Leading the Pack
There is only one quality that sets the sectoral winners apart —an unrelenting focus on people. BY TEAM BT
There is only one quality that sets the sectoral winners apart – an unrelenting focus on people
HOSPITALITY One Big Family
W hen Rakesh Sarna joined Indian Hotels – which owns the iconic hotel brand Taj – as Managing Director and CEO in September 2014, he used to get some 300-odd mails a month with concerns of employees. That has fallen to 40 a month now.
“We call employees ‘family’, but we don’t treat them like family members. My duty is to take care of employee needs, I keep emotional engagement with them,” says Sarna. In October 2014, policies and processes changed in Indian Hotels in line with the newly introduced concept called Tajness. Sarna and senior management travelled across group hotels and thanked employees for their contribution and got constructive feedback. It was a message of solidarity, says Sarna. “The central principle of our existence is mutual respect. In the last two and half years, we have removed guests for being disrespectful to our colleagues.”
Tajness is about customer experience and employee welfare. It works around the inverted pyramid strategy. The entire frontline is at the top of the pyramid and the others, including the senior management, are placed be-
low for supporting them. The frontline is important for Taj as they service the customer, asserts P.V. Murthy, Senior VP & Global Head- HR. “As hoteliers, we have to handle attrition at different levels. Frontline attrition is the most important issue that needs to be handled in a time bound manner,” says Murthy. In the Taj structure, general managers are head of the hotels. It has an intranet called ‘My Taj’, where they have created a Facebook culture and employees post views and share best practices at each hotel. Worklife balance is another focus area of the management. “We work hard at skilling our employees and give them confidence,” says Sarna.
But behaviour is at the core of Taj’s HR policy. The HR team is accountable for the people and their behaviour in the organisation, whether it’s the CEO or the senior management. “We have reached out to about 200 customers last year to formulate the behavioural practices,” says Murthy.
Taj also works on gender diversity. Soon, one of the Taj hotels in Mumbai will have 100 per cent women staff. “We have introduced flexi working hours, childcare centres, increased weekly offs and abolished break shifts,” In short, Taj believes in: “Take care of your employees; they will take care of your customers.” ~