Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Extends Five-Star Treatment to its Employees with ServicePlus Colleague Recognition Program

Company's Unique Employee Recognition Program Celebrates Achievements that Bring Fairmont's Mission and Brand Promise to Life

Southborough, Mass., and Dublin, Ireland (Vocus) October 29, 2008 -- Fairmont Hotels & Resorts (http://www.fairmont.com/), a global leader in the hospitality industry, relies on its 30,000 employees (colleagues) to deliver on its company mission of turning moments into memories for its guests. They're clearly doing their job: according to BusinessWeek magazine and J.D. Power & Associates, Fairmont scored third place overall out of the 50 best providers of customer service across a variety of industries in the 'Customer Service Champs' survey featured in the magazine's March 3, 2008 issue.

As part of this recipe for customer service success, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, worked with strategic employee recognition (http://www.globoforce.com/corporate/eng/what-we-do/) program provider Globoforce (http://www.globoforce.com/corporate/eng/) on the development and implementation of Fairmont's ServicePlus Colleague Recognition Program. The aim of the program is to encourage, recognize and reward outstanding colleague achievements in the delivery of the company's mission and brand promise in all Fairmont locations around the world. Fairmont's mission is simple: Turning moments into memories for its guests. Its brand promise: providing guests with experiences that are authentically local in hotels and resorts of unrivaled presence with service that is both thoughtful and engaging.

"As a service-oriented organization, employee engagement is critical in creating and maintaining our brand and reputation," said Carolyn Clark, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. "ServicePlus helps extend our global presence, and encourages colleagues worldwide to celebrate the exceptional work they do every day. Our colleagues are our brand ambassadors who make each guest's stay a meaningful and memorable one, and, in recognition for their own continued outstanding performance, we wanted to give our colleagues the opportunity to create those same memories for themselves. Everyone from housekeeping to upper management can be recognized for performance that delivers on our mission and brings the Fairmont brand to life. Globoforce helped us to find a strategic and systematic way of doing just that and we are delighted with the outcome."

Since ServicePlus launched in May 2007, employee surveys and qualitative feedback have shown that employee engagement at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has increased significantly. The program features different award levels such as 'Memory Maker' for an outstanding show of thoughtfulness and creativity, and 'Star of the Month' for colleagues who demonstrate consistent star performance, embody company values and act as role models for success. Fairmont colleagues who receive an award can visit a special website or call a host of international toll-free phone numbers to redeem their award for gift certificates from thousands of merchants all over the world. This type of specialized program allows Fairmont colleagues the opportunity to personalize their own recognition moments and create their own meaningful memories.

Fairmont's recognition task force set out to align ServicePlus with the company's mission statement and brand promise. As well, Fairmont colleagues wanted additional opportunities to recognize individuals for memorable service moments while rewarding them in a more meaningful, personalized way. To be successful, it was important that Fairmont deliver one global program that could be used worldwide, and could be flexibly implemented through multiple channels depending on where colleagues are located. In addition to Globoforce's global expertise (http://www.globoforce.com/corporate/eng/what-we-do/global-capabilities.html), which includes easy-to-use multilingual online or phone reward redemption and deployment, Fairmont was also drawn to Globoforce's unique portfolio of culturally appropriate reward options (http://www.globoforce.com/corporate/eng/what-we-do/rewards-selection.html), which gives its colleagues the power of choice and makes each reward moment locally relevant and memorable.

"In the hospitality industry, service is directly tied to the bottom-line, so innovative companies must create an employee engagement strategy (http://www.globoforce.com/corporate/eng/what-we-do/how-we-do-it.html) that's motivating and meaningful to all their employees, whether online or off," said Derek Irvine, Vice President of Global Strategy, Globoforce. "By leveraging our global expertise and on-demand software, Fairmont has established a one-of-a-kind, strategic program that embraces and communicates the company's core values while helping to create an engaged culture where employees come to work everyday to deliver on the company's mission and are fully committed to their day-to-day work, team, management and the organization."

For real-world examples of inspiring Fairmont ServicePlus colleague stories from the 12 countries where the company operates, contact Tim Rossi at timothy.rossi@globoforce.com or +1 (508) 229-1543.

About Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is regularly singled out for its commitment to its colleagues and for the seventh consecutive year was recognized as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, according to Maclean's magazine's annual list of great places to work.

A leader in the global hospitality industry, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is an extraordinary collection of luxury hotels, which includes iconic landmarks like Fairmont Le Château Frontenac in Québec City, Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi and London's The Savoy, reopening in 2009. Fairmont hotels are one-of-a-kind properties where sophisticated travelers can discover culturally rich experiences that are authentic to the destination. Situated in some of the most exclusive and pristine areas in the world, Fairmont is committed to responsible tourism and is an industry leader in sustainable hotel management with its award-winning Green Partnership program. Fairmont's portfolio includes 56 distinctive hotels, with plans to develop over 25 new properties in the coming years in destinations as diverse as Shanghai, Morocco and Anguilla.

Fairmont is owned by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, a leading global hotel company with 91 hotels worldwide under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel brands. The company also manages Fairmont and Raffles branded Residences, Estates and luxury private residence club properties. For more information or reservations, please call 1-800-441-1414 or visit www.fairmont.com.

About Globoforce

Founded in 1999 and co-headquartered in Southborough, Massachusetts and Dublin, Ireland, Globoforce is the world's leading provider of on-demand, global, strategic employee recognition solutions for Global 2000 companies. Globoforce delivers an innovative, easy-to-use, on-demand software solution that engages employees across the globe, transforming the way enterprises motivate their workforce. Globoforce's blue-chip customer base, which includes Avnet, Dow Chemical, Global Crossing, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Intel, Intuit, Nortel, Procter & Gamble and Thomson Reuters, reflects the importance of recognizing and engaging the workforce in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.globoforce.com or visit the company's blog at http://globoforce.blogspot.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS:        

Tim Rossi

Globoforce

+1 508-229-1543

timothy.rossi@globoforce.com

Mike Taylor

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

+1 416-874-2457

Mike.Taylor@Fairmont.com

Daisy Wall

Tier One PR

+1 404-695-0195

dwall@tieronepr.com

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