Introduction

Myrtle Andrade is an Executive Human Resources Manager at Taj Holiday Village,

Candolim. She holds an experience of 10 years in Human Resources. Earlier she used to
work as a sales representative in Acorns and later got an opportunity to work in the
Khazana stores as a receptionist at Taj Holiday Village. She completed her BA in
Sociology at St. Xavier's College and later completed her MBA through IGNOS. She
often looks up to her mentor Mr. Ronnie John who is the current human resources
manager of Taj Holiday Village. She also highlighted about his styles of management
saying that he uses autocratic management style and that he is very firm in decision
making and always goes by the rules. Some of the factors involved in her growth and
development are her vast experience, friendly attitude towards her colleagues, work
culture development skills like organizing employee engagement events and maintaining
a social attitude in the workplace. The leadership styles that she follows is democratic
since she is flexible and prefers to involve others during decision making.
Her competencies have grown Over the year with loads of experience and she has also
learnt various new skills. Some of her competencies are interpersonal skills as she’s
always interacting with employees or potential employees when it comes to interviewing,
emotional intelligence -she maintains good bond with the employees and therefore has
to often understand, recognize their efforts, listen to their complains. This has in turn
helped the employees to trust and corporate with her . Communication- She has to
communicate both ways to the employees as well as the top-level management that is the
corporate office. when it comes to administrative skills she is responsible for collecting
and storing the employees details like employees personal details, payroll details,
medical details, appraisals, bank details which need to be filed and stored confidentially
as well as entered in the system . All these competencies have helped her grow over the
years and gain the trust of her colleagues.

Values of Taj
Since Taj Holiday Village is a part of the Taj Hotels most of the values they follow are
framed and passed down by the higher authorities. Some of the Values that they abide
by are as follows
 Tajness-Taj Hotels are India’s largest and finest hotels, Tajness was born out of
decades of dedication towards incredible hospitality, and centuries of building a
culture like no other hospitality institution has. The six pillars of Tajness are
Nobility, Sincere Care, Homage to Local Culture, Sensorial Journeys, Pioneering
Spirit, and Authenticity that hold this unique concept of hospitality higher than
all others.
 Integrity, trust, and transparency – The trust that Taj has established with its
guest, employees and partners are based on the pillars of honesty and integrity.
They follow transparency through effective communication, education, and
practice of commitment.
  Delivering Happiness – They strive to keep happiness as the forefront of its
services for the guest as well as the employees.

Stories
Success Story – Taj Holiday Village has around 250 employees of which a majority are
senior employees who are not tech-savvy and when the Human Resources team wanted
to upgrade their way of keeping track of staff attendance by launching an app called
‘My Taj’ in regards to the same they faced a minor problem .They had to educate the
senior staff about the how to use the app, punch in and out ,apply for leave ,check their
salaries and other benefits using the app .Using the app would also be hassle free for the
HR team and would eliminate the use of leave cards . Within a year almost 95% of the
employees were able to use the app. This also showed that the employees were willing to
adapt to changes if given a chance.
Failure – So in 2020 one of the employees while returning home after his night shift
duty met with an accident. It so happened that the employee did not wear his helmet
and due to severe brain injuries died on the spot. That was one of the main reasons that
the Human Resources Team decided to frame a Helmet policy wherein all the new
joiners had to read and sign the same. Further on they also started giving helmets to
employees travelling by bike.

