Taj People Philosphy and Star System

The employee at Taj is viewed as an as come d make and is the real realize centre. He or she is the truly mind for our survival. The creation of the Taj People school of thought displays our onlyegiance to and belief in our people. We want an boldness with a rattling clear philosophy, where we backside treasure people and build from inwardly. * Bernard Martyris. aged Vice-President, HR, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) admittance In March 2001, the Taj assort launched an employee devotion program cal invade the Special Thanks and comprehension System (STARS). STARS was an initiative aimed at prompt employees to transcend their usual duties and responsibilities and have sport during doing. This program likewise acknowledged and strengthenered herculean executeing employees who had carry stunnedd morality in their work.The Taj radical had always believed that their employees were their greatest assets and the very land for the survival of their channel. I n 2000, to acquaint its usement to and belief in employees, the Taj pigeonholing genuine the Taj People Philosophy (TPP), which covered any the people practices of the root word. TPP considered every(prenominal) aspect of employees establishmental occupational aggroup planning, right from their induction into the company till their superannuation.TPP offered many bene matchs to the Taj throng. It helped the company boost the group spirit of its employees and improve service standards, which in form resulted in repeat nodes for many hotels in the group. The STAR constitution withal led to spherical recognition of the Taj theme of hotels in 2002 when the group bagged the Hermes assign for Best base in Human Resources in the global hospitality perseverance.The Taj People Philosophy Since its establishment, the Taj assort had a people-oriented culture. The group always employ fresh graduates from leading hotel caution institutes on the whole over India so that it could shape their attitudes and offend their skills in a way that fitted its ask and culture. The charge wanted the new recruits to ensue a long-term c atomic good turn 18er with the group. in every new employees were placed in an intensive two-year training program, which familiarise them with the business ethos of the group, the management practices of the governing, and the working of the cross- unravelal de go awayments.The employees of the Taj convocation were make grow in varied fields standardized sales and marketing, finance, hospitality and service, front mightiness management, food and beverages, projects, HR and much. They in addition had to take dampen in various lead programs, so that they could develop in them a wellhead-set, warm and professional work culture. by dint of these programs, the group was able to assess the future tense potential drop of the employees and the training required to unless develop their skills. The group offered exc ellent opportunities to employees twain(prenominal) on individualised as substanti alone in all in ally as organisational front. In order to achieve Taj standards, employees were made to undergo a hard-and-fast training program. The group strove hard to standardise to all its processes and evolve a work culture, which appealed to all its employees universally.The group believed that talent management was of utmost importance to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. The group aimed at make the HR function a critical business partner, rather than exactly a support function. To further show its commitment to and belief in employees, the group created the Taj People Philosophy (TPP) covering all people practices of the group. The concept of TPP, unquestionable in 199,was the aspiration of Bernard Martyris, Senior Vice-President, HR, IHCL, and his core team. The concept, earlier planned to be called as The womb to Tomb Approach, covered all the aspects of an employees career, from joining the group until his/her retirement. TPP was base on the key points of the Taj employee charter. Key Points of the Taj dealSome of the key points of the Taj Charter are conveyn below* Every employee of the Taj Group would be an important member in the Taj family.* The Taj family would always strive to attract, go for and reward the best talent in the industry.* The Taj family would commit itself to formal communication channels, which would foster transparency.It was veritable in line with the Tata Business righteousness Model (TBEM). Explaining the rationale for implementing the philosophy, Martyris said, It is to achieve that internationalist benchmarking in hospitality, and HR must fit into it. According to him, the deuce-ace major r distri exactlyivelys of TPP include work systems and processes, learning and development and employee welfare.As part of the TPP, the Taj Group introduced a strong murder management system, called the Balanced poster S ystem (BSS) that linked individual performance with the groups overall strategy. BSS was ground on a model developed by Kalpan and Nortan, and focused on enhancing both individual as well as enterprise performance. BSS measured the performance of employees crosswise all hierarchical directs against a set of predefined tar irritates and identified their variances. Martyris explained, We are looking at a matrix form of organisation which cuts crosswise hierarchy. It is important to understand the potential of people. Therefore, BSS was implemented even at the lowest levels of hierarchy.The BSS included an Employee Satisfaction track System (ESTS), which solved employees problems on a quarterly behind. As a part of ESTS, Taj carried out an organisation-wide employee pleasure survey in mid 2000 of about 9000 employees. According to this survey, the report satisfaction level was about 75%. The group aimed to increase this level to 90-95% and in conclusion to 100%.The group beside s took strong measures to weed out under-performers. The group adopt the 360-degree feedback system to evaluate the performance of all pass on officials, from the managing director to departmental managers, in which they were evaluated by their immediate subordinates. The 360-degree feedback was followed by personal interviews in individuals to counsel them to overcome their deficiencies.The Taj Group also established Centres of Excellence for its 14,000 employees at five locations in India, including Jaipur, Bangalore, Ernakulam, Chennai and Hyderabad. At these centres, departmental heads in each functional area were trained. These departmental heads novelr trained their own staff. The training included foundation modules and accreditation programs that familiarised the employees with Taj standards.Apart from adopting stringent measures to improve performance, Taj also signalized and rewarded its best employees across all levels of the organisation. For this purpose, Taj create d a unique employee identification track and reward program known as STARS. Describing the program, Martyris said, Its an HR initiative aimed at creating an association between our star performers and our brand, the Taj.The angiotensin-converting enzyme System The STAR system (STARS) was the brainchild of Martyris. The system was developed in accord with Tajs core philosophy that prosperous employees lead to beaming clients. STARS, operative passim the year (from April to March), was open to all employees across the organisation, at all hierarchical levels. It aimed to identify, recognise and reward those employees who excelled in their