Meet Petra Slaba, who works as HR Director at OREA Hotels & Resorts. We asked her what brings new employees to their hotels, how they manage the other activities they get involved in, and what it’s like to have a robot as a colleague!

Ms Slabá, you are the HR Director of OREA Hotels & Resorts. Tell us how long have you been in the accommodation industry and where did your career path lead to this field?

Actually, it’s a bit different, I have been the HR Director of Cimex Group since 2017, but my favourite “child” within the group is OREA HOTELS & RESORTS. And it’s true that this is my first time in the hospitality industry and I’m really enjoying it. In the past I have worked in telecommunications, utilities, financial sector, in Czech and foreign companies, corporate and private equity, so I dare say that I can compare it well thanks to my experience.

OREA is my love brand from all possible angles, hospitality is a very dynamic and professionally demanding field, because thanks to the fact that we operate in services, people, employees, are really the most important thing we have in the company. OREA Hotels is known for its employee benefits package, which is really rich. Are you planning to add to it this year?

I am delighted that OREA has built such a reputation. The key to our success is our people and their satisfaction and, above all, their motivation, and I am pleased to be able to boast of our results in this area. When we first measured in 2018, we measured only 38% motivation and today we are at 89% on average for the whole of last year. Our philosophy is that only satisfied employees can make satisfied customers. I know that’s what everyone says. After all, all companies have employees in their strategy or values, but we really live it. Our colleagues are the ones who directly influence the satisfaction of our guests. We know that if our employees feel really comfortable with us and also believe in our strategy to make sure the customer always leaves satisfied, it shows in the work we do. At the same time, we recognize that working in hospitality is challenging. A waitress or a waiter on the set can walk 15 kilometres in a shift, while the work of maids is as demanding as a workout in the gym, only you are never in the gym for 8 hours a day. Colleagues in the kitchen often don’t stop for a moment, and in addition, all colleagues have to actively communicate, smile all day and address the wishes and needs of our guests. That is why we strive to create the best possible conditions for our employees. For demanding work, free meals, a cafeteria of benefits focused on an active and healthy lifestyle, the Advanto app, which acts as an “ATM” for a salary advance in case of need, the OREA Academy for development and training, and many other benefits are also available. But by far the most popular is our employee accommodation for employees and their extended family in our beautiful hotels for 250 crowns per night.

Thinking of entering your supercharged wellbeing programme into the Recruitment Academy Awards this year?

That’s a good idea. Thanks so much for the tip, let’s do it!

Is it your wellbeing program that you use to attract candidates to your order? How do you actually recruit new recruits, do you use recruitment campaigns or do you focus more on job fairs?

I would say that the fact that we have focused on employer brand for a long time and that we deliver 100% on what we promise plays a big role in recruitment. Personally, I would be very happy if we could change the perception of our entire industry. For a long time, I have encountered opinions that the hospitality sector does not pay much and that employees are fired after the season and new ones are hired in the spring. Such practices have nothing to do with us! For example, our remuneration strategy is set to the median of the entire Czech market – we compare ourselves to all banks or IT companies. And in terms of career opportunities, you will find few fields on the Czech market where you can make an internal career by, for example, starting out as a waiter in high school and at the age of thirty being a cluster general manager of several hotels. This is also possible here. To answer the question about recruitment methods, we use all channels. We use advertising in the local press, which has brought us, for example, a number of excellent maintenance workers. We also focus on radio campaigns, because radio is listened to in almost every kitchen around the world, and in turn we use trendy methods, e.g. Reaching specific demographic and geographic groups of potential candidates on social media. And also all the classic routes such as career sites, web portals and agencies. We also cooperate with schools and actively use the opportunity to present OREA as an employer, such as the Career Expo, which will take place 13. and 14 March at the O2 Universum in Prague. However, our internal refer-a-colleague programmes also have good results.

I learned from a recent Forbes.cz article that you are also actively involved in helping Filipinos who come to work here. How does it really work? Do we offer them a job straight away and how do they acclimatise to their new environment?

We are very happy for our colleagues from the Philippines, they are great professionals, positive and hardworking. In addition, it is a personal value for them to keep their guests happy. In the spring we will be hiring almost 30 colleagues from the Philippines, which is already a smaller community. So we have teamed up with the Filipino community living in the Czech Republic and are working with them to prepare the best possible working environment for our new colleagues. In addition, we want to connect them with compatriots with whom they can talk in their native language. At the same time, we prepare joint company events to understand their culture and respect each other. The agency helps us with the actual recruitment abroad. Today, all recruitment processes can be done online. However, it was successful to greet new colleagues at the airport with jackets and hats. New colleagues have all the information in advance, but temperature differences often surprise them at the beginning.

And to make matters worse, you’ve been working with high schools and colleges for a long time. May I ask if your cooperation with these schools consists mainly of students completing internships, or does it also include other activities? Do these students then return to you as employees when they finish their studies?

Practice is, of course, essential for our field. However, in the case of our partner hotel college, for example, the fact that our CEO Gorjan Lazarov is also a lecturer there is invaluable. It happens very often that after every lecture we get a call from a student who says that he would like to work for OREA, and there are certainly more of them who do not say it so directly. In recent years, we have been looking for other partner schools that actively work with young people and take pride in not only teaching students, but also educating them for our field. We have also newly introduced so-called Open Days. We invite students and their parents to come and see the whole hotel, its facilities, see where their children will work or live, soak up the atmosphere in the work teams, taste our gastronomy. Such actions have also proved to be successful for us.

Personally, I really like how active you are in OREA Hotels. But at the same time it must be quite challenging. How do you manage to coordinate everything?

Thank you very much for the compliments, we appreciate it very much. It’s demanding, it’s true, but for me my work has been a great hobby all my life. It is very important for me that I can see the results of our work very clearly in HR. I can see the reactions of our employees, their communication and feel how our company culture is constantly improving. This is linked to the aforementioned motivation, which directly affects our business results and strategic goals. Thanks to the positive results I am really happy with my work. But it is essential to say that the results are not mine. I have great teammates who are great professionals and super consultants. They come up with ideas, enjoy implementing new projects and continuously develop in the various HR processes they are responsible for. It is then much easier to be proactive. For example, Denisa Krejčí, our HRBP for Mariánské Lázně, practically put together our entire participation in Career Days by herself. If you come to our stand, you will definitely meet Denisa there!

It has come to our attention that you also “employ” robots in your hotels. Finally, why did you decide to make this move and how are your current employees reacting? Isn’t there a slight rivalry between them and the robots?

Our robots are a hit. I have to admit that whenever I meet them, I have to stroke the ears of our serving cat and wait like a little girl for her to say, hush, hush, don’t touch my ears. But I also see how much they can help their colleagues in the bar and restaurant to spend more time communicating with guests when robots are driving around delivering drinks and food. That’s the main reason we have them. Not to replace human contact, quite the opposite. Robots allow us to make our services even more client-centric.

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