Waqar Naseem Wamiq

AS part of its corporate social responsibility program, InterContinental Riyadh launched ‘IHG Academy’ in partnership with local universities and technical colleges, to offer free work experience placement and on-the-job training to young and talented Saudi students.

A new partner, The Laureate Vocational Saudi Arabia, which is a part of the Laureate International Universities Network, offers students diploma programs in Events and Business Management that are accredited by the Saudi Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. Last year alone, InterContinental Riyadh accepted close to 15 student trainees and successfully offered job employment opportunities for 6 of them. Being impressed by the English language proficiency and caliber of the students, the hotel signed a new agreement last week that includes 5 other hotels into the IHG Academy program, thus expanding training and employment opportunities at one of the country’s leading hotel chains. In just two months, InterContinental Riyadh has already accepted 15 new trainees who will get an opportunity to practice what they have studied at one of the oldest 5 star hotels in the Kingdom.

Area General Manager Tariq Y. Dowidar, when asked what makes his hotel so special, said: “Our people are what make it special.” The work culture is driven by their pursuit of a higher employee satisfaction and engagement level and effective Saudization. The current Saudization percentage at InterContinental Riyadh alone is 35%. Dowidar also shared one of the IHG values which reads “Everything we do is to enable our people to live a life they can be proud of.”

The hotel holds two employee surveys every year that are available in the Arabic language. It is assessed by a third-party company that guarantees confidentiality and anonymity of employees when answering questions about whether they feel they are fairly compensated or whether they would recommend someone to work at their company. The highest employee engagement survey rating was in 2015 when they achieved 95% employee engagement score and have been consistently scoring over 92% for the past 5 years. A high score is indicative of a company with a high employee engagement and workplace loyalty.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) KSA, which comprises over 20 hotels kingdom-wide, made it to the top 4 Best Workplaces in KSA for the 2016 Great Place to Work survey.

The secret of the hotel’s success, according to the Area Director of Organization Development, is the consistent delivery of intangible motivational factors such as respect, recognition, acknowledgement, training & development, as well as career progression which play a huge role in attracting the right kind of people and keeping them engaged throughout the year by celebrating individual and team successes together on a monthly basis. If you are a Saudi hotelier or looking to start your career in the hospitality industry, then IHG is the place to start.