To find out more about the unique approach to recruiting, HOTELS spoke with Michel Gehrig, Kempinski’s vice president talent development.

　　Last month the Geneva-based Kempinski Hotels held its third Kempinski Career Day in Munich and second in Beijing.

　　At the event-based recruiting program which it launched three years ago, Kempinski’s management board members, hotel general managers and corporate experts directly conduct interviews with interested applicants rather than using a human resources department-centered approach to recruiting.

　　To find out more about the unique approach to recruiting, HOTELS spoke with Michel Gehrig, Kempinski’s vice president talent development.

Michel Gehrig

　　HOTELS: How does Career Day fit in with the company’s overall recruitment and training strategy?

　　Michel Gehrig: What’s special about Kempinski’s recruitment strategy is that general managers are personally responsible for interviewing candidates. I say special because the more traditional approach is to handle recruitment through human resources. Kempinski has a unique approach to people management, and we believe in placing decisions firmly in the hands of the managers who will actually need to work with and integrate new members of staff.

　　HOTELS: The press release stated that over 50% of the external applicants and 90% of internal applicants that took part in the 2012 Kempinski Career Days received offers. What percentage of those offers were for on-property management positions?

　　Gehrig: The majority of positions hired from internal candidates are for mid-management positions throughout various hotel departments, while the majority of offers made to external candidates were for entry level positions or Management Trainee positions.

A candidate is interviewed at the 2012 Career Days in Munich.

　　HOTELS: What does the resume of the perfect first-time hotel general manager look like?

　　Gehrig: For a first-time GM, the perfect candidate is 35 to 40 years old, speaks three languages, has worked on two to three continents, has 10 to 15 years of operational experience, including in leadership positions, has worked in different departments in a hotel.

　　Kempinski believes that a general manager today must be a leader and also have sound business acumen. That’s why we’ve invested so much in encouraging general managers to have MBAs. Kempinski has an executive MBA program run in conjunction with Reims Business School, where every two years we have between 15 and 20 candidates taking part.

　　HOTELS: What are you doing to make sure lower-level employees that seem promising to become GMs don’t get impatient with their careers and quit to become consultants?

　　Gehrig: Each department head and GM is personally responsible for the identification and development of talent within their team. They are required to advise on the promotion of staff within the group and act as talent-spotters. We’ve also implemented a Talent Transfer Floor. This is a bi-monthly conference call where department heads from all over the world can discuss candidates who would like to move within the group and find suitable opportunities for them, rapidly and without red tape.

　　We’re also listening to the new generation of staff. For example, we understand that regular feedback and instant recognition are even more important as engaging factors than salary. One way Kempinski approaches feedback and recognition is through our review system Time to Talk Together. Rather than a one-sided review, we believe in having an open, honest and transparent conversation about performance, aspirations, expectations and career development. Each member of staff designs their own career path with the support of their manager, in a realistic and straightforward manner, and in line with their skill set and expectations.