Fitness in the Hotel Industry

Hotel industry is extremely demanding. The team members are expected to be passionate about their jobs, excited about the property and the company that they represent. And truly looking out for customers’ best interests. Among the many necessary traits that an employee should have in order to ensure that the business succeeds are:

The ability to multitask

The hotel industry is fast-paced, and often requires a staff member to do several different things at a time. If a team members cannot manage these or have trouble dividing their attention, it’s likely that they’ll struggle in their roles.

Organizational skills

The hospitality professional should be able to stay organized at all times. When a person fails to do this, guests’ requests and other important issues can be missed. There should be a system in place to ensure that every team member stays organized even when the days are really  busy.

Being a team player

The industry is focused heavily on teamwork, and every employee should be a team player where everyone is open to new ideas,  also appreciate others point of views.  This dynamics works because the industry has a great focus on customer needs and their satisfaction.  No one can be a ‘Me’ person but all working as ‘We’ is the key.

Listening skills

Every team member should be not only diplomatic and tactful but also posses’ great listening skills. They should be able to read between the lines. The successful professionals are those who have mastered the art of listening, and are able to respond to guests’ questions, comments, and concerns. Handling every situation, to the guest’s satisfaction, creating wow!

Physical fitness

The team members are required to work in shifts. They are standing most of the time during their shift such as receptionists and bell boys and housekeeping attendants.  This requires them to be physically fit and mentally alert so that can respond to guests requests, complaints and compliments objectively.

Enthusiasm

The hospitality professionals should exude enthusiasm which is a must for every employee. The individuals should be passionate about their work and enjoy meeting as well as  interacting with people. They should possess and exhibit the hospitality attitude!

All these qualities and personality traits need an individual to follow some kind of fitness routine. A healthy mind in a healthy body holds true. We at The Park Hotels understand this and have taken wellness or an individual’s physical and emotional well being as a serious business. Some of the various initiatives that we have taken in this direction as a company are:

1. Stepathlon program:

We participate in the Stepathlon program. It is a mass participation event for organisations of all sizes across all industries and countries. The Stepathlon approach to achieving better physical and mental health is fun, motivating and sustainable. Deteriorating public health, increasing risk of lifestyle diseases and alarming statistics on mental illness at the workplace are the compelling reasons why they offer corporate employees the opportunity to be part of the Stepathlon 'Movement for Movement.' Stepathlon is simple and easy to implement and has been designed for maximum inclusivity.

As an organization we have about 100 team members from across the units participating in the program each year since 2012. It has helped many of our team mates achieving not just their fitness goals but also in the overall wellness and professional work hygiene.

2. Yoga sessions:

At the learning centre of The Park Hotels, the Apeejay Institute of Hospitality we have been conducting a lifestyle and wellness module that covers yoga, meditation, health, beauty and personal grooming. The Management Trainees are sensitized towards maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. This is included in their on boarding experience into a successful hospitality career and wellness becomes an integral part of it! Lifestyle and Fitness module has been a part of the Management Training program since 2013. Even before International Yoga Day, 21 June came in vogue across the country.

Yoga sessions are conducted every Friday evening for all team members. It reinforces the message of wellness both physical and mental. Not to mention that we celebrate International Yoga Day with great fervor now.

3. Get Set Go Week:

All units across the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd. celebrate a week of fun and cheer across locations of The Park, Flurys, AIH and Zone. A time to celebrate our Teams and us. To say "thank you" to one another for the service, support, commitment and contributions. 

THE GSG week denotes - 
 Get : Getting to have fun through learning, sports, food, music, friends and other little pleasures 
 Set  : Setting Goals - Personal and Professional 
 Go  : Going forward to achieve more balance & living life to the fullest 

Fun activities are conducted ranging from creativity, team spirit, fitness, health, beauty, sports and games.

Being healthy is important as it can help a person have a stronger heart, better muscles, stronger bones, a sense of well-being and a better social and professional life. Eating right and exercising the correct amount leads to overall wellness. When the body is healthy,  the mind is alert and the individual is ready to face all challenges with a smile on the face. A healthy persons not only looks good but also feels every good from within. When one is happy, he helps create many more happy people and happy situations. 

All so needed for a hospitality professional. 

Garden in a bathtub

Sustainability is defined as the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed. In EVS it is spoken as the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance. It happens to be the  buzzword in recent times. I was at an international summit of hospitality professionals and almost all speakers had a segment of their presentation dedicated to sustainability. It is certainly the wake-up time for each one of us, the time to pull up our socks' and gear up. Otherwise we'll only be left with a great deal of our flora and fauna extinct. We may have nothing worthwhile to give to our children. We have abused nature so much! Nature and its resources are an inheritance that need to be passed on to our future generations, we are mere guardians of this wealth We sadly haven't understood that fundamental principle yet. With advent of technology and modern living we are going miles away from our roots and we go after rampant destruction. We know the carbon footprints and all that jazz but what are we doing in reality?

