People Are Owners In The True Sense: Treebo Hotels
Treebo derives its name from “Bo Tree”, the fig tree under which Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment. The fig tree family — banyan, peepal among others - has inspired not just our name but also what Treebo Hotels, an Indian budget hotel chain and hospitality service that operates on franchising, is actually into. Founded in June 2015 by Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain with the aim of providing high-quality hospitality in the otherwise unorganised and fragmented budget segment of the Indian hospitality industry.
On the importance of people and profits
We believe that to build a successful organisation, we need to be focussed on people, product and profits, in that order. It is essential to have an acute understanding of the on ground realities, and being inclusive and connected with our own people, is a surefire way to achieve this. Very soon in our journey we learnt, that to build a great workplace, while strategy is important, people & organisation culture are key to enabling it.
On what makes treebo a great place to work
For an organisation that is spread across a large geography, it is indeed the core values that bind everyone together and ultimately that makes it a great place to work. All our people processes from hiring to exit are based on the seven core Treebo Values. This has been key to keeping our widely distributed employee base homogenous, engaged and effectively motivated.
On the company’s evolution
With a three-member team in 2015, to now over 600 Treebs, our focus has always been to maintain a high performance and high trust culture. Aligned with this thought and given the exponential growth our processes have evolved to be agile and people centric. Some of these practices are - continuous feedback chats, biannual appraisals to enable fast track growth, regular recognition mechanisms like ‘Spot Light Saber Awards’, ‘Guardians of the Values’ and function specific award schemes. We also have structured connect programmes such as Townhalls, functional get-togethers and top-down one-on-ones.
On People philosophy
We emphasise on a culture where people are owners in the true sense, and everything we do must lead to this. We are a meritocratic organisation and our focus is to provide employees with unconfined growth and opportunities. Reinforcement of our values in unique ways, from displayed visuals of the values at workplace to having a value-based talent management system, goes a long way. With millennials taking the centre stage it is important to focus on a culture that are both exciting and meaningful.
On the company’s road map
As leaders, we have learnt that we need to take care of people, product and profits, in that order. Creating the most loved travel brand needs an acute understanding of the on ground realities and being inclusive and connected with our own people first, is the only way to do that. Very soon in our journey we learnt that to build a great workplace, strategy is necessary but culture is what will enable it. We are building a culture where people are owners and insiders in the true sense, and everything we do must lead to this. We hope to continue inspiring our team and being inspired by them.
