A spotlight on staffing

Radisson SAS Dubai Media City rooms division manager Cristina Polo, food and beverage manager Marco Aveta and HR and training manager Poonam Verma tell Hotelier Middle East about their plans for the property and explain why the hotel's most precious commodity is its employees.

Rooms Division Manager

Cristina Polo joined the property in 2005, in the pre-opening stages.

"I had been working in sales in Paris," Polo says. "I was very happy with Rezidor but I wanted to be a revenue manager, so I was delighted when they offered me the chance to come here to take up that role."

 

However Polo explains that with a background in hospitality, she was keen to return to a more operational role, an ambition fulfilled by her new role as rooms division manager.

"We have 246 rooms and I have five teams which I oversee: reservations, banquet sales, spa and gym, front office and housekeeping," says Polo.



"At the moment I'm still really in the discovery phase of the job, but it's basically all about meeting people and getting involved in daily concerns and operations. It will be my role to help not only to improve quality, but also to be a support for the staff," she continues.

"I've only been in the role two weeks so at this stage it's more an observation phase. There may well be some changes to things in the future, but I don't think starting a revolution after two weeks in the job would be smart!"

Polo believes that her biggest challenge in this new role will be dealing with so many more people.

"To find the time for everyone and still be approachable, that will be the biggest challenge," she says. "You have to make sure you build relationships carefully; it's important to create a sense of trust and approachability whilst still finding time for everyone."

But the team at Radisson SAS is a great one to work with, according to Polo. "If I had to choose one word, I would describe the team here as 'motivated'," she says.

"It's fascinating working with them - there's a nice mix of nationalities which means a constant source of different ideas, so it's constantly interesting and different."
 

F&B Manager

Marco Aveta has also been at the property since the pre-opening stages, having joined in September 2005.

Aveta says that for him, the draw of joining Radisson was its modern take on hospitality.

"I like the approach Radisson has to the hotel business: it's modern, it's young, it's a very contemporary approach, which maybe other companies do not have," he says.

 

The property has several different F&B options for its guests, continues Aveta.

We have two restaurants, our Italian restaurant Certo and the Chef's House in our second tower, which is all-day dining; then we have bars, which were very popular when we opened in Media City as we were the first licensed outlet.



There's the Library Lounge, the Media Lounge, the Dusk Terrace, our roof-top bar Tamanya Terrace which is always busy, and Icon Bar, which has been labeled a sort of posh sports bar."

Business is booming now, but according to Aveta this was not always the case. "It was always pretty easy to get business at lunchtime; you just had to open the doors and people came in.

But dinner time was more of a struggle," he admits. "In fact it took us some time, but I guess we must have done something right, as now we're doing really well!

The key factor in increasing evening business, says Aveta, was creating good word-of-mouth publicity. "We made sure we were doing a great job serving the people who were coming in at lunch time, really focusing on our day-time service.

Then gradually we saw an increase in the people coming back in the evenings with their friends and families," he says. "Then we would also invite people to promotional evenings at the bars and show them what we had to offer.

"But essentially we had quality food and quality service at a reasonable price, and I think that's a formula that can't fail."

One major challenge facing the F&B industry is retaining staff, Aveta says.

"This is particularly hard in this region, where new hotels are popping up every day," he notes. "Of course the problem there is that these new hotels need to recruit a lot of new staff, and what better place to recruit than just next door - hotels which have already spent time training their staff.

"So they might come in and make what at first glance looks like a better offer, but not all employers offer the same kinds of benefits or the same level of treatment. That's why it is important to create a good day-to-day working environment for the employees, so they are happy in their jobs.

There is certainly a lot to keep the Radisson SAS's F&B staff busy this year. The property is planning to expand the Icon Bar, due in part to its popularity and in part to the recent smoking ban.

"This is the only outlet where we permit smoking now, the rest are smoke-free," says Aveta. "So we are upgrading Icon and enclosing it entirely from other areas. The expansion will also offer extra space, of course.

It will be about 40% larger than it is now, which we will achieve by shifting the adjacent gym to another location. We aim to finish all the work by October.

And these are not the only development plans in the pipeline.

"In the future I would also like to find some flexible solution to allow us to use Tamanya, the roof-top bar, during the summer months," says Aveta. "So we will be keeping ourselves busy this year!"
 

HR and Training Manager

Poonam Verma started at the property a year ago, following a stint working for a hospital in Dubai.

"I was there for two years, but I worked with Jumeirah prior to that and was keen to come back to the hotel industry," she says.

In her role, Verma explains that she takes care of "quite a broad sector", including recruitment, orientation; training; and the staff cafeteria, accommodation, transportation and medical.

 

"There are a lot of departments to liaise with; it's quite a challenge to get your head round that," Verma admits.

There are so many little elements of the chain which can break down. Just general day-to-day things, like transport being late, or a problem at the accommodation, can mean a whole day of re-organisation - there's so many elements that need coordination."

One of Verma's favourite aspects of the job is traning. "That's something I enjoy doing," she explains. "I also like making people notice that their employer actually cares for them, that they want to make the employees happy," she continues.



"I think it's important that people in management roles are seen as consistent, fair people, who want to do everything possible for the staff. It's more than just providing people with a salary; we do whatever possible to make employees happy and comfortable.

Rezidor places a lot of emphasis on the importance of promoting internally when possible, which has led Radisson SAS Dubai Media City to promote more than 197 staff already.

"I think this success is down to our training programmes," says Verma. "When people join, we start them off with general orientation, then our 'Yes I Can' training, which is all about the company ethos and which everyone does.

Then we have on-the-job training which is specific to each department, as well as other programmes which help the employee to learn and progress, such as departmental training, hotel-wide training and something called 'Business School', which is run three times a year.

This is not only in Dubai but also in places like London, Brussels, Egypt and so on, so people get to experience different places as well as learning," she explains.

"On top of this, if somebody wants to go for cross-exposure in another Radisson in a different country, we are happy to help them with that."

Verma admits that currently the property's turnover rate is "quite high; I would say around 25-30% per annum, although that's fairly normal for hotels in Dubai" - not surprising, given the rash of new hotels cropping up this year.

"We have lost a few people to particular hotels," Verma says. "I'd say for every 14 people leaving us, there would be about four going to Atlantis. We actually had people going to some of the hotels on Sheikh Zayed Road within the first three months of their joining, which was very disheartening.

However the Radisson SAS team is taking steps to encourage staff loyalty, such as establishing a Staff Retention Committee.

"Through this we have implemented various policies," says Verma. "For example, if anyone stays with us for more than two years they get an annual ticket; we have implemented bonuses; and we have set up a new medical policy."

Over the coming year Verma plans to keep a close eye on the results of these improvements. "One thing I am sure about is that the intentions here are great," she adds. "So I hope to see some extremely positive results!