Sustain a Reputation of Excellence with Hospitality Industry Training

The hospitality industry has high turnover rates, lofty guest expectations, and fierce competition for business. One of the most crucial ways to stay relevant in the hospitality industry and to stand out from the competition is by providing excellent service. How do you do this? The answer is simple. By developing your employees with ongoing hospitality training, you can not only increase your employee retention, but build a staff that is knowledgeable, successful, and genuinely cares about their jobs and your business.

By understanding the importance of training and development for your staff, and providing continued education through e-learning, you can run a successful, profitable business in the hospitality industry.

The Benefits and Importance of Training and Development in the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry exists to serve the needs of guests whether it is food service, lodging, or both. For this reason, training and developing your staff is crucial to having satisfied guests. Each employee can affect the guests’ experience in positive or negative ways. Although training requires resources, creating a group of well-trained staff will affect your bottom line by increasing profits and customer retention. The first place to start is with your new recruits. By properly instructing new members of the staff from the beginning of their employment, you can put them on the path to success and deter the development of any bad habits. The training shouldn’t stop after the initial orientation, though. By continuing to provide learning opportunities, employees will feel inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty, and exceed the minimum requirements of the job. Training employees how to do their job is important, but it is just as important to continue to develop your employees over time. Once you have set a precedent for excellent customer service, guests will continue to expect this same level of service. Having ongoing hospitality industry training programs allow you to target the specific areas of the business that are lacking. Maybe you are getting negative customer service feedback. By consistently addressing ways to respond to guests in both negative and positive situations, employees will have tools to know how to successfully deal with many situations. By providing your employees with the necessary tools to succeed they can be better at their jobs, and feel more confident in working for an employer who genuinely cares about helping them do their jobs well.

How to Create a Hospitality Leadership Development and Training Program

The future of your business depends on developing leaders who can take hospitality to the next level for your guests, as well as guide the rest of staff on a path to success. By using an ongoing training program, you can identify what the leadership needs are of your company, and which staff members are most qualified to fulfill those roles. The first step in your training program is to define the leadership needs of your business. 

• Make a list of traits that will serve as a basis for the leadership roles you are trying to fill.
• Dip deep and avoid making this list too vague.
• Focus on areas where the business can grow, or positions that will need to be filled when veteran employees retire.
• Include items such as “We need a leader who can foster social interaction and collaboration among the staff,” as opposed to “We need someone who is outgoing.”

Great leaders are not manufactured, so your development program should be focused on mentoring and nurturing leaders rather than forcing them to memorize rules. Your program should put potential leaders in situations where they can learn and grow, and use their skills in real life situations. Ultimately, your employee training program should identify potential leaders within your company, and give everyone an opportunity to participate in the program if they are interested. Offer incentives, such as promotions, for participating and determine which employees are willing to go the extra mile to exceed your leadership expectations. You should also give potential leaders the opportunity to supervise employees and handle tasks associated with leaderships roles, to see how the staff and guests respond.

Essential Qualities for Hospitality Managers

Let’s face it; not everyone has what it takes to be in a leadership position, and that’s perfectly fine. When you go to train and develop new hospitality managers, however, you will want to seek out candidates who can bring new talents to the table. 

• Innovative: New trends are evolving every day in the hospitality industry, so you will want someone who values quality over quantity, and is willing do whatever it takes to improve all areas of the business
• Adaptable & Genuine: A successful leader works well with diverse groups of people and genuinely cares about the needs of others.
• Allied Vision: You will want someone who shares the same vision as your company and has a vision for their growth and career success.

Great leaders should also always seek to be better, in their work, while coming up with new ways to enhance the culture around the workplace. Your hospitality managers should care about their staff and always seek to inspire them to excel at their jobs, and in their personal goals. Last, and most importantly, an excellent leader understands how to communicate efficiently and thoughtfully. All successful relationships depend heavily on solid communication.

How eLearning Helps Develop Premier Hospitality Talent

Continued development your staff will make for higher employee and guest retention as well as increase your bottom line. If you need help developing an employee training program, our team of e-learning experts is happy to help. Our learning management system can help you empower your workforce to succeed with online training that is accessible, meaningful, and relevant. With our platform, you can provide employees with webinars, virtual learning, and instructor-led training all from their mobile device. Remaining relevant in the hospitality industry is a tough task which takes dedication and innovation. Help your business to stand out by developing an excellent hospitality staff with an LMS solution. 

Schedule a free Demo today to get started!