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In March 2001, the Taj Group1 launched an employee loyalty program called the 'Special Thanks and Recognition System' (STARS). STARS was an initiative aimed at motivating employees to transcend their usual duties and responsibilities and have fun during work. This program also acknowledged and rewarded hard working employees who had done excellent work.
The Taj Group had always believed that their employees were their greatest assets and the very reason for the survival of their business. In 2000, to show its commitment to and belief in employees, the Taj Group developed the 'Taj People Philosophy' (TPP), which covered all the people practices of the group. TPP considered every aspect of employees' organizational career planning, right from their induction into the company till their superannuation. TPP offered many benefits to the Taj Group. It helped the company boost the morale of its employees and improve service standards, which in turn resulted in repeat customers for many hotels in the group. The STAR system also led to global recognition of the Taj Group of hotels in 2002 when the group bagged the 'Hermes Award'2 for 'Best Innovation in Human Resources' in the global hospitality industry.
The Taj People Philosophy
Since its establishment, the Taj Group (Refer Exhibit I) had a people-oriented culture. The group always hired fresh graduates from leading hotel management institutes all over India so that it could shape their attitudes and develop their skills in a way that fitted its needs and culture. The management wanted the new recruits to pursue a long-term career with the group. All new employees were placed in an intensive two-year training program, which familiarized them with the business ethos of the group, the management practices of the organization, and the working of cross-functional departments.
The employees of the Taj Group were trained in varied fields like sales and marketing, finance, hospitality and service, front office management, food and beverages, projects, HR and more. They also had to take part in various leadership programs, so that they could develop in them a strong, warm and professional work culture.
Through these programs, the group was able to assess the future potential of the employees and the training required to further develop their skills. The group offered excellent opportunities to employees both on personal as well as organizational front3. In order to achieve 'Taj standards,' employees were made to undergo a rigorous training program (Refer Exhibit II).
The group strove hard to standardize all its processes and evolve a work culture, which appealed to all its employees universally. The group believed that talent management4 was of utmost importance to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. The group aimed at making the HR function a critical business partner, rather than just a support function. To further show its commitment to and belief in employees, the group created the 'Taj People Philosophy' (TPP) covering all people practices of the group. The concept of TPP, developed in 1999, was the brainchild of Bernard Martyris (Martyris), Senior Vice-President, HR, IHCL, and his core team. The concept, originally planned to be called as 'The Womb to Tomb Approach,' covered all the aspects of an employee's career, from joining the group until his/her retirement.
The Taj People Philosophy Contd...
TPP was based on the key points of the Taj employee charter (Refer Table I). It was developed in line with the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM)5. Explaining the rationale for implementing the philosophy, Martyris said, "It is to achieve that international benchmarking in hospitality, and HR must fit into it."
TABLE I
Some of the key points of the Taj Charter are given below:
• Every employee of the Taj Group would be an important member in the Taj family.
• The Taj family would always strive to attract, retain and reward the best talent in the industry.
• The Taj family would commit itself to formal communication channels, which would foster transparency.
Source: www.tata.com
According to him, the three major areas of TPP included work systems and processes; learning and development; and employee welfare. As part of the TPP, the Taj Group introduced a strong performance management6 system, called the Balanced Scorecard System (BSS) that linked individual performance with the group's overall strategy.
BSS was based on a model developed by Kaplan and Nortan7, and focused on enhancing both individual as well as enterprise performance. BSS measured the performance of employees across all hierarchical levels against a set of predefined targets and identified their variances. Martyris explained, "We are looking at a matrix form of organization which cuts across hierarchy. It is important to understand the potential of people." Therefore, BSS was implemented even at the lowest levels of the hierarchy.
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