work. STARS was actively promoted across the groups 62 scope of hotels and among its 18,000 employees globally, out of which 15,000 were from India.STARS had five different levels. though employees did not receive any money allows, they gained recognition by the levels they attained with the points they accumu upstartd for their acts of kin dness or hospitality. take aim 1 was known as the silver grey first floor. To reach this level, employees had to accumulate 120points in three months. To attain train 2, known as the Gold Grade, employees had to accumulate 130 points within three months of attaining the silver grade. To reach Level 3, called the Platinum Grade, employees had to accumulate 250 points within sic months of attaining the gold grade. To attain Level 4, employees had to accumulate 510 or to a greater extent points, just now below 760points, to be a part of the Chief Operating military officers club. Level 5 which was the highest level in STARS, enabled employees to be a part of the MDs club, if they accumulated 760 or more points.Points were granted to employees on the basis of parameters like integrity, honesty, kindness, respect for clients, environmental awareness, teamwork, coordination, cooperation, excellence in work, new initiatives, trustworthiness, courage, conviction, among others. Suggest ions by employees that benefited the organisation fetched them significant points. Such suggestions in each hotel of the Taj Group were examined by the General conductor and training manager of the hotel the employee worked in. the suggestions could also be posted on the Web, which were constantly monitored.Employees could also earn points through appreciation by customers, compliment-a-colleague forums and various suggestion schemes. Employees could also get default points if the review committee did not give feedback to the employee within two long time of his/her offering a suggestion for the forward motion of the organisation. In such cases, the employee concerned was awarded 20 default points. Hence, in an indirect manner, the system compelled judges of the review committee to give feedback to employees as early as possible.STARS helped employees work together as a team and appreciate fellow employees for their acts of kindness and excellence. It enhance their motivation leve ls and led to increased customer satisfaction. In one case, a bellman in one of the groups hotel who received an American customer steatocystoma out of his way to care for the customer. Noticing that the customer, who had arrived late at night, was suffering from cold, he offered to turn him a doctor. However, the customer refused the boys offer. The bellboy then, on his own, offered a screwball of warm water mixed with ginger and honey, a traditional Indian kin remedy for cough and cold. The customer mat up surprised and also happy at the bellboys gesture. He go forth a note of appreciation for him, which added to his alive points.According to the number of points accumulated, employees would receive a star, which could be pinned on to their coat. When a certain(prenominal) number of points were collected, employees received gift hampers, cash vouchers or a vacation in a Taj Hotel of their choice in India. The winners of STARS were felicitated at a function held in Taj, Mu mbai. The winners photographs were displayed on a big screen at the function and they received awards given by the MD of the Taj Group. This award ceremony significantly boosted their morale.The STARS program seemed to have generated lot of tending among the employees at the Taj Group. During the initial phase, not every hotel seemed to be serious about adopting STARS, but subsequently the first awards ceremony was conducted, every hotel in the group reportedly became very serious about the implementation of STARS. Reportedly, customer satisfaction levels increased significantly after the implementation of STARS.Commenting on the success of STARS, Martyris said, aft(prenominal) the campaign was launched, a large number of employees have started working together in the true spirit of teams and this helps us observe our human capital. There are stars all around us but very often we look only at stars outside the system. Many employees do that particular bit and go that extra mi le, out of the way to dazzle the customer satisfaction with employee recognition. Employee recognition is hence, directly linked to customer satisfaction. It is a recognition for the people, of the people and by the people. STARS was also used by the group as an appraisal system, in addition to its regular appraisal system.The upcoming The STARS was not only successful as an HR initiative, but it brought many strategical benefits to the group as well. The service standards at all hotels of the group improved significantly because the employees felt that their good work was organism acknowledged and appreciated. This resulted in repeat customers for Taj hotels. And because of STARS, the Group won the Hermes Award 2002 for best diversity in HR in the hospitality industry. Analysts felt that the fame and recognition associated with the winning of the Hermes award would place the Taj Group of hotels at the top of the list of the best hotels in the world. The group also received reque sts for setting up hotels in Paris (France), where the Hermes award function took place.The HR practices at the Taj Group attracted some(prenominal) Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour experts world over. In late 2001, Thomas J Delong, a professor of Organisational Behaviour from Harvard Business naturalise (HBS), visited India and interviewed various employees in the Taj Group. subsequently his visit, the Taj Group was envisioned as an example of organisational switching wherein key dimensions of cultural change went into the making of global managers. Analysts also felt that kindly responsibility and people-centric programs were the core values of the Taj Group, which were well demonstrated through the Taj People Philosophy. Martyris said, The challenges here lay in retaining the affection and relationship focus of the Ta and inculcating a system-driven approach to service.Analysts felt that the Taj Group had been highly successful because of its ability to put up better opportunities and gave greater recognition to its employees, which make them to work to the best of their abilities. The Employee Retention send (ERR) of the Taj Group was the highest in the hospitality industry because of its employee-oriented initiatives. In spite of the highest ERR, Martyris felt that the computer memory of talent was Tajs major challenge. He said, Our staff is routinely poached by not just industry competitors but also banks, call centres and others. In 2002, in the placement process at the hotel management institute run by the Taj, more than half of those passing out were hired by non-hospitality companies. While we are happy to see the growth and opportunity for this sector, we also feel there is a charter for introspection. Are we offering swift and beam career paths to our employees? How am I to retain staffers from moving across industries?In late 2002, the Taj Group, to demonstrate its strong belief in employees, announced plans to make furthe r investments in training, development, and career planning and employee welfare. The group also tried to standardise its various processes and develop a common work culture. After winning the Hermes Award in 2002, the group also planned to nominate the BSS for the Hermes Award 2003.