TALENT & RECRUITMENT
O
verlooking London’s Hyde Park, and neighbouring Buckingham Palace, the Mandarin Oriental
Hyde Park is one of Knightsbridge’s most iconic buildings. The luxury hotel’s 115- year heritage has seen its magnificent Edwardian marble ballroom host a young Queen Elizabeth’s dance lessons. Today, it aspires to be London’s premier
hotel in line with the wider Mandarin Oriental group’s
ambition of being
recognised as the world’s leading luxury hotel company. Over the past 12 months, the human
resources team has had to plan and manage the 500-strong – and rising – headcount carefully as the hotel undergoes a comprehensive refurbishment. Half of its inventory is out of action while the renovation is underway. Further investment in a major new spa, which is scheduled to open in spring 2018, is planned. Now, midway through the project, the
focus of the hotel’s HR business plan is very much on ramping up recruitment and attracting, engaging and retaining the team of people who will lead and deliver superlative service and exceed guests’ evolving expectations with sensitivity and confidence. This means developing an international
talent pipeline and engaging directly with the retention issue in the hospitality sector ahead of Brexit by working towards the launch of a new employer value proposition, engagement strategy, development and rewards package.
HR and design inspired by history I met Jon Dawson, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park’s director of human resources, in the middle of the hotel’s two-year discreetly managed refurbishment. The atmosphere is very much business as usual, with the first fruits of the two-stage renovation programme styled by designer Joyce Wang now in evidence. With at least three major hotel
relaunches and refurbishments, including the Grade 1-listed St Pancras Renaissance and Marriott International’s EDITION lifestyle-brand boutique hotels, in his career portfolio, Mr Dawson was approached by Gérard Sintès, general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park some years before the project began. “I said, ‘When the scaffolding goes up,
please feel free to give me a call should an opportunity arise’ – so he did!” remarked Mr Dawson over tea in the hotel’s Rosebery Lounge, as he explained his journey to Knightsbridge which took him via the
Midlands, Miami Beach and New York. “What we want to do here is build
something very special. This is an opportunity to take a well-established and reputable brand, and take it to a different level. From an HR perspective, part of this strategy is about how we engage our colleagues in a luxury setting.”
Creative approaches to HR Tying in with the 2017 CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) Annual Conference’s theme of embracing the new world of work, Mr Dawson recalled his time at Marriott International’s EDITION brand, and explained the ideas the team were bringing to HR at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. “At EDITION, we took everything about
how you think of a traditional hotel and turned it on its head. We really challenged each other, and designed teams and ways of working that had never been seen before. It sounds simple, but the reason Marriott wanted to create this new hotel brand was to tap into a new market sector and the luxury lifestyle space. “Marriott Hotels realised there was a
new type of modern luxury in the hotel market to attract people from the fashion, music, art and entertainment sectors, because there was no real hotel brand out there for them on a global scale. So we said, OK, if that is who our guests are, we don’t necessarily want to employ traditional hotel workers because they may not understand that space. Why don’t we target employees from the creative class because they may want to come and work in hospitality? For the Mandarin Oriental Hyde
Park, its location and guest profile mean a slightly different approach to engaging talent. Mr Dawson is again calling on the skills of partners in the creative sector to deliver the hotel’s people strategy and complement the refurbishment’s elegance and attention to detail. This time, reaffirming the Mandarin
Oriental Hyde Park’s historic links with the arts and putting the hotel’s opulent ballroom at centre stage, Mr Dawson and the team are working closely and creatively behind the scenes on a collaboration with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). “We are working with the RAD to
help us develop the poise, posture and level of sophistication we need to have to move around. The whole strategy of the refurbishment is to be relevant and different. “Those are words we use quite a lot. For
example, little touches such as preempting guests’ needs and being emotionally engaged in conversations; looking for these
Jon Dawson, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park’s director of HR
clues as to how we can take guest services to the next level.”
Talent management strategy A luxury hotel competing at the highest level must have a people strategy to match. Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park’s talent management strategy has global reach, bringing people in from around the world on graduate trainee programmes and international talent development postings. “We’ve put in place a new graduate
programme, so we have three new graduates in food and beverage, and three in rooms operations,” explained Mr Dawson, who had just returned from a visit to world-leading hospitality management schools in Ireland to recruit for June 2018. A junior manager also at the hotel on
the day of my interview with him had just received a letter to say his application to join the team at a new Mandarin Oriental opening in the Caribbean had been accepted. “It is the next step up on the career path for him,” said Mr Dawson. “Yesterday,” he added, “one of my team
was interviewing a colleague from Mandarin Oriental Bodrum (which slows down after the summer season) who wants some experience here in London. She’s a British national, so there’s no problem with visas, and the transfer process can be processed promptly to help her grow with the company.” However, the hospitality
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