I have been fortunate enough to visit the West Indies many times in the last 40 years. My first trips were on business, as an HR Manager tasked with conducting salary reviews for a well-known, once-favourite, airline. I fell in love with the islands, the people and their distinct cultures and have returned on holiday may times since. My latest visit was for a couple of weeks last month.
After an 8-hour flight, nearly 3 hours of Covid theatre at the airport and a 60-minute transfer, we were tired by the time we arrived at our hotel. It was dark and raining. We were greeted at Reception by a smart, diminutive lady called Lisa who, having provided us with cool drinks and cold towels, escorted us on the 200-yard walk to our room through steaming tropical vegetation, at the end of which, despite our umbrellas, we were all wringing wet.
“You must be tired” said Lisa “so why don’t we forget about the check-in formalities until tomorrow morning?” Music to our ears. We were, however, hungry (whether for dinner or breakfast wasn’t clear) so, even though it was past “last orders” Lisa arranged for a table and some supper before bidding us goodnight.
The next few days were brilliant. The hotel was terrific, staffed by people who were unfailingly efficient and friendly and who appeared genuinely happy in their work (sadly not always the case in the West Indies).
Later in the week, we returned to our room to find an invitation to the dreaded “Manager’s Cocktail Party” the following evening. The objectives for our holiday did not particularly include making new friends but we figured that, as the hotel had 100 rooms, we might just bump into someone interesting, so we went.
Our first conversation was with the Food and Beverage Manager, to whom we remarked at the universal friendliness and efficiency of the staff. When I asked him what the hotel looked for when recruiting their team members he said, simply, “If they really want to do the job then we can take care of the rest”. For customer-facing staff, he went on to explain, attitude was absolutely everything and, except in the most specialist roles, qualifications and experience were irrelevant. He was confident that the necessary skills could be transferred to anyone who was genuinely motivated to learn and deliver great service. Their recruitment and selection process reflected this.
How is this story relevant to you?
The ability to attract good staff is currently the single biggest challenge facing many UK businesses. Too many Candidate Specifications start with a list of required skills and experience and have a couple of personal attributes tacked on at the end. A substantial proportion of the 950,000 current job vacancies in the UK are for relatively junior, customer-facing roles. I wonder by how much the current 1.4m unemployment figure could be reduced if employers were a little more open-minded and hired people who “really wanted to do the job”?
Also, a small but telling point. Towards the end of the party we bumped into Lisa, who asked whether we were enjoying our holiday. We confirmed that indeed we were and how we had been particularly struck by the friendliness and efficiency of her colleagues. When we asked her what her role was at the hotel she replied, “Oh, I’m the General Manager”.
