Recruitment initiative

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) – www.ihgplc.com  – conducted a targeted recruitment initiative with RNIB Scotland and Jobcentre Plus, which resulted in nine new employees in IHG hotels in Edinburgh. This was organised by IHG’s training manager, UK and Ireland, and its area human resources and development officer, North and Ireland.

Holiday Inn Edinburgh hosted a recruitment open day in January 2006.  In preparation, various disability organisations were invited to attend an awareness event to familiarise themselves with an IHG hotel as well as current vacancies, and also encourage their clients to attend the open day. The open day was attended by more than 70 people, 30 of whom went straight to the interview stage, and 12 were accepted to attend the 10-day pre-employment training course which started a week later and was run by RNIB Scotland.

As well as addressing IHG’s specific needs, the course equipped these with transferable skills. The 12 jobseekers were interviewed after completing the course, and four secured employment. The remaining jobseekers were offered a six-week work placement at Holiday Inn Edinburgh; one went on to secure permanent employment.

Business benefits include the widening of skill sets, development for line managers, and reduced absenteeism and staff turnover.  IHG says the key to this success was “the breaking down and elimination of barriers towards disability recruitment and gaining support and commitment from managers and employees in the hotel to embrace the initiative”.

Based on the success of this project, a similar initiative has been rolled out in the London and south east area.

Case study: Adjustments for an employee with a learning disability

William came to us through a disability recruitment open day which was held in the hotel.  He was offered a place on a pre-employment course to help prepare him for employment, and this was continued with a six week work placement. William applied for the vacancy of linen porter and secured full time employment.

Throughout the induction and training process the team manager was aware of William’s learning disability and concentration difficulties. The manager delivered and co-ordinated his training in an appropriate time scale according to William’s needs and the needs of the business. During this initial period William did very well, in fact his enthusiasm and willingness to help his colleagues earned him department employee of the month during his induction period. However after about six months we started to identify some changes, both in William’s work performance and in the stock take results of the laundry.

On investigations and several job chats with William his manager realised he was having difficulties coping with things like stock sheets and was inconsistent in completion of daily procedures.

His manager firstly involved the HR officer who contacted Remploy for support and advice.  Someone from Remploy came in and shadowed William and the other two linen porters for a couple of days and then gave recommendations.

These recommendations involved:

• Developing new stock sheets in larger print and different shadings, also restructuring them in a more logical manner making them more user friendly for the porters to complete.
• Implementing new procedure of counting and recording on receipt of delivery of clean linen.
• Developing and implemented new forms for staff use for uniform cleaning.
• Changing laundry department shift times, making the shift times staggered and each porter taking turns in doing the opening and closing procedures.

The impacts of these adjustments have led to the following results:

• Better stock control, consistent good results. 
• More confident porters, taking ownership having been retrained in new procedures and understanding the benefits to them and to the business.
• Tasks done in a timely basis, new shift pattern successful, less tiring, no one feeling under pressure.

Johann Stevenson, housekeeping manager, says it has made a significant difference to William; he has gained confidence in himself and feels more in control over his work. It has also benefited the department which is much more effective than it was before the changes were put in place.