Regional Vice President & General Manager

Selection Panel Project

October 21, 2016

Professor Noel Genoway

BUSM 2115 SEC 002

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Table of Contents

Job Posting Fairmont Hotel Regional Vice President& General Manger ...................................... 3
Internal Memorandum .................................................................................................................... 6
Competencies .................................................................................................................................. 7
Breakdown of Competencies .......................................................................................................... 8

Selection Strategy ................................................................................................................................10

Testing........................................................................................................................................... 13
Four Examples of Behaviour Questions. ...................................................................................... 16
Four Examples of Situational Questions....................................................................................... 18
Agenda for the Selection Panel ..................................................................................................... 20
Advertisement For newspaper ...................................................................................................... 21
References ..................................................................................................................................... 21

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Job Posting Fairmont Hotel Regional Vice President& General Manger

Regional Vice President, Pacific Northwest & General Manager, Fairmont Pacific Rim
Primary Location
: Canada-Vancouver-Fairmont Pacific Rim
Employee Status
: Regular

Regional Vice President Pacific Northwest & General Manager Fairmont Pacific Rim

At Fairmont Hotels & Resorts we offer our guests the finest hospitality experience in each of our
destinations. Be an ambassador for the brand, a region and your hotel as Regional Vice President
& General Manager, where your leadership, strong interpersonal skills and strategic vision will
drive solid operating results, an engaged team and memorable guest experiences.

Hotel Overview: At the ocean's edge a modern oasis, the Fairmont Pacific Rim is the most
remarkable address in the city with its breathtaking harbour views, luxurious accommodation,
rave-worthy cuisine and warm hospitality.

Summary of Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Operations, Americas, and the Regional Vice President &
General Manager is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the Fairmont
Pacific Rim, and the following properties: Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Fairmont Waterfront,
Fairmont Vancouver Airport, Fairmont Empress & Fairmont Olympic, and Seattle.

● Responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the region
and the hotel
● Oversee the operations functions of the hotel, including but not limited to
Food and Beverage and Rooms Division
● Lead and support all departments in the achievement of their financial and
operational targets through establishment of a positive culture, clear
expectations and policy and procedural implementation
● Direct the preparation, presentation and subsequent achievement of the hotel's
annual Operating Budget, Marketing & Sales Plan and Capital Budget
● Actively involved in various industry and community initiatives
● Ensure that monthly financial outlooks for all departments are on time, on
target and accurate
● Recruit, select, train, and manage employees to deliver superior guest services,
leading to maximizing revenue and profitability goals; including active

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 involvement in the recruitment of senior leadership positions within the operating
departments
● Ensure regular assessment and review of all hotel personnel by appropriate
management staff
● Create new programs in response to market conditions and revenue opportunities
● Act as spokesperson for the hotels and an ambassador for the Fairmont Brand
● Ensure full compliance to hotel operating controls; Follow department
policies, procedures and service standards as well as safety policies
● Develop, recommend, implement, and manage the hotel's annual budget and
long-term business plan; Achieving budgeted sales and maximum profitability
● Protect the hotel's financial assets by properly administering policies and
procedures for handling cash, credit cards, accounts payable, accounts
receivable, payroll and all other financial transactions. Also, properly administers
policies and procedures for protecting the safety of guests and employees
● Maintain strong owner relations
● Prepare monthly reports for ownership
● Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:
● 15-20 years of management experience and a proven track record in large, complex
luxury hotel operations
● Previous experience in a senior leadership role, within a similar hotel brand is required
● Extensive hotel operations experience with regional oversight is required
● Well-developed capacity for strategic decision-making and a track record of proven
results within: guest and employee satisfaction, operational excellence and revenues
and profit
● Demonstrated knowledge of budget planning and financial controls required
● Demonstrated financial acumen, capable of providing strong P&L financial
leadership and delivering results
● University/College degree in a related discipline required
● Strong interpersonal and problem solving abilities
● Highly responsible and reliable
● Visible, pro-active, personally involved in the operation with excellent organizational
skills
● responsive, engaged and interactive with proven ability to build strong relationships
and manage through influence
● Ability to work well under pressure in a fast paced environment
● Ability to work cohesively as part of a team, with excellent interpersonal
and communication skills
● Ability to focus attention on guest needs, remaining calm and courteous at all times

