FromJ K Sachdeva <[email protected]> | Add to Address : book |This is spam AMSIMR - Class of 2014 <classof2014@amsimr.
org >, Faculty To: <[email protected]>, Neha Bairagi <[email protected]> Subject: Write a note of 300 words Date: Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:22 IST
Dear Students, Please see the following short film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQGz1YRqBPw Write a note of 300 words in your own words with two sub headings HR practices and customer care. The note should be submitted to your mentor within 3 days. You will get 5 bonus marks in your summer training report. Mentors to send their records to Prof Neha by 15th May, closing day. -Regards Dr J K SACHDEVA Director, AMSIMR
The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj Hotel: Rohit Deshpande at TEDxNewEngland
Published on Nov 20, 2012 On the 26th of November 2008, a group of terrorists struck a dozen targets in Mumbai, India including the iconic, 103-year old Taj Palace Hotel. The siege at the hotel lasted two days and three nights and was covered extensively by international media. But there is an amazing, inspirational back story about the heroic actions of the Taj staff couched in the culture of the Taj Hotels company. What can the staff, who saved lives while endangering their own, teach American companies about ethical behavior? About TEDx: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
26/11 Mumbai attack: HR practices converted ordinary Taj employees into heroes
NEW DELHI: In the weeks that followed 26/11 the day on which rampaging terrorists killed some 150 people at 10 locations in South Mumbai, including 11 employees of theTaj Mahal Palace hotel Ratan Tata made visits to some of the bereaved families. The chief of the Tata group, which owns the Taj via group company Indian Hotels, met a woman who pointed to the garlanded figure of her late husband and said: "My children never realised their father was a hero." It took Tata by surprise, as he expected to encounter anger and sorrow. The above anecdote is narrated by Rohit Deshpande, professor at Harvard Business School (HBS), who was interviewing Tata for a five-part video case study on crisis management at the Taj during 26/11. Deshpande started to teach the course at Harvard from October 2010. His students, especially non-Indians, were transfixed by the topic and were incredulous why employees were willing to give up their lives when they had the option to flee. The student reaction prodded Deshpande, along with Anjali Raina, executive director at HBS India Research Centre in Mumbai to delve deeper into the HR practices of the organisation. The uncommon valour of those who worked at the Taj convinced the duo to research the human resource (HR) practices of the organisation. After all, here was an extremely rare case of employees placing the safety of guests over their own well-being; and in the process some of them sacrificed their lives. "We wondered whether the HR best practices made them do this and decided to dig deeper into the HR processes," said Deshpande, while Raina added that: "It was intriguing to unpack the Taj approach to HR and speculate on the linkages between the hotel's HR policies and practices and the customer service experience." The research of Deshpande and Raina spanned more than a year. They began by asking for manuals, wondering if there was training given to these employees for an incident like this one. There was none. An intrigued Deshpande started to research the HR practices of the company and found three pillars of practices that explained the courage and actions of employees: A recruitment system that hires for character and not for grades; training programmes that not just mentor employees but also empower them to take decisions; and a reward programme that recognises employees on a real-time basis. "I teach both MBA and executive programmes. In my experience, these practices have been unique," Deshpande said. Just one aspect that of recruiting from small towns and recruiting for attitude rather than grades was unheard of, he added.
This research is interspersed with tales of employee heroism a 20-something banquet manager helping guests escape; telephone operators staying at their posts and alerting guests to stay indoors; and staff forming a human shield to protect guests at the time of evacuation. One executive chef at the hotel told the researchers that other groups have tried to hire him, but he refused to go. Reason: There is a connection with the guests. Generations have come to the Sea Lounge for matchmaking and weddings are celebrated in the Crystal Room; and waiters have been serving people for generations, the researchers were told. "(At a time when) we are hearing so many stories of human frailty, mismanagement, moral turpitude, the Taj research is about ordinary people who became heroes. It's about leadership from everywhere, especially leadership from below," said Deshpande. The research will be published in HBR's December 2011 issue. The context for the students and organisations is to learn about HR practices that have been put together on unique criteria, said Deshpande. The culture of employee-empowerment has been ingrained in the Taj workforce for some time now. For instance, the researchers found similar displays of gallantry at the at the Taj properties in Maldives at the time of tsunami in December 2004. "I realised that just like the character of a human being is the sum of choices made over the years, the culture of an organisation is the sum of values, policies and practices consciously fostered over the years," said Raina.
