Hilton

Hilton is a brand name you’ll immediately recognise, of course. Hotels and the hospitality industry, dominating city skylines and being synonymous with a certain daughter who liked the ‘Simple Life’. And now, it is THE top place to work, according to a new list. The top spot accolade comes after 8 years on the list itself, and, with 460,000 team members worldwide, is no mean feat to have achieved.

To top the Place to Work list is about team members’ dedication, said Simon Vincent, EVP and President, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Hilton, said: “We're proud to be named the world's best workplace, which follows awards in more than 20 countries across Europe, Middle East & Africa. This award celebrates our remarkable team members' dedication and the culture of innovation and inclusivity we've nurtured for more than a century. It's a testament to the power of investing in our people to create an exceptional workplace where everyone can thrive.”

So what of the more day-to-day and also future-facing plans for Hilton now the listing is secured?

Kay Harriman is Senior Director HR at Hilton UK and Ireland and has been with Hilton for over 30 years. She joined in personnel and training. “I think Hilton’s biggest resource is its team members. I guess I would say that, but genuinely I do! We are a people business. We have to invest in our people and be able to put insight and rigour behind some of the decisions. As an HR professional, you are there to make sure everybody has a great time at work, and I've always believed that my job is about making sure people have a great time at work. We spend so much time at work, so you should enjoy it for sure.”

Kay Harriman

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Senior Director HR

Key Pillars for success as a brand

Harriman’s work and that of Hilton focused on four key pillars: Inclusion, Wellness, Growth and Purpose. She says it’s about asking whether they are ‘tapping into the right talent pools’ and how they get their message across about their employee value proposition. “It's around leadership capability and I'd like to thank everybody who comes to Hilton to work because they have a great HR manager,” she adds. “I think it's important that our leaders are competent, are confident in being leaders and can really work to get the best out of their team members. I think the beauty of an international global company is that you do have people that have different thoughts, and different ideas and the same sort of question could be approached in a different way.”

With Hilton, there is a ‘traditional’ element to the workforce – that is, being in hotel operations means a lot of staff are what’s known as frontline colleagues. Harriman says: “You have everything from the general manager who heads up the operations and then they have a team of senior managers that would be an operations manager, a commercial manager and they would have head housekeepers, head chef and they would have that HR manager. They would have a finance manager, so the key general disciplines you have, are very depending on the size of the hotel, you would have system managers, supervisors and then and what we would call frontline colleagues.”

Hilton’s staff can range from bar and reception staff to housekeepers, and then what’s known as functional, or support staff, such as marketing teams, e-commerce teams, engineering teams and the people who look after facilities, our hotels, and teams that buy our energy.