It’s celebration time for Bernard Martyris, senior vice president (human resources), Indian Hotels, and with good reason. The Taj Group of Hotels has just won the Hermes Award 2002 for the best innovation in human resources in the global hospitality industry. The prize, an elegant statuette in Daum crystal, takes pride of place on the work desk of Mr Martyris, who received the award on behalf of the Taj Group at a function held in early November 2002 in Paris.

Could you tell us something about the award?
The Hermes Awards for the world lodging industry are decided by a body of hospitality industry professionals. It is among the most prestigious awards in the industry, and is instituted under 12 non-traditional categories. For example, the Lucien Barriere Groupe won the award for the best Internet site, Motel 6 scored for the best advertising campaign, the Small Luxury Hotels of the World won for the best hotel guide.

The Taj Group was invited to participate in the ‘best innovation in HR’ category. A 22-member jury comprising representatives from top hospitality chains from across the world shortlisted five entries. The winner in each category was nominated from this bunch.

There were 120 applications in the HR category, and we won first place, for our Special Thanks and Recognition System (Stars) programme, which aims to recognise and reward excellence in the services provided to guests. Hermes is the only award for HR in the hospitality industry. We consider it a key achievement.

How important is this award to the Taj?
The huge prestige associated with this award has catapulted us into the global arena. There was world coverage of the final event and, when I was in Paris, I received feelers to start a hotel in that city. Internally, the award has been a big motivator.

The entire credit for this goes to the HR team which initiated the Stars programme and kept it running. We are in a different league now, but we must ensure that we stay ahead. We cannot afford to rest on our laurels.

In the higher echelons, [Tata Group chairman] Ratan Tata has shown interest in the award and there has been a lot of discussions on the programme. It may even be modified for use in other Tata Group companies.

How does the Stars programme work?
The programme allows employees to win points (at the recommendation of a colleague or a guest). This gives them access to different levels of standing that go hand-in-hand with specific rewards. In addition, employees are strongly encouraged to make suggestions and recommend innovations that may be applied to the group as a whole.

For example, a bellboy received an American guest recently after a late-night flight. While escorting him to the room, he realised that the guest had the beginnings of a cold. The guest, though, declined his offer to fetch a doctor. So, of his own accord, the bellboy got the guest a glass of warm water spiked with some ginger and honey (this is a home remedy). The guest was surprised and delighted. He wrote a note about this gesture and this added to the employee’s points.

Accumulation of points enables an employee to pin a star on his lapel. Still more points gets him into exclusive clubs that can fetch him gift vouchers, cash prizes and holidays in a Taj hotel of his choice.

Last year, the winners in the programme were honoured at an Oscars-style ceremony in the Taj, Mumbai. Clips about the winners were screened and the managing director gave away the awards. This served as a huge morale-booster across the group.

How did the Stars programme come to be? What makes it a success?
The concept was devised in 2000 to encourage employees, to make them go beyond their call of duty, to motivate them to have fun, and to introduce joy at the workplace. Each hotel in the group has a general manager, a HR manager and a training manager who evaluate each and every suggestion and nomination made. The entire process is web-enabled and is regularly monitored.

After the ceremony last year, every hotel — even those that did not take the programme seriously earlier — has pulled up its socks and is vying to get there. The programme has generated plenty of enthusiasm and has improved our guest-satisfaction levels. The employee is getting acknowledged and our service standards have gone up. Since this links directly to our business in the form of repeat customers, Stars is not only a feel-good operation but also a strategic success, a programme that has been patented by the Taj Group.

What other HR initiatives has the Taj undertaken in recent times?
HR is our strategic business asset. The employee is the HR department’s customer. And we link our employee’s satisfaction to our customer’s satisfaction.

We are the first company in the Tata Group to undertake the HR ‘balanced scorecard’, which links individual performance with company strategy. We plan to enter this programme for next year’s Hermes awards. In addition, the ‘employee satisfaction tracking system’ tackles an employee’s problem areas and levels of gratification on a quarterly basis.

Is HR in the hospitality industry different from HR in other industries?
Yes, it is. The hospitality industry, as any other service industry, is all about people. Customer orientation is the driver of our system. The critical need of the HR function in any hotel is to anticipate guest requirements.

We have acquired five new hotels in the last three months. Our focus is not only on the right people, but also on the right attitude. In my opinion, the right attitude is far more important than just skills. Our training of an employee, from his entry to when he becomes a part of our talent management pool, proves this.

What are your hiring procedures?
We rarely hire at mid-management level. We hire from 22 institutes across the country, including our own in Aurangabad. A fresher goes through a two-year training programme, where he is inducted into the culture, the business management and the ethos of the organisation through cross-functional exposure. We believe that a general manager of the future has to have had stints in all hospitality areas, including sales and marketing, finance, front office, food and beverages, projects, HR, et al.

Tell us about the training programmes that employees go through.
The training programmes across the group aspire to inculcate a work ethos that is global, professional and warm. Our leadership programmes undertake potential assessment and training. At our centres of excellence, heads of departments are trained so they can go forth and train their staff. There are foundation modules and accreditation programmes that an employee is put through to attain the Taj standards. We are also working towards standardisation in processes and a common work culture.

Are Taj employees world-class?
There are several benchmarks to judge employee service levels. Though our people show excellence in pockets, this quality needs to be made consistent. But, yes, the Taj employee is world-class.

What are the challenges that the hospitality industry faces in the HR area?
There is a bloodbath in Mumbai today, with seven hotels cheek-by-jowl near the airport. Retention of talent is our chief challenge. Our staff is routinely poached by not just industry competitors but also banks, call centres and others.

This year, in the placements process at the hotel management institute run by the Taj, more than half of those passing out were hired by non-hospitality companies. While we are happy to see the growth and opportunity for this sector, we also feel there is a need for introspection. Are we offering swift and smooth career paths to our employees? How am I to retain staffers from moving across industries?

But yes, it makes me happy to say that our retention rate is the highest. On the upside, we are the biggest and the most profitable chain. We are most in the news, too. We must be doing something right.