I was at one of our hotels The Park New Delhi on a work assignment, been with the company for 10 years now and my job involves a bit of travelling too on training or recruitment assignments for my organisation. I also get to use the holiday plan of the company, where I can stay in any of our properties. Why I say this is, how could I have not made it to this fabulous hotel yet? Glad that it finally happened! I had gone there as a trainer but I gained much more, I bring with me some great learnings, valuable information as well as some extraordinary moments and memories to cherish. If I list them, they might go into a couple of posts, here I shall only speak about sustainability - the buzz word, as I call it.   

In fact I have appreciation for almost everyone at the hotel, I am more of a critique all thanks to my background in the rooms division. Having spent nearly 20 years does that to you I guess!

I found the hotel to have great energy. The hotel staff was very professional and living up to our brand promise Anything But ordinary. Special mention to the Housekeeping team, their Director Mrs. Vaneeta Arora, was such a great source of information and knowledge for me.

I used the heart of the house areas (back of the house areas, where guests do not go) most of the times, going from my room to the training classroom.  The areas were maintained so well, they were more like art galleries than fire exits. Beautiful picture messages and timely reminders everywhere including the staff cafeteria.I believe reinforcements  and ready reminders drive home messages much clearer and louder. This hotel was doing it, I was certainly delighted. Let me not go gaga over other things now and get straight to the point. The garden concept used by housekeeping, making use of the bathtubs was one of the best I have seen. What thought, concept and use of the need of the hour... that's sustainability!

The hotel renovated some rooms and got the bathtubs removed, again a step in the right direction. What would have happened to the discarded bathtubs? They would have reached the junk yard and remained there for ages creating waste that wouldn't decompose. Adding to the filth that already exists in such places. Instead Mrs. Arora came up with a great idea that was three pronged, one remove the bath tubs and help hotel save water, the cleaning time, cleaning agents etc. Two, not add to the pile of un decomposed junk and three; create beauty and life by using the old bath tubs as pots for planting different vegetables. 

This was happening outside the training classroom so it caught my attention. I saw the bathtubs being painted in bright lively colours one day, the next day mud and manure being added and the third day saplings planted. I literally saw a life coming into being and beauty created in junk. Isn't this also a great tribute to Swachh Bharat Mission. The beauty is, vegetables are grown in these bathtub nursery and they are used in cooking as well, straight fresh from the farm. This creates awareness and promotes growing and use of organic vegetables. The plants display small placards with their information and nutritive facts. The staff get to see some exotic vegetables and herbs and the chefs use them in their kitchens.

It always takes one ordinary idea to create stuff that's extraordinary! It was one of my ABO, Anything But Ordinary moments as we call at the Park Hotels. 

Hope you like the idea and it inspires you to think out of the box and your churn out a storm of ideas out of the tub yourself! 

Using Facebook Live

We love things that are discounted or On Sale and go absolutely crazy when we see the word FREE! It gets even better when it reads FREE! FREE! FREE!

Some things are great just the way they are and become even more awesome when they came with the tag free! One such thing that I discovered was Facebook Live. By virtue of having a colleague who is a technology buff. He keeps reading up and updating himself. I have become some tech Guru of sorts myself just by being exposed to so much gyan around me. A lot of research happens on gadgets and technology, a bit on food too. His enthusiasm is child like and there is so much hunger for knowing more in the area of his interest. One such being the use of Facebook Live.

The research started almost a month ago, we share the office so I could see something was being recorded. It was, to my surprise that I discovered Facebook Live for the first time also that I had become a participant just by passing some expert commentary, being a woman it comes naturally to me you see! On a serious note the first tiny experiment was done in our lab! I call our office by that name as a lot comes out from there not just reports and presentations but also crazy ideas most of the time. After the discovery of facebook live we wanted to see where could it be used. We thought of using it for one of our college events. The institute has a facebook page where we do share the updates and photo albums of events. We were thinking why not use the live version. The students come from all over the country, if we went live for an event it could be shared with their parents, family and friends. Technology is all to connect, share and care isn't it?

The Ideas lab: Check out the video in the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/sbokde/videos/10157403692220220/

Finally we had an opportunity when the idea could be put into action. The first event being celebrated at the institute was the World Tourism Day on 27th September 2016. We celebrate the occasion by organizing a community lunch. An activity taken up by the first year students who bring the best from their mother's or grand mother's kitchens. We get to taste a bit of their culture and culinary heritage. The whole of India on a buffet! We decided to test the Live feature of Facebook covering this event. It worked fine, a few glitches due to wi fi connectivity but overall a thumbs up! The wifi ensured that we covered the event in two parts.  

