GROWING EXEMPLARY SERVICE AT PLANTATION BAY
IF YOU GO TO A TOP PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY AND DON’T quite learn a subject or two, you will probably still graduate. If you get a job with most companies, chances are you will receive some basic instructions, and then you will be left alone until and unless you cause a nuclear explosion. The toughest school in the country isn’t UP, La Salle or Ateneo, and it isn’t the training program at Philippine Airlines or Ayala Corporation.
The place with the scariest reputation for new hires is Plantation Bay Resort and Spa in Mactan, Cebu. Plantation Bay is owned and self-managed by a group of mostly Filipinos who actually did go to some of the toughest schools in the world – Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Cambridge. Aside from that, they’ve lived and traveled all around the world and have clearly-defined ideas on what it takes to be a top resort. To flourish at Plantation Bay, every staff member needs to learn and practice those ideas, but the rewards are high for those who make the grade.
Before you even get hired, you will be interviewed by at least five different people, who must be unanimous in approving you. They won’t be looking much at your degree, high grades or lack thereof. They do care about a bright, pleasing personality and an aptitude for learning.
Once hired, your challenges are just beginning. During a rigorous orientation process that lasts for several months (while you’re also doing your job), new hires have to learn the map of Plantation Bay by heart and be able to name each and every building, facility, outlet and recreation area, while giving an accurate description of same for guests. Is Leblon a guest suite, a restaurant or the gym? By your second week, you’d better know.
Then there’s the hotel’s copyrighted Interacting with Guests training, designed to teach the basics of 5-star service. Plantation Bay employees must know three kinds of bow (head nod, shoulder bow, full body bent-at-waist bow); how to address a small boy (“Sir”) and why you should not say “your wife” in case she really isn’t.
The list of do’s and don’ts is extensive, but a quick and relative painless way to acquire professional manners that are appreciated everywhere. Say “Please” (always correct), not “Kindly” (implies disapproval). Don’t greet a guest if she is reading or seated; do greet a guest if she makes eye contact. Before the end of their third month, every new staff member is expected to know how to interact with guests in a polished, professional and helpful way. “Don’t verbally offer help,” says the manual; instead, “Initiate help proactively when you see that it is needed.”
While it is true that some – both rank and file and managers – just don’t make the grade at Plantation Bay, others find it a nurturing envi-
ronment. Behind the tough training and resolute culling of non-performers, the hotel cares deeply about each staff member. It goes to extraordinary lengths to provide a pleasant, fair and rewarding working environment. Despite its strict policies, staff are confident that they are fortunate to be in the best workplace in the Philippines. Plantation Bay is possibly the only major hotel in the country with no labor union, and where no one ever tried to start one.
Result? Guests who almost unanimously swoon about Plantation Bay’s warm, friendly, helpful and sincere staff.
Staff development continues throughout your career here. All employees, from any department, are eligible to sign up for Wine Service, taught by the resident shareholder, Manny Gonzalez, who learned it in Paris’ Academie du Vin, from the legendary Steven Spurrier.
Based on human anatomy, there is a correct way to grip the bottle and pour the wine, and Plantation Bay may be the last hotel in the world which makes sure that all its restaurant staff know how to do it.
In the resort’s many kitchens, the training is grueling and demanding. Chefs aren’t allowed to swear or throw pots, but cooks who don’t follow orders with due care are eventually shown the door.
There are precise instructions on how to fry an egg (minimal oil, use spatula to spread the white away from the yolk, cover with glass lid). The process for preparing, cooking and evaluating steaks and hamburgers spans about 10 pages, with text and pictures. “If you do not start cooking at the correct temperature, no matter what else you do, the steak will never come out right,” cautions the instruction document.
Result? A long list of culinary superlatives, dishes that many guests proclaim the best, or close to the best, in the world: grilled ribeye steak; croissants (most of the time, but not when the air is too humid); lechon; kare-kare;
tempura; roast beef (only available on New Year’s or by special arrangement); home-made ice cream; crepes samurai; fabada (Spanish bean stew); Roman-style carbonara; chile con carne...
But pride in good food isn’t the only upside to working at Plantation Bay.
As HRD director Colleen Barcelona recounts, all around the world, cruise lines and other hotels recognize the Plantation Bay name as an assurance that an applicant has been carefullyselected and rigorously-trained.
And though the resort is always sad to see a staff member leave, it also takes pride in the future achievements of its ex-staffers.
In most hotels, internal promotions are rare, and even moving between departments is difficult. Plantation Bay has a very strong policy of promoting from the ranks.
Efren Belarmino, the long-serving general manager of the resort, was formerly executive housekeeper – a career path almost never seen in 5-star hotels. Another person who started as telephone operator also rose to become general manager, but moved on to manage Mactan-Cebu International Airport, a testimony to the quality of managerial training the right people can get at Plantation Bay.
The front office manager started as a bellman. The assistant F&B manager was once a waiter. The recreation manager began her career as a front desk clerk. All the duty managers started as rank-and-file. Mia Singson Leon, the assistant general manager, started her career as a training officer, then spent a number of years in Phuket, Thailand before returning to “my first love, Plantation Bay,” as she puts it.
How is this possible? First, people get direct practical guidance on how to be effective managers. Rather than being occupied with reports, meetings and budgets, Plantation Bay has no budgets, few reports and short meetings. Instead it asks its managers for independent decisionmaking and quick problem-solving.
Managers also get training in such diverse subjects as table etiquette; public speaking; effective signage and advertising; decisionmaking under uncertainty; salesmanship techniques, tactics, and strategies; dressing for success; how to hold efficient meetings; and other matters. Being a manager at Plantation Bay is like getting an MBA and attending Swiss finishing school combined.
Since 2000, the hotel has sent 5-10 officers a year for summer classes at Cornell University in New York, regarded by many as the finest hotel school in the world. Many of the first “scholars” have now moved on to other properties around the world, but this hasn’t dampened Plantation Bay’s enthusiasm for sending staff to Cornell. “We want all our staff to develop to their fullest potential, and we are happy when our people spread their wings, even if not with us,” explain the hotel’s shareholders, who foot a $100,000 annual bill for Cornell classes and other staff-development programs and travel. But most officers stay on, with a turnover rate lower than 10 percent.
Plantation Bay – it’s a tough hotel where only tough people survive, but an enjoyable and fulfilling workplace for those who make the grade.