HR & Education

Training for peak performance

The Indian hospitality industry's rapid growth is being derailed owing to high attrition and fickle loyalty of its most important resource - people. Neeti Mehra finds out how training can ensure peak performance as technology develops, guest demands increase and outsourcing of jobs swells

Greek philosopher Aristotle had stated that pleasure at job puts perfection in work. Both are a derivative of a deeper understanding about the task on hand - depending on quality education and comprehensive training. And the latter mentioned dual-pronged strategy is the solitary talisman available to the embattled Indian hospitality industry, currently reeling under a manpower crunch and heightened attrition rates, which threatens to ruin its swelling fortunes. Education and training, since the inception of the hospitality industry in India, has played a secondary role, though an undoubtedly critical one, to its growth per se. A punishing environment, it demands exceptional performance from employees, while promising great rewards, career opportunities and job enrichment. The skill sets required by an employee have evolved over the years, transforming their linear roles to multi-functional operations.

Today, the misguided notion that the dwindling supply of trained manpower will keep pace with its increasing demand is a prognosis of the industry's downfall. And this insatiable demand for trained manpower fails to cease. A report commissioned by the department of tourism, Government of India, revealed that the annual demand for trained manpower in hotels and restaurants is likely to touch 29,000 by the year 2010. This figure is likely to increase to approximately 39,000 by the year 2020.

And the actual supply of manpower? A total of approximately 18,000 students are being trained in hotel management and food craft annually in the country. Currently, in hotels, attrition rates are at 18-25 per cent per annum, and growing at an alarming rate of 10 per cent per annum. This, exacerbated by an escalating wage bill of 10-12 per annum with a five-year forecast pegged at a minimum increase of 40 per cent over current levels.

Resource crisis

Where does this snowballing crisis leave the industry? The Indian hotel industry is renowned worldwide for its warmth in service standards and impeccable staff. Today, the industry is finding its feet, domestic chains re-brand and enter into each segment, only to find themselves bereft of staff in that category. Hovering around the myriad options available to recruit a well-rounded individual is a fundamental question - Is the current supply sufficient in quality and quantity? And if not, how can the industry address these concerns, especially when the industry is cruising on lofty RevPars and buoyed occupancies?

To circumvent the impending dilemma of quality and quantity, the first visible change in the landscape is domestic hotel brands leaping into the hospitality education fray, to ensure their own expansion plans don't set adrift amidst manpower shortages. Apart from that, for each employee, comprehensive training facilities are being put into place. Eventually, each organisation hopes to create and retain managers for the future through internal progressions and develop their leadership skills, keeping in mind the brand philosophy of the organisation.

Today, investing resources like capital, time and manpower into training is a necessity that one must ignore at one's own peril. To integrate an individual into the workforce and create a sense of belonging is paramount. And with a greater portion of jobs being outsourced, training needs to be imparted to ensure that the agency meets the brand's set standards. To train, or not to train, there is no question.

Seeking high, seeking low

The first step in the process, which will prevent future grief, is selecting and recruiting the right individual who will be the right fit in an organisation, and is suitable for training. The hospitality work environment in India demands exceptional performance from its employees yet is a harbinger of great rewards - whether in terms of career opportunities, job enrichment or in providing a supportive working environment.

With so much on offer on a platter, the requirements for this service industry doesn't skim the surface requirement of a mere pleasant personality as was previously sought, but an assemblage of character traits. Sandeep K Mathur, regional director (human resources) at The Park Hotels, says, "We look for young, dynamic, committed people who are with the times and are keen to serve others. They should exhibit a passion for their work and should be able to think differently."

Recruiting is critical to sift out potential candidates, who would be the right fit for the hotel and the brand, preventing a lot of grief encountered during subsequent training and appraisal processes. Today, manifold options are available to both prospective employers and employees to reach out, including internet portals, head-hunters and also, employee's referrals. The preferred candidates for specific areas of operations are individuals from a hotel management background and from the industry, while for other functions are those with requisite educational background for their job role. In the end, the industry is a creative place, and human resource personnel scout out for those with job knowledge, experience, communication skills, educational background, potential, grooming, leadership skills and analytical ability, etc.

