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Millennium Hotels and Resorts visits LSST to discuss hospitality trends

Kunal Chan Mehta

By Kunal Chan Mehta | Article Date: 15 May 2017

LSST

Millennium Hotels and Resorts – a hotel company famous for treating its guests as family – seamlessly blends Asian hospitality with western comfort in over 60 hotels across the world. Today, through its award-winning approach to guest relations, the Millennium Hotels and Resorts experience has become a hospitality industry benchmark.


Photo source: LSST London

David Birkby, HR Manager, Millennium Hotels Group and Maria Olmos Gardillo, HR Officer, Millennium Gloucester Hotel visited the LSST London Campus to discuss the latest trends in the hospitality sector. Over 45 Foundation and Top-Up degree students from the Hospitality School and Business School attended the presentation on Thursday 11 May 2017.

Students attending the debate-led presentation had the chance to question David and Maria about the latest hospitality trends and work opportunities at the Millennium Hotel. The focus of the talk centred on: talent and performance management, current issues in the hospitality industry, coaching and developing employees and employee relations.

David Birkby, thanking LSST students and staff for their inspiring questions, said: ‘HR and hospitality are closely united. I find my role the most rewarding. A day in Hospitality HR is never the same. For example, we work with relevant authorities, to make our customers stay and visit to London both enjoyable and safe, we look at how Brexit poses an recruitment challenge as hospitality experts are now in shorter supply – and we look at what millennials expect in the workplace, in terms of technology, to manage retention rates.’

Mohamad Hassan, Programme Manager for Hospitality Management, said: ‘I would like to emphasise that all of what has been presented and discussed can formulate ideas for research for BA Top-Up Degrees and also provides a snapshot for our foundation students on the modules and topics to be addressed during their studies.’ Mohamad went on to say: ‘Knowing the staff recruitment process increases your chances of being hired as this helps you be better prepared, less stressed and more innovative.’

John White, LSST’s Work Placement Coordinator, said: ‘It was a pleasure to witness the students contributing to the variety of thought-intensive topics on the day. Along with the guest speakers, I was particularly impressed with the variety of real-world experiences our students have in the hospitality sector. Today’s discussion has really broadened the passion and drive in our students.

Renata Monike Carvalho, Student Union President and Business Management (Y1) student, said: ‘The event really helped me understand the latest opportunities and challenges the hospitality industry faces.’

Hugh Smith, LSST’s Student Union Coordinator, who also attended the event, said: ‘I was really impressed with the thought-leading interaction by the students. It was the best I’ve seen. The speakers were enlightening and the overall feedback from the students was really positive.’

Anna Zouvelou, LSST’s HR Administrator, said: ‘I believe the speakers were really informative. I found the examples – given in the realm of Hospitality HR – were very interesting to my own work. I was really impressed by the solutions to HR issues that both David and Maria had for recruitment, retention and grievances. The talk certainly assisted students with their research – but helped me directly with my HR work at LSST.’

Note from the Deputy CEO:

David and Maria from the Millennium Hotels and Resorts have helped LSST students and staff in numerous positive ways – I would like to personally thank them for this.

LSST is not about ‘random war stories’. We go further. We want to run events that lead academic debate, discussion, research, team-building, cross course interaction (in this case both business and hospitality management students came together in one arena) so the event ultimately adds value to the student experience at LSST.

I send my ongoing commendations to those staff who helped put together this inspiring event and I look forward to learning about, and supporting, future such events.


Mohammed Zaidi, Deputy CEO, LSST


To find out more about LSST’s Hospitality Management courses visit: https://www.lsst.ac/courses/hospitality-management/

View the Hotel’s career pages here:https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/careers/

View the Hotel’s offers here: https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/offers/

Read the Hotel’s blog here: https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/blog/

Read an event blog from John White – LSST’s Work Placement Coordinator – here: https://www.lsst.ac/staffblog/employer-talk-may-11th-2017/

Please email the author of this article kunal.mehta@lsst.ac for any questions or comments.



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