July/August 2007

Uniforms Profile: GRAND SIERRA RESORT

Standing Tall
New uniforms helped the Grand Sierra Resort achieve several objectives - none more important than making employees proud to wear them.
By Jay Gordon

Brand awareness is crucial for hotels competing for both business and pleasure travel dollars, but it's even more important for a "new" property. That's why, when the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV, changed hands last June, one of the fi rst things the new owners did was overhaul the entire uniform program.

"We purchased the hotel on June 23, and the fi rst uniforms were fi tted on August 1," says General Manager Michael Carsch. "Being a new brand, we're very aware of having our logo in front of the public as much as possible so they begin to recognize it. Uniforms are an important source of that awareness."

Carsch says the resort had three goals for its uniform makeover:

Update the look. "What we were wearing before was a dated concept," he says. "It had not been refreshed in a number of years, and the garments were in various stages of disrepair."

Incorporate a sense of the environment. "The Sierra Mountains that surround us really defi ne the outdoor activities here," Carsch says, "and the views from our hotel are spectacular. Our interior designer picked up on the colors of our environment for the interior color scheme and palette, and we wanted to coordinate with that."

Give employees a uniform they can be proud of. "Everyone has to have a sense of pride in their appearance. Uniforms either give a sense of that pride, or they detract from it," says Carsch. "If the wardrobe is stylish and it fi ts well, then employees are proud to wear the clothes."

A lifestyle look
There was one other design cue Carsch relied on in selecting uniforms - the Grand Sierra's image, and the lifestyle it portrays. The resort is a 145-acre playground, with a casino, waterpark, restaurants and other attractions in addition to skiing, boating and other outdoor recreation. "A tie for the gentlemen didn't make sense, so we went with a mock turtleneck," says Carsch. "It's more casual, but conveys the right image of professionalism to our guests." Uniforms for female employees in the front of the house also feature the mock turtlenecks.

The hotel's color palette is dominated by neutral, natural tones - chocolate brown, taupe and sand. Bellmen and doormen, for example, wear chocolate brown pants with matching brown piping on a neutral shirt. Turtlenecks are a shade of gray, which produces a nice contrast but is in keeping with the neutral color palette. "To me, it's about synchronization with the environment," Carsch says. "It's not jarring, but soothing."

The garments are a little more soothing to wear, also. In many cases the hotel selected cotton/poly blends - cotton for  comfort and seasonality, polyester for durability. It also added outerwear options for bellmen, doormen and valets.

Carsch worked with vendor Cintas to develop a middle ground between stock and custom options for Grand Sierra's new employee wardrobes. "Cintas has a good variety of stock uniforms, but if you go outside those options it takes more time to get a replacement, and the cost is signifi cantly higher," Carsch says. "We went with more of a standard uniform, then added custom touches like piping on the collars and sleeves. It was a happy medium."

Each employee receives three uniform sets, all provided by the hotel - one on the back (being worn), one on the rack (ready to go) and one in the laundry. Carsch says the hotel could save a few bucks up front by only providing two sets, but would quickly give that savings back in replacement costs because the uniforms would wear out faster. The resort keeps a modest inventory on hand, especially for logoed front of the house uniforms, but the rest are ordered as needed from Cintas. Some employees maintain their own garments, while others use the resort's laundry service.

Response to the new uniforms has been overwhelmingly positive. "There are a lot of factors that go into employee satisfaction, from the compensation and benefi ts we offer down to the employee dining room. They have to feel good about the working environment, and the uniform is part of that," says Carsch. "It's hard to say one factor is more important than the other, but if one is missing, an employee will know it. When we began fi tting employees and putting the new uniforms into circulation, they stood a little taller."

Uniform Tip: Grand Sierra created excitement for the new uniforms by inviting employees to a fashion show where the new garments were styled on mannequins. Being able to see and feel the uniforms allowed employees to see what was coming and "created quite a buzz," says General Manager Michael Carsch."