Melissa Salibi, Raffles Dubai Melissa Salibi, Raffles Dubai

Melissa Salibi, Raffles Dubai

About Melissa
Melissa has worked in the Human Resource field for over 12 years having started her career in her home country of South Africa. Her journey started as a HR Administrator for Woolworths where she resided for 3 years before moving to Dubai in 2001. Her first job in the UAE was working for the Rotana group as HR Supervisor. A year later she was promoted to HR Manager and transferred to Sharjah Rotana. After two and a half years as HR Manager, Melissa was promoted again to Cluster HR Manager looking after three hotels under the Rotana group Rimal, Rihab and Villa Rotana in Dubai, also took care of all their training needs. She remained HR Manager for two and a half years until she was promoted to Director of Training during the pre-opening phase of Media Rotana. Two years followed before Melissa was again promoted to Director of Human Resources within the same property. In December 2010, Melissa joined Raffles Dubai and began her current role as Director of Human Resources.

Above and beyond…
A first example is her commitment to her own team. She arranges self development activities for them outside of work and pushes and motivates them to achieve their personal as well as career focused goals. This has resulted in a 0% turnover within her department and has ensured she has a fully committed and focused group working alongside her. Along with her team Melissa has also established a variety of very successful committees and events which have made a vast difference to the morale within the hotel. These include: - The Green / Charity Committee – which has seen a huge increase in the CSR projects that the hotel is involved with. - Welfare committee - Health & Safety Committee - Monthly Team Gatherings for all colleagues - Quarterly Town Hall Meetings - Hotel Managers Breakfast and General Managers Lunch - 6 Week Coffee Chat with all new staff to ensure they are settling in and are happy - Food Committee – monthly updates on the employee dining room and an open forum where staff can share any concerns they have. - GEMBA Day – ‘back to the floor’ for the GM and Executive Team members - Social Committee who have organised the following with Melissa’s input: o Mini Olympics o Annual Staff Party o Salsa Dance Lessons o Colleague Iftar o Celebration of all National Days for our 37 different nationalities Melissa has also very much focused on the employee accommodation and facilities knowing how crucial this is in helping make our colleagues feel settled and comfortable. This has included leading the following projects: - Refurbishment of the colleague cafeteria at the hotel and at the colleague accommodation - Refurbishment of the colleague areas back of house. - Building a basketball court at the colleague housing - Internet Coverage for all areas of the colleague accommodation and not just the communal areas. - Upgraded accommodation for married couples Furthermore, she implemented electronic notice boards across the hotel which display the occupancy of the previous night, recent colleague achievements and hotel successes, including audit scores and pictures of employees receiving awards. This is also has reduced the use of paper within the hotel as this information was initially produced via printed newsletters. Melissa’s recruitment drive has seen an increase in quality employees and a decrease in agency fees as she has used tools such as LinkedIn to source candidates. Moreover, at the end of 2011 the entire procedure of recruitment was transferred from paper based to online and Melissa successfully rolled this project out across the hotel with zero concerns. Melissa has also built some very successful relationships within the owners office and corporate office, as well as her peers within the Fairmont properties in the region. This is extremely important to ensure clear and open communication and the support for new ideas. On a final note because of Melissa’s reputation within the group she is frequently asked to assist other hotels in the region with their recruitment of key positions and the drafting of policies. A great honour and testament to her hard work and loyalty.

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Testimonials:
I have worked with Melissa for the past two years. During her tenure as Director of HR the hotel achieved the highest Employee Engagement Score since its opening in 2007, and was ranked in the top 2% internationally across the services industry as per Gallop, this is a great achievement! HR team turnover for the past 2 years has been 0! Another big achievement which is a reflection of her great leadership capabilities Melissa has upgraded the recreational facilities of our employee accommodation which included volley ball field, pool tables, Gym equipment upgrades etc. She also launched the colleague coffee chat where she meets daily with one colleague and get feedback which allows her to be on top of colleagues concerns and resolving them quickly, a lot of effort yet great returns. Her extreme drive and focus on training led the hotel to achieve 94% on LQA/ mystery guest report placing the hotel in the 5th place internationally and Raffles hotels and Resorts in the second place as a chain. She has always been the voice of our colleagues, very active on supporting their requests and making sure translating them to reality. Working with her is an extreme pleasure, and she definitely contributes a lot to position Raffles Dubai as a leading luxury international hotel. Ayman Gharib Hotel Manager

