Not surprisingly, HRD professionals are busy coming up with strategies uniquely suited to the challenges that the sector offers. Mercury Travels Ltd (MTL), part of the Oberoi Group and one of the prestigious travel houses in India, which has been in operation for nearly half a century, has been able to retain its leadership position with efficient human resource management.

Says Rachna Kamra, General Manager, HRD, MTL, ``We have 14 offices in India and five abroad with a total staff strength of 450. Weare among the leading travel houses in the country and are not immune to instances of poaching from rival companies. With annual attrition rates of 7-10 per cent, we always have to keep evolving new strategies to arrest the flight of manpower that the company has invested in.''

The management structure at MTL comprises five levels. The counter executive is the entry level with the main functions being ticketing and client servicing; next comes the supervisors, each of whom have 3-5 counter executives under them; assistant managers form the next grade; then comes the operations managers in-charge of sales and marketing and finally, the branch head who has to ensure that a particular branch is a profit centre.

The ultimate performance of the company depends on the performance of the branch head and the team under the person. At the entry level you can expect a salary of Rs 5,000 per month and a branch head could be taking home anything between Rs 35,000 and Rs 60,000 per month, the compensation depending onthe branch he heads. For instance, the Mumbai branch head will be drawing more than the Ahmedabad head.

Compensation is by and large performance-oriented with fixed increase in basic pay for those who do well. On the minimum qualifications to join the different levels, Kamra informs, ``At the counter executive level we do not necessarily look for an MBA. A graduate who is computer literate and is aware of travel and tourism will fit the bill. At the senior levels we look for people with customer- orientation focus, leadership qualities, team-building abilities and lot of initiative. Most counter executives come up to the assistant manager level but thereafter, it is literally the survival of the fittest, with only the very bright professionals getting to head a branch.''

To recruit travel professionals MTL uses multiple media. Depending on the needs, it could be job ads, consultants, the in-house data bank of industry professionals and even use headhunting firms. In the past MTL has been able toeffectively tap different sources to recruit top-notch professionals but it had a major problem of poaching by rival companies and employees quitting after getting requisite exposure at the travel house. MTL also conducts exit interviews to know why a particular person has quit and make changes where ever necessary.

Says Kamra, ``Very often the people we recruit are not entirely to our requirements. Also, there is regular exodus from certain branches like Mumbai. To check such instances and to have personnel suited to our needs, we decided to have an in-house management training programme.'' The Mercury Travels Management Training Programme was launched in 1995 and since then it has regularly provided a pool of professionals tailored to the requirements of MTL.

``It is an exhaustive two-year job-cum-classroom training programme with the objective of producing top-quality managers in-house. The advantage is that the selected candidates are trained directly on the job, they know and understand the groupculture and, in the course of their training, they develop the same kind of service excellence that the Oberoi Group connotes,'' explains Kamra.

There are only eight people in a batch selected from over 500 applicants. The eight-round, exhaustive selection procedure spans four to five months. Informing about the different stages, Kamra says, ``It begins with initial scanning of applications and preliminary discussions. Then we have group discussions, psychology tests, IQ, GK assessment, interviews with the Oberoi Group panel and finally an interview by a board comprising representatives from the Oberoi Group and MTL. The minimum qualification is graduation or a diploma in hotel management. The two-year training involves field trips, market surveys, group discussions, case studies, workshops and seminars.''

The trainees are paid a stipend of Rs 6,500 per month and MTL also takes care of their accommodation. After training, the candidates start as Assistant Managers.

An important part of the training isthe customer empathy programme as well as how to handle customer complaints. Says Kamra, ``Customer satisfaction is of prime importance and meeting customer expectations is a big challenge at MTL.'' Through its in-house programme the company has been able to successfully check the exodus of professionals and at the same time it has built a team suited to its work culture.