Submitted by:Nisha Agrawal

N V Jagadeesh Kumar T

Ritz Carlton Hotel• 1898- Cesar Ritz worked in some of the finest hotels and

restaurants in the city• 1899- Opened the grand hotel with his name The Ritz-Carlton

Hotel Company• 1983- Survivor even after one Great Depression and two world

wars• 1983-1997- Expanded domestically and internationally under the

Johnson Company’s ownership.• 1997- Marriott International purchased The Ritz-Carlton• 2000- The Ritz-Carlton was primarily a management company

operating 38 hotels and resorts across the globe.

Millennium Partners

• New York-based real estate development group founded in 1990

• Create high end luxury apartments that would command premium prices because of light, height and views

• To solve the problem of convincing customers that they provide great service they ended up with the idea of luxury hotel

Business Model

Two key indicators of success in the hotel industry:

• Average daily return (ADR)• Revenue per available room (Rev PAR)

Two main customer groups:• Independent travellers• Meeting event planners

Quality at Ritz-Carlton

• Emphasis on HR• TQM• Service quality indicators (SQI)• Creation of sticky relationship

HR at Ritz-Carlton• Respect for employees• Enlisting employees not only for physical labour but also for their brain,

heart & soul• “day 21” event for new hire to assess the degree to which it has lived up

to the promises made to its employees during orientation & initial trainingEg: career advancement opportunities

• Offered extensive formal & informal training to the employees to fulfil their current obligations & to accept positions of greater responsibility & accountability in the future.

• Employees with advancement ambitions were encouraged to cross-train• Performance was assessed not only against SQI but also managed by

employees themselves• Award for outstanding works:

– Small award – with in department– Larger reward – at the hotel level

The Ritz-Carlton hotel – opening process

• Running an ongoing operation & opening a new hotel are two different core competencies

• The activity for creating new hotels were two-pronged – Dealing with the development of the site itself– Involving the HR processes necessary to get the

hotel up and running• The hotel development process was assessed

against performance quality indicators (PQI)

The property

• Decision made before opening any new hotel:– Site selection– Concept / new – product development– Feasibility studies– Management contract negotiation

• Customize each hotel to meet local market demands

Staffing the new hotelProperty Owners

General Manager Director of Marketing Controller

Functional Managers

Line staff members

Already Operating

Line-Staff Selected & Trained by relevant team members

Leadersselect

Focus on key HR practices to minimize failures

• Personal Recruitment• Selection• Training

Personal Recruitment

• For technical expertise or higher level service delivery position, prior experienced people were hired

• For entry level positions, novices were acceptable

Ritz Carlton job fair

• Selection procedure of all the individuals who had applied

• After the warm welcome, the applicants had to go through screening questionnaire

• Then proceed to a structured interview• Each individual was escorted “fond farewell”• Pre employment call back process to reduce the attrition

that occur during the lag between the job offer & the start date

• New employees were treated as customers

The seven day countdown

• First two days – orientation about Ritz-Carlton culture & values

• Remaining five days – specific skills training and trail runs of service delivery

Day one : staff orientation

• Pep rally by new employees with other members of their divisions

• Gathering of all the employees in the large ballroom with video cameras hooked up to TVs providing a simulcast of all activity

• Introduction followed by a video describing company’s history, philosophy and values, Ritz-Carlton's milestones, the awards they had won and their new hotels

Gold standards• The credo – this is who i am from now on• Three steps of service

– Recognition of guests– Anticipating needs– Fond farewell

• The motto – we are ladies & gentlemen serving ladies & gentlemen

• The employee promise• The twenty basics• Service philosophy• Leadership Orientation

Why orientation is important?

• When an organization shares their dreams, heart & soul with their new employees they convey their expectations.

• Change behaviour through significant emotional experience

Day two : departmental vision session

• Group exercise• Schulze explained the concept of their product &

service

Day three through seven : skills training

• First two of the remaining five days– Uniform fitting were scheduled – Personal grooming sessions were conducted– Employees were introduced to the daily line-up

procedure• Life safety instruction• Handling guest difficulties• Last three days – technical training in real life setting• Observed by corporate steering committee

Whether the seven-day time frame limited the hotel’s ability to open at a higher occupancy

rate?• No• Occupancy rate doesn’t completely depends

upon the employees.• Goodwill of the company.• Ability to customize their service according to

local needs.

Whether extra training would help the employees to further polish their service skills?

• Yes because it was difficult to train new hires to meet the high expectations of the Ritz-Carlton service standards only in seven days.

• But it was a worldwide practice for the company.

• It has successfully opened hotels previously using the same training program.

Should McBride change the SEVEN DAY Countdown process?

• No• The cost involved might be high but the

benefits might not outweigh the cost..• Practice makes a man perfect.

Thank You