5 July 2018 (Hong Kong) – Wharf Hotels’ Human Resources division, has been awarded as one of Asia’s Top HR Teams for 2018 by Human Resources Director (HRD) magazine. The award gives recognition to outstanding HR teams in Asia that have successfully driven innovation throughout their organisation.
HRD is the only magazine written for and targeted purely towards the most senior HR professionals and top corporate HR decision makers in Asia. HRD is an industry-benchmark publication supporting both the business and best practice functional requirements placed on heads of HR in their evolving roles.
The guide to Asia’s Top HR Teams reveals those who are embracing innovation to emerge as the leaders in their respective industries. Nuhudra Syed, News Editor of HRD stated, “This innovation is seen in the adoption of new technology, HR service delivery, change management, and HR mainstays like diversity & inclusion and learning & development.”
Wharf Hotels’ area of excellence includes recruitment, learning and development, performance management and leadership. The corporate HR team headed by Ms Juliette Lim, Vice President Human Resources, is responsible for all aspects of HR at 3 Niccolo and 13 Marco Polo Hotels as well as its 100 corporate Associates. An international HR expert with over 20 years of experience in talent management, process improvement, brand management and quality assurance, Juliette joined Wharf Hotels in 2016, seeing the need to revitalise HR by moving away from micro management in favour of a lean Six Sigma, result-optimising approach, shifting the focus from the administration to one centred on talent management.
Since then, Wharf Hotels’ HR division has undergone a complete transformation, beginning with talent acquisition, which made the biggest leap and achieved the most impact.
“Over the past 24 months, our team has undergone a successful phase of transformation across multiple functions, and I am honoured to be recognised in this category as the only hospitality group, alongside 16 other winners from renowned multi-national corporations. I offer my thanks to HRD Asia which further motivates all HR professionals and embraces innovation to emerge as leaders in their respective industries. We will continue and strive to be the Number 1 leader in the industry,” said Juliette.
To boost recruitment efforts, the HR team at Wharf Hotels focused on crafting creative social media ads, followed by a group-wide initiative to actively promote job openings through different platforms. The same creative approach was used to promote opportunities for career development, which created an overall impression of the company as a growing and thriving organisation. With these initiatives in place, all recruitment is handled in-house, which significantly reduced recruitment expenses by 68.48% compared to 2017.
Wharf Hotels’ Learning & Development team also benefited from the transition from a traditional conservative training format to an extensive organisational learning platform. New syllabi were developed to build competencies of property trainers, and hiring managers were coached on how to spot talent. A revamped orientation toolkit was created to ensure seamless and memorable on-boarding for new associates, and measures were introduced to assess associates’ performance against defined goals.
To ensure long-term sustainability of its efforts, the company established the ‘Red Ring Leadership Philosophy’ to guide its leaders on how to grow a culture that fostered inclusion and ambition among its Associates. Among other things, the philosophy and the road map have led the team to develop a recovery system for addressing guest satisfaction, and craft a model on operational excellence to coach associates on applying the ‘zero error zero waste’ approach throughout their daily operations.
For more information about Wharf Hotels, visit wharfhotels.com.
About Wharf Hotels
The Spirit of Discovery
Emanating the spirit of discovery, Wharf Hotels, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd, is based in Hong Kong and currently operates 16 owned or managed hotels under Niccolo or Marco Polo Hotels in Hong Kong, China and the Philippines. Niccolo Hotels was added to the group’s portfolio in 2015 as the new luxury collection, positioning the brand as contemporary urban chic. The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel, opened in January 2018 as the brand's flagship hotel, with 2 new Niccolo hotels currently under development in China following successful openings in Chengdu and Chongqing. Marco Polo’s deluxe hotels in established locations maintain their ethos to explore, discover and experience a destination, drawing on the philosophies of its namesake, Marco Polo: an adventurer, a traveller, an entrepreneur and a connoisseur of culture - just as Marco Polo’s modern travellers are today. Further details are available at wharfhotels.com.
About Global Hotel Alliance
Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands, bringing together more than 35 brands with over 500 hotels in 78 countries. GHA uses a shared technology platform to drive incremental revenues and create cost savings for its member brands. GHA’s award-winning loyalty programme, DISCOVERY, provides 11 million members exclusive opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture wherever they travel. For more information, visit gha.com.