CRITICAL THINKING


Mixing it UP


Hilton Worldwide meets the challenges of training a global workforce with a ‘blended solution’


F


or many years now, Soldiers have had intensive on-the- job training in the combat environments of Southwest Asia. As the U.S. presence there winds down, the Army needs innovative ways to keep its Soldiers trained


and ready for future conflicts and contingencies, even as budgets are slated to decline.


Of course, the Army is not the only organization that must adapt to changing circumstances. Te hotel industry also faces challenges: trying to do more with tighter budgets, greater competition, and customers who are better-informed and more demanding than in the past. Hilton Worldwide is certainly one of the farthest-reaching hospitality companies, with roughly 300,000 team members in more than 4,100 properties in 92 countries around the world working on tasks ranging from building and maintaining global reservation systems to managing individual properties to washing linens for more than 680,000 rooms, all to a very high standard.


Both Hilton Worldwide, a Fortune 500 company based in McLean, VA, and the Army have workforces that are dispersed geographically and represent a huge variety of skill sets, not to mention ethnicities; Hilton Worldwide’s team members speak more than 40 languages. Both organizations have employees and trainees who learn and communicate differently than earlier generations, given rapidly changing technology. Success for either group depends in large part on a commitment to work as a well-trained team and the sacrifice


of personal goals to achieve mission success. Hilton Worldwide has received global recognition for its learning and development efforts, most recently the Association for Talent Development BEST Award.


Army AL&T magazine was curious to find out how the company trains its employees successfully to meet the challenges that it faces. Kimo Kippen, chief learning officer and vice president of learning at Hilton Worldwide, answered our questions.


Kippen is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America’s Metropolitan School of Professional Studies (MSPS), teaching the Human Resources Training and Development class for the master’s program in human resource management. He previ- ously served as an executive-in-residence at MSPS and received the 2010 MSPS Faculty of the Year award. Kippen also served as chair of the Association for Talent Development in 2007.


Before joining Hilton Worldwide in June 2010, Kippen worked for Marriott International Inc. for 21 years, most recently as vice president of learning, responsible for the Learning Center of Excellence. He began his career in various food and beverage positions and subsequently moved into training roles. He holds an M.S. in career and human resource development from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.S. from the University of Hawaii, and is a graduate of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland’s postgraduate program.


94


Army AL&T Magazine


July–September 2014


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