India's best workplaces of 2016: Enabling the differently abled makes Lemon Tree special

Rank: 9
Lemon Tree Hotels
Founded: 2002
Employee strength: 2,768
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:11
Rank 2015: 30

Shalini Samson works in what is touted as the highest-pressure job in a hotel. As a guest service associate, the twenty five year old takes care of all the arrival and departure requirements of guests at Lemon Tree Delhi. And she’s wheelchairbound.

"My seniors are very supportive,” she says. "I’m using this opportunity to develop my interpersonal skills.” In a sector where appearances are everything, Lemon Tree stands out. Out of the 4,000 people it employs, 500 have disabilities. This includes employees who are hearing and speech impaired and those with Down syndrome.

You cannot hope to be a manager at Lemon Tree if you do not know sign language, and about 800 employees have undergone the mandatory training so far. Then there are those who are ‘socially handicapped’ as chairman and MD Patu Keswani puts it. "Ten years ago being a college graduate was mandatory, but now we even take those who have cleared class four. We have such employees at every level and a few have been promoted to managers. We skill them and within a year they leave us. But it’s a good thing. I’d like to think we are part of the country’s national skilling mission," he says.

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Lemon Tree has a culture that fulfills aspirations, which makes it a great place to work. "Working in hotels can be tiring,” says Keswani. "It’s a low paying job, highly transactional, not very engaging. We keep people bonded through camaraderie, teamwork and collaboration.”

It’s hard to miss the bonhomie between colleagues at Lemon Tree. There are those who have worked with the big luxury chains in the sector and feel at home here, and those that left the chain for a while only to come back. VP-HR, Rajesh Kumar, says that for every ten people Lemon Tree hires, one is a re-hire. Perkin Rocha, area general manager for the Delhi region, joined in 2005 when the company was starting off.

He left the chain briefly and implemented some of its best practices elsewhere and then came back. "The culture is what sticks out here. When I went out it was totally different. It was difficult for me to survive outside,” says Rocha. Over the past year Lemon Tree has made a lot of changes to its HR policies. It has doubled the insurance package for all employees and has done away with categorizing leaves into different categories. The company is also taking into account the slightest of decimal points while rewarding staff.

"Even if your ratings differ from 4.21 to 4.22 the reward will be different,” says Kumar, an eight-year veteran. "There’s a sense of trust. Anyone can approach anyone. The escalation matrix is such that solutions can come within an hour including from the chairman. He is very concerned about employee issues.” Lemon Tree’s bonuses may not match those at luxury hotels, but it prides itself on its accelerated career development processes.

Out of its 30 general managers, 90% are under 35 and 50% under 30, and all of them have grown from within. Executive housekeeper Ayush Agarwal, 29, has worked for the chain for three years and has already worked on three pre-openings and two renovated properties. "No other company could have given me so much exposure. The best part is there are no differences between the frontline staff and senior management. We can talk to the chairman anytime,” he says.

Lemon Tree runs a guest service executive programme and has identified 140 people for training as supervisors. Bright talent in the range of assistant managers and above is identified and they work closely with corporate leaders as executive assistants. It also runs a programme called Hotel General Manager in the Making.

Earlier, it recruited candidates from hotel management institutes for its management trainee programme, where they are confirmed as assistant managers after 18 months. It now encourages in-house staff to apply. "There are 68 people in our company who can become general managers in the next four years and we are planning to open about 40 hotels in the next four years.

We are a fast growing company and accelerated growth is what we offer to people,” says Keswani. Having worked with chains like The Taj, food and beverages manager Naman Bhandari likes the sense of purpose Lemon Tree gives him. The Red Fox Hotel where Bhandari works is the experimental training ground for disabled staff when they are inducted into the chain.

He has twelve employees with disabilities working under him, including five with Down syndrome. "It takes time and patience to train such employees, but when they get things right, they're exceptional. To see them accomplishing tasks at the end of the day is extremely satisfying. It makes me feel I'm doing something right," he says.