Hyatt interns bring diversity to hotel service

Hyatt Regency Saipan currently has a total of 13 interns who come from different countries in the world. The internship program is Hyatt’s pitch in bringing and promoting cultural diversity to the workplace and the CNMI community.

Human Resource director Josephine Mesta said the program is in its third year. She said they started the program when they were approached by Trajal Tourism College in Osaka, Japan. Trajal was looking for a partner hotel to send their students to for practical experience to fulfill their program requirement. Hyatt thought this would be a great program to support, said Mesta, considering that majority of their customers are Japanese.

An agreement was drawn up between Hyatt, Northern Marianas College, and Trajal to be a designated training site for students to gain work experience and improve their English language skills. All foreign interns go through formal English classes provided by NMC.

Aside from Trajal, Ansan College in Korea also wanted a similar program. Hyatt immediately jumped at the opportunity. They also received numerous requests from other European Schools, as well as schools from the U.S. mainland.

Right now, Hyatt has seven interns from Japan, three from Korea, two from Germany, and one from Taipei. Mesta said the interns from Germany and Taipei applied via email. “They sent us their resumes, and their schools contacted us,” she said. The internship is part of their respective schools’ curriculum that they need to have “x” number of hours for practical work, said Mesta.

Being an international hotel is one of the attractions for such program, said Mesta. Students who have been involved with the internship program may find themselves employed by other Hyatt hotels.

Mesta said students who wish to learn English and join an international hotel find Saipan an ideal location and, since Hyatt is an international hotel and English is widely spoken here, the interns prefer Saipan.

“The hotel benefits from the students by having them share their language skills, especially with Japanese and Korean guests,” she said.

These interns do not get paid. They only receive a stipend, free housing and meals. The interns have to take care of their own airfare and all other costs incurred for processing their internship documents. The allowance they get is $150 bi-weekly, just enough to get around the island and for whatever incidentals they need, said Mesta.

Mesta said they used to have interns from the local college. Some local interns were assigned either at the front desk or the spa, depending on the areas they want. She said the local interns were entitled to at least minimum wage. Majority of the local interns are already working as full-time employees.

So far, Mesta said, their program is doing great, serving as their recruitment pool for qualified interns both locally and regionally. She said some of the interns want to stay and work for them.

“If they meet our qualifications, then we offer them a job,” she said. The last time they had 11 interns from Japan, three came back and worked with them.

She admitted, though, that not all of the interns succeed because some of them do not fit the standard profile of Hyatt International, or after completion of the program the student decides to take a different route in their career choices.

German intern Sebastian Martin said he applied at Hyatt because he wanted to acquire high-quality internship. The 28-year-old is taking International Tourism Studies in Germany and prefers to work in the HR department of Hyatt.

“I’m doing administrative as of the moment and assisting the training manager,” he said.

Hiroharu Matsura, 22, another intern from Japan, said he chose to complete his internship program on Saipan to gain more strength and solidify his hotel management experience for his future career in the hospitality industry.

Hyatt always look at developing people for its other properties that are opening, said Mesta. The internship program they have right now helps them select qualified employees that would meet the standard of Hyatt International and have gone through extensive training. Mesta also hopes to encourage local students to take part in this program.