THE
TAJ'S PEOPLE PHILOSOPHY AND STAR SYSTEM
continued from THE TAJ People Philosophy
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The group believed that talent management[1] 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)[2] .
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
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Some of the key points of
the Taj Charter are given below:
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Every employee of the Taj Group would be an important member in the
Taj family.
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The Taj family would always strive to attract, retain and reward the
best talent in the industry.
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The Taj family would commit itself to formal communication channels,
which would foster transparency.
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As part of the TPP, the Taj Group introduced a strong performance management[[3]
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 Nortan[4] , 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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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.
The group also took strong measures to weed out under-performers. The
group adopted the 360-degree feedback system to evaluate the performance
of all top officials, from the Managing Director to departmental managers,
in which they were evaluated by their immediate subordinates. The
360-degree feedback was followed by personal interviews of individuals to
counsel them to overcome their deficiencies. |
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The Taj Group also established Centers of Excellence for
its 14,000 employees at five locations in India including Jaipur, Bangalore,
Ernakulam, Chennai and Hyderabad. At these centers, departmental heads in each
functional area were trained. These departmental heads later trained their own
staff. The training included foundation modules and accreditation programs that
familiarized the employees with Taj standards.
Apart from adopting stringent measures to improve performance, Taj also
recognized and rewarded its best employees across all levels of the
organization. For this purpose, Taj created a unique employee loyalty and
reward program known as STARS. Describing the program, Martyris said, "It's an
HR initiative aimed at creating an association 'between our star performers and
our brand, the Taj.'"
[1] 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.
[2]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.
[3]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.
[4]
Professors at the Harvard Business School (HBS).
THE STAR SYSTEM
THE FUTURE PLANS
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