What have been the biggest talent challenges for Accor since the pandemic started? How did the organisation tackle these?
These unprecedented times undoubtedly have been challenging for the hospitality sector. Migrating to flexible working arrangements such as work from home, part-time contract, handling multiple roles, flexible working hours culture is unconventional to the hospitality industry and needed change across multiple aspects. At Accor, we believe in being transparent and empathetic, ensuring that everyone is aligned to developments at the global level as well as in India. This means honestly communicating with our teams on the ground and empowering them to find solutions to help us all wade through this crisis and emerge stronger. The situation called for tough decisions and we had to reduce pay due to lower business levels. However, we provided financial assistance to our employees with Accor’s Heartist Fund, supporting them and their families in difficult times.
Many of our hotels were open and the safety of our employees was top priority. With ‘ALLSAFE’ – our new cleanliness and prevention standards – we have been taking all possible measures to keep our employees and guests safe. For our colleagues, who are working from home as well as in the hotels, we are providing free online learning opportunities to sharpen their skill sets. Accor Academy, which provides digital learning, on the job and classroom training, with learning partners such as e-Cornell, LinkedIn Learning and getAbstract, offered select courses to all our employees.
What does the talent roadmap look like for the next year? What are the topmost priorities?
There has been a complete shift in the workspace as the environment called for taking up multiple roles and stepping up to work across departments. For the next year as well, we will be looking for employees who are willing to work in an unconventional culture and are willing to be flexible and agile.
Going forward, at Accor, we will be moving from static to an agile workforce planning approach, one that can continuously reshape the workforce in response to the changes in business and skill requirements. We will be focusing on reskilling and capability enhancement of existing talent in tune with new-age hospitality and emerging roles. Also, we will be reintroducing roles into skill clusters which will be a combination of build and buy strategies
What do you see as the skillsets of the future in the hospitality industry?
First and foremost is the ability of employees to have the right belief system, to tackle the constantly changing landscape in 2021. Employees with the right mindset will be equipped to handle turbulence and stress effectively. Other key and vital requirements will be innovative thinking, open mindedness, multi-skilled approach, optimism, as well as being intellectually and emotionally proficient to understand and match the paradigm shift in the expectation from guests.
The hospitality sector has been one of the hardest hit during this pandemic. Amidst difficult times, how are you focusing on the mental health of employees?
Employees are the backbone of Accor and our focus is always on the well-being of our employees and their families. Amid this crisis, we have prioritised the mental and physical well-being of our staff through a range of programmes and apps that can be used at home. Accor in India initiated the Accor Employee Well-being and Assistance Program to help employees remain calm under pressure, deal with difficulties and resolve personal and professional issues better. The programme gives team members 24/7 access to experienced and trained counsellors to help them achieve emotional well-being during stressful situations and support them in their quest for mindfulness.
We have also organised a series of webinars on mental health conversations, coping with stress, etc. to encourage employees’ understanding of the importance of psychological well-being and to encourage conversations with professional psychologists. This time also called for extraordinary compassion, so in April 2020, we launched the ALL Heartist Fund, a €70m Covid-19 special purpose vehicle to assist employees suffering great financial distress.