Exclusive Interview | Rishabh Tandon, Area Director Human Resources, North India Director Human Resources, Crowne Plaza Greater Noida
/“I personally look for the desire to learn and grow, and the attitude and creativity to bring our IHG Winning Culture to life.”
Editor: Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
My career journey in the ever rewarding hospitality industry started with brief 1-year academic innings in Lucknow followed by Bachelors in Hospitality & Hotel Administration from Institute of Hotel Management Mumbai. IHM Mumbai truly widened my approach and attitude to prepare a solid foundation for a career in the industry. After spending the initial 3 years in Retail and Academic sector, I worked for Oakwood Premier Mumbai as Assistant Training Manager.
My career journey with IHG started in 2013 as Training & Quality Manager. With successful assignments in 4 different IHG hotels: Holiday Inn Mumbai, Holiday Inn Jaipur, Crowne Plaza New Delhi Okhla, I am now based at Crowne Plaza Greater Noida as Area Director HR for IHG North India hotels.
Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
In my opinion, the never-ending desire to learn and commitment to excel in the selected profession, assist you to grow in any industry. I have experienced both geographical and functional mobility, that has truly assisted me in fast-tracking career growth.
Editor: What are the attributes you look for while selecting or hiring? If someone wants to work with you, what should they do?
I personally look for the desire to learn and grow, and the attitude and creativity to bring our IHG Winning Culture to life. While hiring is the 1st step, we continue our focus in developing the professional with Personal Development Plan and Goals Setting as a part of our performance management cycle. If the career seeking student/professional wishes to work along, follow us at www.facebook.com/IHGIndia and I am also active on LinkedIn. When the right opportunity arrives, I will be more than happy to provide a career start in #LifeAtIHG.
Editor: What according to you can trainees do while they are training at hotels to make it a win-win for them & the hotel/unit?
Trainees must also engage in shift briefings, classroom learning sessions, On job training along with regular tasks and responsibilities of an Intern. Hotels have the equal responsibility of treating the Intern with respect and spirit to make a difference. Platforms like Monthly trainees Meet and Trainee of the month/batch provides great encouragement. It is important to enter hotels with the mindset that tomorrow I need to manage wider responsibilities by learning and growing.
Editor: What are some of the trends you see impacting the hospitality industry?
In current times, the 2 trends in fashion - Enhanced level of safety and culture of digital engagement. In IHG, we have a dedicated program for all our colleagues titled IHG Culture of Clean. It is mandatory for all of us to undergo the required learning. IHG is equally active in digital learning platform termed My Learning. Colleagues have truly enhanced their learning acumen from the lockdown phase and our L&D/HR teams have been super active in fulfilling their commitment through multiple digital engagement sessions with teams.
Editor: Two things you would like to change in the industry.
Two things I would like to change -
Enhanced focus on work-life integration. While lockdown has truly launched the remote working culture for various roles in Finance/HR/Marketing/ Revenue and Reservations etc., it has also taught us the required focus on our Mental Wellness. Imagine if we understood the "Me Time" and "To-do list" concepts at the early phase of our careers, Sky is the limit to grow and conquer for Talent.
Diversity - At IHG South West Asia, we have a culture of hiring colleagues with special abilities. This truly enhances the diversity in our workforce. Inspired by the Middle East/Western world, we also wish to see regular cross exposure of Talent from other countries to our hotels in India. With such cross exposure programmes, we truly bring diversity to our hotels in the region
Editor: What can we expect in the coming year?
From an HR perspective, I foresee multi-skilling and multitasking going a long way in hotels. With enhanced focus on manpower efficiency, organisations will be aiming at controlled payrolls and contactless services from check-in, dining experiences and entire guests journey. However I strongly believe that Talent is unstoppable, and we may see faster growth of performance-based individuals in the coming year.
