The Art of Managing Talent

By Allen Law, a member of EO Singapore and CEO of the Park Hotel Group

We are in an age of War for Talents. Attracting and retaining talent is a key issue which most companies face. Talent management is more than just recruiting people fit for the job; regular reviews of internal human resource policies and practices enable companies to constantly keep up with changing demands of the competitive workforce. I have learnt three main approaches from my experience as a rank-and-file staff member cross-deployed in various departments in Park Hotel Hong Kong:

Developing new jobs: Think beyond conventional job descriptions and work scopes, and look into providing employees with job satisfaction and more exposure to different skill sets. With varied tasks and multi-skilling, employees gain diverse job experiences, and may learn about different aspects of the organization and industry. For example, we have a multi-skilling job scheme at Park Hotel Group, where employees rotate around three main hotel departments, namely Front Office, Food & Beverage, and Housekeeping. In addition to picking up different skills, these employees are able to contribute to resolving manpower shortage issues. At the end of the day, the organization also benefits from higher productivity and efficiency levels.

Training as an investment: Despite the high attrition rate of the hospitality industry, I see the importance of allocating capital on staff training and have invested in setting up an in-house academy equipped with a team of accredited trainers. To me, training cultivates employees’ sense of belonging and ownership. This, in turn, encourages them to grow with the company, which helps reduce turnover. It is also useful to align internal training programmes with industry accreditations, as this lends credibility to both employee capabilities and organisational competitiveness. These courses also form the foundation for employees’ career-based training, upgrading pathways and skills recognition.

Care for employees: Take measures to ensure the safety and health of every employee. Employees need to know that they are genuinely being cared for, and this goes beyond remuneration packages. Training and communicating with employees on the importance on work safety also allows better understanding of everyone’s role in building and sustaining a safe work environment.

Talent management is a common conversational topic with business associates. As every industry and company has different practices, there is no cookie-cutter approach in managing talent. Therefore it is all the more crucial for employers and human resource personnel to implement employee-friendly initiatives, and create an attractive organisational culture ideal for retaining talent.