Building team with attitude and aptitude

With bigger opportunities in the market the restaurant industry is acquiring different HR policies to keep their employees motivated.

Mr. Nilesh Mitra, Senior Director, HR, South Asia, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, says “The HR recruitment landscape is changing, typical selection processes like qualification and genuine experience is no longer enough, having the right attitude is. It is important for a person to have skills training and experience but we have always been a huge believer in putting Attitude over Aptitude. You can train someone and give them the tools but you cannot give them right attitude. For me it’s about building team for the attitude. Hire the people who –want to ‘make a mark ‘are guest oriented, understands guest point of view, anticipates guest needs, reaches out to deliver those needs and is a quick learner.”

Restaurateurs believe that consistently solid basics and resonating points of differentiation comprise the winning formula for a strong value proposition in a hospitality business when it comes to the employee and employer relations.

While Mr. Venkatraman Girish, Sr. VP- HR, Corporate Affairs & Administration, Jubilant Foodworks Ltd. says “what we expect at Domino’s is the customer experience. We have both dine in and takeaway options at our restaurants. But we are known as the company which is best in delivery. So each employee who goes and delivers the order brings back the good and bad experience with him. So when we hire an employee we look at his pleasing behaviour, his sense of energy, his drive and his growth in the organisation and his career. So I think it is not just the qualification; aptitude and attitude is also very important.

Mr. Mitra further adds “At Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, we have a perfectly niched and precise HR Strategy - catch me, grow me and keep me. ‘catch me’ is in attracting the talent, ‘keep me’ is what we do from an initiative perspective internally to retain talent and ‘grow me’ is about developing talent to meet the organisational and employee’s goal. We identify talent with, the ‘right attitude’ and have in them what we think of as the ‘hospitality gene’.”

Hiring your employee with the right attitude and then keeping them for a longer time helps in the growth of your restaurant business. Talking on the attrition rates Mr. Girish says “The industry is built in such a way that you cannot offer long-term career to everybody and many people don’t come in the industry for a long-term career. So, first of all, you need to recognise what the individual is looking for. Whether he wants to stay for more than a year or looking for growth or looking to pick up the skills or want a safe and comfortable environment or want to be respected or they want to be heard.”

He further adds “We emphasise on supervising the skills, bringing in employee engagement and fun at work and keeping in touch with employees through listening programs. It’s very important to excite them, to give them a free experience for the initial six months of their work period.”

Speaking on the same Mr. Sanjay Sethi, MD & CEO, Bergrruen Hotels says “We look for young people with a right attitude. We are ready to give them training and time but the attitude is something that has to be come as a part and parcel of what we have. We believe in making our entire employee our partner because we actually share service charge with them.”