UK. Over 600 interviews have now taken place to determine the finalists for the Alpha Heroes awards programme, with another 600 scheduled to take place over the next fortnight.
The high entry levels means the assessment team, made up of a panel of experts from training and event management specialists Travel Retail Training (TRT) and Alpha management representatives, will work around the clock for the entire month of February to ensure that they visit each nominee at their place of work.
The innovative nature of the Alpha Heroes programme requires a unique approach to the interviews, explained Christine Martin, managing director of TRT: “The core criterion of an “˜Alpha Hero’ is delivering exceptional service to colleagues and customers, so the interview has to gather thorough evidence of this by drawing out examples of how the individuals and teams do it.
“90% of entries are people nominating colleagues, so we try to interview the person making the nomination before moving on to the nominee. Finally we speak to general managers for their feed back.”
The interviewing team also cross reference every Alpha employee praised by others during interviews.
Martin continued: “The interviewing stage is certainly intensive work, but is vital if we are to ensure clarity and fairness throughout the whole selection process. We are using the interviews to coax out people’s passion for the job – and with true heroes it doesn’t take much coaxing.
The finalists for the fifteen awards will be decided on 1 March, once all of the interviews are completed.
“The interviews so far have been very motivating,” said Martin, “It’s going to be a very close run thing; the high level of morale and excitement that Alpha Heroes has created is almost tangible.”
