S-1, Ep-4 | The Case of the Revolving Door | Featured Guests - Sumeet & Kyriakos

01/17/21 • 28 min

The revolving door of employee turnover has been an ongoing challenge for businesses - large and small, globally and closer to home, here in the UAE too. Sooner or later, leaders will have to shift their mindset and start looking at employees as co-creators of the business; vs.' CTC'. In the Hospitality and Service Industry, employees sit at the intersection of a business and the customer or guest experience; which makes hiring and retaining the right talent even more important. After all, everyone has talent – but it's about finding the right talent!

Aligned to ARK’s Philosophy of Hiring Right for Success, host Aseem Kapoor recently caught up with entrepreneurs and ARK Affiliate Partners Sumeet Nayyar and Kyriakos Tzampazidis who share a similar passion of success through hiring the right people and harnessing the power of AI to help leaders across the Service Industry find, hire and retaining talent more suited to thrive in their organizations' culture.

Tune in to the latest episode of ARKcast to find out how AI aides the decision making process and is a great enabler in identifying talent with the right skill-set; predict with almost 60-70% accuracy the likelihood of their long term stability, productivity and performance, which eventually impacts bottom-line and help save costs attributed to high employee turnover.

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S-1, Ep-3 | Guest Experience As A Competitive Advantage | Featured Guest - Paul Bridger, Rove Hotels

At one time, organizations could compete heavily based on product differentiation. A better, more luxurious, efficient and sleeker product could create its own niche and build its identity; that may well still be true for some industries. In reality though, for most, it's a crowded marketplace today. For one product, you have multiple options available in the market with marginal differences only. This leads to confusion and decision paralysis for a customer.
Many hospitality and service brands also compete on the basis of price, product, location, etc; with the recent battlefront being "delivering a great Customer or Guest Experience". But whilst many brands claim or leaders believe in this, it seems to seldom translate.
As #RoveHotels now gear up to open their 7th hotel in Dubai, ARK's Chief ARK-itect Aseem Kapoor catches up with Paul Bridger - Head of Operations for Rove Hotels. Paul came on board in the early stages of the brand development and plays a key role in how the brand is positioned today, within its own white space in the mid-market segment.
Right from the start, it was clear - what would help a brand like Rove to leave a mark, would be the experience they deliver. Again, typically whilst having a great product is crucial, mapping a great experience takes a lot more than just looking at all your touchpoints and seeing the world as your customers would. The glue that holds it together is your People - something that's often overlooked. But for Rove, or "Rovesters" as they proudly call themselves, is that secret ingredient that would bind the whole experience together.
Tune in to our latest episode as Paul Bridger chats with host Aseem Kapoor about how his team of Rovesters 'Go Beyond Borders', which sets the brand apart and hold its own ground, in a market place that has a plethora of options for travellers to choose from.
#CustomerExperience #Dubai #Travel #hospitality

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S-1, Ep-5 | Finding Success through Happiness | Featured Guest – Larissa Redaelli

Happydemic! An intriguing and fresh take on the current challenging environment we are all facing and have been affected by – personally or at work. The big question remains - can organizations actually adopt a “Happydemic” mindset and create an environment that is simply happy? Or is it still considered too “soft” an approach that most organizations deter to enter into, lest it creates a culture of laid back, lackadaisical, irresponsible people especially in a market climate where every organization is trying its level best to financially survive and be viable.

Employee happiness at the workplace has always been related to once a year engagement score – which seems to be more of a tick-box exercise to fulfill a KPI rather than actually do something about it. A shift to regular – even daily feedback – is happening and the role that a leader plays in ensuring and creating a happy culture is paramount. Then again, perhaps the choice to be happy or unhappy lies with us.

In the latest episode of ARKcast, I speak to Larissa Redaelli, Happiness Master Coach and an international author who recently published her book – Happydemic, which is a reflection of her personal experiences and journeys in the quest to find her happiness and in the process, has created models that enable everyone to take charge of their own happiness. The impact on organizations is undeniable as we all know happy employees = happy customers but does it really translate into an actual part of an organization’s strategic plan?