While few hotels have management training programmes, such as IHCL's Taj, EIH's Oberoi, and The Park, which serves as an apt training ground, other brands recruit young graduates from varied institutes, a fact that yields them a disadvantage, that having inadequate resources and infrastructure to train batches of trainees. Every prospective employee is scrutinised by the hierarchy in place, including the human resources team, the respective department heads, and for higher vacancies, by the managing director and the chairman. And recruitment tests are no longer the plain vanilla modules one was accustomed to, with psychological tests coming into fray. Says Patrick Rodrigues, director (HRD) at Mars Hotels & Restaurants, "We initiate our selection process with an IQ test which lasts for about 30 minutes and this enhances our process of selection by deletion. If required we further conduct a psychometric test to enable us to get a 360 theoretical view of the candidate."

Once an individual has entered the system, they are given an induction and subsequently trained, a stepping-stone to ensure peak performance. Perhaps one factor which requires utmost attention initially is training an employee to understand the corporate philosophy and culture of a property and brand, says Andrew Mensforth, general manager, Park Hyatt Goa, without which an employee can never completely integrate himself as a part of the other associates, and be completely in and comfortable sync with the hotel's unique service style.

Scoping out current hospitality training scenario

An employee is the biggest asset in this service industry. Building loyalty and keeping him motivated is a function of two things, among others. By showing a clear career growth path to an employee, and training him to achieve those meaningful goals, supplemented by monetary compensation and job satisfaction will go a long way to retain them. Today, training techniques have metamorphosed. The Holy Grail among all HR managers is to hone the general, rather than mould a specialist. The emphasis leans towards improving holistic behavioural trends and technical skills, with more exposure given at an early stage. To supplement this, corporate trainers, role-playing, case studies, practical drills, situational handling skills, etc come into play.

Training also impinges on that portion which education fails to deliver. It looks at enhancing the repertoire of a young employee's skill, which will groom him to take over senior managerial positions in the future. Not only that, exposure across the various properties of the brand, as well as international exposure is a great motivational factor for team member as are good and modern back of the house facilities, recreational facilities for team members, and profit sharing concepts.

For instance, at The Park, employees who are found suitable are also selected for special courses at leading training institutes overseas like the Cornell University in the US. Employees are also sent for suitable courses in leading institutes in India. Explains Mathur, "To ensure that they have relevant exposure for their jobs, we send them to participate at various international travel marts and international market blitz."

A successful programme incorporates business awareness, mentoring and focussed personnel development, career planning and coaching. And the importance of training is percolating across the industry ranks, and across all brands. Sarovar Hotels, in its 30-odd hotels across the country and five brands, there is a unit training manager for each property which has either 70 rooms, or a Rs 10 crore turnover or 150 employees. "The remaining properties are handled by our five managers, who are regional resources," says Zubin Ghiara, director of training, Sarovar Hotels. The training broadly falls within three separate categories - soft skills and customer service; technical training which differs from each department; and supervisory and management training, conducted at the corporate level.

While training in an organisation is need-based or time-based, with each hotel/unit having designated training hours and mandatory modules to be clocked, appraisals are also used to determine individual training needs. But critical to this is to ensure transparency to the entire process. Coming to the rescue are e-enabled processes, such as the 'Management by Objectives', used by The Park which sets down Key Result Areas at the beginning of the financial year, in relation to the business objectives of the unit/each hotel, and on this basis, individual measurable and achievable goals based on a five-scale matrix, which gauges the competency levels of team members. This methodology is extremely effective. At the InterContinental The Grand Mumbai, Manfred Keiler, its general manager, explains that using key performance objectives across different categories, based on a percentile system, an employee knows exactly where he is in terms of goals set at the beginning of the year. "The half-yearly appraisals are taken into cognisance during the annual appraisal, and the success percentile in achieving the goal is absolutely transparent, ensuring that these can't be disputed, and aren't affected by personal bias." From this documented appraisal, personal goals and training sessions with the respective department heads can be pin-pointed. One-size-fits-all philosophy is discarded in this regard, with customisation of training needs per team member's needs makes it easier to chalk out goals of the team and synergise it with the organisation's goals. Says Rodrigues, "Once we understand how our team members learn, we tailor our training methods to fit their learning style. For example, if one of our team member learns through observation and questioning, 'job shadowing' would be an effective way for that person to learn."

