The importance of continued training in Hospitality

Practice makes perfect

According to a study conducted by Ecole h?telière de Lausanne experts "Vocational education students have more contact with employers and easier access to recruitment networks." 

Another study by EHL for a hotel group, dating back some years, analysed the difference between staff that had been trained on the customer satisfaction programme and staff that had not.

The study showed an additional contribution by the former that amounted to over 5% extra GOP per employee.

I wanted to highlight these two and associate the two subjects under the training umbrella.

Well trained staff have a measurable impact on operations, they have a bigger contribution to profitability.

They increase repeat business, and we all know that repeat business is more profitable than new business as cheaper to source.

Our methodology at EHL and EHL Advisory Services has historically been to blend theory with practical arts, taking the best of both worlds and creating an integrated solution in a business which is heavily dependent on interpersonal skills.

The students that have graduated from EHL are amongst the very few bachelors that have had 1 years of active customer relationship once they come out of school.

By duplicating this success factor also in our vocational model, we achieve the same objective : familiarizing the student to the customer so that when he starts to work, he can hit the ground running.

Having launched VET by EHL some 2 years ago, this is fast becoming a success story.

This quality has been consistently praised by our employers who keep coming back to EHL and EHL related institutions for exactly that purpose.

So what do these studies tell us :

1.     Vocational students have more contact with employers and easier access to recruitment networks.

This means that according to a study by EHL, those EHL students that have been going through a vocational training (VET by EHL) have better communication skills, are more assertive, compared to employees that have not gone through vocational training.

This is consistent with what EHL has stood for since the beginning : not only to develop and deliver better students but also to make our students better people.

Better communication skills will very likely also translate into better guest communication, better guest interaction.

I’m quite sure that this in turn leads to more confidence from the students in doing their jobs and that their way of dealing with customers will be smoother and will yield better results in terms of sales, in terms of interaction.

I would like to make a point here for parents as well as for students contemplating hospitality as a career : Hospitality offers great career opportunities, where personality is key.

Careers are very rewarding but you’ll need passion and dedication. And hospitality is just as good an industry as anything. I think with Covid, we’ve been made painfully aware how our environment is without hospitality….

2.     Well-trained staff have a better bottom-line impact than other less trained staff.

This means that people with continued on the job training are better equipped when dealing with customers : they sell more, sell with higher yields and therefore sell better.

As they are more confident because of training, they display better product knowledge.

They are therefore in a position to sell better, to sell those items that suit the customers’ needs better, but also with the knowledge of wat is better for the company.

We all know that volume is only part of the bottom-line story, the profit per item sold is just as important.

When well-trained staff deal with customers in a more effective way, this has a consequence on customer satisfaction.

As customer satisfaction grows, also complaints become less frequent.

Complaints are costly affairs insofar that they are resources-heavy ; requiring multiple people and skills to correct the situation, whereas a satisfied customer will not require this.

This can constitute upwards of 5% difference to the GOP, comparing well trained and untrained staff.

This study also indicates that staff training isn’t only costing money, it actually yield results.

5% margin is not a bad investment.

Good job education is important but well trained staff, i.e. on the job trained staff, is equally important.

Imagine what results you could achieve when you’re able to attract the best students and that you train these well…..

Educating the team, developing them further after they have been hired is paramount to ensuring durable success.

Most successful companies have comprehensive employee development schemes. The recruit the best and continue their personal development whilst employed at the company.

Most companies however seem to concentrate on developing skills and do not spend too much attention to the development of the soft skills of employees.

I even came across companies that accepted to recruit the best but then stopped their development, apparently for fear of investing in resources that could leave on day.

We all know the saying :

“What if we train people and then they leave?

What if we don’t train people and they stay?”

All around us we understand the importance of empathy, of good listening skills.

At EHL Advisory Services we have multiple development programmes where we challenge individuals and teams with their soft skills.

We develop and support attitudes just as much as we develop skills.

The best technician will never be as successful as the same technician displaying a friendly smile and giving his customer the impression that he’s there for the sole purpose of helping the customer.

On the contrary, a not so competent agent can be perceived as much better if his listening skills, his empathy are more prominent than the next guy.

For more on executive education www.ehladvisory.com

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