Winning Through Talent in a Recovery Economy
Managing your business in this new economy can be incredibly challenging. If your business is experiencing increasing revenues, better ADR, and RevPar and a prominent next year…it is time to focus on talent…then ..NOW, more than ever, is the time to focus on your people — the key to your future success.
Set The Bar Higher, Establish A Leadership Competency Model
The leadership competencies form the core of the Development process, and will form the basis for deciding on both who to select and what future development activities to select. There are less than a dozen competencies in the Talent Management Development profile that you could take to set higher expectations.
As we are entering in the final Quarter 3, we realize how much potential and room for improvement is out there in the team, Hotels and Hospitality organizations today would have to set the ground to achieve sustained and aggressive growth.
Hotels can no longer use older models, in an economy with constant changes in people behaviors, new trends and the use of new technology impacting guest experience, the challenge yet remains ahead… Companies have no longer have a single focus “Profit” , Executive Team need to be multidimensional in their approach to building and retaining their workforce.
The ability to identify the skills and competencies required for tomorrow’s industry leaders is essential for companies that hope to remain competitive
A competency model is a descriptive tool that identifies the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behavior needed to perform effectively in an organization. They are designed to help an organization meet its strategic objectives through building human- resources capability.
Why Develop and Establish A Leadership Competency Model
Competency models provide a common language for discussing capabilities and performance. The development of a competency model can help provide guidance for a host of different HR practices.
Competency models can be used as a foundation from which to establish criteria for a broad array of HR systems:
1. Recruitment and selection
2. Training and development
3. Performance appraisals
4. Coaching, counseling, and mentoring
5. Change management
Conclusion
Competency models confer several advantages, first, a competency model is useful for building an integrated framework for developing a company’s human-resources system. Used consistently, such a model should lead to improved and consistent performance standards. More important, the model can be a critical guide during periods of instability and change. Moreover, making HR decisions on the basis of carefully developed competency models embrace company culture.
Finally, well-developed competency models enhance a company’s ability to communicate with its employees regarding the behavior connected with success, thereby increasing the Hotel ability to achieve its business objectives.
Strategies for Getting Ahead
Based on our work experience and more than 20 years in the industry, Hoteliers Inspiration, recommends the following strategies that deliver superior results in actual economic conditions:
1. Establish clarity of goals and rapidly align your workforce to execute the new strategy
Forced upon your business by your people’s contribution or external environment, you cannot afford to lose focus or drift away from the expectations set at the beginning of the year.
Four more months and the year’s gone..this is your opportunity to assess and check progress made against Key Performance Objectives, Key Job Responsibilities and Leadership Competencies set at the beginning of the year. Have a clear answer to the question, How did my people performed this year? Reward and Address issues Now!!!
2. Set a Performance calendar in place for assessment ofyour people’s Key Job Responsibilities, determine performance factors and assess your people against them, provide real time feedback and reduce any existing gaps between what your team is giving and what the company is expecting.
Hoteliers Inspiration and a final message
Focus on your core talent and invest where it counts
Not all positions are created equal. Some positions are simply more critical to the successful execution of your business strategy. Are you investing accordingly in those positions — whether your strategy is maximization or revenue or optimization of cost? Offensive or defensive strategy?
Your top talent — loyal in the good times — may get anxious, frustrated during the course of the financial year. Unlike the under-performers, the cruel reality is that top performers have more opportunities to leave you.
Your competitors are targeting your top people and this will intensify in a down market. How are you going to respond? Underwater stock options have little retention value. To keep employees motivated, energized, and engaged, it is critical that you make them feel secure, and confident that they have a critical role in your plan for the business.
Good employees are always valuable, but outstanding performers who can help you grow your business
against the broader market trend are like fine diamonds — and should be treasured accordingly. Knowing that high performers make a disproportionate contribution to the success of your business, shouldn’t your
organization make a disproportionate investment in identifying them, developing them, and paying them?
Now is the time to identify the talent that will be essential for your new strategic direction and invest heavily when others are cutting. That investment, notice that it is not a cost!!! should focus not only on retaining top performers, but on addressing gaps in skill sets with coaching & training/development — because when your core talent is thriving, the say More with Less comes alive!!!
From our best practices and professional experience we recommend to have answers to the following questions:
Are you optimizing the talent that you have?
Are you developing them accordingly? have you set very clear on expectations?
Are you clear on where their performance levels should be?
Are you providing relevant feedback to them to better comprehend their role?
Are you the type of individual that focuses so much on the bottom line, and not focusing on talent. I personal think you are better off when that gap is reduced.
Additional Thoughts
By understanding and knowing is not enough!! Executive Managers must find ways to boost their company’s strategic agility and people’s ability to respond to opportunities and threats more rapidly.
Executing change is never easy, especially if the new strategy requires a cultural change. But engaging people becomes particularly challenging when your organization is distracted and affected by the lack of clarity. Agile organizations can successfully drive and monitor activities related to the strategic objectives. They adopt best practices to:
• Facilitate clear communication of goals and line-of-sight
• Provide real-time accountability and visibility into project status
• Take action if individuals fall behind on goals
Clear communication is of paramount importance. By being transparent, you show
employees you have a plan — you inspire confidence and motivate them with the knowledge that “Management’s driving this business in the right direction.”
Sergio Foti, Msc
Director