Developing the synergy between appraisals and training helps in retaining right people at right place on right time, opines Rathore, "We identify the training need in appraisals; accordingly the training calendars are made. Training on regular interval ensures that each employee is adding value. By potential mapping, career planning and training we obviously shape the future of our employees," he adds. Another emerging trend of part time and contract employees, and outsourcing internal functions, such as housekeeping, requires that the department heads play a greater role in imparting training. The hospitality bible of standard-operating-procedures serves as a yardstick for performance, which, if the aforementioned worker excels at, is rewarded suitably, by getting absorbed into the workforce.

The future is bright

What is the future of an individual in the industry? Does it offer a long term growth part, or will it go the way of the emerging IT and retail industry - job hopping for the next best offer? Promising to be a model employer, it is yet to offer substance and longevity. The industry today grapples with attrition at operational and lower levels, exacerbated with a non-conducive work environment and poor monetary compensation.

And change is but inevitable in the industry. Ideally evolving around the potential, performance and attitude of an employee, training needs to reflect the changing needs of the industry, which is transforming. While staff to guest ratio is plummeting, the multi-tasking skills of employees are increasing proportionally. The invasion of technology through each category of hotels demands that clerical tasks are substituted by competent service-oriented knowledge workers, and menial tasks are outsourced to external organisations. This has heightened the need of upping laterally the need for training to meet these concerns. While training modules are reviewed on a yearly basis to keep them contemporary, industry veterans point out that educational course modules need to keep up pace with the changing environment too. While at the forefront, institutes, especially IHMs with strategic alliances with foreign based universities keep abreast of it by enabling knowledge transfers and student exchange programmes, there is still a lot to be done on this front, and the industry will reach there. From impeccable service standards, the globalised world requires a hospitality professional to have an enhanced customer focus - people skills to deal with multi-racial guests, and a rapidly modernising work place. Says Rodrigues, "Finally the worth of a hotel management degree will be equated to an MBA (definitely not at par with the IIMs, though) and the deliverable capabilities will be talked about across various industries. This will help cross training across industries and the exposure will be much higher. Service staff will be known for their customer focus skills and the hospitality industry will seam into the customer-focused world." Alas, this seems a mere pipedream today. Training will decentralise as a function, a continuous rather than a sporadic necessity. "In future, training is going to be every manager's responsibility and not only the training department. Development of individuals will be a key factor in growth of team member," says Mathur. Meanwhile the onus of training will spread and the responsibility of each manager to take part in this growth process will increase for nearly non-existent proportions today.

Another trend, which Mathur sees, is self-paced online courses changing the industry to a great extent. The organisation will play a greater role, by ensuring that they are aware of employees' goals and by ensuring that employees are continuously part of the learning process, which is a huge motivator for them. Within this precept, training will evolve says Ghiara. "It would probably evolve into a more individual-oriented process rather than a group-oriented process. Education in India, ideally, needs to evolve into a more comprehension-focussed process from the current memory-focussed process."

Will the industry see a convergence in technology and imparting training? Worldwide trends dictate that with a click of the mouse, through interactive online tools, hoteliers, can identify, cull, and share best practices with their entire team of staff and personnel. But this brings about a question - will the human touch be necessary for its success? Whatever the trend, the investment which hotels make in training will always bring a very positive return, both in developing a consistent cohort of employees with higher skill levels and in reducing labour turnover by building loyalty.