Hotel Cateys 2021: Best Use of Technology Award: Nobu Hotel London Portman Square

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square has introduced three people-centred technologies –Yapster, OpenBlend and Vyond – to heighten the experience of the colleague journey. They ensure effective communication and positive levels of wellbeing, and help to drive productivity and motivation within the business.

Yapster is a hybrid of Insta­gram and Whatsapp. As soon as team members are added to the HR system, they are introduced to Yapster and able to access all other people-related platforms via a single sign-on. Apps include OpenBlend, Fourth and Flow – a Flow video introduces the hotel and its culture and philo­sophy. From a management perspective Yapster encourages a culture of social leadership: managers can lead from anywhere at any time by engaging with posts on the newsfeed.

OpenBlend is described as a revolutionary approach to the old-fashioned appraisal process, ensuring that frequent one-to-ones occur throughout the year. It asks team members about their wellbeing by asking three direct questions: how happy are you, how confident are you and how capable do you feel to manage stress?

Colleagues can select – and change at any time – eight out of 28 work/life ‘blends’, specify what those blends mean to them, and adjust their current and target scores. This forms the basis for one-to-one meetings with managers, where the aim is to set actions they can work on. Colleagues are encouraged to set one blend objective that is not work-related.

With the Health & Exercise blend chosen by more colleagues than any other, Nobu launched a hotel football team with 35 members, as well as yoga classes, and a new pilates studio.

Vyond allows short videos and stories to be created to bring content and information to life. Individual avatars were created for each of the Nobu employees, along with a short video with personalised commentary, to introduce each of the team and their roles to all colleagues during a mass onboarding.

Yapster provides each colleague with a Nobu-based news feed each morning with a business and financial overview of the previous day and what’s coming up for that day – events, VIP arrivals and sales show-rounds. Regular Yapster polls generate colleague feedback, providing quick responses when planning business or social activities and events.  The hotel currently has an 80% engagement level with Yapster. Following the success of the initiative at Portman Square, Yapster will be rolled out across all Nobu hotels.

Nobu is the first hotel company to use OpenBlend and believes the employee-led approach to colleague wellbeing will ensure a positive working environment and work/life balance.

What the judges said

“The integration of technology to improve colleague communication and connections was impressive and displayed thoughtfulness from the senior management team.”

Jane Pendlebury

“An excellent modern example of integrating technologies to form a cohesive approach for easily accessible staff communications on so many levels, which today’s staff members will appreciate in today’s environment.”

Carl Weldon

The shortlist

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square

Lumley Castle hotel, County Durham

Past winner

2019 Exclusive Collection