The Taj's People Philosophy and Star System

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Employees could also earn points through appreciation by customers, 'compliment-a-colleague' forums8 and various suggestion schemes. Employees could also get 'default points' if the review committee did not give feedback to the employee within two days of his/her offering a suggestion for the betterment of the organization. In such cases, the employee concerned was awarded '20 default points.' Hence, in an indirect manner, the system compelled judges of the review committee to give feedback to employees as early as possible. STARS helped employees work together as a team and appreciate fellow employees for their acts of kindness and excellence. It enhanced their motivation levels and led to increased customer satisfaction. In one case, a bellboy in one of the group's hotel who received an American customer went out of his way to care for the customer. Noticing that the customer, who had arrived late at night, was suffering from cold, he offered to bring him a doctor. However, the customer refused the boy's offer. The bellboy then, on his own, offered a glass of warm water mixed with ginger and honey, a traditional Indian home remedy for cough and cold.

The customer felt surprised and also happy at the bellboy's gesture. He left a note of appreciation for him, which added to his existing points. According to the number of points accumulated, employees would receive a star, which could be pinned on to their coat. When a certain number of points were collected, employees received gift hampers, cash vouchers or a vacation in a Taj Hotel of their choice in India. The winners of STARS were felicitated at a function held in Taj, Mumbai. The winners' photographs were displayed on a big screen at the function and they received awards given by the MD of the Taj Group. This awards ceremony significantly boosted their morale.

The STARS program had generated lot of attention among the employees at the Taj Group. During the initial phase, not every hotel seemed to be serious about adopting STARS, but after the first awards ceremony was conducted, every hotel in the group reportedly became very serious about the implementation of STARS. Reportedly, customer satisfaction levels increased significantly after the implementation of STARS. Commenting on the success of STARS, Martyris said, "After the campaign was launched, a large number of employees have started working together in the true spirit of teams and this helps us value our human capital. There are stars all around us but very often we look only at stars outside the system. Many employees do that extra bit and go that extra mile, out of the way to dazzle the customer satisfaction with employee recognition. Employee recognition is, hence, directly linked to customer satisfaction. It is recognition for the people, of the people and by the people." STARS was also used by the group as an appraisal system, in addition to its regular appraisal system.

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8] The program encourages the employees to work together and compliment each other.

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