Accor INSPIRE Graduate Program: how it works and what Raffles and Sofitel general managers say about rising there

The Accor INSPIRE Graduate Program is the group’s structured way in for recent graduates: a full time, paid program run inside Accor hotels across its brands, with rotations through departments, a personal mentor, a business project and sessions with senior leaders, ending for many in a first supervisory or management post. This page describes the program as Accor presents it and then turns to what the Raffles and Sofitel general managers in my books say about their first years and how they bring new people in.

The program, as Accor describes it

Accor’s tagline for INSPIRE is “Learn by doing. Lead by inspiring.” The program is “designed for young talents eager to fast-track their careers in the operational side in hospitality,” and is built on “rotational experiences across various hotel departments,” from front office and housekeeping to food and beverage, which Accor says gives “a 360° view of hotel operations.” It runs “across our growing portfolio of brands,” and the luxury houses advertise their own editions: INSPIRE by Raffles, and the INSPIRE Leadership Development Program at Fairmont hotels. Sofitel hotels recruit through the same INSPIRE and Accor graduate listings.

The program offers a choice of track: cross exposure, which moves the graduate through several departments and then into a focus area, or specialization, which builds depth in one. Each graduate has a personal mentor, a business project and sessions with senior leaders; Accor says its graduate programs “prepare for future leadership roles within the company,” and many graduates move directly into supervisory and management positions.

The program is for recent graduates, generally within a year of a hospitality or business degree or diploma. Openings are listed on the Accor careers site, hotel by hotel, and the site invites applicants to join its talent community. The program’s length, pay, intake dates and the hotels recruiting in a given year change, so I have left them out; the company page and each listing carry them.

What Raffles and Sofitel general managers say about the first years

None of the Accor leaders in my books came in through a graduate program. Each came in through a restaurant, the pattern across the seventy nine careers in the books.

Aaron Kaupp, then general manager of Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris, found the career on the first morning: “My first job in the industry was serving breakfast at the Golden Tulip Hotel, and I knew right then that I wanted this to be my career.” The passage a trainee should read is about a manager he had early on:

“Early on in my career, a manager that I was reporting to saw me one day, overworked and tired, but still pulling my weight. He pulled me aside, took me out for lunch, and sent me home, finishing my shift for me. At first, I thought I had done something wrong, but when I returned the next day, ready and rested, he asked whether I felt better. Acknowledging how hard I was working and being valued for that effort cannot be understated. He took care of me, knowing I needed to be at my best for my department to succeed, even if that meant finishing my shift for me. This is the kind of culture and spirit critical to success.” Aaron Kaupp, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

Ayman Gharib, then general manager of Raffles Dubai and Sofitel Dubai Wafi, started lower still.

“When I first joined the hospitality industry, I started as a steward in a luxury restaurant chain in Lebanon. My main responsibilities were washing dishes, peeling onions, and polishing champagne glasses. This job taught me the fundamentals of the industry, coupled with patience, perseverance, and determination. You need to understand the basics of the business to be successful.” Ayman Gharib, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

His first leadership role came at twenty one, as a restaurant manager overseas: “I soon understood that each person has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. As a leader, you must discover the right balance to achieve success while bringing the best out of everyone on the team.”

Ralph Radtke, then general manager of Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul, held one of his first serious leadership positions with Sofitel, as general manager of Sofitel Thalassa Quiberon in France in 1985: “In this role, I launched an extensive renovations program, and learned the absolute importance of being inclusive of team input during decision making.”

Accor as a training ground

Gharib describes what a recruit meets at Raffles Dubai, an onboarding of several weeks in the classroom and on the job, and it reads like a smaller version of INSPIRE:

“New team members learn about the hotel, our brand values, our service promise, the history of the Raffles brand, and our parent company, AccorHotels. After the first six weeks, they are scheduled to meet with human resources to discuss their early experience and team acclimation.” Ayman Gharib, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

He also names what a group of Accor’s size offers that a single hotel cannot: “In addition, working in a multinational hotel group like AccorHotels gives our leaders and colleagues the opportunity to participate in cross-training programs at sister hotels and brands around the world. This exposes them to new ideas and ways of working that further expand their knowledge and experience.”

What to take from it

Choose the hotel and the brand as carefully as the track, because INSPIRE is lived inside one property. Expect the first rotations to be the basics, as Gharib’s were, and treat them as the foundation he says they are. Ask about cross training with sister hotels, since Gharib counts on it. And read the three full profiles on the Voices pages above before you apply. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.