London Heathrow Marriott
Organisation Size: 200
Sector: Leisure, Travel and Tourism
Organisation Location: South East
“What can make a difference to our business are associates that are really in tune with customers. Investors in People makes this happen.”
“Investors in People provides the cornerstone for the success of our business.”
Human resources manager Anne Davey
The Organisation
Investors in People has provided the cornerstone for the foundation of a the 390-room London hotel, which has already developed an excellent reputation and exceeded all revenue expectations since opening in January 1999.
The hotel set itself a tough target, recruiting over 200 employees (known as 'associates') in six months and opening on time and within budget. All of these goals were achieved and Investors in People played a vital role because "it kept us focused on things that really added value to our business," according to human resources manager Anne Davey. She adds:
"It was common sense to be committed from a greenfield site. It meant that everything we did was built around the indicators and standards of Investors in People. We felt it would also add value to our recruitment drive, as we knew people would want to see evidence of the sort of training we would give them."
Focusing on attitudes
Having committed to Investors in People in June 1998, the hotel was accredited in September 1999. This was after going through a pre-opening evaluation period in January 1999, setting key goals and targets for positions in April and carrying out a career and personal development review in September. The Marriott approach is not to focus on skills but to concentrate on attitudes and the behavioural aspects of the business.
"Associates that are really in tune with customers can make a big difference," explains Anne Davey. "We carried out a huge amount of service excellence training, looking at things through the customer's eyes and concentrating on service and communication skills. We believe we now have the best associates in the market."
A training programme called 'Spirit to Serve' was run not just by Anne and her human resources department but by the executive team. In the same way, the overall business plan was drawn up by the whole management team, underlining the huge level of commitment to the process.
Something for everyone
Associates and customers alike have benefited from the Investors in People process. The Marriott ethos is that giving associates an exceptional environment in which to work - and the right tools to do the job – means happy customers who will come back to the hotel and recommend it to others. Just as importantly, the company's shareholders will be satisfied because they will be achieving a better return on their capital employed.
The results speak for themselves. In an associate survey carried out after the first six months of operation, 88% said they were happy with how they were employed and trained by the hotel. This was a top score amongst London hotels and the third highest in the UK. At the same time, customer satisfaction was 80% and in the first year of operation this translated into the business being £2m over budgeted revenue.
Since the opening, the commitment of the hotel's management team to Investors in People has not waned. Anne Davey believes there are still new challenges ahead. In an external business benchmarking survey the hotel scored highly - evidence that it is continuing to implement, evaluate and refine the procedures that it committed to at the very beginning of the process.