The Point Hotel

Employing more than 90 staff from 17 different nationalities allows The Point Hotel in Edinburgh to offer its international guests a wealth of cultural and language skills.

General manager Neil Ellis describes a 'win-win' employment culture where staff get help with formal training and qualifications in return for their loyalty and input.

"We don't proactively seek overseas people, they just come to us," Neil explains.

"Edinburgh is very lucky in that it has a large international tail and obviously a lot of students come over too. We're just two minutes away from Edinburgh International Conference Centre so we get a large number of international businesses and guests. We can speak more than 30 languages in this building and staff are encouraged to use those skills to help guests and other departments, such as translating menus into different languages."

The Point's workforce includes Indian, Australian, Finnish, Spanish, French, Polish, Czech, Latvian, Chinese and Brazilian recruits working as assistants, supervisors and managers in areas such as reception and reservations, housekeeping, bar, kitchen, restaurant and administration.

Staff members include bar supervisor Viliam Stibrany (Slovakian), who speaks five languages (German, Slovakian, Czech & Polish), and excellent English.

"He speaks to the guests, and with more and more visitors coming over here from the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe, his language skills are invaluable," Neil says.

The Point's philosophy is to develop and train its people, not only for the job they hold now, but also for the one they may choose in the future.

Polish economics graduate Magdalena Rec started out in the hotel’s restaurant but, keen to take on more responsibility, progressed to accounts assistant, with responsibility for areas including payroll and human resources.

"For an accounts assistant who wasn’t local, she did an excellent job and was fantastic to have on the team," Neil says. "She had been doing translations for us for staff, translating menus and sitting in on meetings so we thought, she’s doing something for us – let's give something back. 

"The Point paid Magdalena's tuition fees to do an HNC in human resources at college two days a week, which she would make up by working extra hours. "She has now returned to Poland to set up a business helping other Poles come to the UK.” Neil explains.

The hotel's recent initiatives include rolling out a Management Development programme, Vocational Qualifications to Level 3, providing English Lessons on site and an 'unprecedented' level of training in product knowledge.

"We look after our people here and have a fantastic working atmosphere," Neil says. "We provide English lessons for the staff and they give back in terms of loyalty, so we have a low staff turnover compared to other people. They will also recommend their friends and relatives to come and work here, which is great too."

As chair of Skills Forum, a sub group of tourism co-ordination body, the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, Neil believes initiatives such as the Fresh Talent Working in Scotland Scheme are particularly vital to the tourism and hospitality sectors.

"Edinburgh's tourism industry is growing rapidly, but the workforce is relatively static, so where are we going to get the people from?" he asks.

"Unemployment is Edinburgh is below 2%, but the service sector needs to attract a total of 24,000 people by 2015 to account for the growth. We’re working with schools, colleges and universities to attract more young people into the industry as well as looking at programmes like Fresh Talent."

ETAG has unveiled a tourism industry action plan focusing on areas such as improving standards and increasing communication to raise the profile of the industry as a career choice.

Case study:2008

Contact

Neil Ellis
Mercure Point Hotel & Conference Centre
34 Bread Street
Edinburgh
EH3 9AF
Tel: 0131 221 5555
Web: The Point Hotel
Email: Neil Ellis