With recovery planning in the UK well underway, it’s time to look at ways to optimise our operations and services to ensure the future success of our operations. The landscape of hospitality and tourism has changed a lot over the last twelve months and moving forward, it will be important to address some of the ongoing challenges facing hotel and accommodation operators.
The immediate focus should be on preparing teams for the challenges of reopening. Your operation may have team members that have been furloughed for almost twelve months, team members that have been in and out of work throughout the last year or teams that have been providing essential services throughout. Recruitment will also be a key focus whether you have lost team members over the course of the year or recruiting ahead of the summer season. But for every team member, returning to the welcoming of guests under the ‘new normal’ will present challenges. That might manifest itself in anxiety around working in close proximity to guests and colleagues again, or maybe a loss of confidence in skills during periods of furlough, or even low morale after such a challenging period.
Longer-term, operators in the hospitality sector should be thinking about how to retain talented team members within their business and reducing the time and cost spent on continuous recruitment. According to research, the hospitality sector in the UK has an employee turnover rate of around 30%, meaning that 3 in 10 team members leave their role within a year. In the same survey, a lack of career prospects was one of the top three reasons given for leaving the sector in 2018. Investing in learning and development will help you retain employees in your business for longer, as they will benefit from the investment in their career and skills. With many people working in entry-level roles being younger, it’s an important time to showcase the career development opportunities available if they remain with your business.
Investment in your teams’ learning and development will help you address these short- and long-term objectives in your business. By investing in training, team members feel valued and benefit from gaining skills, qualifications and experience that will ultimately help them develop a career. Making your team members feel valued also leads to higher morale and motivation, so your teams will be happier in their day to day working. And a well-trained workforce will offer an improved quality of service, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction. Implementing a robust training programme really is the key to unlocking a whole world of benefits for your business.
But there is also the question of what to offer your teams? People working in hospitality will be familiar with mandatory compliance training that has to be undertaken for the business, this is essential to your operation, but doesn’t inspire learning and development in your teams. The Hotel Collection is a brand-new set of courses that have been specially created for hotel teams. We understand the importance of providing tailored training and wanted to create a set of course materials that would help spark a passion for hospitality.
The collection is made up of online courses delving into the various roles and functions of the hotel’s operations. Each course module provides role specific knowledge and skills that will allow your team members to excel in their role and ultimately ensure the success of your operation. And for the individual, accessing the course content specifically related to their role immediately offers a sense of pride in that role – it is important enough to have its own course, and so am I as a member of this team. For those who want to develop in their career, learning about all the different roles and functions helps build knowledge that will support a future career in leadership. Learning more about the other roles in the hotel might make team members feel that their skills are more aligned with another role, so instead of losing that team member, you both benefit from better use of their skills.
Each course aims to inform learners of the specific key tasks, responsibilities and skills associated with each role. The digital courses focus on the fundamental core principles of delivering hospitality within each role on an individual level, meaning that the collection is suitable for teams working in all types of hotel and accommodation, from luxury spa and resort hotels to cosy B&Bs and boutique hotels, no matter your clientele or size of the operation, the principles of delivering hospitality to a guest remain consistent.
The collection develops knowledge of the operation of a hotel or guest accommodation and would make a great addition to your new starter induction for those at the beginning of their hotel career. But also, the solid foundations of hospitality service make these courses suitable for teams with some experience, but who are looking to refresh their skills or those who have been out of work for some time.
The Hotel Collection will make a valuable addition to your reopening support for team members who are apprehensive about returning to work. If the Government’s proposed timeline remains in place, guests will have high expectations of their visits and will expect a high level of quality service. A recent poll found that 71% of British travellers were intending to plan a UK staycation in 2021, so while this presents a potentially exciting opportunity to operators, your teams might be facing delivering a higher standard of service in intense circumstances. These resources will help your teams to build confidence in their role and knowledge ahead of the stressful summer boom.
The courses in the Hotel Collection are available to be purchased as individual courses. But you can also access the whole collection, as well as our range of compliance, product skills and personal development courses through our custom package of learning resources for hotel and accommodation providers with a Venue Licence. The Standard Venue Licence and Enhanced Venue Licence provide you with a convenient and cost-effective way to train all your team members. Find out more here.
