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Hospitality: Warming Training Trends
March 19, 2008
The fundamentals of hospitality training never change—detailed attention to customer service is as important as ever—but technology and a new generation of workers are adding another dimension.
By Margery Weinstein
Grouchy guests, tired from a delayed flight; the hungry diner angry he got minestrone soup instead of the Caesar salad he ordered. When it comes to hospitality, there are many pitfalls. How your staff avoids those pitfalls— or successfully climbs out of them when they inevitably occur—is what good training is all about. Add to the mix managing a multilingual workforce, and customers who increasingly expect service tailored to their individual needs, and you have the latest challenges facing hospitality trainers.
Gearing Up for Growth
With the hospitality sector in a growth mode, step one is finding the right employees to fill new positions, and finding ways of retaining those already there, says Fred Mayo, clinical associate professor at the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management. "We cannot find enough highly qualified or highly talented staff for the organizations we're running now, and we're building new ones," he says. "We're at an interesting crunch point in this industry. Sometimes we can't find warm bodies, but more important, we can't find people with the right attitude or approach because we want people to be caring and service oriented," Mayo says. "You can train on skills, but it's difficult to train for character."
The urgent need for effective recruitment has spurred hospitality companies to become more innovative in their hiring strategies. Mayo says some companies are looking to virtual worlds such as Second Life to find young, enthusiastic workers. These fresh approaches are tied to time-tested recruiting methods such as partnerships between hospitality companies and college hospitality programs.
Companies also are heading off the need to recruit as much in the first place by encouraging retention. Mayo says some restaurants and hotels thank employees by offering niceties such as flexible schedules, while others are providing health benefits to front-line workers.
Engagement Edge
Hospitality providers also are utilizing new technology—including mobile devices such as iPods—to engage staffers. "They're doing much more just-in-time training," says Mayo. "With iPod or CD-ROM [based] training, companies don't have to do as many group sessions, and they can just train the person in what he or she needs at the time he or she needs it."
The trend toward providing multilingual and bilingual-based training is yet another way hospitality companies are reaching out to workers. "They're working with people where they are to ensure they are happy, successful, and skilled," Mayo says.
Part of increasing employee satisfaction is providing opportunities for those who have risen to front-line manager and supervisor to advance further. "There's a real commitment to help them build their skills, move up the ladder, train them through rotations, and show them they have a future with the company," says Mayo.
Next in Line
Like their counterparts in other industries, hospitality companies are meeting the challenge of welcoming Generation Y into the workforce. That means accommodating their unique learning styles, and giving them information previous generations of workers might not have needed. "They're more comfortable with technology and learning on their own," Mayo notes, "but sometimes they need to be reminded of dress code, appearance, language, or showing up regularly because they have a different pattern of work." With the Internet at their fingertips for much of their childhood and adolescence, and a social network only as far away as the text messages on their cell phones, these young employees offer a new twist on work/life balance. "They're not used to the patterns many of us grew up with in which you worked hard, and then you played," says Mayo. "The Millennial generation doesn't separate work and play—it's 'Why can't I do both simultaneously?'"
The Gen Y mind-set of tailoring environments to meet their unique needs makes them ideal for the hospitality sector—once they've received proper training. "Gen Yers make wonderful employees once they understand the importance of warmth, encouragement, and attitude, in addition to service skills," says Mayo. "We just forget that sometimes you have to explain things to them that you wouldn't have to explain to their parents."
Meanwhile, many of those parents—now retired Baby Boomers—are opting to take a part-time job in a restaurant or hotel instead of entirely calling it quits. "This brings another set of resources to the industry," Mayo points out. "They've gone back to work, and are happy working there. They can work part-time, and they care about what they're doing."
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