Interview,’ which is our powerful online tool structured to ensure the values of the individuals we hire are aligned to our Fairmont culture. It all starts with the fit.

What is a ‘Selected Interview’?
It’s an online structured interview. We have partnered with the Gallup Organization for more than 20 years and we introduced the online tool last September. Gallup studies our top talent and has developed structured interviews at every level throughout the organization to select people more like our top talent.

How have you dealt with the reality of cutting staff and hours during these difficult times and what advice would you give others who are struggling with this challenge?
Ensure that you communicate more, not less and be honest and open. Convey the bad news honestly and openly and don’t hide behind it. People respect you for that. And like other organizations, we have had to suffer some layoffs during the past year, but when we have those difficult decisions to make, we think with our head and act with our heart … We treat people fairly, with respect and dignity.

Give us an example of Fairmont’s unique corporate culture and how you reward employees?
One of the things we do that is really neat and exciting is our Fairmont mission. It’s turning moments into memories for our guests. When our 30,000 colleagues come to work every day we all have a single focus and that’s to create memories for our guests. We have aligned an internal employee recognition program with our mission, so we recognize our employees who create memories for guests. We developed a recognition program called Memory Maker. When employees create memories we thank them by giving them Memory Maker Awards, which are (gift) certificates. We personalize that recognition with a website (with program provider Globoforce) so employees can pick a certificate they want (from all types of retailers).

Every year each one of our hotels selects a star employee (colleague level) and leader (supervisory position) of the year and they are awarded a custom memory, so you could pick a trip for two to any Fairmont hotel in the world, you could renovate your kitchen, you could fly in family from out of the country, take skydiving lessons … It’s creating a custom memory for them, up to a certain value. We want to recognize great leaders and great colleagues. It reinforces the company mission through our recognition program.

Got any good examples to illustrate the idea of a Memory Maker?
I’ve got a great example and it’s recent. We had a guest who was checking into one of our hotels over Halloween and she happened to mention her 4-year-old daughter wasn’t happy because she couldn’t trick or treat. So the hotel team got together and when the guest came into her room she found a fairy princess costume on the bed for her daughter. They took it a step further and created a scavenger hunt for the little girl throughout the hotel and she collected candy on the way. The guest was blown away and the whole team won an award. The whole concept of creating memories is an empowerment our colleagues feel. They can be our brand ambassadors and create those memories.