For years HR professionals have battled the war for talent. A phrase coined in the 1980s by business consultant McKinsey to highlight the challenges in attracting, recruiting and retaining high-caliber people in a stagnant employment market. With unemployment rates at their lowest levels in a decade, standing at just 3.7%, many would argue the war has yet to be won. With ongoing uncertainty in the economy, Eugenio Pirri, Chief People and Culture Officer believes more needs to be done to address this challenge. In this article, he shares his views on the battle for talent and how they are tackling the shortage within luxury hotel management organization, Dorchester Collection. READ MORE

Creating a strong culture within the hotel business is not only important, but essential. Depending on core values and internal priorities, the answer to what culture looks like might vary slightly from one company to the next. There's one thing that's most important to creating and maintaining a strong culture in a workplace-collaboration. Efficient communication, understanding employees, open mindedness and willingness to make changes are just the beginning building blocks of this process. A strong culture doesn't just happen, it takes consistent and continuous work that will pay off with employees, guests and professional partners alike. READ MORE

Many employers are implementing or expanding paid parental leave policies. Christine Samsel, shareholder at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, reviews the challenges of implementing and administering such policies, from avoiding discrimination and gender stereotyping to differentiating between pregnancy/childbirth-related medical leave, on the one hand, and baby bonding and parental leave, on the other hand. Her article also provides recommendations for employers on considerations in auditing or expanding existing leave policies. Read more… READ MORE

Many hotel brands invested heavily in customer experience (CX) and loyalty programs without a cohesive business strategy. As a result, today they are having trouble measuring the return on their investments. Loyalty programs are hard to measure because they were expanded to include infrequent travelers, offering them perks earlier in the customer journey. Many hotels also plunged substantial dollars into CX without fully understanding their customers – or how to recoup their investments. As hotel brands plan for the future of their loyalty and CX programs, it is important to learn from past experiments. READ MORE

Justin Arest, co-owner and managing partner of Kixby, a boutique hotel opened in Midtown Manhattan in November 2019, describes the current hotel landscape in New York City. He shares how hotels can attract urban travelers in 2020, particularly in the trending Midtown neighborhood. Arest explains the core elements of a successful city hotel, drawing from his own experiences working in every department of a Manhattan hotel beginning at the age of six years old, overseeing the Hotel Metro for over a decade, and leading its recent renovation and rebranding into the modern and sophisticated Kixby last year. READ MORE