The Oliver Group and Ultima Hospitality, owned by Waterton Associates, wrote a case study describing their work together and the steps taken to enable strategic growth of the organization through acquisitions. The study includes information collected from Alisha Kalous, EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer at Waterton Associates and Tony Smith, Area Director and Executive Coach from The Oliver Group.

Ultima Hospitality is a division of Waterton Associates, which formed Ultima Hospitality in 2010 with less than 200 associates at inception. Ultima Hospitality, the hotel investment and management division of Waterton Associates, is a select and full service hotel owner and operator focused on identifying and executing value-add opportunities nationwide. As an approved operator of some of hospitality’s premier brands, Ultima focuses on creating the ultimate guest experience while maximizing total return on investment. Waterton Associates is headquartered in Chicago with seven regional offices in the United States and currently manages over $3.5 billion in real estate investments, including Ultima’s portfolio of 11 hotels. After only 4 years the organization has over 1,200 associates and has experienced explosive growth throughout the United States.

Said Tony Smith of The Oliver Group, “With hospitality being an extremely people-oriented and customer-satisfaction driven business, Ultima Hospitality had a distinct need to have the right people in the right places, so they worked hard at inception to develop excellent human resources practices, which have paid off with their growth.”

The case study includes an overview of the following:
-The process taken by Ultima Hospitality to research tools to help with employee assimilation and selection.
-The implementation of the Predictive Index® (PI®) as an assessment tool at Ultima Hospitality.
-Value of using the PI for employee selection and retention.
-The results of the process, including lowered turnover and improved loyalty ratings.

According to Alisha Kalous, EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer, “Predictive Index drives our exceptionally low turnover rates for our industry, saving us tremendously from the high cost of hiring mistakes, and it helps provide us with invaluable information before any acquisition.”

Predictive Index helped Ultima lower turnover to 40% and its Associate Engagement Survey indicates a 90% loyalty rating among the management team, which is approximately 10% better than the industry average.