The following is an edited excerpt from the conversation.
Introduction
Vishal: Welcome, friends, to a new episode of Career Circle Live. Today’s topic is exploring new opportunities within the hospitality and timeshare industry, especially with Club Mahindra and Resorts.
For those joining us for the first time, this is a 45-minute conversation between me as the moderator and our panelists, where you can learn directly from industry leaders about the industry landscape, roles and opportunities, hiring process, and people practices.
Let me welcome our speakers, Mr. Bharat Sundararajan, Chief of Customer Acquisition and Mr. Yatish Kulkarni, General Manager of Human Resource. Thank you for joining us.
Vishal: Bharat, Yatish, a quick introduction and a quick overview of Club Mahindra.
Bharat: Good afternoon. I’m Bharat Sundararajan. I’ve been working for over 29 years, largely in sales and distribution. I currently lead customer acquisition at Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited. We are in the leisure hospitality business, and we are the largest vacation ownership or timeshare company in India. We’re also proud to be part of the Mahindra Group.
Yatish: Good evening, everyone. I’m Yatish and I work with Mahindra Holidays. We are the largest vacation ownership organization in the country, and we also have an international presence. We’ll share more as the conversation progresses.
Industry Landscape and What’s Ahead
Vishal: Howhas hospitality and timeshare changed in the last 2–3 years, and what do you see for the next 2–3 years?
Bharat: The word that comes to mind is opportunity. If I’m joining any company, I ask: is the industry growing, is the company growing, and will I be able to grow there?
From a vacation ownership lens, we’re bullish. India is expected to have more than three crore high-income households by FY30, which is a strong target segment for vacation ownership. We also have a large base of annual room consumption. The category is still under-penetrated. In India, penetration is around 2%, while markets like the US are much higher.
Now, in terms of change: there’s a clear pre-Covid and post-Covid shift. Post-Covid, we’ve seen a renewed surge in travel. Airports, railway stations, tourist hubs, everything is buzzing. Even our first quarter results, which are in the public domain, show occupancy around 90%.
As a company, we’re looking to almost double our inventory till FY30, meaning the number of rooms or keys available for our members. So, it’s a strong industry, and we’re positioned to capitalize on growth.
Roles and Opportunities Across Functions
Vishal: What opportunities are available right now across functions?
Bharat: We’re growing and tapping new segments, so opportunities are broad.
On the business side, we have a large sales team, so there are roles like relationship managers and supervisors. We also have a large acquisition marketing setup, where teams generate and qualify opportunities for sales. There are roles in tele calling, team supervision, and campaign execution.
We also have channel management roles. International roles exist too, including markets like Dubai and Qatar.
Then there’s the resort side, which is classical hospitality. Roles include front office, operations, kitchen, and other backend functions.
Yatish: Adding to that, sales frontline and sales supervisory roles are always active. There are also corporate roles that support sales structures and multiple acquisition channels.
On the resort side, because we’re expanding and doubling inventory, roles in front office, kitchen, and facility management keep coming up.
One thing we are clear about: the communication methodology has to be right, we do not treat language as a barrier. India is diverse, and we hire across markets, including rural markets where opportunities are fewer and talent acquisition becomes important.
Hiring Process: Rounds and What Gets Evaluated
Vishal: At Club Mahindra, what are the usual rounds and what gets evaluated?
Yatish: We try to make the process effective for the candidate and the organization.
For customer acquisition roles, one early evaluation is comfort with non-stagnant work timings. This isn’t a strict nine-to-five role.
We evaluate role-fit: exposure to similar roles, understanding of product or concept selling. Along with that, we evaluate what we call SEVA values. For us, that includes:
- A can-do, will-do attitude
- Showing up consistently
- Respect for all
- Relentless creativity in how you approach and communicate with customers
Leaders in later rounds focus more on attitude and person-level fit. We also conduct an aptitude test for branch roles.
Bharat: The purpose of two to three rounds is to ensure a meeting of minds and avoid expectation mismatch. We’re transparent about what the role needs for success.
We evaluate functional and technical competencies, and alignment to values. Our training, development frameworks, and even performance cycles continue to reflect these same competencies and values.
We focus on long careers. We’re a 27-year-old company and many people have been here since inception. In sales, we also prefer leaders to grow from frontline roles.
Do You Hire Only from Hospitality?
Vishal: Are you hiring only from hospitality and timeshare, or are you open to other industries?
