Marriott Hotels India: Power of One
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Marriott Hotels India: Power of One
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Category: Asia Pacific
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2007-11-13
At Marriott Hotels India, there are no employees, only associates. The associates take care of guests, the guests come back...that’s good for business, and for the associates too.
Picture this: you’ve just hopped on board Marriott Hotels India as an employee. Corre-ction: You’re not an employee but an associate. You take a walk down the ‘Associate Corridor,’ where the walls are plastered with all the information you need to know about Marriott. You then pick up the Daily Packet, an in-house daily newspaper brought out by the human resource department. This is one newspaper with plenty to read, you realise: It has a theme for the day, events for the day, birthdays of associates, mentions of guests’ recognition of efforts put in by associates, an HR ‘eye-opener for the day,’ and reports on the previous day’s events at the hotel. You’re still a bit fuzzy about how things work at Marriott—it’s your first day, after all—so you decide to walk into the corner room that’s occupied by the head of Marriott’s India operations. “Hi Philip,” you grin.
Such conduct would be considered bare-faced in most organisations—barging into a head honcho’s cabin and going on to address him by his first name on one’s first day at the office would only invite scorn, if not the boot, at more common workplaces. But then this is Marriott Hotels, a company that prides itself for being a great employer, globally. Marriott International, according to Fortune, is amongst the 100 best companies to work for in the world. It has made it to Fortune’s list for the 10th consecutive year.
An open-door policy along with a first-name culture is just one manifestation of how Marriott connects with its workforce. There’s a perfectly logical reason for such transparency: It results in quick decision-making, be it an employee-related decision or a guest-related decision. Elaborates Jatin Khanna, a Front Office Manager at the Renaissance Mumbai Hotel, one of the brands owned by Marriott Hotels (the others are the JW Marriott, Marriott Resorts, Courtyard and Marriott Executive Apartments): “Marriott is a completely different place to work in. One does not need to seek appointments to meet the senior management. You can just walk into their room and discuss issues. An absence of the ‘Sir’ culture was also a big revelation for me.” Khanna has spent a decade in the hospitality sector.
Adds Philip Bryson, Chairman, Marriott India Business Council and General Manager for Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Marriott Executive Apartments: “You earn respect from the job you do and not from the position you hold in an organisation. Everyone from a line manager to a sweeper to a chef is on one platform, and we all function as one.” Bryson and other senior managers spend time individually with all the employees every day. In fact, Bryson says it takes him 30 minutes to walk into his office each morning as he spends time with those on the job.
That power of one may sound almost Utopian, but it appears to be working like a charm at Marriott India. At the core of this approach is the belief that happy employees are good for business. Bryson recalls the words of the founder of the global hotel chain, J. Willard Marriott: “If you take care of your employees, employees take pride in their work. If they take pride in their work, they serve the customer at their best. If the customer is served well, they come back and the business is taken care of.”
Trickling down from the premise is a host of initiatives that eventually all come together to make Marriott an employee’s paradise. Pampering isn’t a bad word in the Marriott lexicon, which is evident in the six holidays each associate gets every month (the average in the service industry is four). The ‘Marriott Way’ is also to empower associates who, for instance, are allowed to give complimentary gifts to their guests. There is a high degree of pride in the unique relationships cemented with guests. All these work in favour of the associate, who earns reward points. Marriott also follows a house system, just like it is in schools.
All associates, right from the senior management to the junior-most, are equally divided into four houses: Elephant, Lotus, Peacock and Banyan. Each house has an activity every month, through the year, around areas such as leadership and training. Competitions are also held through the year, which enable associates earn rewards and points for their house. “This is one way of ensuring employee connect and there is increasing communication within associates,” explains Bryson.
It’s great to be on the Marriott ship, but climbing on board involves a rigorous recruitment process, something Gurmeet Singh, Country Director of Human Resources, Marriott Hotels India, is proud of. Extensive online psychological tests help the hotel chain pinpoint the right candidates for specific roles. This is followed up with a series of interviews—with HR, with the department head, with the operations head, and a final meeting (which isn’t an interview) with Bryson himself. “I just chat them up,” he says (see Everyone is Considered Equal).
Despite such efforts, the BT-Mercer study indicates that Marriott Hotels India’s HR cost per employee is a minimal Rs 4,316 annually and the training budget is just Rs 1.36 crore per annum across the five properties. Singh explains: “One must understand the hotel industry’s business model. We cannot be compared with any other industry. If a person is a dishwasher you cannot train him to do a management job.” Globally Marriott sets aside $750 every year for every manager for training and development.
