7 Key Steps for Better Training and

Development Programs
1. Benchmark against the competition
Before agreeing to support a new initiative, company leaders always want to know
what the competition is doing and whether you’re doing more or less.
• 2. Survey your employees
The best source of information about organizational performance and needs are your
current employees. They know a lot about what’s going on and what, if anything,
should be changed.
• We held focus groups to see what current employees wanted and needed:
– They wanted to know what was expected of them, why it was needed, and how to do it.
– They wanted to be trained by someone who knew what they were talking about. We selected
supervisors or outstanding employees, and then trained them to be trainers so that they’d
know what and how to train, and how to make the training interesting, relevant and fun.
• Align training with management’s operating goals
• Run it like a business
• Weave it into your company’s culture
• Keep innovating
• Measure results
What L&D
L&D
• Learning and development is how the workforce capabilities are developed to achieve your
business goals and standards.
• To build a capable workforce learning and development needs to be planned. It should take place at
four different levels (depending on the size of your organisation):
– Legislative requirements: to meet regulatory requirements e.g. food safety, health and safety & alcohol
licensing
– Business needs: What capabilities are needed to enable the business to deliver its customer promise now
and in the future?
– Departments/job needs: What are the capabilities required to carry out a specific job or group of jobs?
– Individual needs: What personal capability does each individual, or team need to do their job effectively and
what new skills will they need to develop in the future?
• Key Factors to support learning and development are:
• Learning and development supports current and future business performance as well as enabling
individuals to develop their full potential.
– Clearly defined and circulated business goals, objectives and standards
– Clearly defined job roles, job descriptions and person specifications
– Robust induction process
– Assessment of existing skills at induction and on promotion
– Training provision that is suited to the learners learning style and personal circumstances
– A performance management system
– Encouragement for self-development through Continuous Professional Development (CPD) learning diaries
and reflection.
• The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and its subsidiaries, bring
together a group of brands and businesses that offer a fusion of
warm Indian hospitality and world-class service.
• Incorporated by the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata, the
Company opened its first hotel - the Taj Mahal Palace, in Bombay in
1903.
• Works on core philosophy of “TAJNESS” experience for its guest and
stakeholders
• IHCL has a portfolio of 170 hotels including 25 under development
globally across 4 continents, 12 countries and in over 80 locations.
• The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) is amongst South Asia’s
largest Indian hospitality company by market capitalization. It is
primarily listed on the BSE and NSE.

(https://www.tata.com/business/the-indian-hotels-company-taj-group)
 Challenges for IHCL
• Use of disruptive technological interventions (Airbnb; OYO
Rooms) and increased in competitions from international
major hotel groups may pose a challenge to brand Taj.
 Role of Learning and development at
IHCL
• To overcome the future challenges
• To develop and maintain the core competencies of personnel
• To improve the skill and behaviors of its support staff of core
functioning department, the training is imparted to
– Front office,
– Housekeeping
– Food production
– Marketing
– Sales
– Engineering
– Finance and accounts
– Safety and security
– Administration
IHCL –Learning and Development Systems
 INTRODUCTION

THE TATA Group always believe that employees are its greatest assets and
the very reason for the survival of their business.

THE TAJ always acknowledge and reward hard working employees for
excellent work.

THE TAJ ensures that the Human Resource Department

Co-ordinate with various other departments in order to identify the key
position , selection, recruitment, training and retention of candidates.
 TATA code of conduct
Health, safety and environment

A Tata company shall strive to provide a safe and

healthy working environment

Tata company shall be committed to prevent the

wasteful use of natural resources and minimise
any hazardous impact of the development,
production, use and disposal of any of its
products and services on the ecological
environment.
Equal-opportunities employer

A Tata company shall provide equal opportunities to

all its employees and all qualified applicants for
employment.
Employees of a Tata company shall be treated with
dignity and in accordance with the Tata policy of
maintaining a work environment free of sexual
harassment, whether physical, verbal or
psychological.
The Taj follows employee oriented programmes
which focus on empowering people to deliver
on their legacy of impeccable service.

