The Taj's People Philosophy and Star System

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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. 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." According to him, the three major areas of TPP included work systems and processes; learning and development; and employee welfare.

Table I
Key Points of the Taj Charter

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

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.

The BSS included an Employee Satisfaction Tracking System (ESTS), which solved employees' problems on a quarterly basis. As a part of ESTS, Taj carried out an organization wide employee satisfaction survey in mid 2000 of about 9000 employees. According to this survey, the reported satisfaction level was about 75 percent. The group aimed to increase this level to 90-95 percent, and eventually to 100 percent.

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4] The strategic and tactical management of talent in the organization. Talent Management is a strategic business function that involves an organization's ability to attract, recruit, hire and retain the right talent at the right time and align it with its business goals.
5] TBEM provides guidelines for the introduction of business systems into the organization and correlates business performance and rewards to individuals. The TBEM includes systems for reviewing talent and offering opportunities across various functions within the group companies.
6] Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a total work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves the organization.
7] Professors at the Harvard Business School (HBS).

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