[photopress:hoterls_tracy_robbins.jpg,full,alignright]Hotel InterContinental group has launched an apprenticeship program to fast-track frontline staff into supervisor and manager roles.
About 100 workers will undertake an NVQ (National Vocation Qualification) in hotel management, with a guaranteed promotion on successful completion.
This has two great benefits.
First it buys loyalty to the company from bright staff ready for promotion.
Second it helps relieve the desperate shortage of qualified frontline staff.
Tracy Robbins, executive vice-president of global HR and shown in our illustration, said she was asking general managers to star-spot — a new phrase which may have it uses — among frontline staff.
She said, ‘Common sense and the right attitude are often all it takes to get noticed. Our focus is not just on bringing in new people, but on engaging and motivating existing staff.’ Indeed, it is a twofer.
She added that staff shortages in the hotel industry are particularly acute in provincial areas because there is a higher concentration of experienced workers and foreign nationals in large cities.
Intercontinental plans to more than double its Chinese workforce as 107 new hotels open in the country over the next three to five years.
Source: Personnel Today