How Taj Hotel's HR found 26/11 heroes
Shrenik Avlani , Hindustan Times Mumbai , November 28, 2011
Email to Author
First Published: 15:22 IST(28/11/2011) Last Updated: 16:18 IST(28/11/2011)
share share on facebookshare on linkedinshare on googleshare on emailmore.
17 comments
email
print
The Taj Group of hotels recruitment system, longer training, emphasis on customer centric behaviour and respect for elders while hiring and encouraging its staff to improvise
rather than do things by book are the main reasons why the workers of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai acted the way they did and saved the lives of about 1,500 guests who were in the hotel on 26/11 when terrorists attacked the hotel. This is the case made out by Prof Rohit Deshpande and Anjali Raina in an article titled The Ordinary H eroes of the Taj which will appear in the December issue of the prestigious journal, Harvard Business Review.
The article, a study of the organizational culture and leadership in the Taj Group, recounts how the hotel staff took charge in the crisis situation and led from the front to ensure the safety of guests, first, and colleagues. The Taj employees helped 1,200-1,500 guests escape on a night when 31 people, including 11 hotel employees, died and 28 were injured. Deshpande is a Sebastian S. Kresge professor of marketing at Harvard and Raina is the executive director of the Harvard Business School India Research Centre in Mumbai. Deshpande and Raina attribute the response of the Taj employees to the hotel chains organizational culture in which employee s are willing to do almost anything for the guests. The authors contend that the unusual hiring, training, and incentive systems of the Taj Group have combined to instill an extremely customer centric work ethic in the hotels staff. Taj prefers to hire from smaller cities rather than metros Pune, not Mumbai because thats where traditional Indian values such as respect for elders and teachers, humility, consideration of others still hold sway. It hires young people, often straight out of high school, who display three traits: respect for elders, cheerfulness and neediness. The chosen candidates are trained at one of the six residential Taj Group skill-certification centres for 18 months, instead of the industry standard of 12 months. At the managerial level too, the company recruits from the lower-tier B-schools as they find that MBA graduates from these institutes want to build careers with a single company and tend to fit in better with a customer-centric culture. However, no one was trained for a situation like the one on 26/11. Despite that the Taj staff displayed leadership skills and formed human chains around guests to ensure their safety. Because all Taj employees are empowered to take decisions as agents of the customer, it makes them feel in command. That night they took the decision and saved their guests first. Deshpande thought of investigating the link between the Taj Groups HR practice and organizational culture and the way Taj employees acted on 26/11 while working on a case on the brand architecture of Taj Hotels in early 2009.
After finishing the brand architecture case, I requested and received permission from Mr Ratan Tata to develop a separate case focusing on crisis management and brand recovery. This time it was a video case and was taught starting last year at Harvard Business School, said Deshpande. Since the video case did not have enough exposure to the latter topic, Deshpande and Raina decided to delve deeper into the Taj HR processes. Hence the current article in Harvard Business Review, said Deshpande. The interviewees included frontline personnel who had lost friends, colleagues, and family during that terrible crisis Taj manager, Karambir Kang, being just one amazingly inspirational example.
