Taj People Philosphy and Star System

The employee at Taj is viewed as an asset and is the real pro harmonize centre. He or she is the genuinely reason for our survival. The creation of the Taj peck Philosophy displays our committal to and whimsey in our people. We want an organisation with a very wakeful philosophy, where we can treasure people and build from within. * Bernard Martyris.Senior Vice-President, HR, Indian Hotels confederation Limited (IHCL)Introduction In March 2001, the Taj theme launched an employee loyalty course of instruction c solelyed the Special Thanks and Recognition System ( senseS). STARS was an initiative aimed at motive employees to transcend their usual duties and responsibilities and have fun during become. This program likewise adjudge and rewarded hard working employees who had achieved excellence in their work.The Taj free radical had al routes believed that their employees were their great assets and the very reason for the survival of their business. In 2000, to show its commitment to and belief in employees, the Taj root word actual the Taj People Philosophy (TPP), which c overed on the whole the people practices of the classify. TPP considered every aspect of employees organisational life history planning, right from their induction into the keep company till their superannuation.TPP offered many benefits to the Taj sort. It helped the company boost the morale of its employees and improve attend to standards, which in turn resulted in repeat clients for many hotels in the company. The STAR agreement alike led to global learning of the Taj Group of hotels in 2002 when the conference bagged the Hermes Award for Best Innovation in Human Resources in the global hospitality industry.The Taj People Philosophy Since its establishment, the Taj Group had a people-oriented culture. The group always hired fresh graduates from leading hotel focus institutes completely over India so that it could shape their attitudes and develop their skills i n a way that fitted its take and culture. The management wanted the new recruits to pursue a long-term career with the group. All new employees were placed in an intensive two-year provision program, which familiarised them with the business ethos of the group, the management practices of the organisation, and the working of the cross- courseal de come apartments.The employees of the Taj Group were trained in varied fields like sales and marketing, finance, hospitality and service, front representation management, food and beverages, projects, HR and more. They in any case had to take part in divers(a) leadership programs, so that they could develop in them a strong, warm and passe-part step up work culture. Through these programs, the group was able to assess the future possible of the employees and the training required to further develop their skills. The group offered excellent opportunities to employees twain on personal as well(p) as organisational front. In revisal to achieve Taj standards, employees were made to undergo a rigorous training program. The group strove hard to standardise to totally in all its processes and evolve a work culture, which appealed to all its employees universally.The group believed that endowment fund management was of utmost importance to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. The group aimed at making the HR function a critical business partner, rather than just a maintenance function. To further show its commitment to and belief in employees, the group created the Taj People Philosophy (TPP) covering all people practices of the group. The concept of TPP, developed in 199,was the brainchild of Bernard Martyris, Senior Vice-President, HR, IHCL, and his core team. The concept, originally aforethought(ip) to be called as The Womb to Tomb Approach, covered all the aspects of an employees career, from joining the group until his/her retirement. TPP was based on the key points of the Taj employee charter. Ke y Points of the Taj Charter close to of the key points of the Taj Charter are confiden below* Every employee of the Taj Group would be an important member in the Taj family.* The Taj family would always strive to attract, refrain and reward the shell talent in the industry.* The Taj family would commit itself to formal conversation channels, which would foster transparency.It was developed in line with the Tata Business Excellence amaze (TBEM). Explaining the rationale for implementing the philosophy, Martyris said, It is to achieve that international benchmarking in hospitality, and HR must fit into it. According to him, the trio major areas of TPP included work systems and processes, learning and exploitation and employee welfare.As part of the TPP, the Taj Group introduced a strong performance management system, called the Balanced Scorecard System (BSS) that linked individual performance with the groups overall strategy. BSS was based on a model developed by Kalpan and No rtan, and focused on enhancing both individual as well as enterprise performance. BSS measured the performance of employees across all gradable directs against a set of predefined targets and identified their variances. Martyris explained, We are looking at a matrix form of organisation which cuts across hierarchy. It is important to understand the say-so of people. Therefore, BSS was implemented even at the lowest levels of hierarchy.The BSS included an Employee felicity Tracking System (ESTS), which solved employees problems on a quarterly basis. As a part of ESTS, Taj carried out an organisation-wide employee satisfaction survey in middle 2000 of about 9000 employees. According to this survey, the reported satisfaction level was about 75%. The group aimed to increase this level to 90-95% and eventually to 100%.The group as well took strong measures to weed out under-performers. The group adopted the 360-degree feedback system to gauge the performance of all top officials, from the managing director to departmental managers, in which they were evaluated by their immediate subordinates. The 360-degree feedback was followed by personal interviews in individuals to counsel them to overcome their deficiencies.The Taj Group also established Centres of Excellence for its 14,000 employees at five locations in India, including Jaipur, Bangalore, Ernakulam, Chennai and Hyderabad. At these centres, departmental heads in each functional area were trained. These departmental heads after trained their own staff. The training included foundation modules and accreditation programs that familiarised the employees with Taj standards. asunder from adopting stringent measures to improve performance, Taj also recognised and rewarded its best employees across all levels of the organisation. For this purpose, Taj created a unique employee identification tracking and reward program cognize as STARS. Describing the program, Martyris said, Its an HR initiative aimed at crea ting an association surrounded by our star performers and our brand, the Taj.The Star System The STAR system (STARS) was the brainchild of Martyris. The system was developed in accordance with Tajs core philosophy that beaming employees lead to happy guests. STARS, operative by dint ofout the year (from April to March), was open to all employees across the organisation, at all hierarchical levels. It aimed to