Now that the world is getting vaccinated and spaces opening up, what does the hospitality landscape look like from an HR perspective?

With a sudden influx of jobseekers in the market, sourcing out the best candidates will become all the more challenging. We have to continue sticking to the new normal ways of working and engaging with people until the virus situation gets totally neutralised. Motivate people to return to work amidst the fear and chaos of the pandemic by consistently monitoring the well being of our people and ensuring their safety as the first priority.  

How did you keep the staff motivated during this difficult time? 

Our basic idea was to ensure survival. We felt the biggest motivation for our staff during these difficult times would be to ensure their source of income and living. We introduced the concept of WFH, (although in smaller scales) We requested them to proceed on leave without pay and where possible deputed them to new opening hotels by being genuine and empathetic on the situation but we allowed every staff member the opportunity to earn a living however low it may be. This was achieved by rotation of team members to be on duty. Our focus was to ensure that line level staff were paid the maximum and to achieve that our Executives and Managers came forward by working for much fewer days. 

What lessons do you feel you have learned from this period?

The pandemic has taught us flexibility. It has taught us resilience. These few months have made the whole world adapt to new normals, so change is imminent. However, the way we adapt to these changes by keeping our values and ethics will determine the real survivors. It has taught us the importance of genuinity and empathy with people going to great lengths to cooperate in times of adversity. 

Is hiring coming back soon?  

Job losses in hotels in India have risen to over 80%, so when we come to terms with the pandemic, it's obvious that hiring will come back but not exactly to the pre-covid levels as covid has taught us to be more conservative by introducing multi-skilling at all levels. 

Did you experiment with any new L&D ideas/tech? e.g. online or via mobiles etc?

We initiated a new online learning platform and introduced many learning programs including the need of the hour Covid awareness programs to our people. We also implemented online Service Standard training modules for hotels across the group to keep our people engaged and focused on our brand standards.