Samar Yahya
JEDDAH — To celebrate the success of Hilton Worldwide investment in talent acquisition and development efforts across Saudi Arabia, Hiton Worldwide held an exclusive roundtable at Waldorf Astoria Jeddah-Qasr Al Sharq on Monday.
Ben Bengougam, vice president of human resources for Europe, Middle East & Africa, introduced the Hilton team and talked about Hilton Worldwide business and the opportunities offered by Hilton. “Hilton chain has 4,500 hotels with 745,000 rooms in 97 countries out of which 387 hotels operating in EMEA. Our purposes are sustainability, cultures, communities and opportunities and especially youth opportunities. Hilton extends opportunities to team members.
“We also have three pillars working on with our team members, rewards, careers and great opportunities. Hilton also offers learning and development of the team, which is a world class organization and development to offer programs like ELEVATOR and FINE$$E.”
“Hilton CEO Christopher J. Nassetta at WEF two years ago promised that Hilton Worldwide was going to touch one million young people till 2019 either by internship, employment or training. At that time 72 million youth around the world were unemployed, and Hilton is working on giving opportunities to youth.
By 2022, 37 million youth would be employed in hospitality industry considered to be enough jobs to meet the requirements of youth.
Careers @ Hilton Live began as a small program in Europe aiming to take the world of hospitality to young people, it met a fantastic revelation in the region with 168 events in 2015, six of them were in Saudi Arabia touching the youth everywhere, during “Youth in Hospitality Month,” Bengougam said. Koray Genckul, senior director of HR operations for Middle East and Africa, said: “The first Hilton hotel opened in Saudi Arabia was Makkah Hilton in 1995. At present there are ten Hilton hotels spread in the main cities and regions Kingdom wide, with 2,700 team members. There are plans to have additional 27 hotels in the coming years. There is particular strategy made by Hilton for the Saudi market and we are proud with the achievement and development by Hilton operations in the past 15 years in Saudi Arabia.”
Fawaz Moumina, regional director of human resources Saudi Arabia, talked about the commitment to youth and said: “Hilton offers, training and participates in vocational and professional days to give more professional practical experience and provide employment opportunities in diverse departments of the hotels, based on three main factors of connecting, preparing and employing. We build an integrated team in world-class standard environment and competitive salaries.
“Hilton has signed a recent MOU with Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage led by the Prince Sultan Bin Salman, over employing scholarship students who successfully complete their scholarships and come back to Saudi Arabia. Hilton also offers career opportunities to women to join the team in different departments.”
On education programs Ayman Madkour, regional learning and talent development manager KSA said: “Saudi Arabia is so rich in human resources and Hilton provides Worldwide expertise and development programs through Hilton Worldwide University (HWU) with over 2,500 courses and prominent programs like Future Manager (Mudeer Al Mustakbal) program that enables employees to become the future leaders to work all over the world and not only in domestic market.
Also Passport to Success program, is a program which Hilton created. It is
an Arabic program, a premier program, in collaboration with King Khalid Foundation and International Youth Foundation to empower Saudi talents for success in business. In 2016 Hilton will offer more programs for developing cadres and talents.”
Abeer Fakeerah, assistant human resources manager, in Makkah Hilton and Towers thanked everyone who supported her and said: “Motivated by the spirit of challenge, I applied for a job in Hilton Makkah as supervisor in human resources and was the first woman in all human resources department in Hilton hotels in Saudi Arabia. I received training abroad and am really developed. I joined Passport to Success program and now am a trainer in the program who visits industry related universities, colleges and business and encourages more women to join the team. During the past two years women staff in Hilton Makkah and Towers was increased by 30 percent.”
Hilton plans to triple its presence in Saudi Arabia in the coming years from the ten hotels currently welcoming guests. With a portfolio including iconic names such as Waldorf Astoria, Hilton, DoubleTree by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn, the company is deploying various training and developments programmes across the country.
