Exclusive Interview | Rahul Jairath, Express Assistant Manager, Holiday Inn Express Kolkata Airport

“I believe in achieving results through people, by keeping them highly motivated which helps them reach their best potential. ”

What do you think it takes to be a good hotelier?

The most important thing is “Passion” for excellence. One has to be passionate about what you do and having a clear vision of taking the hotel to the next level. Someone who understands the business well has a keen focus on achieving revenues, maximum guest satisfaction, managing people, being innovative and adapting to change is the key to success.

How do you recruit for the hotel?

Firstly I look for internal candidates who are ready to fit in the role. Secondly, I look for external candidates who have the potential to bring in new ideas and add value to the team. The candidates are just not selected on the basis of knowing their job but also evaluated on how well they fit in the work culture and location.

What do you look for while recruiting for the Hotel?

People with the right attitude who have an eagerness to learn and look in for a career and an opportunity to uplift themselves. Even if one lacks technical experience, they still can be coached under great leadership. A candidate who has a basic understanding of job role has an energetic personality and understands True Hospitality is all that it requires to begin a career in the hotel industry.

I believe in achieving results through people, by keeping them highly motivated which helps them reach their best potential. 

For hiring at a mid-level, I look forward to people who understand goals and work towards achieving targets, has the ability to communicate efficiently and work in teams, prompt in handling situations, high calibre personnel who can look at managing a bigger role in near future. Our prime focus is guest engagement and satisfaction which is driven through them and thus one has to be smart at his work to be able to manage the daily business, guest requests, assigning tasks to the team and have strong control over operations.

However, hiring a senior-level role demands people who are passionate about their job with their great leadership skills, mentoring skills, people-friendly attitude, performance-focused and result oriented. They are the ones who set the right example for their team members. I look up to this position as “Role Model” than Department Heads.

What leadership programs/training programs do you run?

We run an Internship Programme for students who are undergoing hotel management where they are given exposure in all the departments and help them understand their area of interest. For graduates and IHG colleagues, we have on-the-job training such as IHOST, IGRAD and Future Leaders Programme which are one of the most exciting and competitive programmes for those wanting to fast-track their career. IHG room to grow is part of our promise and for that is all about creating opportunities to support future leaders in the hotel business.

As a part of employee’s onboarding, all associates are made to undergo training on our e-learning platform called “Merlin”.I have personally spent the time to go through various training to gain knowledge and further cascade to my team. Apart from online training, our team members are prepared to perform their daily tasks. We build confidence in all our team members by conducting On-the-job training in the form of classroom sessions, One-on-one training and role play.

What are some initiatives that are geared towards making your team's work-life easier?

We drive team engagement which has an incredible impact on unit work culture. A few team building activities such as Winning Wednesdays, Fun Fridays, Employee Recognition by a thank you note, IHG Rewards Club Points are some of our initiatives which makes it a happy workplace.

We provide smart and simple uniforms, comfortable canvas shoes for better work efficiency. At our hotel, we have created a play area for team members with a few games to engage them in some entertaining activities during the breaks. So far, we have been able to organise fun activities, outdoor games once every week and I wish to see this happening even in future.

We believe in Balance for Better, creating the right working environment, positive work-life balance and well-being of team members. We have a very flexible five working days in a week, nine working hours a day. This allows our people to spend more time with their families and friends, travel and accomplishes their hobbies.

When people enjoy working in teams and embodying WINNING WAYS at IHG, nothing else can be better than seeing the entire team as ONE.