Anna-Maria Dreesen-El Achcar, VP, HR, IMEA and Global Luxury Talent at IHG talks to HN about the company’s talent acquisition and retention strategies in growing the IHG family.

What are the main key strategies employed to secure the alarmingly global shortage of hotel employees and how do these differ in relation to the three regions commanded?

As one of the leading hotel companies in the world, our brands represent our promises to our guests, and it is our people who bring our brands to life. Therefore, we have designed and implemented a number of initiatives to ensure we create the right environment and opportunities for our colleagues to have a successful career with IHG. The three key strategies employed are:

• Creating a great work environment: Across all our hotels, we are committed to creating a favorable and conducive working environment where people can thrive and we encourage a culture where everyone feels valued and accepted.
• Focus on learning and development: We have a number of internal learning and development programs which help employees grow professionally and as a global hospitality company, we are able to offer exciting, long-term opportunities to colleagues and aspirants who want to develop a career in the hospitality sector.
• Emphasis on employee wellbeing: We recognize the importance of employee wellbeing and are constantly evolving to help meet our employees’ needs. We are also changing the misconception that having a family and a career in hospitality is difficult to combine and are providing an environment that will help staff achieve a work-life balance.

We are also taking a forward-looking approach when it comes to creating a talent pool for the future. Our approach is to invest in the training and recruitment of young talent. The question we are often asked is how can we make a sector as demanding as hospitality, an attractive career option.

At IHG, we believe that at the outset, the sector needs to be positioned suitably amongst youth, especially within the national population. Our role as industry leaders is to encourage and develop the youth workforce while giving them access to the careers and success they aspire for. We continue to do this by highlighting the prospects of the various career functions within our industry to the youth from an early age and by integrating them into our teams to learn and explore their interests.

Furthermore, we have invested in dedicated programs such as IHG Academy to help create a hospitality-specific talent pipeline within the communities that we operate in. This program has a two-fold benefit as it also gives us the opportunity to support communities, by creating sustainable employment opportunities for the local workforce.

What are, in all three regions, the most sought-after positions and what characteristics should current and potential candidates possess to ensure a future with IHG?

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing interest in specialized roles such as revenue management, digital media and channel management. We are also continuously focusing on operational leadership roles such as General Managers and Hotel Managers, as these are crucial to the success of each hotel. General Managers are responsible for leading our brands, manage a multi-million-dollar business unit on behalf of owners and engaging hundreds of employees each day to deliver the best of stay experiences to our guests. Therefore, finding, developing and retaining General Managers is a key focus in our people plans. Overall, we are looking for talent with the ability to adapt to change, resilience to work in a competitive environment, the desire to continually learn and a positive mind-set to grab the opportunities that the hospitality industry has to offer.

Part of the reason attributed to employee shortages pertains to the uncertainty of future growth opportunities for staff. What assurances does IHG offer employees?

One of our guiding principles at IHG is talent development through learning and development opportunities and the provision of suitable, long-term career growth opportunities.  We want to ensure that the aspirations and goals of our colleagues are fully supported and help them expand their skills. Ongoing succession planning for all key operational and functional hotel-based roles is important to us and we do this by identifying high potential strategic talent and fast-tracking their development. We have a number of industry-leading programs such as the Early Careers program, which is an accelerated talent development plan to grow operational talent into managerial roles. IHG’s Future Leader program prepares hospitality professionals for the next step management position in just 12 – 18 months. The candidates are given access to world-class training, supported by outstanding coaches and leaders. We also offer a supervisory fast track development program called the True Leaders Program. This year, we were extremely proud that IHG was named ‘Best Employer’ in 7 of 14 countries across IMEA. We were also named amongst the top three best places to work in Saudi Arabia in 2018, by Great Places to Work, which is a testament to the emphasis we place on our people.

As for the growing sector of the hotel industry’s luxury division, what are some of the most promising insights IHG is working on?

The luxury sector continues to represent vast opportunities for IHG and we are focused on expanding our footprint in this fast-growing and valuable segment. Our recent acquisitions of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas and a major stake in Regent Hotel and Resorts is testimony of our investment in this segment. We are purposefully developing talent to cater to our growing ‘luxury’ portfolio by creating a segmented talent pipeline through identification, assessment and development of high potential employees. An increased focus on luxury provides benefits for all stakeholders as it allows our owners and partners to diversify their portfolio with IHG, provides opportunities for colleagues’ aspirational career growth and offers guests a wider choice of properties to stay at.

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