If there was one thing that I learned early in the hospitality industry, it was the need for training. Believe it or not, that aspect of management was drilled into my head during my first job at McDonald’s. Unfortunately, that company proved to be one of the best I had ever worked for in terms of a true training program being in place. Quite frankly, I was stunned as I progressed through my career how many major flag hotels and fine dining restaurants had little to no formal training program in place.
My first hotel job was a banquet manager for a Hilton franchise. While I cannot speak to what Hilton Corporation does, this particular hotel and management group offered very little in the way of a training program for its managers. My training consisted of going to another hotel for three days, two of which my “training manager” called out sick. My very first day in the hotel industry I was literally running the banquet department of a hotel where I was not even working full time and had no prior experience running banquets.
When it came time to go back to my hotel, my F&B Director walked the property with me, gave me the keys to my office, and told me to “go get ‘em.” I still remember a server asking me if there were any more BEOs hanging up for the event and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Thankfully, I was a quick learner and some of the catering and sales managers worked with me to get me through those early days, but my career in the hotel industry could have been ended before it ever really got started.
When I first started at that hotel, the banquet department was in complete chaos. For years, members of the banquet serving staff were more or less running the department. That changed rather quickly, as did the training we did with staff. After a few months and considerable resistance from the staff, the culture and attitude of everyone started to change. The real change, though, came when I missed a couple of months due to a surgery. When I came back to work, some of the staff members that gave me the most resistance to change were the first ones to tell me they got it; they now understood why I had put my “rules” in place.
Why Stress Training?
Go back to my situation and think about how managers would fail in that position. Then, think about the investment the hotel is putting into that manager as well as the overall operation. Simply put, by having a formal training program in place and ensuring every manager and staff member is completely trained before they are allowed to go about their business on their own will significantly increase your return on investment (ROI).
A recent report in a hotel publication estimated that at the front desk, the use of specific “stick” words increased booking rates by 2.5 times. Now, think about how much time is wasted in operations departments like banquets when people are not trained properly. How can a houseman do a classroom set for 30 with two tops with basic setup if he has no idea what a classroom setup is or does not know the basic setup? You are not only wasting time, but you also risk upsetting the guest.
Additionally, employees that are not trained properly will end up getting frustrated and quit. When the cost of turnover is thousands of dollars, is that something you can really afford to have happen? The turnover rate in the hospitality industry is higher than any other industry. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that rate to be about 75 percent. This happens simply because of the high pace of the industry and the fact so many employees are put directly into the workplace with no training at all. So, imagine a dedicated three or five-day training program and how much of an impact that could have on your turnover rate. Even if you can cut the rate down to 50 percent, you would probably be saving your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in your department alone!
From an employee’s perspective, there is the added benefit of creating a pipeline of promotable employees. If they are properly training and always improving, you never have to look very far for that next rising star in the company.
From the guest perspective, better-trained employees are going to deliver better on the company mission statement as well as the brand standard. This means happier guests, who turn into loyal guests, which means more sales and better guest survey scores.
Now, do you see why training is so important?
Can your management team do a better job of training? Do you need managers to instill a better culture in your hotel or hospitality organization? Then it’s time to call JDI. Joseph David International is consistently ranked as one of the top hotel recruiting companies in the country because we don’t just find managers, we find the ideal fit for your specific organizational needs. For more information about our hospitality recruiting services, please click here.