Roundtable interview with Aditi Das

Q1. What are some of the conventional sources through which talents are hired? 

Recruitment has always been a very dynamic aspect of Human Resources but its importance and its magnitude have only come to the surface post-pandemic. Conventional methods of hiring included paper postings, referrals, employment agencies, word of mouth etc.   What are the new age platforms now available; and how do they benefit? Modern hiring essentially involves harnessing the power of technology. Technology includes online job postings, postings on social media and employment-friendly sites like LinkedIn etc. These are the fastest way to get across to the audience and tap into the right resources at warp speed.

Q2. What is the biggest single challenge you face as an HR professional in the hospitality industry face? 

Although HR deals with various hurdles in their day-to-day operations the current biggest challenge would be the recruitment, rendition and motivation of their team members. To be able to find the right talent for the position, to be able to provide culture to sustain them and motivate them so that they find a career with us.

Q3. What are the best ways to ensure work-life balance amongst your employees?

Marriott international’s TakeCare initiative has been taken up very strongly at JW Marriott Kolkata, The focus has been to drive overall positivity and wellbeing within and across the teams. The effort has been to make ‘TakeCare’ a way of life, something that comes to each one of us naturally. The TakeCare champion’s efforts have been to ensure every associate understands what we can do to help them, find ways of facilitating wellness, setting the right examples and providing encouragement along the way. The TakeCare leave started in 2022 and has had a very positive response from the entire team. Marriott India also launched the No Overtime policy for our rank & file associates who can choose from a basket of options e.g. Early Going, Late coming and get compensated monetarily at month end. These initiatives have not only helped in stabilizing a lot of our team members, but it has also, made the culture of the company stronger.

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? 

More than ever, we, at any Marriott hotel today, are emphasizing on driving Marriott’s five core values of ‘Putting People First, ‘Pursue Excellence’, ‘Embrace Change’, ‘Act with Integrity’, and ‘Serve our World’. Each one of us from the General Manager to the last associate joined ensures that we spread positivity and know the individual hotels USP’s. At JW Marriott Kolkata we take a holistic outlook on our team’s welfare and encompass emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Along with providing basic facilities like clean bunkers and lockers, nutritious cafeteria meals, a safe working environment etc we have a No OT policy and new India leave policy rolled out in January 2022 to ensure we can retain high-performing talent.

Q5. Are youngsters emerging from hotel schools job-ready? If not, how do you address this challenge and prepare them for the job?

Despite certain anxieties surrounding the future of work, young people are aware of the challenges ahead – particularly regarding technology. Nearly all young people I have met, feel optimistic that technology will help generate new jobs and also retain them. However, this optimism should not eclipse the fear they express about the impact of technology on the world of actual work and their own professional prospects in an ever-evolving industry. Technology now plays a two-edged sword that is both beneficial to our industry but has also rendered us short in getting a work-ready force of new generation. We will have to work along with the newly empowered generation to be able to work in tandem and to be able to derive maximum output.