The architect of the plan, G S Randhawa, who is director (human resources), Hyatt Regency, says, ``Enhancing productivity and retention of employees are the key objectives of the plan.''

In the hospitality sector, there is no tomorrow. Every function has to be dispensed with on time, by the rightperson. But, what happens when an employee is not available for manning a particular function? The programme plans to bring in multi-skilling of employees so that ``exigencies such as retirement of an employee, change in positions of employees,

inter-departmental transfers, death of an employee, or vacancies arising due to employees going on leave or resigning from their posts, will not hamper the organisation's service quality,'' says Randhawa.

Cross-training is indeed one way of enhancing teamwork. It also provides back-up support in instances where several posts fall vacant. Moreover, through a systematic multi-skilling programme, employees can be empowered to act in various capacities. It is perhaps one of the best ways of encouraging in-house job promotions and placement. Says Randhawa: ``There is a dearth of well-qualified and well-trained professionals in the hotel industry. That being the case, it is best to promote your own personnel to man all the key positions instead of recruiting fromoutside. Internal placement is the answer to retention problems.''

Interestingly, training also brings down the cost of labour. Says the HR director, ``Labour is abundant, but is not well-trained. Because of this, their employment is not cost-effective as the supervision costs remain high. Training helps in making their employment cost-effective. Moreover, low competency of labour necessitates a higher number to be employed in the organisation.''

``The objective is to bring about a structured system in the unstructured systems,'' he says.

The plan is not a set recipe for promotions for all. Instead, its relevance would depend on the initiatives taken by the department heads and the individuals in their respective capacities. In one sense, the Succession Plan is an effort at consolidating the gains from employee recognition programmes conducted in the organisation. Randhawa refers to the instance of a utility worker being promoted to the post of restaurant manager, to underline Hyatt's merit-based HRpolicy.

Now that Hyatt plans to expand its operations in other parts of the country, multi-skilling of the employees help the organisation draw the right kind of people from the reserve to be appointed at many of its new locations.Randhawa has informed all the departments to ``identify the specific positions where succession planning is required.''

The departments will also have to see ``how the potential employees can be equipped for the identified position.''

``The departmental heads shall be required to do succession matrix planning with a view of ensuring smooth succession and to fill vacancies at lateral and vertical levels as and when these occur. This is a pro-active approach towards forecasting the requirement of manpower for key positions,'' the plan recommends.

``Succession matrix planning would develop a potential employee's technical knowledge, time management, leadership skills and multi-skilled approach,'' states the plan.

``The individual will be appraised time to time during thecourse of planned development, further probing into the areas of improvement and highlighting strengths.''

While the training department will take care of the established training needs in respect of in-house training, the department itself will be responsible for: