Hoteliers Need To Rediscover Training Benefits

Jeff Higley

Now that business is back to near-normal levels for the lodging industry, it makes sense that hoteliers are turning their attention to training.

Friendliness and a willingness to serve others are the tools of the hotel trade, and training is the sharpener that refines the tools into hospitality machines.

Companies often make the mistake of allowing their training programmes to be among the first victims of belt-tightening measures. That was the case in late 2001 when company leaders were cutting people and expenditures from their budgets at lightning speed. Back then, there was genuine concern that there might not be a tomorrow for some hotels and their owners. The economy was in the tank, business travel evaporated and operating costs such as insurance and health care skyrocketed. Just when guests needed to be greeted and treated by well-trained, attentive employees, the rug was pulled from under them by many hotel owners.

Training didn't completely go away over the past three years, but it was streamlined. Owners and managers had to make ends meet, just as their employees needed to, and cutting some of the training budget was a means to an end.

But now the industry is back, and there are great outlets available for hoteliers to incorporate more training into their employees' lives.

The Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association is a fine resource for training materials—including online courses that provide employees with the training they need at their own pace.

Organisations such as the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers, which held its semiannual meeting at the Gaylord Texan Resort in August, can help guide hotel owners and operators through the sometimes-confusing topic. It provides a platform for trainers and hoteliers to bounce ideas off one another. Many big-name hotels were represented at the conference -The Broadmoor, all the Gaylord Entertainment properties, The Sagamore, and others. There should be many more hotels involved in the organisation, and owners and operators would find it worthwhile for their trainers to join the group.

Beyond that, hoteliers are looking ahead when it comes to training. Take Interstate Hotels & Resorts, for example. One of the largest independent hotel management companies, Interstate in August said it will ratchet up its management training efforts as the industry begins to recover from a three-year downturn. It introduced two proprietary, week-long training programmes that are specifically geared toward teaching revenue management and sales-and-catering management at the 270 hotels Interstate manages.

Jill Kallmeyer, Interstate's vice-president of organisation development and learning, said the goal is to give Interstate properties superior tools and information to respond quickly and successfully to changing guest and market dynamics.

Bravo. This is a dynamic industry that at times changes in the blink of an eye. Training is the only way to stay on top of those changes.

The effectiveness of most training is hard to measure. Some companies can't measure how much they spend on training because it overlaps daily operations. But if a hotel can provide its employees with the proper tools to hone their skills, the results will be obvious.

Now is the time for hotels to test this theory. If successful, it definitely will give hotel owners and operators reason to pause when the next down economic cycle comes calling.

(Courtesy: Hotel & Motel Management)