Facebook Live - Part 1, Check the video in the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/aihnavimumbai/videos/10154706945265967/

Facebook Live - Part 2, Check the video in the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/aihnavimumbai/videos/10154706956210967/

Facebook live is a great option available for taking events live especially for academic institutions and events of concern for the youth. The potential of this medium is great, each one can actually explore many possibilities. Imagine presenting paper not just to the audience attending the seminar but numerous others who could be a part of it and contribute to knowledge sharing. Using technology at this scale can lead to not having people travel long distances, its a cost effective option just like Skype. I personally found it extremely hands on and very beneficial. It can be a great training tool and organisations can use it for promotions and publicity as well.

If the videos don't open in the link above please do like our facebook page Apeejay Institute of Hospitality Navi Mumbai and find the live videos there. https://www.facebook.com/aihnavimumbai/

Is 40 the new 20?

I was having a conversation with my husband the other day, as I turned 40 recently. I was going to divulge in that.... its some feeling you see!! I asked him if 40 was the new 20, to which he laughed saying, "If you are asking me how you look then I would say 20, mentally may be 15!"

On a serious note it made me think. Looking back at our own lives as well, we are in our 40s and we feel pretty settled, read it as at peace and nothing more! As I believe just like the 1+ phone tagline,'Never Settle'. One must never settle for complacency, mediocrity, lethargy, procrastination etc... the list can be really long.

Not all will feel 20 in their 40s. By the way I wonder who coined this phrase and how many actually believe in it or how many non believers are out there. 

There are different stages in life, I remember having read in school Sanskrit that there were four stages or ashramas in life. An Ashrama in Hinduism is one of the four age-based life stages. They are Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sanyasa (renunciation). 

In each stage there are a set of rules and disciplines are meant to be followed. If done correctly and as per principles one leads a much fulfilling life. We may not be living in the medieval era but it holds good even today as the basic principle cannot change. It can be improvised but the thumb rule remains the same. Each life stage lays the foundation for the things to come, good, bad or ugly.

During the student phase one needs to focus on studies, sports and all things that'll help the person to handle life well. Now this phase is up to 25 years of one's life. People study till post graduation some going up to doctoral degrees. They then become a part of the work force, valuable human resources and human capital. All those who have been focused, consistent, and had the right attitudes land up with great job offers.  They are the ones who make successful careers, more than that, they have choices! Choices to accept or reject something. I believe having a choice is a lot of power. Enjoyment and merry making can be in limited doses at this stage, the focus being more on making a career. Career can be in anything; corporate world, media, fine arts, sports or anything that one fancies. I tell this to my children as well as students that there should be at least one thing that they love doing and that they are the best in it. It can be absolutely anything under the sun.

In the Grihastha Ashram, an individual feels settled, married or not depending on the personal choice. I was talking about how powerful a choice can be, it truly empowers an individual. If you have diligently worked and planned things ahead then this stage in life is going to be smooth. There are challenges that an individual faces at both professional and personal life. Building up a career, climbing up the ladders and reaching the heights that we plan and work on. On the personal front, if married then bringing up children, facilitating their growth and progress. Seeing them move from school to college and then may be embark on their professional journeys too. A stage that makes you more of a provider. Its challenging but if the foundation was set right then it certainly becomes a cake walk. 

A person is at this stage in life is in the mid or top management level at work, has school or college going children. When thinking of  40 being the new 20. One can feel like it, if the 20s were spent well ,focused on what was to come. But if life was a party then, it'll certainly be a struggle at this stage, definitely the statement, 40 is the new 20 doesn't hold any ground then . The individual in question took it very easy, had a lax attitude, was enjoying life in the 20s. He must have lost much more, may be the partner didn't want to continue the association, read it as the girlfriend leaving him. He struggled to find a suitable job. Struggled to cope with the culture at work place. Changed jobs, got married to someone who might have been in similar situation like him. It must have become a bigger struggle for both. There may not have been harmony either at professional or personal lives.
Can such person every feel 20?

The next two stages in life are the retirement and renunciation. If life has been a struggle in the Grihastha ashrama  then there is certainly no feeling of retirement, in fact it could be more as retired from life! When there is no satisfaction can life ever be that of renunciation?

40 can certainly be the new 20 if you managed your 20s well. So when you are at 40, you have the energy and the enthusiasm of a 20 year old. Also can fulfill dreams, aspirations and lead a more meaningful life.

PS: Pictures are taken from google with due credits