The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj
by Rohit Deshpand and Anjali Raina
On November 26, 2008, Harish Manwani, chairman, and Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, of Hindustan Unilever hosted a dinner at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai (Taj Mumbai, for short). Unilevers directors, senior executives, and their spouses were bidding farewell to Patrick Cescau, the CEO, and welcoming Paul Polman, the CEO-elect. About 35 Taj Mumbai employees, led by a 24-year-old banquet manager, Mallika Jagad, were assigned to manage the event in a second-floor banquet room. Around 9:30, as they served the main course, they heard what they thought were fireworks at a nearby wedding. In reality, these were the first gunshots from terrorists who were storming the Taj. The staff quickly realized something was wrong. Jagad had the doors locked and the lights turned off. She asked everyone to lie down quietly under tables and refrain from using cell phones. She insisted that husbands and wives separate to reduce the risk to families. The group stayed there all night, listening to the terrorists rampaging through the hotel, hurling grenades, firing automatic weapons, and tearing the place apart. The Taj staff kept calm, according to the guests, and constantly went around offering water and asking people if they needed anything else. Early the next morning, a fire started in the hallway outside, forcing the group to try to climb out the windows. A fire crew spotted them and, with its ladders, helped the trapped people escape quickly. The staff evacuated the guests first, and no casualties resulted. It was my responsibility....I may have been the youngest person in the room, but I was still doing my job, Jagad later told one of us. Elsewhere in the hotel, the upscale Japanese restaurant Wasabi by Morimoto was busy at 9:30 PM. A warning call from a hotel operator alerted the staff that terrorists had entered the
building and were heading toward the restaurant. Forty-eight-year-old Thomas Varghese, the senior waiter at Wasabi, immediately instructed his 50-odd guests to crouch under tables, and he directed employees to form a human cordon around them. Four hours later, security men asked Varghese if he could get the guests out of the hotel. He decided to use a spiral staircase near the restaurant to evacuate the customers first and then the hotel staff. The 30-year Taj veteran insisted that he would be the last man to leave, but he never did get out. The terrorists gunned him down as he reached the bottom of the staircase. When Karambir Singh Kang, the Taj Mumbais general manager, heard about the attacks, he immediately left the conference he was attending at another Taj property. He took charge at the Taj Mumbai the moment he arrived, supervising the evacuation of guests and coordinating the efforts of firefighters amid the chaos. His wife and two young children were in a sixth-floor suite, where the general manager traditionally lives. Kang thought they would be safe, but when he realized that the terrorists were on the upper floors, he tried to get to his family. It was impossible. By midnight the sixth floor was in flames, and there was no hope of anyones surviving. Kang led the rescue efforts until noon the next day. Only then did he call his parents to tell them that the terrorists had killed his wife and children. His father, a retired general, told him, Son, do your duty. Do not desert your post. Kang replied, If it [the hotel] goes down, I will be the last man out. Three years ago, when armed terrorists attacked a dozen locations in Mumbaiincluding two luxury hotels, a hospital, the railway station, a restaurant, and a Jewish centerthey killed as many as 159 people, both Indians and foreigners, and gravely wounded more than 200. The assault, known as 26/11, scarred the nations psyche by exposing the countrys vulnerability to terrorism, although India is no stranger to it. The Taj Mumbais burning domes and spires, which stayed ablaze for two days and three nights, will forever symbolize the tragic events of 26/11. During the onslaught on the Taj Mumbai, 31 people died and 28 were hurt, but the hotel received only praise the day after. Its guests were overwhelmed by employees dedication to duty, their desire to protect guests without regard to personal safety, and their quick thinking. Restaurant and banquet staff rushed people to safe locations such as kitchens and basements. Telephone operators stayed at their posts, alerting guests to lock doors and not step out. Kitchen staff formed human shields to protect guests during evacuation attempts. As many as 11 Taj Mumbai employeesa third of the hotels casualtieslaid down their lives while helping between 1,200 and 1,500 guests escape. At some level, that isnt surprising. One of the worlds top hotels, the Taj Mumbai is ranked number 20 by Cond Nast Traveler in the overseas business hotel category. The hotel is known for the highest levels of quality, its ability to go many extra miles to delight customers, and its staff of highly trained employees, some of whom have worked there for decades. It is a well-oiled machine, where every employee knows his or her job, has encyclopedic knowledge about regular guests, and is comfortable taking orders.
