Case 3:Learning in PracticeDevelopment Is Served 24/7 in InterContinental Hotel Group's Leaders Lounge

Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), an Atlanta-based company, operates by a simple strategy: "Great hotels guest's love." IHG operates brands such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, and Candle-wood Suites. These brands include 4,400 hotels, with 652,000 rooms, in more 100 countries around the world. The company believes that how its employees feel about its brands and how they deliver the guest experience is what distinguishes it from the competition. "Winning Ways," IHG's core values, help guide and motivate employees to improve their personal and professional lives, take ownership, work together, and engage in responsible behavior. IHG makes four promises to employees:

• Room to Have a Great Start
• Room to Be Involved
• Room to Grow
• Room for You

The "Room to Grow" promise means that employees are given support for development opportunities and encouraged to pursue a rewarding career. "Room to Grow" ensures that employees know what success means for their job, they receive regular, high-quality feedback, they have opportunities to develop in their current and future roles, and they are aware of career opportunities within IHG around the world.

In keeping with its "Room to Grow" promise, IHG wanted to create a way to respond to the needs of many of its global corporate and hotel-level managers, who had indicated in surveys that they did not feel connected to each other and senior management. To develop managers' leadership skills, IHG created a virtual leadership development community called the Leaders Lounge, for the general managers in its hotels, as well as for employees holding corporate director or higher-level positions. The Leaders Lounge features short and concise information on leadership, which is provided in articles, tips, videos, downloadable tools, and best practices within IHG. Employees who access the site can use social networks to post tips and react to the leadership content. There are several dedicated areas within the Leaders Lounge, including the "Leadership Gym," which features assessment tools designed to help employees identify their leadership strengths and weaknesses; and "Problem Solver," which asks employees for input on leadership issues. Also included is a section known as "The Academy," for users to access e-learning opportunities on business topics including finance, customer service, and coaching skills. Use of "The Academy" also allowed IHG to move several modules of its Senior Leadership Program online, generating cost savings resulting from reducing travel costs related to global managers having to travel to the training site.

There is compelling evidence that the Leaders Lounge has been effective for developing managers. The Lounge costs 5 percent of the costs for a typical three-day on-site leadership workshop. More than 70 percent of Lounge members use it in any one month, averaging six times per year. More than 3,000 leadership tools have been downloaded and shared with leadership teams around the world. Lounge members across the globe have taken content from the Lounge and used it to build local learning workshops and training sessions. Surveys for hotel general managers (who make up 75 percent of the Leaders Lounge membership) show that their engagement scores increased approximately 3 percent.

Sources:Based onwww.ihgplc.com, the website for InterContinental Hotels Group; P. Harris, "Where people power makes the difference,"T+D(October 2010): 32-34; "Best practices and outstanding initiatives: InterContinental Hotels Group Leaders Lounge,"training(January/February 2011): 96-97.

Questions

3.

Do you think that IHG's evaluation of the program makes a strong business case for it? Why or why not? What other metrics or outcomes would you suggest that IHG include to improve its overall evaluation of the effectiveness of the virtual leadership program for employees and the business? What other outcomes or metrics should IHG use to determine whether the program contributes to the "Winning Ways" core values?