Melissa and I have worked together for almost 2 years now and during this time my development in HR has significantly increased. I am currently the Assistant Director of HR and working with Melissa has been a fantastic opportunity. She is driven, passionate and has an incredible sense of humour which can change the mood of the room in a second. Nothing is impossible for her, anything that Melissa sets her mind to she can achieve. Our colleague Engagement survey increased significantly since she joined and our HR Audit scores were close to perfection. Melissa’s work ethic and concern for the welfare of our colleagues is inspirational. Since joining she restructured the salaries, benefits and brought us in line with other hotels across Dubai. Melissa upgraded all colleague facilities, painting back of house areas, placing digital notice boards in the corridors and a volley ball court in the accommodation she also fought for 1 year for internet in the accommodation which was finally achieved last month. Her passion for colleague engagement is contagious, every month there is a colleague event, from; team football in the park, a talent show, colleague recognition or mini Olympics just to name a few. Melissa is approachable and ready to action and listens, she is passionate and a positive role model in Raffles Dubai. I can only hope that one day I am a HR Director as impacting and inspiring as her. Jessica Markham– Assistant Director of Human Resources

I met Melissa about 18 months back during the process of applying for my current job as Training Manager for the Raffles Dubai hotel, where she is the Director of Human Resources. My first impression of her was that of an extremely smart professional with lots of experience and excellent people skills. These are qualities you would naturally expect from an HR professional in this capacity, what impresses me about Melissa, is the way she makes it seem effortless. Whether it is during high level interviews, negotiations or presentations, she is always very prepared and knows exactly which points are important for her to drive home. She pays close attention to her audience and captures their moods, doubts or agreements instantly and is then able to respond with clear examples. All the while remaining calm and charming. She is extremely involved in all aspects of her department or the hotel in general and always has great and powerful ideas to input, whether it is planning for a colleague event or a high level meeting. She never shies away from “making herself dirty” and does so with grace, elegance and a good measure of humour. I remember us polishing Cutlery and Chinaware in In-Room Dining and setting up Room Service trolleys. I know her as a very transparent, trusting and supportive leader, who in return has earned herself the trust and commitment of her team members, who excel in their duties, because none of us would ever want to disappoint “boss”, in the same way you would not want to disappoint your spouse or closest friend. Why are we so committed? Because we know that Melissa, our leader has our and all colleagues best interests at heart. Not only does she lead by example as a member of the Excom, she leads in an emotionally intelligent and understanding way and senses instantly if someone needs an extra portion of care, encouragement or constructive feedback. Her support has helped me personally to establish training as an institution across all areas of the hotel and the interest into personal and organizational development has reached new heights. And whilst she is constantly multitasking with many urgent matters to attend to at the same time, she will always find the time for a personal chat or a moment of refreshing humour, such as sharing her book club experiences with us. With all the expectations set into a senior manager at her level, all colleagues and her own team especially know her as a warm and caring person who truly pays interest into everyone’s personal matters. I personally enjoy our conversations about marriage and family and treasure her advice on “how to keep the in laws in check”. Under her leadership, the Human Resources Department of Raffles Dubai has grown from a bunch of people into an effective team, with individuals who are focused, self managed and dedicated in every aspect. This astonishing feat took her less than a year to achieve. As a result, we are now one of the strongest HR teams in the company, setting standards for best practices in every aspect, which was reconfirmed during the previous HR audit, conducted by the corporate team. Therefore I am proud to be a part of her team, a step I never had any reason to regret. In fact I am grateful for the trust and confidence Melissa has put in me from day one and therefore strongly recommend her for the award of “HR Person of the Year”. Sincerely, Fadi Jabbour - Training Manager

When Melissa joined the team in 2010, she has implemented a lot of new HR ideas and her impact has increased the high standards of the HR department, Colleagues and Hotels, we have achieved many aspects in terms of the colleague welfare under her mission and vision. Melissa is one of the outstanding, flawless and highly regarded leaders we worked with. She is always straight forward and has a dazzling sense of humour which is contagious. She is fun to work with and gives us the opportunity to do our best every day. She is always open for new ideas and gives effort to act upon them. She always challenges her team to improve the HR practices and allowing us to expand our skills and ideas and become more reliable. We have suggestions that have already been implemented and this feels really good and gives us motivation to suggest for more ideas. Her positive liveliness inspired people around her, she pushed people to be fearless with our boundaries and being independent that what we love about her, she loves to impart her knowledge and skills. She creates trusting work environment towards his team, colleagues and hotel. She is approachable and always around to assist colleagues. She has great organization skills, a FANTASTIC motivator and leads by example in every way. Estela Morellos– Human Resource Executive Diwan Hermawan- Human Resource Coordinator

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