|
News
HR professionals share ideas and best practices at PATA event in Colombo
EH Staff - Mumbai
The labour pool will soon shrink in many Asia Pacific destinations, even while
more than two-thirds of the world's new jobs will be created in the region.
This was concluded at PATA's Annual Meeting session "Human Capital Challenge
- It's Time to Invest", attended by more than 150 PATA members, local industry
stakeholders and media recently.
"In populous developing countries the issue is training, while in developed
countries the issue is lack of supply," said outgoing PATA chairman 2007/2008
Brian Deeson of Accor. "To match the two the answer lies in investing in
human resource development (HRD) and new policies that enable labour mobility."
Delegates learned that working-age populations will begin to contract in Korea
(ROK) in 2015; China (PRC) in 2016; Singapore in 2017; and Thailand in 2025.
In Japan, the number of workers in the population started to decline in 1994.
In the travel and tourism industry, inexperienced staff members are being fast-tracked
into positions of responsibility quicker than ever before. Salaries are rising
as competition for talent heats up and employees show a willingness to job-hop.
Yet money is not the biggest issue when it comes to retaining the services of
"Generation Y"; those born later than 1978 and the newest members
of the working age population. Some 44 per cent of Gen Y respondents to a TMS
Asia-Pacific survey put money last on a list of reasons to stay at a company;
or move on.
More important was "career development" (44 per cent of respondents
ranked this as the most important reason to stay or go); "recognition"
(33 per cent); "work conditions/boss" (21 per cent); and other reasons
(2 per cent).
"To replace a member of staff costs at least the annual salary of the position,"
said TMS Asia-Pacific's Andrew Chan, "so it is important to understand
what motivates your staff. For Gen Y, for example, "fun and work are not
mutually exclusive."
In the context of a poor rural area in Sri Lanka, Jetwing Group's Youth Development
Project is an inspiring example of how to ensure a dedicated, loyal and professional
work force by investing in local youth.
Kumar Senaratne of Jetwing said poaching qualified staff for the new Vil Uyana
property in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka wouldn't have been difficult due to the company's
reputation.
However, in order to optimise benefits for the local people and offer a more
authentic experience to guests, Jetwing decided to recruit and train 50 per
cent of required staff from local villages. To ensure corporate cultural continuity
and an appropriate mix of experience, the balance of staff would come from other
Jetwing properties.
The project silenced its doubters and exceeded expectations. Those working on
the Project quickly realised that "village kids could do it … hospitality
was in their genes". Some of Jetwing Group's best feedback on customer
service now comes from Vil Uyana. Furthermore, at less than US$ 5000 per graduate
investment, the project more than pays for itself in terms of reduced staff
turnover and retraining costs.
Kenneth Low, director of strategy at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and
the 2008 PATA Face of the Future, said his company would need to fill 200,000
new hotel jobs over next three years. IHG's approach is give and take: "What
do we want our people to do? What do we do for our people?"
To position IHG as an employer of choice, the company's multilingual careers
website makes promises to prospective employees: "Room to be yourself";
"Room to get involved"; "Room to grow". IHG's openness to
individual identities and passions, its partnership-based HRD strategy, as well
as its own chain of IHG Academies, have helped the company perform strongly
on employee satisfaction surveys.
Jetwing Group's Senaratne said, "Think differently and out of the box and
I think we can make dreams come true."
|