Bharat: We’re fully open. In my sales team, I have people from hospitality, edtech, insurance, BFSI, and more.
We’ve also groomed freshers with no sales experience. We run structured sales training, so for sales roles we look at interest, aptitude, and potential, not industry background.
Career Progression: Vertical and Horizontal Growth
Vishal: How does career progression work? And do you allow horizontal movement?
Bharat: If you join as a relationship manager, we have structured growth programs. We run a program called Ace, where high performance helps you grow remuneration while staying an individual contributor. We have an initiative called iGrow, which enables movement from individual contributor to managerial roles. When you move up, we provide customized training, mentoring, and monitoring for about six months so you can succeed in the new role. Some people prefer to remain individual contributors because incentives are strong, and that’s a valid career path. Others want managerial growth, and that’s supported too.
Outside these programs, we have a standard appraisal cycle with KRAs and KPIs. On horizontal movement: yes. We have internal job postings open to everyone. We’ve seen movement from acquisition marketing to sales, membership services to sales, and even sales roles into collections. We encourage movement when the competence and fit are there.
Yatish: iGrow also exists on the resort side. People move across functions like kitchen to front office, front office to housekeeping, and more. Since we’re present across India, there are also location movements possible if someone has personal requirements.
Engagement, Recognition, and Culture Across Dispersed Teams
Vishal: How do you keep employees engaged across remote branches and resorts? How do you recognize and reward people outside corporate offices?
Yatish: We have branch HR and resort HR structures on both sides. Engagement is calendarized. There are themes, activities, and regular connects beyond daily work. We also run learning and career growth discussions on the floor. We do skip-level connects through a program called Mann ki Baat, where employees can share things, they may not raise with their direct manager.
As a group, we run Mahindra Special Options, where employees participate in social causes such as beach cleanups, tree plantations, visits to orphanages and old age homes. These happen regularly and branches have budgets to run them locally.
Bharat: We have a strong Kaizen culture. A lot of process improvements come from frontline teams. Recognition and rewards happen frequently, often monthly, across functions, not only in sales.
Diversity and Inclusion Practices
Vishal: What is your D&I practice at Club Mahindra?
Yatish: Inclusion is a company-wide agenda. We run a program called iLEAP, focused on women returning from career breaks. In the North, I have a team from the iLEAP batch working in sales and branches.
We also run Career Intentionality Sessions where women looking to return after long breaks interact with leaders and learn about roles, work flexibility, and career pathways. In acquisition marketing across branches, women representation is around 26–28%. At corporate, it’s around 35%.
Interview Tips: What You Should Do
Vishal: Quick tips for candidates: what should they do and avoid in interviews?
Yatish: Grooming and formal attire matter, especially for customer-facing roles. Candidates should be able to talk through their experiences clearly, with real examples, and stay credible.
Bharat: Be presentable and understand the role you’re interviewing for. When asked “tell me about yourself,” don’t repeat the CV. Add nuance: what makes you successful, how you work, what you’ve learned, and how you handle real situations. That creates a better conversation and gives you room to show strengths.
Digital Transformation and Tech Enablement
Vishal: How is Club Mahindra enabling employees through digital and AI-led transformation?
Bharat: Customer onboarding is now largely digital, with video-based verification and product understanding. We provide laptops even to frontline sales staff because we want digital customer engagement.
We’re piloting virtual sales where appointment generation, prospecting, and selling happen through video tools. We’re seeing strong results, even though traditionally people assume sales must be face-to-face. We also have a WhatsApp journey for customers. Across functions, technology is being used for enablement and better outcomes.
On customer service, we explore chatbots. Internally, we also have a bot called Mahi used to capture employee feedback.
Incentives: Frequency and Payout
Vishal: What’s the frequency of incentives and payouts?
Bharat: A large part is monthly. Some schemes run quarterly. We also have annual recognition through clubs like the CSO Club and MD Club. Monthly payouts are important for faster cash flow, while quarterly and annual schemes usually carry bigger rewards because targets are bigger.
Closing
Vishal: Thank you, Bharat and Yatish. This conversation should give aspirants clarity on the industry, roles, hiring expectations, growth programs, people practices, and digital transformation at Club Mahindra.
If you have more questions, please drop them in the chat. If you’re interested in opportunities, please share your profile at careers@taggd.in. We’ll get back and take your candidature forward.
Thank you, everyone. Signing off.
