Sharath Rai

Established in the 1980’s Al Accad group owns and manages popular brands in the hospitality and retail food sector such as Organic Foods and Café; Arab Beverages, Nils and Dennis Bakery, Nils and Rob Butchery, Arab Beverages and Seafood Supreme. With 700 plus employees, a strong distribution network in the GCC and with a turnover of over 500 million dirhams per annum the Al Accad Group is a strong home grown business house in the UAE and the pioneer in Organic foods.
• Currently responsible for the Change Management within the business especially in the Human Capital
spectrum.
• Continually reducing labor renewal and new hire labor fee by pursuing to change the companies’ category in the labor department by hiring skilled worked force, having the right nationality mix and upgrading the current unskilled workforce to skilled.
• Building a culture where people work in unison and are conscious about the environmental
responsibilities, led the campaign on a) Corporate Environmental Responsibility and b) Organic and Biodynamic food awareness within the group.
• Served as Project Manager for the group’s first Human Resources Information System. Designed and
implemented the HR module in the open source ERP system of the group. Defined work flows, authority matrix’s, ensured local compliance for each country and aligned processes.
• Improved, reworked and implemented new policies and procedures. Atomized 80% of the processes.
• Developed comprehensive recruitment guidelines to improve candidate quality. Partnered with senior management to create sourcing strategies, conducted extensive local recruitment drives, reduced hiring from recruitment agencies and increased hiring through free channels and digital/social platforms.
• Heading Total Rewards overseeing and restructuring compensation, benefits, creating employee incentive plans for hospitality and retail, implementing employee wellness and engagement programs.
• Instituted a measureable performance management process for the retail division that built performance accountability into all levels of the process.

Contracted to restructure ops & HR of a struggling arm of Azizi group with companies in Hospitality, Wood Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, Internet & Interior Design.
• Saved 1M AED pa by right-sizing the team & restructuring the entire HR & PRO Operations.
• Reduced onboarding time by 30% by systematizing training approach across all subsidiaries.
• Slashed 3M AED pa by centralizing staff accommodation & transport for the group
• Shaved 600K AED pa by shutting down a loss-making and under-performing internet classifieds business
• Shrunk fines from 100000 AED to zero by introducing a visa audit system & streamlining PRO ops.
• Incepted & implemented HR policies, processes, budgets & the visa-related best practices.
• Introduced ERP (SAP Business One) & chaired the ERP steering committee.
• Launched 2 supermarkets from scratch & introduced supermarket SOPs.
• Reduced overheads by 15% by streamlining factory manpower cost.

Hired to turnaround a property that had lost a star due to mismanagement, poor maintenance & non-compliance. Part of Ramee Group of Hotels, an international conglomerate with 35+ hotels in India & GCC. Ramee is UAE’s first homegrown budget brand operating in the entire value spectrum from 5* to hotel apartments.
• Turned-around the property by winning back the 4* classification within 5 months of being tasked.
• Achieved the targeted revenue of 46.5 million AED through 82% occupancy & 332 AED ARR.
• Trained HODs and line managers, conducted behavioural trainings, skills trainings and customer service trainings.
• Coached exceptional customer service to differentiate and promote the company brand.
• Consolidated footfalls in key F&B outlets (Rock Bottom Café) grew revenues by +10%, in spite of new competitors and strong brands opening in the neighbourhood.
• Smashed target revenues of Indian Restaurant (50% higher) & Pan Asian restaurant (30% higher).
• Reduced F&B cost by 5%
• Revamped the Spa, added extra therapy rooms, started gym membership and increased revenues by 5%
• Slashed DEWA bills by 100K AED by introducing energy-efficient practices & water-saving devices
• Won What’s On Award runners-up (Shortlist) in the Best Nightlife venue in 2017 for Rock Bottom Café
• Shrunk housekeeping chemical costs by 60% by changing suppliers & contracting product range
• Refurbished the floor lobby’s, gym and the poolside
• Cultivated brand on FB, Google & Instagram for all the restaurant and bars. Introduced an SEM practice.

Took the entrepreneurial plunge after 16 years of professional success. Set out (along with 2 partners) to fix the broken hospitality recruitment workflow (which I experienced personally - from a jobseeker perspective in the early 2000s & from a recruiter's perspective thereafter). Didn't progress further due to inability to raise a seed round in a tough investment climate.
• Vision: Envisioned a product that (a) shows hospitality recruiters how a candidate looks, talks & works even before the first interview through video CVs (b) makes matches instead of keyword searches & (c) protects both parties from recruitment spam.
• Sales: Won 3 major brands as trial customers. Created a sales pipeline containing 34 brands.
• Marketing: Devised marcoms strategy, wrote copy, designed collateral, created social media ads and ran ad campaigns.
• Corporate: Bootstrapped, created the business plan, incorporated the company, projected financials and pitched to investors.
• Product: Designed the responsive layout, got features built-out through a development team & tested for reliability.
• Operations: Generated traction of 4000 users & delivered multi-channel self-serve & agent-served user support. Created KPIs & tracked them. Hired the initial team & motivated them.

