Allen Mathias
Head Learning & Development
Keys Hotels
Recipient of the Award
Chief Learning Officer of The Year
Editor: Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
All during the school times, I aspired to become an engineer. Then once during my 12th en route to the international airport in Mumbai, when I passed by the Leela Hotel. Its lighting and glamour left me wondering about the challenges of running a grand five star deluxe hotel like this. It was then I had my calling and I gave up the engineering aspiration to enter the hospitality industry. After that there was only the hospitality juice running through my veins.
Ten years later (2012) when I joined the Leela Group, the hotel view which I had all those years back was in fact the staff entrance area. My first job was with the Taj Group at the iconic Hotel Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, Mumbai, in the F & B Service Department as a Hotel Operations Trainee. I quit the Taj Group to pursue higher studies after which I rejoined the Industry with the Oberoi Group. Since I had an emergency in the family due to which I couldn’t do night shifts, I joined the purchase team at The Trident Bandra Kurla. I had to restart my career as an assistant which I readily accepted.
I worked with the purchase team for two years before moving to the training department after I earned a certification in training from the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute. After a stint in Training, I joined the Leela Hotels to be a part of their Corporate Human Resources team. I joined the Keys hotels in August 2013 as a part of their HR team, looking after the training activities for the Hotels in the Western Region. I’ve been enjoying and learning with Keys ever since.
Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
A true hotelier is made of a few easy to learn and easy to adapt traits. Ownership of your work, keen to learn and adapt, a strong bond between your team, a bit of common sense and the most important one being humble at every point of time, both at work and outside the hotel.
Editor: What are the attributes you look for while selecting or hiring?
Love for his / her work in which they are truly passionate about is the main feature which I look at. Along with the skills required, if the incumbent possesses the will to learn, a smile on their face, a team player, finds ways to have fun every time and a fair amount of common sense, they would do wonders in any hospitality function across the world.
Editor: What according to you can trainees do while they are training at hotels to make it a win-win for them & the hotel/unit?
A lot of questions are being raised in the hospitality circuit regarding the gap between academics and the real deal at the hotel. Unfortunately the questions do not come with solutions to bridge the gap. From the trainees side, I always advice the students to maintain a note book, in which they spend ten minutes on a daily basis after work and pen down a few lines on what they learnt during their training on that day.
Everyday should have a new learning and note the same ‘I lifted table, chairs, etc’. Rather it could have, ‘The total number of tables used for a classroom style function is 10 for a 30 pax gathering’ or the visual recipe of how gulab jamun is made and not ‘I fired 200 gulab jamuns today’. The same needs to be made a habit and if possible discussed with the unit Training Manager. At the end of the training period, the learning gained is profound and can sometimes become a tool for their personal growth in the long run wherever they work.
From the hotel’s side, we need to develop a learning culture. Training mangers at most hotels are expected to meet their budgeted manpower of trainees from hospitality institutes. But their role is of a much higher calling which is to insure the correct and continuous transfer of learning to the trainees. As the IT period is the first exposure to the hospitality world, we must ensure that the students gian the maximum and work in the hospitality industry and do not switch industries at the first juncture. At Keys Hotels, we have started a program called as ‘Insights’ wherein we go to college’s for guest lectures on a regular basis to spread the awareness of the hospitality industry.
The topics are mostly soft skills focusing on meeting expectations of the hotel industry, but can also be technical skills like Indian cuisine presentations or F & B Service demonstrations. The idea is to retain as much as talent which we can right from the first day of a student joining the hotel college. We also have a strict ceiling limit for the intake of industrial trainees which is between 8 -10 students per batch per hotel. This way we can give personalized attention to the trainees needs and ensure maximum transfer of learning for them.
Editor: Tell us a little about your average day
My day begins at 5:30 with a prayer and a brief walk in a close by park. On reaching office I prepare my list of tasks for the day. After meeting the leadership team at the unit morning meeting, I begin my rounds of the hotel. At the Keys Café if the breakfast operations is busy (which it usually is), I help the team till the rush subsides. I begin my training sessions specifically for the department after breakfast operations I then check out the guest reviews on our Electronic Guest Feedback System, to find out any areas of improvement and sending out appreciation emails for anyone who has been commended by the guest.
After lunch, I have a call with one of the HR managers at the other unit’s to discuss the happenings of the week and help out if required. I then have one training session on soft skills for the team across departments. At around 5:30, I list a set of tasks which has been achieved and which is carried forwarded to the next day. A peculiar habit I am trying to develop within myself is to check my emails only five times a day. This is to make my presence at the hotel felt along with the team. This has made my work much more productive than before.
Editor: How do keep abreast of all that is happening in hospitality?
I was never a good orator and I had to learn the art of public speaking and being a good orator for my love for training. I read at least 3 to 4 books a month to improve my thinking process, gain ideas and perfect my vocabulary. My book collection has just crossed the 200 mark. I keep researching on upcoming hotels and read articles by famous hoteliers in magazines, blog’s even on social media. My key area for learning is our elearning website at Keys Hotels. The amount of knowledge gained from there is profound and I’ve realized that there’s much more to presentations than just MS PowerPoint. Apart from the above, I learn from the experience from my peers, colleagues and guests.
There are times I engage into a conversation with a guest who would share a memorable experience he / she had which gives me an idea of how the same can be replicated at our hotel. Conversations like these teach us a lot more than any course material in the world.
Editor: Two reasons why this industry is awesome!
One: The smile on a delighted guest which makes the entire grind worthwhile. No other industry can have such a effect in your heart.
Two: Everyday is new, every guest is different. Sometimes the same guest will change his/her likes / dislikes abruptly. Every moment becomes a challenge. It’s like a Shane Warne over with a googly in every ball. Such a dynamic environment of learning is not easy to find elsewhere.
Editor: Two things you would like to change about the industry.
One: Its time the industry showcases itself on par with other industries too. We have seen participation from very few hospitality groups in varied industrial forums in India.
Two: How much has the hotel industry given back to the hotel schools in India. With schools and students both mushrooming in leaps and bounds, if we, the industry, do not give back in forms of training mentoring or guiding the schools right from day 1, we should not expect the best talent to be churned out from them. This leads to problem of not finding the right fit for our hotel and settle with someone mediocre. This is a wakeup call for all of us. If we do not give back to the education industry in developing the talent, we will not have any talent left to work in hotels.
About the award:
The Chief Learning Officer’s summit is held every year to present to the world of key decision makers of training and development across industries, the latest offerings in the field of learning and development. Head’s of L & D across industries like IT, Telecom, pharmaceutical, engineering, etc participate in this event. The same is organized by Leapvalut in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The summit also features an award function to commemorate excellence in the field, with nominations across industries and verticals. ( www.closummitindia.com). I was nominated in the Chief Learning Officer of the year category for companies with operations only in India. In that category I have won the bronze award. The other winners include famed companies like Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Piramal Healthcare, etc.