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 ● Exemplify the highest standards of honesty, integrity, accountability, respect
and discretion
● Highly confident of their abilities and be considered a detail-oriented person who can
tackle complex assignments
● Computer literate in Microsoft Windows applications required
● Ability to travel to properties in the Pacific Northwest Region is required

Company operating name: Fairmont Pacific Rim

Business address: 1038 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 0B9 Canada
Terms of employment: Full Time, Permanent
Salary Range: $225,000 – 300,000 CAD (Annual Gross)
Benefits: Management Incentive Plan, Medical, Vision, Dental, Defined Contribution Pension
Plan, Registered Retirement Savings Plan, Company Vehicle, Housing Allowance (if required)
Location of work: 1038 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 0B9 Canada (ability
to travel to properties in the Pacific Northwest Region is required)
Contact information: 1038 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 0B9 Canada (1-
604-695-5300)

ABOUT FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS

At Fairmont Hotels & Resorts we offer our guests the finest hospitality experience in each of our
destinations. And we know that, to offer our guests the best, we first need to offer our employees
the best. That’s why you'll find exceptional work opportunities—throughout North America and
the Caribbean, Europe and Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific—as well as industry-leading
training, career development, recognition and rewards. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a celebrated
collection of hotels that includes landmark locations like London’s The Savoy, New York’s The
Plaza, and Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel. Our teams are guided by values of Respect,
Integrity, Teamwork and Empowerment; we employ the highest ethical and quality standards,
treating all colleagues with fairness and dignity. A community and environmental leader,
Fairmont is also regarded for its responsible tourism practices and award-winning Green
Partnership program. An exciting future awaits!

Job Level: Senior Leadership / Executive

Schedule: Full-time
Travel: Yes, 25 % of the Time
Closing Date: 30.Oct.2016, 8:59:00 PM
Job Number: VPR02035

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Internal Memorandum

To: NoelGenowayCFO@fairmonthotel.ca
CC:
From: HRteam@fairmonthotels.ca
Subject: memorandum for director of operations

Dear Noel,

We are writing to inform you the need to fill in the position of Regional Vice President of
the Pacific Northwest and the General Manager of Fairmont Pacific Rim. After 25 years of
working in the company, the current regional vice president is set to retire in a few years. We are
currently looking into succession planning to replace and train this individual to succeed in this
position.

With this executive position, the individual will be responsible for the overall management
and strategic direction of the hotel’s duties of leading, supporting, and collaborating with all
departments to achieve the hotel’s annual operating budget, marketing and sales. After
discussion with our human resource manager, we are planning to post this job listing on our
Fairmont Career website, and on the Province Newspaper on Sunday. Additionally, we will
encourage our executives to share this job listing to potential applicants that may be interested.

Thank you for your time, a quick response will be greatly appreciated,

Sincerely,

Ryan Wong,
Human Resources Department

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Competencies
Usage of KSA Competency Performed - What is it?

Leadership / Management → Accountable for the overall management and strategic decision
Skills of the region and the hotel.
→ Monitor the operations functions of the hotel in all departments
and support them to fulfill hotel’s policies
40% → Recruit, select, train, and manage employees to maintain
superior guest services (including active involvement in the
recruitment of senior leadership positions within the operating
departments)
→ Ensure regular assessment and review of all hotel personnel by
appropriate management staff
→ Ensure full compliance to hotel operating controls; Follow
department policies, procedures, and service standards

Financial and Accounting → Protect the hotel’s financial assets by properly administering
policies and procedures for financial transactions.
Abilities
→ Direct the preparation, presentation and subsequent
achievement of the hotel's annual Operating Budget, Marketing &
30% Sales Plan and Capital Budget
→ Prepare monthly reports for ownership
→ Ensure that monthly financial outlooks for departments are on
time, accurate, and on target.

