Page 50 of Captivated By You

I waggled my eyebrows, enjoying teasing him. “Amazing what asking around, not just in your hotel but also in others, achieves. It didn’t take me long to work out that you aren’t paying as much as some of your competitors. To someone who is poor, eight percent can be the difference between heating and eating. To you, it’s nothing. To them, on the other hand…” I shrugged.

Ash said nothing for the longest time, but I could almost see his mind whirring. I scarfed down my food—wasn’t about to let a meal as delicious as this one go to waste—and left him to chew over my observations in his own time.

“I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of this.” Ash’s hand swept from his forehead to his chin, and he shook his head. “How can I not know these things?”

I stopped filling my face and set down my fork. “Because you’re the boss, and you can’t possibly know everything. I mean, how many hotels are under your command? Four, five hundred?”

“Six hundred and three, across six continents.”

“Well, there you go. It’s impossible for you to know the minutiae. That’s why you have board members and managers, and staff.” I narrowed my eyes. “If I were you, I’d point the finger at the finance department. Those accountants are always looking for ways to save money and increase the bottom line. Undercutting staff costs might initially seem like a good idea, but in the end, staff retention, or lack thereof, is a big problem that comes with a massive hidden cost. Not to mention that unhappy employees don’t give their best.”

“No, I don’t suppose they do.”

He scrunched up his napkin, tossed it on the table, and removed his phone from the inside pocket of his jacket. His thumbs skated over the screen, a frown drawing two deep lines between his eyebrows.

“What are you doing?”

He finished typing and set his phone on the table. “Emailing the board. We will address this issue.”

My eyes widened. “Because of me?”

He nodded. “You’re right about staff retention and how quality staff can be a differentiating factor between you and the competition. And given your insightful comments, the member of staff I’m most keen to retain right now is you.”

Well… shit.

Chapter16

Asher

When your date makes sex faces while

eating dessert, stare.

Kiana’s pointwas a well-made one. I headed up an organization with a worldwide staff of over one hundred fifty thousand, and ten or more layers between me and housekeeping. It wasn’t unreasonable to miss a few details here and there when running a conglomerate like Kingcaid.

Except I demanded that level of perfection from myself. As did my father.

Each month, I received a report on staff turnover, and while I had noticed a slight uptick, these things tended to go in cycles, and so I hadn’t delved further. Keeping our finger on the going rates of the global employment markets was a key part of this business, and I’d not given it the attention it deserved. Sure, there were board members, department heads, and managers, but whoever had dropped the ball did not absolve me from blame. As the CEO, the buck stopped right at my door.

I’d always prided myself on Kingcaid’s reputation as a fair employer, from how we treated our employees, to the rates of pay and benefits they enjoyed. We’d always been at, or close to, the top of global compensation structures, yet somehow we’d ended up tracking off course.

Hence, I’d written to both the HR director and the finance director and instructed them to verify Kiana’s findings—not that I didn’t believe her, but cross-checking made good business sense—and then increase pay rates to slightly above our nearest competitors’ and implement a bonus scheme for longevity of service. My guests deserved the very best, and that meant paying a decent salary to our teams, who were the linchpins to the success of the Kingcaid brand.

I expected the FD to squeal. Kiana was right about accountants and their drive for ever-greater profits, but Kingcaid was a private enterprise, and the only people I’d have to answer to for any reduction in the bottom line were the chairs of the three parts of the company, namely my father and my two uncles.

And I already knew that Dad would support this decision, as would his brothers.

I refilled Kiana’s wineglass and topped off my own. Raising my glass to her, I smiled. “Now, where were we?”

She blinked three times in straight succession. “Did you really act on what I said?”

“Of course.” I sipped the wine. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Because I’ve only worked there for a month. Because I’m inexperienced. Because you barely know me.”

I counted her points off on my fingers. “Inexperience should never be mistaken for ineptitude. Your tenure has nothing to do with your ability to identify problems. And while I don’t know you nearly as well as I’d like to…” I waggled my eyebrows. “You and I both know where this is going.”

She groaned, raising her eyes to the ceiling. “Jesus, Kingcaid. Drop it.”

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