Over 600 employees of about 30 different nationalities drive Economides Group’s business portfolio comprising of a 4-star hotel, 2 upscale standalone restaurants & bars, a marine engineering company & a hospitality management company
• Streamlined HR Operations for all 4 companies in the group, built policies and procedures and a corporate HR team of 9 members.
• Introduced a “Training Culture” throughout the group. Successfully launched & implemented the Lobster Ink online education system (www.lobsterink.com) in 2014.
• Introduced an appraisal system with KPIs linked to incentive payouts across the group.
• Reduced payroll cost from 26% in 2008 to 22% in 2015
• Reduced employee turnover from 40% in 2009 to 26% in 2015
• Reduced cost per employee for the hospitality division by 30% from 2008 to 2015, through various strategic business decisions such reducing excess head count (358 employees in Aug 2008 to 279 employees in 2015), changing the staff accommodation & finalising the tenure of the accommodation for 5 years, outsourcing transport & training, in house typing of all government related documents, outsourcing employees for Housekeeping / Security & tailor made medical insurance plans.
• Implemented web based (SAS) HRMS software & integrated it with the time & attendance software.
• Managing the Government Relations Department (PROs) that handle naturalisation and residency from 3 different authorities (Dubai Immigration / Fujairah Free Zone & DMCC).
• Successfully formed the Economides Group Structure and created the M-Management Company, handling award winning F&B outlets.
• Introduced the staff committee & implemented the yearly events calendar. Actively involved in inter-company sports & other activities.
• Sourced candidates from new markets like Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Kenya, Uganda & Myanmar.
• Implemented a visa audit process to cross verify visas issued under various companies in the group.
• Handled dual responsibilities of HR & F&B Operations for the hotel during the 2008-2013 recession.

Joined as HR & Training Manager for Grand Regency Hotel (5-star pre-opening) & promoted to a group role leading HR operations, recruitment, compliance and training services for:
o Grand Regency Hotel
o Regency Hotel
o Regency Travel and Tours (Largest tour & travels company in Doha with 20 branches)
o Regency Fleets (Pre-opening member - Rent a Car company with a fleet strength of 500 cars)
o Regency Halls
o Al Asmakh Real Estate and Development Company (Biggest Real Estate Agents in Doha) &
o Al Asmakh Contracting & Development Company.
• Delivered recruitment single-handedly growing the group from 410 employees in 2006 to 1327 in May 2008
• Led a team of 11 employees overlooking HR requirements of 1300 employees within the Group.
• Assisted the pre-opening team of Moevenpick, acted as a HR consultant on behalf of the owner
• Oversaw recruitment and provided HR consultancy for the various joint ventures of Regency Group, i.e. Nutrislim (Weight Watchers), Emirates Kitchen (Suppliers for industrial and hotel kitchens), - Sky Wall (Glass / Aluminium fabricating & processing company) & DTZ Real Estate
• Gained tremendous knowledge and experience in pre-opening hotels in Qatar.
• Implemented SOPs & overlooked the entire pre-opening training for all departments.

• Contributed to setting up of the contact center in Mumbai.
• Delivered recruitment, pre-process training and soft skills training.
• Assisted the content development team for the content development of pre-process training.
• Managed ALC (Agent Language Certification), a language certification program which each employee needs to undergo.
• In charge of all reports for pre-process Training
• Conducted TTT on Customer Skills for all voice coaches
• Attended Six Sigma awareness training

Joined Le Royal Meridien, progressed to the corporate office & moved up the ladder as a Cluster HR & Training Manager.
At Le Meridien Al Sondos Suites (106 suites) and Le Meridien Dar Al Sondos Hotel Apartments (144 studio apartments)
• HR & Training Manager for 200 employees spread over 2 properties.
• Managed all personnel functions, adherence to internal policies & SOPs & compliance with statutory labour & immigration regulations through the PRO.
• Managed all staff facilities and benefits
• Reviewed and updated the job descriptions of all staff on yearly basis.
• Liaised with government offices for day-to-day statutory compliances
• Conducted TNA and delivered skills training
• Designed & Implemented SOPs
• Implemented & managed the Staff Consultative Committee Members (SCCM)
At Le Royal Meridien
• Delivered staff training F&B department (250+ F&B staff in 12 different restaurants)
• Delivered induction training for F&B department
• Prepared & implemented F&B SOPs end-to-end by hand.
• Managed all training documents & reports.
• Prepared all F&B training materials & presentations
• Ensured delivery of product knowledge training by external vendors
• Involved in new restaurant opening (Al Khaima), ISO 9000-2001 implementation, winning the Dubai Quality Award, delivery of statutory trainings & employee development programs.

Also served in Task Force Team at the Le Meridien Corporate Office

Assisted in all administrative functions of the HR and Training department, conducted orientation training and maintained all 201 files