1. Special Thanks and Recognition System

(STARS)
2. Taj People Philosophy (TPP)
3. Employee Satisfaction Tracking System (ESTS)
4. Development oriented Leadership
5. EARTH
 THE STAR SYSTEM
• ‘Happy employees lead to happy customers.’
• Operative throughout the year and open to all levels and
hierarchy.
• It aimed to identify, recognize and reward those employees
who excelled in their work.
• STARS had five different levels.
• Though employees did not receive any cash awards, they
gained recognition by the levels they attained through the
points they accumulated for their acts of kindness or
hospitality.
 STARS-Five Different levels

 LEVEL -1-was known as “silver grade”-120 points in

three month.
 LEVEL-2-Gold grde-130 points in three month of
attaining the silver grades.
 LEVEL-3-Platinum Grade-250 points within six months
of attaining the gold grade.
 LEVEL-4-chief operating officers club-510 or more
points ,but below 760 points.
 LEVEL-5-MD’s club-Highest Level in STARS-accumulated
760 or more points.
Points granted to employees on the basis of parameters
–like integrity, honesty, kindness, respect for
customers, environmental
awareness,teamwork,coordination, cooperation,
excellence in work, new initiatives,turstworthiness.
 THE TAJ PEOPLE PHILOSOPHY
 Developed In 2000.
 To show its commitment and belief in employees.
 TPP considered every aspect of employees'
organizational career planning, right from their
induction into the company till their superannuation.
 Helped the company boost the morale of its employees
and improve service standards
 In 2002 the group bagged the ’Hermes Award’for 'Best
Innovation in Human Resources' in the global
hospitality industry.
 Employee Satisfaction Tracking System

• The company gathers the data for these

measurements through a set of questions and
statements on every Employee Opinion Survey.
• Gives an employee the opportunity to provide
managers with candid feedback about their work
environment.
• As soon as survey responses are processed,
managers schedule meetings with employees to
discuss the survey results and develop action
plans to address the issues in the survey
Development Oriented Leadership

Development-Oriented Leader
One who values experimentation,
seeking new ideas, and generating
and implementing change.
 Major training programme and mode of delivery

• Classroom Training
– Training Enablement & Development (TREND)
– The Special Program for Employee Education and Development Plus
(SPEED+)
– Leadership Development Programme
– Manager Development Programme
– Mindfulness training
– Taj Management Training Programme (Food Production)
– Housekeeping Executive Development Programme
– Food Safety and hygiene training
– Safety trainings
• Full Scholarship is provided to two deserving employee to sponsor for 21 month
long fully paid MSc in Hospitality Management at the ESSEC business school
Campus in Paris. The participants undergo a mix of rigorous academics and hands-
on field experience in the area of E-Commerce, Real Estate & Development,
Entrepreneurship and Luxury Services Management.
 Contdd..
• On-the-job learning
– S.T.A.R.S (Special Thanks And Recognition System)
is an award-winning employee recognition
scheme used by IHCL group to recognise staff who
delight and dazzle the customers by continuously
performing acts of excellence.
• Department Trainers groomed through
Certified Taj Departmental Trainers (CTDT)
• e-learning Platform that combines
technology with pedagogy
 Effectiveness measurement of learning and
development

• IHCL mostly used the Kirkpatrick method to

judge effectiveness of the training
programme.
• Ultimately it uses ROI and customer
satisfaction survey to evaluate the
effectiveness of the learning and development
programme.
Future prospect and scope of learning
and Development
• Domestic tourism is likely to grow at a rapid pace by more than 14%
with the growth in the increasing disposable income of the middle-
class population and numerous initiatives taken by the
Government.
• So far IHCL, focus more on learning and development to its core
front staff and manager, while other support service staff who are
on other services like salon, spa etc are provided less opportunity to
learning and development. The behavior, attitude and skill of any
of the staff can either provide unique experience or dampen the
mood of the guest.
• should also focus equally on development of each and every staff
including the staff of economy hotel category
• it must develop Taj values in its hotel which they have less than 50%
stake as it will have significant impact on the brand value of the Taj
Group