Leading Stories

PEOPLE PERSPECTIVE

Sean Wheeler, Group Director of People Development at award-winning Malmaison and Hotel du Vin – named ‘The Best of the Best Places to Work’ -- says that the best way to drive a business is still through its people.

The most important decision we make in this business is whom we employ. People, in the eyes of the guest, are the brand, the company. The reason they will return or not. A company is only as good as its last guest.

I don’t profess to have all the answers. I can only tell you what we’ve focused on over the last four years since the merger of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin to ensure our company has the right people in the right place at the right time. Most of it has worked but not all of it. And the process never ends, particularly for a company that’s nearly tripled in size since I joined.

One of the first keys things we did before we did anything and ran off in every direction was to plan. Our strategy, which had to be clear, needed to support, complement and enhance the direction the business wanted to take, and we also had to find creative and practical solutions to address the people issues.

Business issues

Four years ago these were the six key issues our business had to focus on:

• Ensure the values and cultures of both Malmaison and Hotel du Vin were not diluted whilst bringing the two workforces together under the same operational leadership
• Significant growth from 11 hotels to 27 hotels in less than 4 years creating over 1500 new jobs
• Finding ways to develop the people within the business so that they grow at the same pace as the business has grown while preserving the separate brand identities
• Introduce a number of innovative programmes and initiatives to develop and retain individuals and teams
• Create a continuous learning culture while meeting the needs of the guest, the group, the local hotel and the different learning styles that the people in the business have
• Protect the 'DNA' of both groups (the people) to secure the groups' success

These became and still are our primary focus and everything we did as a team and business links into these priorities.

Measures of success

We then decided how we wanted to measure our success. For HR, this is always difficult. We came up with key areas that we called our ‘People P&L’ which we targeted every year. We then measured the progress – or not -- made each month within every department of the hotel. For example, with five new hotel openings in 2007, among our measures for success were to secure 80% of all appointments from within, no vacancies open for more than eight weeks, and be recognised as the Best Place to Work in hospitality. We achieved ninety-percent of all our measures and have retargeted the goals for 2008!

People strategies

Our four year plan established the basics and priorities, and a framework to work within. These included strategies and tactical actions that focused on attracting the best people, employing the best, giving them the best start, making them the best and finally, retaining the best.

I can’t stress how much success depends on Operations and People Development working together toward a common goal. Before we even started we went out and spoke to every department manager about our vision and plan, what was in it for them if they supported us and made it happen.

Attracting the best

Money was and is limited so we looked at low-cost ways to raise our awareness through PR. We capitalised on our strong brand identities through local and national press editorials, through our careers website and some printed material. We shouted about our growth and development opportunities, and created a career ladder showing what people could really access if they joined us.

We shouted about our ‘growth from within strategy’, publicising examples of our successful people. We incentivised our own people to recruit a friend -- who we knew would be like-minded and would give us a guaranteed return on the investment. We developed strong relationships with local colleges and schools as well as targeted four UK and international universities with whom we wanted to build much stronger strategic and long term relationships. And we developed some key programmes to attract talent to join us

Employing the Best

We helped anyone who recruited people to be clear on what we wanted. Interviews could then dig deep, focussing not only on the role applied for today, but on the candidate’s potential for tomorrow. To help, we introduced a service and sales questionnaire for the team level roles measuring and benchmarking candidates against our top performers. It gauges if people like looking after people and posess the flair for service and driving sales. What we do weed out are people who haven’t ever learned the practical side of the business, who’ve never even worked in the business. This is a tough business, and you need to show your commitment. For management roles, we introduced a leadership questionnaire.

We do have an eighteen-month graduate intake programme, and owing to the recognition we’ve had as an employer, their expectations are high. But we tell them we’re only as good as whom we employ, and it’s up to them too to make things work.

Finally, we introduced and still use today a ‘blessing process’ whereby before we make any offer to a prospective employee, the hotel GM, CEO or MD meets the candidate to see if he or she has what it takes to work for us. This shows the importance of the decision being made, ensures that senior people know who are joining the team. and protects the ‘DNA’ of the business by helping us to recruit only like-minded people.

Best Start

If you have spent time finding great people, you have to work hard to keep them! We’ve focused heavily on the first 30 days, from their induction on day one and a clear induction plan with all the basics, to making sure their uniforms are there when they start, that they get a buddy to look after them. We have coffee chats at the end of the first and third weeks and after the third month to ensure people are happy and get what they need to succeed.

Making the Best

Once people are confident and competent at the basics, you have to offer them continuous development. We introduced a suite of fun training shorts by department that covered culture, sales, product knowledge and so forth, all of which could be used as little or as often by the line manager. Practical hands-on food, wine and bar schools were set up for each hotel for all employees to gain knowledge in the products we sell.

Management Development programmes were introduced to look at soft skills and technical skills. Training needs were agreed through the on-line appraisal introduced for all employees providing personal development plans for each person. An on-line academy enabled people to learn and access resources 24/7. We also introduced some key programmes such as the chef apprenticeship programme, the graduate programme, the Sous chef programme, to name a few, to give people management skills as well as cooking skills. We even did a ‘GM Cook Off’ to help them improve their food knowledge with all GMs having to design, prepare and cook a menu and serve it to the senior team!

Retaining the best

To keep people engaged, we’ve focused heavily on the ‘People work for People’ approach and given all managers the awareness and skills to lead and motivate their people, helping them understand what buttons to push to get the best out of them and how to coach them to succeed.

We run annual competitions such as the ‘Ultimate Cook Off ‘ for our commis chefs, where they have to design, cost and prepare a menu suitable for the business; the ‘Housekeepers Olympics’ to educate and motivate each group to be the best, and a cocktail competition. These have been heavily supported by our suppliers who offer great prizes and support for activity. We’ve also worked with other groups in our sector for prizes. Claridges kindly gave the winners of our ‘Housekeeper Olympics’ two days in their Housekeeping department, which was great and no cost to us.

Succession is a daily item on the agenda. We’re always looking at how we can develop people. We also sit down formally three times a year and look at the business needs we have.

Recognition is likewise key to retaining people. There are lots of low-cost, no- cost ways to motivate people that can be managed locally. Our annual awards called the ‘Corkers’ recognise the best of the best in every department of our hotels. Again, it’s supported by our suppliers.

Over the years we’ve improved our benefit package, from zero to a nice portfolio including contributory pension, feet treatment, private medical insurance, shopping discounts, childcare vouchers and staff rates, to name but a few.
All in all, we’ve worked hard to support the business issues we’ve faced in a practical way, while retaining the family feel of the organisation.

Results speak for themselves

Along the way, we’ve have been lucky to win some great awards, including Springboard’s Best Career Progression Award, the Hotel & Catering Personnel & Training Association’s Excellence in Training & Development and Excellence in Human Resources awards, the Best of the Best Places to Work in Hospitality from Caterer & Hotelkeeper and even the One to Watch in the 2008 Sunday Times list of Best Companies!

Going forward the focus remains the same. Our challenge has been to keep things alive, and we work on that every day. The job is never ending. Some things work and some things don’t. But the key is to focus every day and be clear of your goals. Look after your people and they will look after you.