Grooming for Women in Taj Holiday Village Management

Diwa: Dynamic Intelligent Women in Action
OBJECTIVE  The process note for DIWA has been formulated to ensure that there is
a consistent documentation and evaluation process done across the region while
sourcing and recruiting DIWAs
 To raise women participation in the workforce to 25% by 2025.
 To nurture women employees and set the tone for future by training, grooming, and
making them industry ready to unleash their true potential.
This policy covers all female Apprentices engaged at the hotel as DIWA.
Grooming
 Process flow
This step speaks about Manpower Planning, Finalizing the stipulated no. of
DIWAs to be hired, Identification of select colleges and institutes across the
country who are engaged in short-term & long-term hospitality/aviation
trainings, Conducting Interviews & Selection, Onboarding, Orientation,
Placement in departments of choice across the region.
  Statutory Mandate under the Apprenticeship Act
Engaging DIWAs as apprentices has been done in accordance to the
Apprenticeship Act, 1961. According to the act all establishments having work
force (regular and contract employees) of 30 or more are mandated to undertake
Apprenticeship Programs in a range from 2.5% -15% of its workforce (including
direct contractual employees) every year.
 Sourcing
Sourcing is to be done from Hotel Management Colleges (preferably IHM) and
other educational institutes offering courses in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality
Management. The candidates can also be sourced from Aviation Schools &
Institutes or some 12th pass girls or Home Science etc graduates who have flair
for Hospitality Industry can be taken as DIWA’s. The duration of the program is
1 year.
 Selection & Placement Specification
Diploma /10,12 as well as graduates need to register under NATS as apprentice ,
The stipend to be paid to each individual during their apprenticeship training
for every month is 9000 ,they can also avail for Sharing Company
Accommodation.
 Career Path & Progression
All the DIWAs on completion of their training are to be taken on a 1-year Fixed
Term Contract, post which the decision can be taken on bringing them on rolls
based on their performance. In addition, to this they will also be entitled to one
time Retention Bonus of Rs 12000 which will be paid to them in 2 parts- Rs
6000/- when they complete 3 months as FTC’s & another Rs 6000/- once they
complete 6 months as FTC.
 Institutionalizing of Learning & Training
A continuous process of appraisals, assessment and reviews are to be done for
institutionalizing the training and learning of DIWAs. The process entails
following review mechanisms:  Departmental Appraisals  Presentations  Skip
Level Meeting  Quarterly Appraisals and Periodic reviews are done by the GM,
HOD, HR and L&D of the hotel they are placed in.

Management Development Program

Management development is an important area of human resource management that is
designed to strengthen the relationship between managers and employees at all levels.
The aim of this programme is to transform managers belonging to intermediate
management level into successful leaders. This enables employees at a managerial level
to gain the ability to motivate others, thereby, allowing them to effectively manage their
teams.
 Job Rotation
Here, job rotation is followed on a large scale. This is done so that the employees
can excel in each and every department.
 Transfer and promotion
The employees can apply for transfer after completing 2 years in the resort. They can
apply in various Taj properties if there are vacancies available through my Taj app and
inform the Human Resources team about the same. Promotions can happen in terms of
transfer or within the resort. Promotions are strictly based on the performance,
appraisal and overall capability of the employee.
 Recognition
Employees at Taj Holiday Village are recognised based on their
performance .They are often awarded certificates ,cash incentives .If an
employee has completed long years of service he/she is given momentums from
Taj , one or two nights stay at any of the Taj properties .They also have
something called as STARS (Special Thanks and Recognition System) which
aims at recognizing and rewarding employees based on their performance .Here
employees are awarded points based on the guests reviews and when the points
are accumulated within a certain time frame they are awarded with cash and
other luxurious stays at Taj Resorts .In STARS Employees are also assessed
based on their honesty ,behaviour ,trustworthiness and corporation .

HR policies for Employees

 Hiring policies: The new joiners are trained for 18 months which is 6 months
more than the industry training standard. The HR department select employees
based on their values and whether the recruits would be able to adapt to the
culture of the organization. It is believed that the employees can be trained to be
better chefs, waiters, front office associates but they cannot be taught to be good
individuals. So, the organization expects an individual to possess good values to
become a part of the Taj family.
 A 360-degree feedback system 

This system was adopted wherein the employees, including the managers and
departmental heads are evaluated not just by their bosses or peers but also their
immediate subordinates. The employees are counselled at a personal level and
apprised of where they fell short of the expectations and how to go about it.

 Housing
The number of employees coming for outside Goa have increased over the years
and so they normally find it difficult and expensive to get accommodation. Taj
Holiday Village provides them with housing facilities based on their post and
position in the company.

 POSH (Prevention of sexual harassment)

THV has a POSH committee in place for its employees. The POSH committee
has a minimum of 4 members who are employees in all the levels of management
 and also have an external member who is a lawyer. The Taj Group encourages
every Employee who has been sexually harassed to use the Redress System that
has been laid down. The Group has adopted a gender-neutral policy and are
committed to giving every Employee a just and fair hearing on issues that are
raised on Sexual Harassment. The HR team need to take immediate action when
they receive a complaint based on sexual harassment like Bring the written
complaint immediately to the POSH Committee, and provide all kinds of
support for the further investigations as a part of inquiry process, Keep disclosed
information as confidential, Carry out all corrective measures and remediation
established in the final decision and Set an example of proper and appropriate
workplace behaviour and ethical standards in line with Tata Values and code of
conduct.

Conclusion
Finally, we can see that the employees are the most important resources that Taj
Holiday Village has. The Taj group has always focused on its employee policies that has
a huge impact based on job commitment shown by the employees. The Human
Resources team has manged to synchronise its HR policies according to the vision and
values of the organisation. (incomplete)