New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Receives “Best Places to Work” Honor
September 23, 2020
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has been selected as one of the city’s “Best Places to Work” by New Orleans CityBusiness, a weekly business newspaper. The Convention Center earned this honor in the “Large Businesses” category, which includes companies with over 50 employees. This is the second time the Convention Center has received this prestigious honor.
“We are indeed honored that our Convention Center has been recognized as one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ in New Orleans,” said Michael J. Sawaya, president of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. “Our vision for providing exceptional customer service to our external customers begins with ensuring a work environment that provides an exceptional internal customer service experience for our staff. Our employees truly understand and appreciate the role they play and the positive affect they have on the state and local economy.” This honor is particularly special in a year where the convention center and its staff played a key role in helping the local community deal with and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
All 500 full-time and part-time employees are required to attend regular training on the five Customer Service Standards that are the guiding philosophy of the program. These standards are reinforced in a daily bulletin known as the SPICE Rack, that is distributed to all team members. The SPICE Rack encourages employees to recognize fellow employees for exceptional acts of service and offers daily tips on how to make the most of the ever-changing landscape that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.
“The year 2020 has been a particularly challenging year for our entire industry, but our facility has continued to employ hundreds of New Orleanians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sawaya continued. “While event activity has understandably been temporarily halted, our staff has been involved in essential work that addresses health and safety protocols and improvements to our facility that will be key and critical to returning to normal activity in 2021.”
New Orleans City Business published a complete list of Best Workplaces recipients on September 11, 2020. For more information on the nomination process and a full list of the 2020 Best Workplaces honorees, visit the New Orleans CityBusiness website.