Communication Skills → Act as a spokesperson for the hotels and an ambassador for the
15% Fairmont Brand
→ Maintain strong owner relations
→ Actively partake in various industry and community initiatives

Problem-Solving Skills → Develop, recommend, implement, and manage the hotel's

annual budget and long-term business plan; Achieving budgeted
sales and maximum profitability
15%
→ Direct the preparation of activities and decisions
→ Create new programs according to market conditions.

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Breakdown of Competencies

Our 40% of competencies were based on leadership and management skills, as they are essential to

becoming an impactful Regional Vice President and General Manager. Considering how this

position is significant towards the overall operation and reputation of the hotel, great skills in

administering control, command and authority is required to effectively implement changes,

decisions, or procedures such as ensuring the following of hotel policies and procedures as well as

monitoring the functions of all departments within the hotel . Furthermore, a Regional Vice

President and General Manager is highly influential towards other staff members. This position

must hold accountability to any strategic decision and operations done within the regional

hotel. Therefore because of the position’s high influence towards hotel operations and

reputation, leadership and management holds the majority of the competencies for this position.

Our 30% of competencies were based on financial and accounting abilities. It is crucial for the

regional vice president and general manager to have financial and accounting abilities because

ultimately they are responsible for the profitability of the hotel. Therefore financial and

accounting abilities are required to translate the basic position and Standing of the hotel. This

is crucial in order to make decisions, develop a budget, and help Achieve our Financial and

operational targets as a hotel. As a result, the second highest competency is based on financial

and accounting abilities.

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Our 15% of competencies were based on communication skills because as the regional vice

president and general manager, communications are essential to maintain the hotel’s positive

reputation. Additionally, it is vital to have the ability to create moments of connections with the

community. Fairmont Hotels strive to maintain a competitive advantage by having the ability to

communicate clearly, with etiquette, and professionalism towards customers, as well as other

business relations. Therefore, communication skills holds 15% of the competencies for this

position.

Our remaining 15% competencies were based on problem-solving skills. The role of both

Regional Vice President and General Manager contains great dependency in holding up the

hotel’s standards and procedures. As a result if any unforeseen situation were to occur at

Fairmont, the position of General Manager and Regional Vice President should be able to

strategically plan ways to solve issues. Additionally, despite problems, this skills is a initial for

common tasks such as implementing improvement towards the hotels operations such as creating

new programs. As a result, the skills in problem-solving makes the final 15% of our competency.

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Selection Strategy

Key Selection Criteria

The selection strategy we will employ in screening our candidates will consist of:

Internal Selection:

A job posting will be placed on Fairmont Hotel division on the website

Submission will be done through the hotel’s website

Headhunting will also be occur within local Fairmont Hotels

Resumes:

Phase 01: Keyword Search

We will use ATS (Applicant Tracking systems to hold and track all applicants. When we

receive the resumes and applications, they will be placed into a database where we will search

for keywords that meet the requirements of our top four competencies. The top fifty applicants

that corresponds to our requirements will be advanced into our next phase. The resume reflected

by our head hunter or by our executive colleagues and employees will be put into a separate

database where we will review their qualifications into the next phase.

Phase 02: Review of Qualifications

The Human Resource Department will review applications and resumes that were chosen

from both Keyword Search and the referred applicants. In order to make the resume review of

qualifications as efficient as possible, we will examine their work history first. In the work

history, we will identify their experience by ensuring they have 15 - 20 years of hotel

management experience from a large, luxury hotel. Only those applicants who meets this

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qualification, they will be closely inspected further and be considered for the next step of the

hiring process. The resumes will then be looked at to see if they match the job qualifications and

specifications such as education, basic financial knowledge etc. The top twenty applicants to be

selected and shown management. The rest will be put in as an alternative selection.

