One of the basic factors behind external customer satisfaction is internal customer satisfaction. To achieve this, every year Sol Meliá carries out a Workplace Climate survey in corporate offices and in the different business areas which allows the company to evaluate employee satisfaction by studying their opinions on their work environment and on the degree of acceptance of the company’s culture, management and procedures.

An exhaustive analysis of this information lays the foundations for a specific Action Plan for each of the business areas, the objective of which is to improve the least satisfactory results. The results obtained in corporate offices also form the basis of an Action Plan designed to maintain satisfaction levels amongst everyone that forms part of the company, thus ensuring that the company retains its leadership position in the industry and demonstrates the efforts it makes to retain talent.

In 2008, 21,897 surveys were carried out internationally amongst employees in the different business areas and 1,298 employees from corporate offices throughout the world were invited to take part in a survey that was translated into six languages.

In addition to the important role of the surveys in good human resource management, at Sol Meliá the Workplace Climate survey forms part of the indicators measured as part of the Strategic Plan and is a key indicator for the monitoring of results in the Talent Management and Empowerment project.

The characteristics measured in the survey both in corporate offices and in the business areas include the following:

• Teamwork
• Communication
• Motivation
• Pride in belonging
• Identification with the company
• Leadership and people management
• Clarity
• Working conditions
• Recognition
• Training and personal development
• Development expectations
• Promotion expectations