A spotlight on staffing

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.

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"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!