Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), that runs the Taj group of hotels, will be hiring 3,000 during this financial year. This includes recruitment for new properties and back fills due to attrition. The company will be opening seven new properties this financial year, after the two that it has already opened.
?We will be hiring 1,500 to 1,800 people for new properties and if you take attrition, then we are looking at a number of 3,000 this financial year,? said HN Shrinivas, senior vice-president, human resources and business excellence, IHCL. He added, ?We have put in place an enterprise strategic workforce plan which takes into account front log of requirements for new properties and back fill for attrition. We know how many people we would be requiring in the next couple of years and as we go closer, it will be fine-tuned.?
Currently, IHCL has a total workforce of 22,000 across its domestic and overseas properties and would have around 25,000 by the end of financial year 2011-12. In India, it has a workforce of 18,000. During the economic downturn and the terror attack in Mumbai, IHCL had undertaken steps like re-locating and re-positioning its existing workforce to cater to its requirements. About the attrition rate at IHCL, Shrinivas said, ?Our attrition rate is less than industry levels. It is around 14% compared to the industry, which is around 20%.? On pay scale, Shrinivas said the industry has come out of the worst in 2009, wherein there were no salary corrections as also staff took a cut in bonus. ?We have come out of it and see the next year to be the best for us,? he said.
Rashesh Shah, research analyst at ICICI Direct.com, says, ?It is an ongoing process. With a large number of properties expected to be added this financial year by various hotel chains, it is imperative for companies to recruit.? He added that the growing competition in the hotel industry has also seen attrition rates go up. Talking about the industry at large, he said there was no major turnaround expected in the hotel industry in the next one to two years. ?The average room rates (ARRs) are still under pressure, despite improvements seen in the occupancy rates. We are still far from going back to the levels of 2007, which was the best year for the industry, with ARRs going up as much as 20% in the country.?
According to a report by Naukri.com, a job portal, the total number of hospitality jobs posted on the website were 1,322 in the March this year over 940 jobs in October 2008. In a report complied by the website, the first quarter of 2011 has witnessed a healthy hiring sentiment as the Naukri job speak index for March 2011 stood at 1,085 as compared to 1,050 in Febraury 2011.