The Caterer interview Dawn Wynne The chief people officer at Dalata Hotel
Group shares her HR priorities and explains to Jungmin Seo how Dalata Academy’s programmes help the people pipeline
What’s your background in HR? When I came out of university with an MA in languages, I did a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development course. That was very much about personnel and man- agement, and probably quite admin- and payroll-focused. Prior to that I had an opera- tional background, so I worked as a regional operations manager and as a deputy general manager at various properties, including the Burlington hotel in Dublin. Then, in 2008, I joined Dalata as HR man-
ager in one of its hotels and worked my way up to our central office, where I was promoted to chief people officer.
How has the HR department changed over the years? In terms of changes to what HR is broadly focused on, we now place a huge amount of emphasis on wellbeing and employee engage- ment. At Dalata, we do two full-on, whole com- pany surveys a year and from there every hotel creates an action plan and submits it back to us, so we have a huge amount of listening and two-way feedback that goes on. We are also prepared to work with people
flexibly and I think that’s a huge thing. Before, positions were a little bit more rigid and were pretty much full-time. People who wanted casual work would have worked in a bar, but now the way of working has completely changed due to hybrid models.
What are your priorities as chief people officer at Dalata Hotel Group? We’re such a people-focused business and, with 53 hotels, seven new openings and three live acquisitions over the past 18 months, we’re in a really rapid period of growth. My focus
is very much on developing our people pipe- line and making sure we’ve got a really strong succession plan into 2024 and 2025. We also have a number of new hotels com-
ing on board and we’re always looking to grow, which is really exciting for our employees and prospective employees.
Do you tend to promote from within or recruit afresh? We recruit through all channels, but our main focus is on developing an internal pipeline of people. In the past year we’ve had 695 inter- nal promotions, so that’s a huge amount of talent that we’re generating from within the company. That’s why we have 17 development programmes and we also have the Dalata Academy, which is our own school of hospi- tality and strategic leadership. We put everybody through those courses so
we have that pipeline. We’re thinking about succession – about who is ready for that next assistant front office manager role or food and beverage role. When we hire anew, we see what’s available in terms of talent. We’re prepared to train people up from the very basics, from how to make a bed or carry a tray all the way up to management.
How does the Dalata Academy work? We formalised the Dalata Academy in around 2015 or 2016, and at the time we brought in a general manager’s development pro- gramme, so it was originally designed for people to become general managers in the future. Since then it has grown to 17 devel- opment programmes with content spanning entry-level roles, such as a food and beverage assistant or a waiter to programmes for heads of department, financial programmes, HR
“Our main focus is really
developing an internal pipeline of people”
24 | The Caterer | 26 January 2024
www.thecaterer.com
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PHOTO: DAVID CANTWELL PHOTOGRAPHY
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