Langham Place, the first five-star hotel in Mong Kok, is hiring about 60 new staff as business booms in the invigorated new district, blending traditional and modern Hong Kong. Vacancies are across the board from accounts, engineering and security to housekeeping, front office, human resources, and sales and marketing.
Food and beverage opportunities have arisen with the opening of Tokoro, a new Japanese robatayaki bar recreating the lively atmosphere of Tokyo's famous Roppongi district. There are openings for attendants, instructors and therapists in the hotel's Chuan Spa.
As the youthful Langham Place brand expands with two new hotels in Beijing this year, and another opening in Changchun, northeast Jilin province, the hotel is meanwhile launching an executive trainee programme to groom aspiring hoteliers for top management positions.
The two-year programme is for applicants with two years' hotel experience or fresh graduates with 'outstanding academic results'. It exposes 'high-calibre' trainees to all aspects of running a hotel, with secondments in every department. They participate in cross-functional teams, committees and recreational groups, with a host of social responsibility activities.
Training leads to the hotel's in-house diploma and certificate programmes in management excellence. With further education subsidies also provided, the programme includes familiarisation in an overseas hotel.
'It's a tough, challenging process, with progress assessments and tests every two months, but those completing the programme will ultimately take up management positions,' said Ivy Leung, director of intellectual capital and quality. Langham Place hopes to recruit anywhere between 10 and 20 executive trainees this year. The scheme was launched last year, with just one recruit selected from 50 applicants. The hotel's entire recruitment campaign aims to boost the workforce to about 690.
