Omotenashi -- The wholehearted hospitality that we need in our current workplace

NewsOctober 14, 2021 14:41

If you have visited Japan before, you might have been impressed with the Japanese standards of hospitality. This wholehearted hospitality unlike any other is also known as omotenashi.
This word was actually popularised by Japanese TV personality Christel Takigawa when she presented to the International Olympic Committee where Japan should host the 2020 Olympics. Of course, the speech was a resounding success as Japan eventually won the bid to host the recent Olympics.


The origins and evolution of Omotenashi

According to this Michelin guide article, omote actually means public face (the image that you present to outsiders) while nashi means nothing. If we combine them together, it means that every service should originate from the bottom of the heart with honesty and no pretension.
This spirit of providing wholehearted service originated from the tea ceremony where tea masters face the audiences and brew tea in front of them such that the process is open and clear.

Today, omotenashi can be seen beyond just courteous store assistants, clean public areas, and punctual trains in Japan. Embedded deep in the Japanese DNA is the concept of mutual respect. For example, when you are done with a meeting in another organisation, your host will usually accompany you to the elevator and sometimes even all the way to the building’s exit. After bowing to each other, the host may still be standing in place to ensure that the guest leaves safely before he/she returns to the office.

With the advent of technology, some family-run businesses have also adapted their ways of showing omotenashi to their guests. For instance, a century-old inn in Kanagawa prefecture, Jinya, developed a customised in-house management system for inn-keeping. The staffs are all provided with tablets connected to the cloud where real-time information about the guests are updated. Guest preferences such as drinking room-temperature water or even linking the car plate number to the guest so that the greeter can call the guest by name at the door are helpful ways to continue the tradition of omotenashi. And of course, revenue was doubled from 2011 to 2018 since the introduction of the above technology-aided omotenashi.


Bringing Omotenashi into our workplace reaps many benefits 

While the pandemic has changed the way we work, there is also an added element of recognising and anticipating the different needs and spaces for different individuals in the workplace. Anticipating others’ needs before our own and being of service to accommodate and respect one another is also an important consideration of Omotenashi.

As employees return to their workplaces, they have an updated perspective of how their workspaces are designed for comfort and efficiency. This can range from having a coffee machine, spacious lounge areas for break times, better workplace ergonomics to bigger and multiple displays and monitors.

Creating a hospitality-oriented set up such as having “breakout lounges” for individual work or small group discussion, ensuring well-stocked and equipped dining and recreation areas and providing a variety of spaces to cater to different work styles and tasks are some examples of how companies can apply Omotenashi principles in the workplace.

When staff experience in the workplace is enhanced with the sense that their needs are being looked after by their employer, businesses are more likely to retain and attract the best talents. Hence, having workplace hospitality and introducing the Omotenashi principles in the organisation will benefit the company in the long run with lower turnover rates.

How else do you think Omotenashi could be applied to other aspects of your daily lives? What is one thing you could do to introduce the idea of “wholehearted hospitality” to your co-workers?