EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWtraining to gain full experience and
skills,” says Jörg. “After all, this
wonderful industry can only deliver
outstanding service and ongoing
innovation with highly engaged and
well-trained professionals who
passionately see a long-term career.”
Jörg also feels that recruitment and
training are the responsibility of
company leaders, as opposed to leaving
it to the HR department — a
philosophy that he tries to instil
throughout the entire leadership team
so that there are always more eyes
looking both internally and externally
for committed and ambitious workers.
“We always have to be looking out for
who is making noise in the industry;
who is challenging the status quo, who
is going above and beyond, and who is
willing to work for it,” he says.
Retention will also remain a challenge
however, which Jörg thinks can be
addressed in the industry through
continued transparency and one-on-
one time with his colleagues to ensure
an ongoing investment in the business
and connection to its values and goals.
“At InterContinental Sydney we host
monthly all-colleague ‘In The Know’
afternoon teas to recognise colleagues
and business priorities. I also recently
hosted a series of intimate teas with
small groups of colleagues to spend
more one-on-one time and address
particular challenges. I found the more
one-on-one time I spent with
colleagues, the more invested and
personally accountable they became for
our business and its success,” he says.Not all conversations around the war
on talent should remain internal
though. As Jörg says, the whole
hospitality industry needs to tackle the
skills shortage with wider discussions
around the minimum wage as it’s
applied through the sector, and its
impacts on perceptions and the
desirability of a hospitality career. Visa
restrictions, too, will be having an
impact, particularly following Brexit
when many Europeans will potentially
be looking for different opportunities to
relocate for work, and an ultimate
change in cross-country commerce.“With the spotlight on bilateral trade
and visa agreements following the
recent change in Europe, I think we
need to start bringing it home and
asking how these decisions impact all
areas of our commerce; how these
decisions are being felt on local levels,”
he says. “These are the areas that are
going to shift the hospitality economy
for the better.” Looking ahead, inbound
tourism from China is also having a
profound affect on hotels, as Australia
is currently welcoming around 1.2
million Chinese tourists annually, and
the figure is rising. In April 2015, IHG
introduced its global ‘China Ready’
program — also called Zhou Dao, a
combination of IHG’s Chinese name
‘Zhou’ with the Chinese philosophical
concept of ‘Dao’, which means ‘the way’.“This program has been an incredible
success in understanding and
accommodating the Chinese market.
IHG now has a wealth of data and
insights into the market, the Chinese
traveller and Chinese etiquette. We
need to utilise this information to
ensure we are creating a welcoming
environment while still immersing
travellers with unique local cultural
experiences,” says Jörg. This new suite
of Chinese-led service initiatives will be
rolled out at the end of the year, and
includes an increase in Mandarin-
speaking employees, Chinese translated
welcome packs, Chinese tea and
slippers in the rooms and trained chefs
to prepare Chinese-preferred food and
beverage offerings.“It is not enough to sprinkle a few touch
points across the hotel, we needed to
look at our vertical structure and take
a broad approach to embedding the
program throughout all departments,”
says Jörg. “Overall spend from Chinese
visitors is forecast to be worth up to
$13 billion by 2020 — these are
numbers we cannot sit back and wait to
capitalise on.”