2. ABOUT TAJ MAHAL
PALACE,MUMBAI
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is a five-star hotel located in
the Colaba region of Mumbai, next to the Gateway of India.
Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya and D. N. Mirza are the architects.
First opened its doors to guests on 16 december 1903.
Jamsedji Tata decided to build the hotel after he was refused entry to
one of the city's grand hotels of the time, Watson's Hotel, as it was
restricted to “whites only”.
9. The Taj staff kept calm, according to
the guests, and constantly went around
offering water and asking people if
they needed anything else
Few of them even helped guests out
and came back in to help more guests
Kitchen employees formed a human
shield to assist guests who were
evacuating, and as a result lost their
lives.
18. • There are no appropriate reasons as to why the
employees from all levels of the hierarchy did it, even
when they knew the secret routes and could have saved
their lives.
• Indian Culture: The value system is such that a guest is to
be treated like god.
• The TAJ is owned by a family i.e. The TATA Group
• Hospitality Industry: those businesses which are
characterized by generosity and friendliness to guests.
• The organizational culture of Taj is such that employees
are willing to do almost anything for guests.
19. What Practices They Follow ???
• Seek fresh recruits rather than lateral hires.
• Hire from small towns and semi urban areas, not
metros.
• Recruit from high schools and second-tier business
schools rather than colleges and premier B-schools.
• Induct managers who seek a single-company career
and will be hands-on.
• Focus more on hiring people with integrity and
devotion to duty than on acquiring those with talent
and skills.
• Train workers for 18 months, not just 12.
20. Ensure that employees can deal with guests without consulting
a supervisor.
Teach people to improvise rather than do things by the book.
Insist that employees place guests’ interests over the
company’s.
Use timely recognition, not money, as reward.
Ensure that recognition comes from immediate supervisors,
not top management.
21. Hiring and Training Policy:
• They don't look for students who have the highest grades. They're actually
recruiting for personal characteristics. They recruit graduates for attitude, not
grades.
• 18 months training – 6 months more than the industry standard
• Trained not just on the area of expertise but all the related functions
• Build Leaders – Each employee is given an authority to take the decisions
pertaining to his work and this empowers them and helps in building a leader in all
• The employees can be trained to be better chefs or waiters, but they cannot be
taught to be good individuals.
• They train employees to be the voice of the customers.
23. “Customers of an organization can be satisfied by it
only when its employees are satisfied”
Recognizing and rewarding employees who
showcased excellent performance at their work
Promoted successively to various levels
Employees were not just assessed on their
performance but also on parameters like honesty,
trustworthiness, concern for the environment, team
spirit, cooperation etc.
Appreciations from the customers also fetched points
25. ERR (Employee retention rate) is the highest
amongst all its competitors.
Drives employees beyond their duties which was
totally unexpected of them as was in the case of
26/12 Tsunami and 26/11 attacks.
In 2002, Taj Group was conferred HERMES
Award for its innovative HR practices.
With the implementation of STARS, there was
tremendous improvement in the service standards
and also the customer satisfaction level.