Even so, the Taj Mumbais employees gave customer service a whole new meaning during the terrorist strike. What created that extreme customer-centric culture of employee after employee staying back to rescue guests when they could have saved themselves? What can other organizations do to emulate that level of service, both in times of crisis and in periods of normalcy? Can companies scale up and perpetuate extreme customer centricity? Our studies show that the Taj employees actions werent prescribed in manuals; no official policies or procedures existed for an event such as 26/11. Some contextual factors could have had a bearing, such as Indias ancient culture of hospitality; the values of the House of Tata, which owns the Taj Group; and the Taj Mumbais historical roots in the patriotic movement for a free India. The story, probably apocryphal, goes that in the 1890s, when security men denied J.N. Tata entry into the Royal Navy Yacht Club, pointing to a board that apparently said No Entry for Indians and Dogs, he vowed to set up a hotel the likes of which the British had never seen. The Taj opened its doors in 1903. Still, something unique happened on 26/11. We believe that the unusual hiring, training, and incentive systems of the Taj Groupwhich operates 108 hotels in 12 countrieshave combined to create an organizational culture in which employees are willing to do almost anything for guests. This extraordinary customer centricity helped, in a moment of crisis, to turn its employees into a band of ordinary heroes. To be sure, no single factor can explain the employees valor. Designing an organization for extreme customer centricity requires several dimensions, the most critical of which we describe in this article.
The Taj Approach to HR
Seek fresh recruits rather than lateral hires. Hire from small towns and semiurban areas, not metros. Recruit from high schools and second-tier business schools rather than colleges and
premier B-schools.
Induct managers who seek a single-company career and will be hands-on. Focus more on hiring people with integrity and devotion to duty than on acquiring those with
talent and skills.
Train workers for 18 months, not just 12.
Ensure that employees can deal with guests without consulting a supervisor. Teach people to improvise rather than do things by the book. Insist that employees place guests interests over the companys. Have incumbent managers, not consultants, conduct training. Use timely recognition, not money, as reward. Ensure that recognition comes from immediate supervisors, not top management.
HR POLICIES AT THE TAJ: LESSONS TO EMULATE
On 26/11/2008, the employees of Taj hotel were unaware of the fact that they had to undergo the acid test that day, putting at stake not only their expertise and learning but the values of Taj, jeopardizing their life for the call of their duty. The courage, valor and commitment showcased by the employees set the whole world lauding the values which the Taj group had imbibed in them. World renowned institutes like Harvard devoted to the intensive study of the factors underlining this behavior of the employees. There were some questions that haunted them which even the managers at Taj failed to answer like why employees preferred to stay at their duty and help the guests instead of fleeing through the emergency exits? What made them stand to their commitment in such calamity instead of succumbing to the natural instinct of saving their lives? The underlying principle of Atithi Devo Bhava was so beautifully showcased by the employees. These unraveling researches finally ended up at its HR practices, which helped the researchers to fathom answers to many of these questions. The answers based on the HR policies of the organization were intriguing. Lets have a closer look on some of them. The studies on Taj HR policies revealed its sound recruitment policies, the wellplanned training programmes and emphasis on practical application than the theoretical knowledge. Since its inception, it has always adopted an employeecentric culture wherein it strives to develop organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in it employees and that has been responsible for the utmost care undertaken by the employees for the safety of their guests. The Taj Charter corroborates this fact. Some of its postulates include: 1) Taj family considers every employee as an important member. 2) It aims to acquire, retain and reward the talented people from the industry. 3) It emphasizes on a formal communication channel to promote transparency in the overall working of the organization.
(Source: www.tata.com ) Below are some of the points that explain its distinguished policies:
Hiring policies: The candidates are gauged on their value system and trained for 18 months which is 6 months more than the industry standard. The hiring process particularly looks for employees on their values and whether the recruits would be able to adapt to the culture of the organization. It is believed that the employees can be trained to be better chefs or waiters, but they cannot be taught to be good individuals. So the organization expects an individual to possess good values to become a part of the Taj family.
Honing leadership skills: Apart from the normal training sessions to inculcate leadership skills in the employees, each employee is given an authority to take the decisions pertaining to his work and this empowers them and helps in building a leader in all. This was primarily the reason why each one of them could impromptu take the decisions during the attack, when none of them had been trained for such a situation.
