Dubai, UAE: Accor Middle East, one of the leading hospitality groups in the region, has been working to implement plans for the group’s human resources requirements in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Accor worked closely and actively with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) – Dr Al-Weshail and his team – towards a nationalisation plan for Accor hotels in the Kingdom.
A comprehensive Saudisation plan was formulated and presented in March this year to SCTA for approval. The 2015 Accor Saudisation plan details that within the next 5 years, Accor hotels in KSA will recruit an excess of 1,412 Saudis, making up a total of 1,757 Saudi Nationals.
Christophe Landais, Managing Director Accor Middle East, said: “We fully support the Saudisation programme in its endeavour to solve the growing unemployment in the country and we strongly believe that sustainable hotel development will succeed only through the development of Saudi Nationals.’’
The 2015 Accor Saudisation plan has been built up by location, by department and by position within each department. The plan is based on recruiting college and university graduates under the Accor ‘Become a Future Manager’ program and there is also a non-academic, apprenticeship route via the ‘Become a Talented Associates’ program.
The objective is for Saudi Nationals to gradually reach 80% of the total workforce in the Accor hotels. Furthermore, Accor is committed to employ 100% Saudi Nationals within each hotel Front Office department within the next two years.
‘‘Most evidently those are challenging targets. Clearly some immense efforts and drive will be required from Accor at corporate level as well as at our hotel General Manager and Head of Department’ levels with two prominent focuses: determination and training,’’ stressed Landais
Novotel Al Anoud Riyadh was selected as the pilot hotel for implementation of Accor’s Saudisation programme with the strong support of its General Manager, Frederic Gitzner. The pilot programme aims to assess the feasibility of the scheme, before extending the curriculum to the other hotels within the group.
Accor will place a strong focus on developing the technical expertise and abilities of Saudi Nationals, providing extensive ‘’on’’ and ‘’off’’ the job training through the Accor Middle East Academy ‘Tamheed’.
The group will work closely with the SCTA in sourcing the candidates and the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) to allocate the necessary financial resources and assistance to progress Saudisation in a timely manner. ‘Most evidently Accor Saudi nationals’ development programs will also succeed according to the financial resources the Saudi government and hotel Onwers alike are prepared to commit,’ added Landais.
