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The emotional door opener: AccorHotels Welcome Days

“Values you can touch” The hoteliers of AccorHotels show how that works. An emotional large group event is used to welcome newcomers and invite them to personally engage with the company’s key values. This concept, which won AccorHotels and its partners, Sandra Trost, Kirsten von Mejer, and Johanna Findeisen the Metalog Training Award, involves deploying Metalog training tools to “translate” the values (since renamed) of “Imagination,” “Trust,” “Performance,” “Pioneering Spirit,” and “Respect” to the participants’ business context in such a tangibly concrete way that they are easier to truly understand.

Metalog interview with Rebecca Katharina Glöckler, the Junior Manager for HR Marketing and Kirsten von Mejer of the external training firm.

Metalog: What role do the AccorHotels Welcome Days play and what goals and outcomes do they pursue?

Rebecca Glöckler: The AccorHotels Welcome Days are the emotional “hello and welcome” to the company’s new trainees. The idea is for the trainees to feel comfortable, to engage in networking and easily integrate into the company. The overarching theme of the training program here is “staying on the ball.” One of the reasons we can get this across successfully is because we turn the global corporate values into a directly tangible experience.

Metalog: Values are one of those things, don’t you think?!

Kirsten von Mejer: The corporate values are the lowest common denominator for more than 3,000 AccorHotels around the world. The new trainees are invited to find out for themselves whether, and which of, these 5 values they personally respond the most to.

Metalog: Whether you work with values or other content, the typical challenge for making sure that Metalog training tools are successfully integrated into the seminar is the staging phase, that is, how to transform the interaction activity, which is sometimes seen as a game, into a serious process. Wouldn’t you agree?

Kirsten von Mejer: That’s right, and we are faced with a double challenge, because the aim is for both the team coaches, or “teamers” as they are called in the company, who support us with facilitation, and the trainees to gain an understanding of what experience-oriented learning (EOL) is. This can only be achieved through briefing the teamers in detail and, of course, through engaging EOL trainers to reflect on the context of each learning project. On top of this, we are continually developing the concept. For example, we have recently “decelerated” certain aspects and integrated even more practical relevance for the company.

Metalog: With such large-scale training workshops involving a lot of participants, reflecting on individual activities is always an art form, particularly when the individual groups are allowed to wander from activity to activity. Did you define the reflection questions in advance, but then lose flexibility and authenticity, or do you work in a completely process-oriented way?

Kirsten von Mejer: Yes, that is really a big task. Experience has shown that it is better to define a selection of questions in advance. The teamers then decide intuitively what questions are right for the group at any one particular moment. This allows us to properly and fully integrate the slightly less experienced teamers.

Metalog: After 6 years of experience with the AccorHotels Welcome Days program, what is it about the event that is truly remarkable? 

Kirsten von Mejer: It is truly amazing how, in one day with up to 80 participants, a feeling of belonging can be created. For example, sometimes Facebook groups are set up on the impulse of “all of us at company site XYZ simply belong together!” In addition, the Welcome Days are a coming together of the different generations. Some of the teamers working with us have up to 30 years of experience in the hotel industry, and then there are the total beginners to the hotel sector, who then realize: “So this is what it feels like to strive for ‘respect.’ This really brings people together.”

Rebecca Glöckler ... And the aim is for the trainees to realize: “Hey, what a fantastic company we are. We will look after you! You are truly welcome here – and this perfectly harmonizes with AccorHotels’ “Feel Welcome” spirit. Even though things will be difficult from time to time, it is worth staying on the ball, because then all doors in the company are open to you.

The AccorHotels Welcome Days process

The group comprises up to 80 participants from the various corporate locations and different AccorHotels brands. They are divided into five smaller groups. These sub-teams start at the same time at each tool station, which is managed by a trainer or teamer. As each sub-team develops over the course of the day, the groups naturally reach each station in a different state of group dynamics. This requires the trainer/teamer to work on the task with each particular group in a process-oriented way. This means, of course, that, although the value and the Metalog training tool remain the same, the staging must be adapted to each group situation. At the end of the day, the entire group comes back together to perform a joint activity. This is where the Metalog training tool Pipeline comes in.

The corporate values and the corresponding Metalog training tool:

„Imagination“ – Marble Run
„Trust“ - The Band
„Performance“ - Tower of Power
„Pioneering Spirit“ - Leonardo’s Bridge
„Respect“ - Communic8