Svenska is firmly committed to developing its people through a rigorous focus on cross-departmental exposure. Lateral movements between line and staff functions are highly encouraged, which is accompanied by extensive technical and supervisory skills training. As our people develop their skills and move up the organization, there is a strong emphasis on people management and ability to work under pressure, thereby preparing our employees with life-long skills that are as applicable to any industry as they are to hotels. External faculty and industry experts are routinely used by Svenska to get the best-practices incorporated into our people and exposure them to other organizational cultures and methods.
Svenska also has a partnership with world’s leading hospitality institution, the School of Hotel Administration of the Cornell University, for their highly recognized Professional Development Programs (PDP) along with their General Management Program (GMP). Svenska employees get a discount on tuition fees and the top performing employees are recognized and rewarded by Svenska Hotels sponsoring their trip to Ithaca in New York in the US to participate in the program.
Overall, our objective is to ensure that we are able to develop, groom and mentor our leaders from within. Each business head’s target is to ensure that at least 2/3rd of our future leadership is internally developed and given the opportunity to handle greater roles and responsibility, thereby encouraging faster track careers.
Through the Svenska Internal Job Posting (IJP) program, our people are also encouraged to apply for and work at different locations within Svenska’s various hotels. This enables our employees to experience different regions and learn about their unique culture and work environment, while at the same time, facilitating best-practice sharing across different regions. Another unique development initiative that we use is for each person to identity at least two people who could do his or her job. These selected folks are then informed that they have been identified for fast-track career movement and that their reporting manager will be investing additional time with them to help mentor and groom them for higher role.
Development activities at Svenska also include various fun events and team building initiatives that help establish a strong bond across various departments and units, enabling people to have an excellent support network within the organization, on which they can rely on for inputs, guidance and any assistance that they might require at any time.