Driving team engagement and building a strong pipeline of talent are critical to the growth of Australia’s fourth largest hotel management company, TFE Hotels, whose CEO Rachel Argaman said it plans to expand from 70 hotels today to some 120 hotels over the next five to ten years.
While well located, quality hotels will always do well, Rachel Argaman, CEO of TFE Hotels, firmly believes that close relationships internally as well as with clients, guests, and investors are why the hotel group outperforms market revenue and gross operating margins on a regular basis.
Its gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR), a key performance indicator for the hotel industry, is consistently 2 to 7 per cent above market performance, and it boasts 86 per cent plus occupancy rates (compared to an industry average of 68 per cent).
“We know the way to seed a successful culture is through the development and growth of our people. You can’t deliver high performance unless you have the right people and the best practices to engage and develop people,” said Argaman, who participated in Undercover Boss in 2010.
After this experience, she said she recognised the need for senior leaders to remain connected with the coal face of the business.
“While mentoring is an invaluable development opportunity, it is also a valuable means of ensuring our senior leadership team remain tapped-in to the greatest source of innovation in our business – our frontline team,” she said.
One of the group’s recent innovative programs, helping to develop talent from within is called Leadership Launchpad.
Utilising the latest in virtual learning technology, the program connects learning circles of new leaders as they transition into new management roles from across TFE Hotels’ global portfolio, ensuring the company’s new leaders have the strongest possible start.
Future leaders are each mentored by a member of the executive leadership team, and the program ties leadership development to on-the-job projects that have a business impact, improve learnings and address current commercial opportunities and challenges.
The program speaks to three levels of management – frontline managers, middle management and senior leaders; and this practical component is combined with a series of professional workshops to develop the individual participants.
“You can’t deliver high performance unless you have the right people and the best practices to engage and develop people”
TFE Hotels also runs an internal leadership academy, which features three fast track leadership programmes (a future leaders programme, management leadership programme and senior management leadership programme) designed to foster high potential talent from within the organisation.
Argaman says these programmes grow in size and breadth every year, and the academy has helped feed a strong succession pipeline, with 70 per cent of hotel leadership appointments in 2014/15 coming from internal promotions.
Michelle Bevan, director of human resources for TFE Hotels, said its growth strategy necessitates promotion from within and rapid learning for those taking the next step in their career.
“Our programs are focussed on giving team members the tools and confidence they need to transition successfully and quickly make an impact,” she said.
Equally as critical to the unique culture at TFE Hotels is innovation and change, and with a new generation of talent joining the industry, Bevan said there is demand, now more than ever, for a work culture where people feel they can make a difference every day.
For the full interview with Argaman and story on how TFE Hotels fuels business growth through its people, see the next issue of Inside HR magazine. Image source: Hayden Brotchie