Phase 03: Review by Management

Management will review the top twenty candidates with the most qualifications and reduce it

to the top five candidates through a more thorough investigation on their work experience.

Reference Checking:

Job requirement confirmation will be checked by the Human Resource Department with

the candidate’s reference to ensure proper standards are met.

Initial Interview:

The first interview will be one-on-one between the candidate’s and the Human

Resource Department.

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Panel Interview:

All candidates will be screened further by several members who are of higher position and

will be working closely with the future Fairmont Hotel Regional Vice President and General

Manager.

The five members of the panel interview are the following:

Current General Manager

Human Resource Manager

Assistant General Manager

Regional President of the Pacific Northwest

Manager Operations

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Testing

Due to an overarching management position of all departments, we will require all the

prospective candidates to be tested. The future of regional Vice President and General Manager

would be responsible to manage and direct all departments of the hotel. Therefore, the candidate

would be required to conduct several tests to determine how well they interact with people, their

ability to handle, as well as solve problems.

Stress Testing

Psychology assessment, determining how individuals react under

pressure. Comparing potential candidate’s scores against a given job

requirements to see if there’s a match

Communication Skills

Presentation skills by preparing a short presentation of their previous experience

on why they are the perfect candidate for this position. This will help us see the

candidate’s ability to work well with others and maintain the reputation the hotels

has through its professionalism

Problem Solving

Scenario testing will be given to candidates through an open-ended business

situation. A set of difficult choices will be given, and the candidate will be

required to make a decision and support it through knowledge. This will help

determine the candidates’ ability to generally solve problems.

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Evaluation Criteria

5 4 3 2 1
(Excellent) (Very Good) (Good) (Average) (Poor)
10 - 9 8-7 6-5 4-3 2-1

Initiative

Planning

Collaborative

Resourceful

Vigilant
SITUATION
Time-
Management

Professional

Commitment

Controlled

Interpersonal

Confidence

Decision-
Making

Knowledgeable

Experience
ACTION
Listening

Open-Minded

Problem Solving

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 Accountability

Diligent

Engaging

Win Win

Loyalty

Effective

Efficient

Accommodation
RESULT
Reliable

Result-Oriented

Productive

Profit

Balanced

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Four Examples of Behaviour Questions.

1. Tell me about a time where you were a leader in a team and there was conflict
between the members. How did you keep your team engaged and motivated?

ST: The candidate should remain composed in regards to the issue and show
commitment in improving the situation with the team members through good
listening skills and being understanding of the team members’ concerns and
feeling. It should clearly be shown the candidate’s ability to identify main issues
while remaining to be vigilant.
A: The candidate should show immediate leadership in the situation, and be
cooperative with the team members. Strategic planning should be developed
through engaging with the members and
R: The team should lead towards a positive direction consisting of a strong,
reliable relationships with an efficient team productivity. The candidate’s
leadership should result into loyalty and respectful with one another, and
ultimately, the entire group should walk out of the collaboration feeling satisfied.

2. Tell me about a recent unsuccessful experience in making a speech or presentation? What

problems did you face, and what did you learn from it?

ST: The candidate should remain composed and positive in regards to the issue
and clearly show understanding by taking responsibility for their mistakes.
A: The candidate should demonstrate their open-mindedness regarding the issue,
with commitment towards improvement. Strong accountability and diligence
should be evidently shown after the unsuccessful experience by working
towards methods to become better by being open-minded, and developing an
organized plan to avoid similar problems in the future.
R: Value concerning the mistakes should be viewed as a positive lesson. It
should be clearly seen that the candidate came out of the situation with more
knowledge and experience with a determination and plan to prevent same
mistakes from occurring again.

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3. Describe a time where there was a disagreement between two managers and how did you
resolve it?