Singh agrees that Marriott isn’t the leader in salaries, “but we do give each and every associate an 8.33 per cent guaranteed bonus every year. Performers can earn a bonus of up to 20 per cent.” Attrition levels at 32 per cent are higher than the industry average of 30 per cent but they are below the 36 per cent norm for the Mumbai market. “Attrition has become a way of life. That is something you cannot shy away from. The only thing we can do is be more proactive, aggressive, and innovative in the way we hire and train,” says Singh. One such proactive initiative is promotions, with 37.6 per cent of the workforce being promoted last year. The average time for a promotion has also been crunched to two years. Singh takes consolation from the fact that Marriott seldom loses people to competition. “They do not leave us to work for another hotel but to work for a cruise liner or to work in another country or for further education. And the kick we get is when they come back—and that rate is good,” says Singh. That’s another upshot of the Marriott way. You can’t hold on to associates for ever, but you can always expect some of them to come back.
BOX 1
WHAT MAKES MARRIOTT AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE
Two-way communication: For new entrants, there is an event called ‘Koffee with the GM’ to interact with the GM and share their views over a cup of coffee. For employees too shy to talk, there is the option of anonymously calling up the Integrity Hotline, a 24X7 toll free number.
Employee benefit initiatives: Employees are given six offs in a month and financial support for higher education. Each and every employee on their birthday can stay in the hotel for one day with their spouse or family and can dine anywhere.
Knowledge initiatives: Every Marriott hotel has a learning centre that has a collection of books and videos, along with an internet connection.
Defined span-of-leadership: There is a Leadership Performance Process management system which defines nine competencies which a Marriott associate should have and develop.
Reward system: There are two kinds of awards for individuals or groups to recognise outstanding performance. Each Marriott hotel in India has its own awards. This is apart from an overall event involving all Marriott properties globally.
BOX 2
SNAPSHOT
Total employees: 2,502
Average age: 24
Attrition rate: 32 per cent
Male:Female ratio: 4:1
Average career tenure: 3 years
HR Cost: Rs 1.07 crore
Promotion rate: 37.6 per cent
Training budget: Rs 1.36 crore
Training man-days: 4,337 days
Revenues: Rs 448 crore *
Gross Operating Profit: Rs 240 crore*
* Figures are for the period Jan.-Sept. ‘07
BOX 3
Chairman Q&A
“Everyone Is Considered Equal”
Philip Bryson, 40, Chairman, Marriott India Business Council, has been
associated with the Marriott chain since 1994. He spoke to BT’s Anusha Subramanian about the Marriott culture. Excerpts:
In your words, why is Marriott Hotels one of the best places to work?
Our whole business premise is built on the fact that if you take care of your associates, they will take care of the guest and guest will come back and the business will take care of itself. We have all the necessary training tools for our associates, who are well motivated, receive good career guidance and good rewards and recognition. And they are happy. We are not hierarchical in nature and everybody from a general manager who is the highest in rank to a junior associate is referred to by their first names. It does not matter what job you do here and at what grade you are in the organisation; everyone is considered equal.
How do you ensure there is a good connect between employees and the company as it grows rapidly?
It all starts at the selection process. When we conduct interviews with prospective employees we ask them what they know about the hotel. Most of them know something. Alternatively, we do not look for people who have the right skills to work here but look for people who have the right attitude. That’s because we can train them and give them the skills but we cannot give them the right attitude. When they join the company they have to go through a three-day induction programme where they learn about the hotel, the brand and the history. We are an 80-year-old company and still very much a family company, and we are proud of our heritage. On a daily basis, there is a meeting within every department. We have high-delegation visits from Marriott International. Thus we ensure the employees are well connected with the organisation.
The biggest challenge today?
Turnover! We take care of our employees. But we also train them so they are ready to be poached as well. I think with the growth that is likely to take place in this industry, retention and recruitment is going to be a big issue.
How do you attract the right talent?
A lot of it is word of mouth. We have a rigid selection process. The prospective employee has to go through an online screening, a personality profile. They have to first get vetted by human resources and then they go for an interview with the department head and then they go for an interview with the operations head and they have a final 10 minutes with me. I do not interview them. I just chat them up to find out what kind of a person he or she is and make it clear to them from day one that we are serious about our people.
How are employees aligned with the business?
The business goals are linked to the functional and strategic balance scorecard, which has parameters that are linked directly to the organisation’s goals. There is a monthly balance scorecard for the entire department and individual balance scorecard for each employee who has different targets to meet. This way each and every employee is aligned with the business and the organisation’s business goal and has to perform accordingly.
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