Q1. What are some of the conventional sources through which talents are hired?
By virtue of being the oldest hospitality brands, Hilton Careers has been the most conventional source of hiring talent both internally and externally. However, sources like Naukri.com, LinkedIn, Indeed etc. have emerged well over a period of time. Hilton as a global brand has been successfully able to hire and establish a recruitment process and an effective employee life cycle. Database available on internal and external portals proves to be a big booster for the talent acquisition team across all hospitality brands. The information on hiring vacant positions is widely displayed on various social media platforms attracting the talent pool among all markets and divisions.
Q2. What is the biggest single challenge you face as an HR professional in the hospitality industry face?
Being an HR professional, the biggest challenge that any hospitality brand is facing in the current times is “how to retain the existing talent”. While recruitment becomes crucial and a lot of time and resources are spent in recruiting the right profile, the challenge of retaining a new hire remains to be a matter of concern. The current attrition level of hotels has grown catastrophically too high which has led to a struggle among the HR fraternity. As the market opened post pandemic and the hotels came back to full business, the hunt for right resources led to the scarcity of resources at the same time. Appointing the right candidate, retaining qualified employees, engaging and providing deserving growth to existing employees can help prevent high attrition rates.
Q3. What are the best ways to ensure work-life balance amongst your employees?
A well connected approach that starts from a thoughtful recruitment process followed by a rigorous and extensive learning path for the employees leads to a better and efficient work force. Further, it becomes the top priority in the hospitality industry to curb the thought process of long working hours and dis-balanced weekly rosters. As HR professionals at Hilton, we ensure the full use of HRMS i.e. employee self-service portal revolutionising the technology in HR processes, timely formation of rosters, close check on week-off consumption, flexibility in work hours, systematic provision of offs on special days like birthday or anniversary in the form of MY DAY and provision of Bereavement leave in case of sudden demise in family are some of the best ways that we are practicing at DoubleTree by Hilton Gurugram Baani Square to ensure work-life balance amongst our employees.
Q4. Hotel industry witnesses one of the highest attrition rates. How do you ensure hiring the right candidate and what are some of the key retention measures deployed to curtail the accelerating rate?
While the hotel industry witnesses extremely high attrition rates, it becomes imperative to ensure that the hiring of the right candidate along with strong retention measures are in place. At Hilton, we firmly believe in making the first month the most impactful journey for a new hire. The same starts well post the offer is made, the candidate is well connected via email and welcome phone call well before 48 hours before his joining. This has created an appealing effect in the minds and hearts of the new candidates who still have not landed in reality to the hotel. From a warm welcome a the hotel lobby with a scrumptious breakfast at the hotel’s coffee shop followed by an detailed show-around of front and heart of the house develops the feeling of belongingness among the new hire. The same further gets driven by Human Resources and Learning & Development team in the form of 7 days thoughtful orientation. Appointing buddies to new joinees, creation of online tools and exposure to mandatory trainings continues as a journey with two important milestone of 3 month pulse check and 6 month probation review.
Q5. Are youngsters emerging from hotel schools job-ready? If not, how do you address this challenge and prepare them for the job?
As a hotel, we partner with esteemed schools and universities to give the youngsters the first-hand exposure of the hotel industry via guest lectures at campus, show around of the hotel showcasing various departments, placement of industrial trainings and opening opportunities while they are undergoing their internship. Youngsters these days are potentially ready to take on new positions in the hotel, however an effective training program like new hire orientation, job skills checklist, job description, participation in internal management trainee program can be considered as some of the effective tools that help enhance their current knowledge and prepare them for the job.
