Q1. What are some of the conventional sources through which talents are hired? What are the new age platforms now available; and how do they benefit?
Hospitality Industry has always been very unique with people and product coming together to deliver the brand promise and experience to the Guest. Therefore Hospitality hiring is based on potential, attitude and character, rather than primarily for experience, knowledge and skill set. Some of the conventional sources for Hospitality have been Employee referrals, campus placements and job boards, these have worked and still working well for the Industry. However in recent past, an effective Employer Branding strategy has become much more essential for having an advantage over competition and attracting suitable talent for the company. In addition to Employer Branding strategy, Social Networks also helps hugely in finding the right fit for the positions, these social networks works well in connecting employer with potential candidates and more specifically with passive candidates.
Q2. What is the biggest single challenge you face as an HR professional in the hospitality industry face?
Attrition is seriously impeding the ability of the hospitality industry to consistently deliver the brand experience. Having said that, we believe that HR Professionals can manage this challenge well by hiring for potential, attitude, humility, agility and character, rather than primarily for domain knowledge. Culture alignment will be a game changer when it comes to ensuring right fit for any organization.
Q3. What are the best ways to ensure work-life balance amongst your employees?
Efficient planning is the key to ensure work life balance and it should be practiced across levels right from the top. Organizations need to focus on productivity rather than hours and come out with innovative ways to enhance the work life balance such as : Annual Leave Planning, Flexible working hours, Extended Time-off Hours etc. We at Accor provide 6 weekly offs to our employees enhancing their work life balance.
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?
As mentioned above, Attrition is one of the biggest challenge for the hospitality industry and one of the effective way to minimize attrition is ensuring right people join your organization. At Accor, we capitalize on a talent acquisition process that focuses on hiring for Potential, Passion, attitude, learning agility, character and cultural fit rather than hiring primarily for experience, knowledge and skill set. For finding that right fit, we use Pre-hiring psychometric assessments tools and behavioural Interviewing techniques that helps revealing candidates potential to demonstrate those capabilities we are looking for. Once hired it is equally critical to retain the talent and We at Accor believe that honest communication, empowerment and having discipline is the most important enabler for a healthy company culture that helps in retaining talent; additionally we also pay careful attention on Competitive Total Rewards Strategy, Emotional On boarding, Skip level meeting with leadership team members, fair and clear career pathways that are aligned to business needs, career conversation, internal mobility options, wellness and other engagement programs.
Q5. Are youngsters emerging from hotel schools job-ready? If not, how do you address this challenge and prepare them for the job?
India is blessed with a young, large and diverse work force at all levels and this is an asset not many countries have access to. It is the bounden and joint responsibility of hotel management institutes and the hospitality players to join hands and work together to ideate and implement practical and sustainable ways to identify and develop the appropriate talent for the industry and ensure that the job seekers have all the futuristic skills that are relevant for the industry including Introducing well-structured admission norms to hotel management institutes that puts a premium on attitude, communication, personality and potential; an up to-date and relevant curriculum in hotel management institutes that is aligned to the hospitality of tomorrow and focuses more on practical skill enhancement.
