Starwood believes in fostering innovation and creativity in its employees, by giving them stretch roles and helping them succeed. The company follows a competency model called “Win with Talent.” Talent is among the top priorities for the CEO and the senior leadership of the company who invest a large part of their time on talent management and development. Any employee within the company can aspire and be considered for global opportunities. Dilip Puri, who is the Managing Director India and Regional Vice President South Asia at Starwood says, “I believe the battle for market share in the future will be fought over talent. When Starwood hires talent, it does not look for candidates who can fill up their needed position, but who have the potential to evolve and grow with Starwood to take on larger roles.”

Hiring for the right attitude and training for right behaviors which are consistent with the company’s culture and values is very important for the company. The empowering of employees to harness their creativity and innovation in dealing with real-life business situations and delivering a personalized and memorable guest experience is encouraged within the company culture. Associate engagement translates into enhanced service levels and improved guest satisfaction and directly translates into higher profitability for the company. One of the key performance indicators for the associates is guest satisfaction scores, which are real time.

The company invests in good leadership and developing leadership skills across all levels. Through all key initiatives, there is a strong focus on business and the ROI of each initiative tracked to ensure optimizing of productivity. Starwood believes in investing in attracting, hiring and retaining the right talent and helping them reach their potential to evolve and grow with Starwood.