Training: operational staff

Training operational and administrative staff is the fastest way to realize cost savings in a hotel or restaurant.

by: Valterina Gherardi Torres*

How difficult it is to get people trained in the hotel and restaurant industry, even if it seems unbelievable.

On numerous occasions we have asked ourselves where do I find prepared people who can achieve excellence in service? Where do I train my staff in customer service, techniques, processes and procedures? How long should the training last, how often? What method do I use to train staff? How much should I spend on training?

As guests or diners, how many times have we arrived at a hotel and the receptionist is talking on the phone and does not even look at us, or on the way to our room the bellman does not explain the hotel facilities. It also happens in the restaurant, the waiter is delayed in assigning us a table, is wrong in the order, in the distribution of the dishes or presents us with an account with dishes that we have not consumed.

As managers or area heads of hotels and restaurants we have had to interview many people to fill different positions, finding ourselves with the surprise that graduates of the hotel management career have not done the necessary practice and do not wish to perform in operational positions such as cleaning staff, waiters, waiters, waiters, among others; they only want to work in administrative positions.

All this leads us to interview, hire, train, pay a salary to people who want to fill these operational positions, without having adequate preparation or experience. Then, when we evaluate their performance and decide that they are not the right people for the position, we have to let them go resulting in loss of time and money for the company, and even in some cases we let them remain in the position since we do not get "someone better".

Service + training = 100% customer satisfaction
To generate customer satisfaction, the staff must provide a good service, which will be achieved with adequate training, continuous and practical learning of processes, procedures and techniques. With all this knowledge, the staff will gain confidence in themselves, be able to provide information, resolve complaints, know if they talk on the phone or attend to the person in front of them, know the appropriate steps to take a reservation, make a check in, charge an account, guide the guest to their room, correctly distribute the dishes, present the account without errors, in addition to contributing to the growth of the company by contributing ideas. Resulting in all this in higher revenues for the organization.

Training is an investment, not an expense. By investing in our staff, we are ensuring the return of guests and diners.

There are very good short-term trainings with affordable prices. Hands-on training of a receptionist, bellboys, housekeeper, waiter, night auditor can be carried out in up to two weeks at a low cost. This helps hotels and restaurants to prepare in a short time for an early opening or to existing ones to carry out a reengineering. This even helps to reinvent many people who need these quick and effective trainings, and thus have an opportunity in the hotel and restaurant industry.

This investment must be direct, we must look for institutions or companies that are dedicated to practical training and in a short time of processes, procedures and techniques for operational positions. The theory helps, complements; however, we are interested in the staff being trained representing real situations, using simulators of rooms or restaurants as the case may be.

Such preparation should be constantly strengthened, it is ideal that this reinforcement is carried out every three months. Sharing lived situations, simulating them, looking for and finding solutions.

Learning everything you need to know about the techniques, processes and procedures in hotels and restaurants has to be experiential, the training that is carried out sitting in a folder is not real.

Comprehensive training is recommended in hotels and restaurants; this means that we must train all staff in the different areas in order to rotate them and fill the positions according to needs.

In addition to constantly training our human capital, it is important to hire prepared operational personnel, this will mean the company a saving of time and money, since we will allocate fewer hours and fewer personnel in induction training. In this case, it is also important to look for institutions or companies that are dedicated to the practical and short-term teaching of processes, procedures and techniques for operational positions, which can provide us with support with the databases of people they have trained.

Faced with the increase in the number of hotels and restaurants, with different types of service, small hotels with personalized attention, large hotels with more conventional service, fast food and slow food restaurants, specialized preparation according to the operational positions they perform is indispensable.

We are in a constant struggle for our hotels or restaurants to remain fashionable, improving the facilities, creating new dishes. Our goal should be to make our hotels and restaurants a tradition.

FASHION: Use, mode or custom that is in force and followed in a temporary manner.
TRADITION: Communication of historical facts and socio-cultural elements from generation to generation.

One of the most effective ways to become a tradition is to put our seal of distinction with the service we provide. This means that in addition to modifying our facilities and our menu, we must have a constant learning, choose the right trainers, who use the ideal methods to maintain excellence in the quality of service.

These experiential trainings, using simulators, aim to standardize processes and procedures and thus exceed customer expectations and turn our hotel or restaurant into the best option on the market.

* Manager of Hotel Solutions MVH SAC. She can be contacted in the email [email protected] and in the portal www.solucioneshotelerasmvh.com.pe