identify, recognise and reward those employees who excelled in their work. STARS was actively promoted across the groups 62 chain of hotels and among its 18,000 employees globally, out of which 15,000 were from India.STARS had five different levels. Though employees did not receive any bullion awards, they gained actualisation by the levels they attained through the points they tuckd for their acts of kindness or hospitality. Level 1 was cognise as the Silver Grade. To egest this level, employees had to store up 120points in three months. To attain Level 2, known as t he Gold Grade, employees had to accumulate 130 points within three months of attaining the silver grade. To reach Level 3, called the Platinum Grade, employees had to accumulate 250 points within sic months of attaining the gold grade. To attain Level 4, employees had to accumulate 510 or more points, only below 760points, to be a part of the Chief Operating Officers club. Level 5 which was the highest level in STARS, enabled employees to be a part of the MDs club, if they put in 760 or more points.Points were granted to employees on the basis of parameters like integrity, honesty, kindness, valuate for customers, environmental awareness, teamwork, coordination, cooperation, excellence in work, new initiatives, trustworthiness, courage, conviction, among others. Suggestions by employees that benefited the organisation fetched them meaningful points. Such hypnotisms in each hotel of the Taj Group were examined by the General double-decker and training manager of the hotel the e mployee worked in. the suggestions could also be posted on the Web, which were everlastingly monitored.Employees could also earn points through appreciation by customers, compliment-a-colleague forums and various(a) suggestion schemes. Employees could also get default points if the review committee did not give feedback to the employee within two days of his/her offering a suggestion for the betterment of the organisation. In such cases, the employee concerned was awarded 20 default points. Hence, in an collateral manner, the system compelled judges of the review committee to give feedback to employees as archeozoic as possible.STARS helped employees work together as a team and deem fellow employees for their acts of kindness and excellence. It enhanced their motivation levels and led to increased customer satisfaction. In one case, a bellboy in one of the groups hotel who received an American customer wen out of his way to care for the customer. Noticing that the customer, who had arrived late at night, was suffering from cold, he offered to bring him a doctor. However, the customer refused the boys offer. The bellboy then, on his own, offered a shabu of warm water mixed with ginger and honey, a traditional Indian home remedy for cough and cold. The customer matte up surprised and also happy at the bellboys gesture. He left a note of appreciation for him, which added to his existing points.According to the number of points accumulated, employees would receive a star, which could be pinned on to their coat. When a certain number of points were collected, employees received yield hampers, cash vouchers or a vacation in a Taj Hotel of their select in India. The winners of STARS were felicitated at a function held in Taj, Mumbai. The winners photographs were displayed on a big screen at the function and they received awards given by the MD of the Taj Group. This award ceremony significantly boosted their morale.The STARS program seemed to have generated attractor of attention among the employees at the Taj Group. During the initial phase, not every hotel seemed to be effective about adopting STARS, but after the first awards ceremony was conducted, every hotel in the group reportedly became very serious about the implementation of STARS. Reportedly, customer satisfaction levels increased significantly after the implementation of STARS.Commenting on the victory of STARS, Martyris said, After the campaign was launched, a large number of employees have started working together in the true spirit of teams and this helps us value our serviceman capital. There are stars all around us but very often we look only at stars outside the system. Many employees do that extra bit and go that extra mile, out of the way to daze the customer satisfaction with employee recognition. Employee recognition is hence, directly linked to customer satisfaction. It is a recognition for the people, of the people and by the people. STARS was also used by t he group as an estimate system, in addition to its regular appraisal system.The Future The STARS was not only successful as an HR initiative, but it brought many strategic benefits to the group as well. The service standards at all hotels of the group improved significantly because the employees felt that their good work was creation acknowledged and appreciated. This resulted in repeat customers for Taj hotels. And because of STARS, the Group won the Hermes Award 2002 for best innovation in HR in the hospitality industry. Analysts felt that the fame and recognition associated with the winning of the Hermes award would place the Taj Group of hotels at the top of the inclination of the best hotels in the world. The group also received requests for setting up hotels in Paris (France), where the Hermes award function took place.The HR practices at the Taj Group attracted several Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour experts world over. In late 2001, doubting Thomas J Delong, a professor of Organisational Behaviour from Harvard Business School (HBS), visited India and interviewed various employees in the Taj Group. After his visit, the Taj Group was envisioned as an example of organisational shifting wherein key dimensions of cultural change went into the making of global managers. Analysts also felt that social responsibility and people-centric programs were the core values of the Taj Group, which were well demonstrated through the Taj People Philosophy. Martyris said, The challenges here lay in retaining the warmth and kind focus of the Ta and inculcating a system-driven approach to service.Analysts felt that the Taj Group had been highly successful because of its ability to provide better opportunities and gave greater recognition to its employees, which motivated them to work to the best of their abilities. The Employee Retention Rate (ERR) of the Taj Group was the highest in the hospitality industry because of its employee-oriented initiatives. In spite of the highest ERR, Martyris felt that the retention of talent was Tajs major challenge. He said, Our staff is routinely poached by not just industry competitors but also banks, call centres and others. In 2002, in the placement process at the hotel management institute transcend 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 western fence lizard and smooth career paths to our employees? How am I to retain staffers from moving across industries?In late 2002, the Taj Group, to demonstrate its strong belief in employees, announce plans to make further investments in training, development, and career planning and employee welfare. The group also tried to standardise its various processes and develop a common work culture. After winning the Hermes Award in 2002, the group also planned to nominate the BSS for the Hermes Award 2003.