Scores of persons yesterday flocked the Marriott Hotel’s Pre-Opening Office in Georgetown with the hope of securing a job at the new hotel.
The US$58 million hotel, which has been a controversial project in some sections of the hospitality industry and for the public at large, began interviewing prospective employees yesterday and the recruitment activity is scheduled to continue every Friday until November 28.
The hotel, located in Kingston, began advertising for jobs in late July. Critics had expressed concern that the management may have issues with maintaining a five-star status since hiring had yet to commence in July and the official opening was initially slated for August. The opening has since been pushed to December.
In addition to vacancies in the print media for jobs in the categories of guest services, housekeeping, food and beverage and maintenance, mass text messages were also sent out to invite persons to start their career with the Marriott. The minimum qualifications required were said to be at least 4 CXC subjects (Mathematics and English preferred). Persons with experience were also listed as preferred.
Applicants who turned up at the Lamaha Street recruitment office yesterday were greeted by friendly and prompt staff, who offered a sequence number and an employment application form to be filled out. The office saw a continual inflow of persons, who were quickly interviewed and sent away.
Stabroek News also learnt that an electronic application will have to be completed via the company’s website before a complete evaluation of the applicant is done.
General Manager Roberto Grisi had told Stabroek News in August that over 50 hours of training is generally required for new employees within the first year of employment. He noted that given the scope of the various positions at the hotel, the training levels were varied.
He noted, “It is always our desire to hire from within the countries and communities in which our hotels are located and the people of Guyana have a great spirit and are very hospitable people, something that you cannot train.”
Grisi said that while he anticipated that “90% to 95%” of the new employees would be Guyanese nationals, the hotel’s management will be brought in. He explained that “when opening our first hotel in any new market, we generally provide an experienced Marriott leadership team to manage and launch the hotel.”
He added, “An experienced team trains the staff and the entry-level Guyanese supervisors to ensure they are educated on our highly regarded service standards.”
Stabroek News had asked if the project would be bringing staff from other branches to stay on permanently or contractually to facilitate training, however Grisi did not expand on the length of time the experienced management team would be attached to the project. This move by the hotel goes against what was promoted as one of the selling points of the Marriott by the government–that more than 250 jobs were to be created for Guyanese.