People First

From Careers@Hilton to Team Member Appreciation Week, Brendan Toomey, VP-HR for Asia Pacific, Hilton outlines the pro-people policies the hotel chain practices to ensure employee satisfaction

- Vinita Bhatia

Two generations ago, most people held just one job throughout their entire career. A generation later, people would change jobs every decade or so, after gaining what they thought was sufficient experience.

However, in contemporary times, millennials switch jobs frequently. In a people-intensive industry, like hospitality, this changing nature of work aspirations is forcing hotels to rethink their human resource strategies as well – whether it has to do with hiring, training, retraining or retaining.

Realising this, Hilton created various programmes for the young generation, including one that helps youngsters to elevate and engage and excel, across all levels of the company. Brendan Toomey, VP, HR for Asia Pacific, Hilton outlines the evolving workplace trends in the company to better accommodate millennials, who currently comprise 81% of the Indian team.

What is Hilton’s workforce globally and in APAC?

Globally, we have around 3,65,000 people and in Asia Pacific we have about 34,000.

What about India?

That would be about 2,500.

Isn’t that very low?

Yes, but then we have only 15 operational hotels in India currently, with 18 in the pipeline. We operate in the 11 different cities across India and but a major areas to focus out the key gateways Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.

Globally, we have 14 brands, but five of those exist across Asia Pacific, not just in India. Our two focus brands are Double Tree and Hilton and we introduced our first luxury brand into India, the Conrad in Pune last year.

Is there any reason to focus on only five brands in one of the fastest growing regions in the world? Why haven’t brands like Tru by Hilton been introduced here?