The corporate culture of the Hilton Company

The Hilton company was established in 1919 by Conrad Hilton in Texas and since 1969 the company headquarter has been located in Beverly Hills, California. Currently, the company is planning to relocate the headquarter to Fairfax County in Virginia. Even since its establishment the core strengths have been quality, integrity, value and strength (Hilton family, 2009). In addition to that the company has ensured that the core strengths have been maintained in all their hotels. The company has more than 3000 hotels and more than 500,000 rooms in more than 76 countries and territories. In addition to that the company team of members is composed of more than 135,000 individuals worldwide (Indeed, 2009).
The corporate culture of the Hilton company was developed by the founder of company Conrad Hilton and is guided by his principles which include; consistent customers delight, investing in the team members, environment protection, provision of innovative services and products, serving the community, expansion of the family brands, provision of healthy and safer environment for the customers, guests and team members, creation of a proud culture, and strengthening the loyalty of the company’s constituents (Hilton family, 2009).
Expansion of the family brands

Since 1999, the company has been expanding and now it includes a wide variety of brands which are composed of Hilton Hotels, Homewood Suites, Hampton Inn and Suites, Embassy Suites Hotels, Doubletree, Conrad hotels, and many others (Hilton family, 2009). All the brands are either company owned, managed or franchised. In enhancing the growth of the company most of the Hilton brand hotels were franchised. This therefore implies that most of the Hilton hotels are managed by independent individuals or companies. However, the Hilton company inspects regularly all the franchised brand of hotels to ensure that the standards are maintained.
Additionally, the Hilton company brands can be classified into full service, select service and limited service lodgings. Of all these brands, the full service lodging is provided by most hotels. It is provided by about eight hotels while the others are found in two different hotels each.
Investing in the team members
The team members of the company are classified into four groups in descending order: Diamond VIP, Gold VIP, Silver VIP and Blue (Hilton HHonors, 2007). All the team members are provided with an environment similar to the one given to the guests, one that is warm and home like (Hilton family, 2009). The company invests much in ensuring that the team members feel at home and experience a sense of belonging. Additionally, the team members relate with each other like family members do, they help each other in times of difficulties and also encourage one another (Hilton family, 2009).
Furthermore, the company rewards its members through free hotel nights, dream vacations, experience getaways and premium merchandise. By staying at the Hilton hotels, the team members are offered points which they can redeem for a standard room at any Hilton hotel (Hilton HHonors, 2007). To add to that VIP members are given additional benefits which may include bonus points, hotel room upgrades, health club privileges, and many others. Read the answer What did large southern plantations depend upon for a successful economy
Consistent customer satisfaction
The company shows appreciation its workforce which is composed of a diverse range of individuals from different communities (Hilton family, 2009). By appreciating its employees there is assurance of provision of the best services to the customers and guests of the company. Provision of a good working environment to its workers leads to improvements in their performance since they feel appreciated by the company. To add to that, about half of the company’s management positions are composed of the minorities and women and in addition to that more than half of the total company employees are the minorities and women (Hilton family, 2009). This implies that the company ensures equality in its employment procedures.
Additionally, the company provides diversity training programs at all operation levels within the hotels. It ensures provision of diversity from orientation to the line-level team members and in addition to that there is provision of specific training for general management (Hilton family, 2009). This ensures that the quality of the services provided to its customers are improved regularly and maintained at the highest possible level. Consequently, the company has put in place ways of identifying the best performers in certain fields and ways of nurturing talents within the company (Hilton family, 2009). This is a motivation tool to the employees of the company as they pressured to put in more effort when performing their duties in order to get rewarded. The company rewards its employees through promotions, gifts and many others depending on someone’s preference. By ensuring that ways of evaluating the employee are in place and are monitored adequately, the customer satisfaction is ensured.
Furthermore, the company established a quality assurance team for enforcing the standards of the brands. This team was given the mandate to inspect all the hotels and especially the franchised ones since they are not managed by the Hilton Company. This was meant to ensure that the strict brand standards are maintained by all the hotels thereby ensuring the needs of its customer are met in time and are of high quality.
Serving the community
The company appreciates and celebrates the surrounding community that it serves by participating in community programs. It takes part in charitable programs which are focused at improving the livelihood of minorities especially the disabled individuals, women, elderly, and in meeting other community needs (Hilton family, 2009).
For instance, the Hilton Company is one of the corporate sponsors of AIDS Walk Los Angeles (AWLA) which is now celebrating 24 years since it was established to deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis. Last year in Southern California, it hosted more than thirty thousand walkers and about two thousand five hundred volunteers thereby making it the largest fundraiser in AIDS. Through the walk, it was able to donate to the AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) about $3.8 million in order to support their work. APLA is amongst the largest non-profit AIDS organizations in America and its services include provision of prevention education, bilingual direct services and also provide local and international leadership on policies and legislation which are related to HIV/AIDS to the communities. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Community Coalition initiative (CCI), AWLA continues to sponsor certain programs aimed at addressing the needs of many HIV/AIDS communities living in the county of Los Angeles (Hilton family, 2009).
Environment protection
            The Hilton Company takes preservation of the environment very seriously and puts efforts in ensuring that it is adequately protected. The company participates actively in the National Arbor Day Foundation, whose objective is to inspire individuals to plant, nurture and appreciate trees in their neighborhood and in the world as a whole. This Foundation has been growing and has more than one million members who are of much assistance in planting trees across the country. The role of this Foundation is to assist in the re-plantation of forests which have been destroyed by diseases or fires, provide educational programs to the adults and the children, foster preservation of rain forests and to promote the appreciation and celebration of Arbor Day by all communities across the country (Hilton family, 2009).
            In collaboration with this Foundation, the company’s brands such as the Doubletree hotels encourage children to participate actively in improving their community by planting and taking care of the trees. The company organizes tree-planting events which are primarily meant for the local schoolchildren and in these events the Foundation provides tree seedlings for planting (Hilton family, 2009).
            In conclusion, the Hilton Company has a strong corporate culture which has been very important in ensuring its growth worldwide. Because of its culture the Hilton Company has become one of the leading hospitality companies in the world. It has been able to expand in terms of the numbers of hotels and customers. This can be attributed to services and benefits offered to the company members and customers. The company has changed the livelihood of many communities through its participation in wide variety of charitable programs. In addition to that, it has ensured that the environment is preserved adequately through environmental protection foundations.  Maintenance of the corporate culture of Hilton Company is crucial for its sustainability and in assuring a bright future. This is because through corporate culture, the company has been able to meet its objectives and even plan ahead. Read about The Strong Culture Perspective
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Reference list
Hilton Family, (2009). About us. Retrieved June 16, 2009 from             http://hiltonworldwide1.hilton.com/en_US/ww/fob/aboutUs.do?it=Tnav,AboutUs
Hilton HHonors, (2007). Membership levels. Retrieved June 16, 2009 from             http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/about/memlevels.do
Indeed (2009). Hilton. Retrieved June 16, 2009 from http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Hilton
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