ST: The candidate should take initiative to control the issue by acting as a
middleman in order to appropriately resolve the issue.
A: The candidate should firstly try to be understanding about the problem
through open-mindedness by listening to the managers’ perspective and the
reason of such dispute. The candidate should devise a strategy to resolve the
issue in an effective way.
R: The candidate's actions should demonstrate reliability and efficiency
while keeping a balance by accommodating to the different managers in
order to devise a win win situation where both managers walk out of the
situation satisfied.

4. What is the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make at work? How did you
arrive at your decision? What was the result?

ST: The candidate should remain composed and positive in regard to the
question and clearly display his commitment in carrying out the responsibility
by being vigilant.
A: The candidate should show a method of strategic planning in the making
of his decision by being resourceful, productive, and diligent. The
candidate’s ability to solve problems should be displayed as well as
R: The candidate should ultimately show an effective decision being made that is
reliable, and results-oriented. The candidate should also come out of this
situation with more knowledge and experience being obtained.

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Four Examples of Situational Questions.

1. How would you handle an unpopular decision that you have made?

ST: The candidate should take initiative towards the negative opinions made by
their decision and remain professional. The candidate should be respectful and
listen to their opinions regarding the decision.
A: The candidate should approach the situation with an open mind and be willing
to listen to others opinions given to them by others. The candidate should also
continue remaining to be confident and stern on their decision in a professional
manner. The candidate should build towards being more precise in distributing
information about the decision towards others in other to clarify reasoning and
providing more knowledge to others.
R: The candidate's actions should result in making everyone have a better
understanding of his decision and ultimately making it a win-win situation.

2. How would you handle a low-performance, difficult work environment?

ST: The candidate should understand the value of having a productive work
environment and take initiative to fix the core issues of it by being resourceful
and collaborative in a professional manner with others.
A: The candidates should describe a work environment that encourages teamwork
which results in a higher level of engagement for everyone. Additionally, the
candidate should implement a strategic plan to encourage collaboration and
implement methods for this new environment to be adaptable to others.
R: The candidates described work environment should result in an effective,
efficient and productive work space that can encourage high performance.

3. How would you handle a situation where you know your boss in completely wrong but
he is firm on his answer?

ST: The candidate should approach the situation professionally with a

strategic viewpoint to be collaborative and understanding.
A: The candidate should approach the situation confidently and also demonstrate
they’re ready to listen. The candidate should also support their suggestions with
experiences that they had in the past and be prepared to provide knowledge about
the situation. The candidate should also not be restricted towards his opinions and
be open to feedback and opinions from the boss.
R: The candidate's actions should result in a win win situation that can
demonstrate his ability to balance his own opinions and his bosses input.

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4. What would you do as a manager to build team spirit?

ST: The candidate should firstly understand the values and qualities of
an effective team. They should demonstrate strong leadership skills to
work towards allocating a strong collaborative team.
A: The candidate should approach the team with an open mind and display
great listening skills, to effectively understand one another in order to build
strong relationships The candidate should display strategic plans in order to
bring the team members together.

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Agenda for the Selection Panel

Time Scheduled Topics

10:00 - 10:10 Settling In:

● Greet the candidate
● Make them feel comfortable (E.g. Offer them a drink)
● Introduce the panelist (E.g. name, position, and experience)
● Explain the overall schedule of the interview

10:10 - 10:30 Panel Interview

● “Tell me about yourself”
● “Why do you want to work at Fairmont Hotel?
● “What are your goals for the future?”

10:30 - 11:00 Selection Testing

● The 4 situational and 4 behavioural

11:00 - 11:20 Invigilate Psychometric Tests

● Body Language

11:20 - 11:30 Closing Interview with Candidate

● Let candidates ask questions to the interviewer
● Thank them for coming
● Explain what will happen afterwards (E.g. Follow back call)

11:30 - 12:00 Candidate Evaluation Meeting

● Review each candidate with the panelists with the notes taken

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Advertisement for Newspaper

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Bibliography

"Careers - Fairmont Hotels & Resorts - Fairmont." Accessed October 21, 2016.

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