Strong talent management: To upgrade the Taj standards to an international level, it ensures the employees are trained not just on the area of expertise but all the related functions. Also, it keeps track of their performance to assess and future career planning for them. This helps to embed belongingness amongst the workforce as they understand that their careers are safe with their employers.
Individualism of HR department: Unlike many organizations, who consider HR as a support function, Taj amalgamates the HR practices with all the other activities taking place within it. This helps to make HR an integral part of the organization.
TPP (Taj people philosophy) : Designed by Bernard Martyris, it is termed as the Womb to Tomb Approach as it encapsulated all the essential aspects of an employee since his induction to his superannuation. All these aspects could be broadly categorized into 3 parts comprising of:
1) Learning & development 2) Works systems 3) Welfare policies for employees
A major emphasis is made on performance management, for which the balance score card (BSS) was introduced. Under this, the major focus is to align the individuals performance with that of the organization. Employees at every hierarchical level are assigned concrete and well defined targets and then their performance is tracked to find out the deviations, this forms the basis for assessing the employees.
Another salient feature of TPP is the ESTS (Employee Satisfaction Tracking System) which involves conducting surveys to elicit response from the employees and the records collected are used to rate the overall satisfaction level of the employees. The group targeted to achieve 100% satisfaction in the course of its operation, which meant it regularly looks into the employees concerns and strives to address them.
A 360-degree feedback system was adopted wherein the employees, including the managers and departmental heads are evaluated not just by their bosses or peers but also their immediate subordinates. The employees are counseled at a personal level and apprised of where they fell short of the expectations and how to go about it. Thus the feedback session is not just limited to assessing the employees but guides them to prepare a roadmap for the future endeavors and hone their skills.
STARS (Special thanks and Recognition System) was designed keeping its core value in mind ie the customers of an organization can be satisfied by it only when its employees are satisfied. So the STARS was aimed at recognizing and rewarding employees who showcased excellent performance at their work. The employees are awarded points and based on the points accumulated within the predefined time frame, they are promoted successively to various levels. A distinguishing feature was that the employees were not just assessed on their performance but also on parameters like honesty, trustworthiness, concern for the environment, team spirit, cooperation etc. Besides, appreciations from the customers also fetched points. In all, there were 5 levels.
Level 1 : Silver level was attained when the employee accumulated 120 points within 3 months. Level 2: Gold Level was attained by employees who accumulated 130 points within 3 months from the date of achieving the silver level. Level 3: Platinum level attained by employees scoring 250 points, 6 months from attainment of level 2. Level 4: Membership of COO club on scoring points in the range of 510760. Level 5: Scoring points above 760 would enable membership to MDs club.
There are forums for the employees to voice their recommendation or compliment their colleagues. It is mandatory for the review committee to reply to the employees suggestions within 2 days or he shall be allotted default points. These methods are primarily focused to boost the motivation levels of the employees and to improve job satisfaction.
Overall outcomes:
The HR practices followed by the Taj group had a great impact on the employee commitment and ERR (Employee retention rate) of Taj group was the highest amongst all its competitors.
The policies were so well planned and implemented that they drove the employees beyond their duties which was totally unexpected of them as was in the case of 26/11.
In 2002, Taj Group was conferred HERMES Award for its innovative HR practices. With the implementation of STARS, there was tremendous improvement in the service standards and also the customer satisfaction level.
From the above study, it can be concluded that people are the most important resource of an organization and the edifice of performance of different departments and the organization as a whole builds on it. The sooner an organization accepts this fact, the better it is. Taj group had always stressed on the employee-focused policies and that was primarily responsible for the job commitment shown by the employees and explains why they considered the safety of the guests beyond their own lives. To wrap up, this article not just intends to emphasize the importance of HR in an organization, but also that the HR policies should be fabricated such that they are synchronized with the vision and values of the organization. The success of any organization would depend upon the extent of alignment of its policies with its vision. Also, it is important that these values should be ubiquitous in work environment so that they become the second behavior for the employees like it happened in the Taj when the employees stuck to their organizations values even at the cost of their lives. The unprecedented example set forth by the employees of Taj has a deep lesson to be learnt by one and all. This article has been written by Ela Koshal from Welingkar Institute of Management.
