The Balmoral Hotel
“Profile was a very rewarding process to go through.
It highlighted what we needed to do in a new way”
Caron Jones, Human Resources Manager, the Balmoral Hotel
The Business
The Balmoral is one of the leading hotels in Edinburgh and part of Rocco Forte Hotels, which is a luxury hotel group with properties located throughout Europe.
Each hotel within Rocco Forte Hotels reflects the individuality of its location and offers outstanding design, delivering the highest standards of guest comfort. The Balmoral is committed to achieving the highest possible standards. It operates with the aim of being the 'best hotel in Britain' and has been awarded five stars by the RAC.
The hotel has a diverse workforce with over seventeen nationalities being represented amongst its 260 people. This includes a significant number from central and eastern Europe. For many of the employees English is not their first language.
Involvement with Investors in People
The hotel has been recognised as an Investor in People since 2002 reflecting the long-standing value in the Standard for The Balmoral.
TheBackground
- Change management
- Deeper level of understanding wanted
Investors in People was valued by the hotel's human resource team because of the way it supported disciplined processes of people management.
In approaching its most recent assessment, however, the management team was interested in gaining a deeper level of understanding on how it was performing. The hotel had recently undergone a significant 'change management' process and the management team wanted to use Investors in People as a tool to identify which point the hotel had reached as part of the process of moving the business forward. This meant it wanted the findings of Assessors presented in a more discriminating way. The introduction of Profile provided an ideal opportunity to achieve this.
Approaching Profile
Considerable time was spent by the Human Resource Manager with the Assessors in advance of the assessment in order to plan effectively. The fact that no special paperwork needed to be prepared in advance was valued. However, it was important to discuss and clarify some of the evidence requirements, contextualising them in terms of the hotel industry. Because of the relatively large number of non-UK citizens working in the hotel it was important to take time in explaining to them the purpose of the Profile assessment and the questions which they might have to answer. Pains were taken to reassure them that the process would be entirely confidential.
Working with Profile
The assessment took place over a period of three days. Inevitably, because a hotel operates on a 24/7 timetable and staff work shifts, it was important to co-ordinate the Assessors' attendance with the availability of the staff they wanted to interview. Managers gave up a significant amount of time to speak with the Assessors but no one begrudged this as they appreciated its value to an effective assessment outcome.
Feedback and results
Immediately following the assessment there was a meeting between the Assessors and the General Manager and Human Resource Manager to give an indication of where the hotel stood in relation to the Profile framework. The detailed report followed within a couple of weeks.
The findings of the Profile assessment met the needs of Balmoral management in being detailed and perceptive. The feedback from Assessors was regarded as being “extremely valuable” and underlined where the management’s priorities should lie. The conclusions from Profile were fed directly into the next quarterly management strategy meeting and are being used by the management team as part of their planning for the future.