Learning to lead
The Great GM Debate concluded with a very apt session, ‘Thinking like a business person — is it the difference between a good and great GM’? Throughout the day, the lonely role of the GM — who must juggle countless colleague departments and guest demands, not to mention carry the burden of confidential owner business — was acknowledged and this session aimed to share ideas for ensuring general managers approach their responsibilities in the most efficient and exciting ways.
Managing teams was a key part of this and the panel, which comprised Patrick Antaki, complex general manager, Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort, and Al Maha A Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa; Tim Cordon, general manager, Radisson Blu Hotel Deira Creek; The Oberoi Dubai general manager Karim Bizid; Atlantis the Palm president and managing director Serge Zaalof; and Andrew Humphries, regional VP and GM, Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi, moderated by the very frank Tommy Ressopoulos, VP sales and marketing Time Hotels UAE, was keen to discussion staff recruitment and retention.
Empowerment and enabling delegation, was a key point panellists stressed on. Patrick Antaki said “People talk about empowerment but there is no real delegation. We tell service staff they are empowered, but we delegate them no responsibility”.
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He stressed it was important to develop standard operating procedures to empower colleagues and encourage them to make their own decisions. “Give them the framework, give them the protection, write the SOP, write the procedure, and then the system has to be followed,” he said.
Tim Cordon agreed: “People have to believe in themselves as well and not just the product. Empowerment has to exist.”
The GMs also lamented the continuing practice of new hotels poaching staff through offering slightly higher salaries.
Antaki complained: “One thing I’ve found is that every time a hotel opens, they raise the bar in the salaries so the pool of employees is moving from one hotel to the newest one because they are paying an extra AED100 for the waiters.
“We really need to look at new pools of recruitment, we also need to start looking at educating the new recruits, educating the new generation of people,” he added, echoing earlier comments from Jumeirah Group president and group CEO Gerald Lawless, who urged the encouragement of ambition among junior employees and aspiring general managers.
The panellists also pointed to the lenient visa rules in Dubai, which allow hotel employees to move between companies with ease as a reason for the high turnover, prompting them to seek new ways to foster loyalty.
“As hoteliers, we have to start investing in our colleagues, investing in their welfare, investing in their accommodation,” said Karim Bizid.
“The benefits should be more than the salaries, to make them feel better, to make them more loyal and make them perform better,” agreed Cordon.
Atlantis the Palm president and managing director Serge Zaalof said: “The benefits are definitely more important. And I think slowly as we gear towards 2020, payroll and benefits will become an issue for us in Dubai as operators, which was not an issue in the old days.”
From the audience, Millennium Airport GM Glenn Nobbs asked the taboo question of ‘where does your service charge go?’, and at this point, the previously talkative panellists chose to remain tight-lipped, shifting nervously on their seats — except for Karim Bizid.
“I’ve seen different models being implemented. At the Oberoi, we pay 10% service charge to the colleagues,” he revealed.
“Not only that, all the tips ... we have a common tips policy at the Oberoi, which has been extremely successful at the other 30+ hotels around the world, which we have implemented here.
I got a lot of resistance from different colleagues who have moved from other properties within Dubai who said they would like to hold on to their own tips and I had to convince them that if that model has been so successful elsewhere, why don’t we try it? And I promised them that let’s try it, let’s see the impact out of it and within three months, if it does not work, we will go back.
Service charge is being paid to the colleagues, but surprisingly after four months of operation, I found out based on my own calculation that doing this common tips policy, which is something new for Dubai, we ended up having more tips than just having it by outlets or departments for us.”
With that revelation, the GM Debate 2013 concluded, with feedback from delegates and sponsors alike asserting that it was the best event in the series so far, with GMs describing the event as an “annual ritual” and “essential yearly gathering”. Email louise.oakley@itp.com with your thoughts as to the hot topics for the 2014 edition.
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