The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group, employs around 1,700 staff in Hong Kong and has a global workforce of over 10,000. Jacqueline Moyse, Head of Organisational Development shares what the Group does to enhance the effectiveness of its L&D programmes.
Learning and development
Mandarin Oriental views training as a subset of development. Its training regime incorporates skills from the internet, mentors and coaches and cross exposure within and outside of the hotel industry. A blended learning approach makes use of reference guides and videos to enhance the training experience.
Top down approach
A key component driving the hotel group’s success in T&D is that those at the very top of the organisation enthusiastically support T&D and take a hands-on approach to ensure that training is conducted at a high level. It is not a blinkered approach to T&D and is not seen as just a learning activity but also as a business activity. Although the group is global, with over 30 hotels and offices, T&D is rolled out consistently across all jurisdictions.
Key competencies
As part of its focus on performance management and succession planning, key competencies for each team member are established through the use of competency cards, colleagues match the cards to headings to determine which competencies are most important to their jobs. The online component of the training is then introduced during the latter part of the programme once soft skills have been focused on.
Effective training
Mandarin Oriental takes an innovative approach to training. When training programmes are rolled out, there’s invariably a big launch and regular updates via newsletters. The same communication principles that the group has so successfully applied to customers are also applied to colleagues. Training is often reinforced using online systems, reference guides, videos and coaching which are embedded as part of overall training programmes. While the strength of Mandarin Oriental’s training programmes is consistency, there is a certain degree of customisation required depending on the size of training groups, anything between 12–45, and the level of individuals being trained. Another variable in the training process are the cultural differences that exist between different groups. For example, a group being trained in New York will expect a very high level of energy—with a high level of participation and questions addressed to the trainer. A group being trained in Hong Kong will likely be more engaged by theoretical aspects of the training and a greater focus on depth of knowledge. A slightly different approach is taken in each instance to get the best outcome from the training process with different groups of colleagues.
Talent—key focus
Mandarin Oriental recognises that, to be considered as the best luxury hotel group, it needs to have the best talent. The organisation has a clear strategy to address this, focusing on four key areas: talent acquisition, talent development, talent retention and talent deployment.
Talent acquisition is very much about identifying core competencies in suitable individuals and finding the best fit for these individuals within the organisation. Talent development focuses on training and development, feedback and coaching. Talent retention goes back to the core of why people love working for Mandarin Oriental, a caring, energetic, passionate organisation that applies these principles to guests and colleagues alike.
Moving forward
The final component of the talent strategy is talent deployment, moving individuals within the organisation; the group has had great success in recent times with this. The recently opened Mandarin Oriental, Macau had an unprecedented 29 transfers of management colleagues from within the organisation to this new property. Prior to this, the recently opened Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas attracted 19 colleague transfers. While this presents exciting new career opportunities for Mandarin Oriental colleagues, such transitions are complex, so the hotel group ensures a smooth transfer of colleagues by employing well thought out relocation and succession planning strategies.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
