Training

Computing intangible benefits

It is high time that the hospitality industry accepts that training is a form of investment and not merely a human resource development task. The industry views this fact as an undeniable truth but ultimately everything has to percolate down to all extremes on the actual work front. Arun K Agarwal discusses this critical issue

Ability is intangible and works like a machine, translating into talent on the work front. The success of a hotel lay in having trained professionals, not only internally but with a global perspective as well. A hotel is therefore, in more than one way, a face put forward to international travellers. Hotels therefore started their own catering schools, and special training cells for staff were established aimed at enhancing the skills of the manpower on a global platform.

Enhancement tips

Important parameters on which a training program should be based are the attitude and aptitude qualities of an employee in the hotel industry. This may serve as a first step and subsequently, each chain could work out their plan to prepare staff to fit individual hotel needs, as per their global positioning. It has been realised that a training centre is essential for development of a hotel's activities and growth. Mechanical, skill and attitudinal training, along with orientation to deal with customers, should be incorporated in the training program in order to make it a comprehensive process. Thus, all major training programs cover these aspects through various means.

Big chains have their own training departments geared to establish a set standard of manpower highlighting their brand, and ultimately the quality of the services provided.

Training has come a long way; e-learning and audio-visual classrooms are big tools e.g. training tasks involved are explained through visual documentation making it easier for the learner to comprehend anything taught. Another area is the enhancement of resources that is helping training programs. Earlier resources were limited, however, people have now realised the importance of having resources to facilitate constructive training.

Trainer, who?

No matter what, it is true to the core that everybody in a hotel acts as a trainer. And management needs to understand this simple logic. At any given point of time, any staff acts as a trainer for his juniors. This facet could be utilised as an asset. All senior chefs, housekeeping and F&B managers are to be seen as trainers, and upgrading them is one way to quantify the intangible resource of talent existing within the organisation.

Task of HRD

HRD has two parts: development and human resource, where the former focuses on the training aspect, whereas the latter, on the need to have the right person for that job. HRD is basically all about selection, training, re-training and retaining personnel for the organisation. The actual process of training is conducted differently in different organisations, in some places where even the president and vice-president play a role in making training a fun, learning experience, thereby primarily motivating employees to participate in the change that is meant for them.

Hazards

Reasoning for this stems from the fact that the hotel industry faces a high rate of attrition. "If I am using my own resources to train personnel, they should in turn be loyal to the organisation. Otherwise, where is the benefit?" This is the general perception.

However, a shift in approach is evident towards training programs today. There are employers who believe that despite employee turnover, training must go on. We are at a juncture where services offered have to be comparable to international standards, starting with a car-parking valet to senior staff in different departments. With the added advantage of technology, training has become a common phenomenon today, where once people were averse to using too much technical know-how. However, a precise feasibility study should be conducted before making changes.

Training as profit centre

Training results are never immediate. It is like capital investment, where the profitability is accrued over a period of time. However, the best part about training is that despite being an intangible asset, it reaps profit and doesn't depreciate.

Training involves a lot of patience, and profitability may not be prominent. It could occur in layers under the carpet of overall business. One thing that needs to be understood is that profit and loss centres of a hotel keep changing - especially those where quality is dependent on attitude, which is in turn based more on the behavioural front than on physical labour.

Changing perceptions

Training and learning is a process of give and take, respectively. Accordingly, it involves assessment, annual increment, annual audit, and maintenance of a system where accounting of activities has to be conducted and where everybody involved in training is responsible, albeit with motivation through incentives for both parties.Involvement of each and every person should be the focus; overall personality development has become central to the training need, and knowledge alone is not enough, owing to the fact that the way behaviour is guided is also imperative. Establishing training and not following it up with control action is an absolute no-no. The intervention aspect is vital and hotels are realising this. The essence of training should surface, as that would enable trainers/management to acknowledge the difference that the knowledge imparted is making. The process of hiring a person to training him, to application of acquired knowledge on the work front has to be intervened by human factors. This enables a smooth flow of the process gap between the targeted and the trainer and thus the acquired result is minimised. Further, a lot of effort should be put into changing the social habits of workers, thus bringing them (especially those coming from different backgrounds) on the same working plane. Language vis-à-vis communication is the lifeline of training and it is especially important where guest-worker contact is inevitable. A fair share of time should therefore be devoted to the communication aspect.

Training is an asset, an investment, and a workable profit area in hospitality. It leads to creation of aesthetics of the product, i.e. the hotel, and plays a silent, yet strong role in enduring customer loyalty.

- As told to Praveen K Singh
(Arun K Agarwal is an industry veteran and runs the consultancy company, Hibiscus Consultancy)