The Importance Of Staff Training In The Hospitality Industry

Challenges in Staff Training in the Hotel Industry

1.1 Background information 

Growing up in the tourist city, the author nourishes the great passion, which are associated with the hospitality industry, which led on the decision to have a practical training in the hotel (Houdré, 2008). The author worked as a trainee in the training department of the hotel and what she learnt was how important staff training is to the brand building as well as to the success of the hospitality business (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). There are also challenges, which have been associated with the staff training in the hotel even though an organization has a training management system that is well established in comparison to the other hotels (Phillips, 1997). The hospitality industry from which the hotels are the main constituent is the service intensive as well as consequently relies on the human resources. For the hotel to operate smoothly there is need to involve the staff in all the departments.  Training is an important as well as inseparable part of the human resource management particularly in this industry (Houdré, 2008). The training usually take the first role in the guiding as well as helping employees in order to adjust their qualities to enable them fit to the organization. The important of training is to act as the strategic tools in order to implement the differentiation strategy through creation of high quality staff thus providing exceptional level of services and meet on the expectations of the guests (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). The problem is based on the management level of the human resource, which has been associated with many organizations in the hospitality industry the issue on is on the delivery of services effectively. This is especially where we have newcomers who do not have even experience in the industry. These people need months of training to be able to learn the goals, rules, structure and the working culture to adapt and get the pace of the other workers (Ryan, 2015). This is where training takes the first role of guiding as well as helping them to adjust their qualities and fits the needs of the organization. The rationale of the author selecting the research topic is because there has been issues concerning staff training especially in the hospitality industry. The essence for the research has been motivated from observation which have been seen in the hospitality industry where employees level of service has deteriorated to help improve on this the author has done research in this industry.  The author has made a study on the views in relation to the staff training in the hotel from the employees in various place will probably be obtained, supervisor and manager.

The primary objective of this research is to explore the existing issues of the staff training at the hospitality industry and suggest solution to resolve them and lead to improvement of performance.

1. What are the challenges for the staff training in the hospitality industry?
   2. What can be done in the future to improve the effectiveness of the staff training in conferences and wedding in hospitality industry without requiring so much budget?
   3. What types, methods and areas of staff training offered in hospitality industry?
2. How do staff training affect the service quality from the perspective of management?
   5.  How do staff training influence on the service quality from the perspective of the staff?

This chapter provides a review of the literature in regards to the relevant studies in the field of training and the hospitality industry. The purpose of the literature would provide the basis of formulation of significance of training in the hospitality industry, human resource management in the industry (Ryan, 2015). There are various approaches, which can be viewed of various authors about it. Based on Shone & Parry (2004) defined training as having a narrow goal of specifying the right way of undertaking something. According to both Lloyd and Leslie (1997) see that the training of the employees as the learning process which entails the acquisition of the skills, concepts as well as attitude in enhancing of the performance of the employees to various activities they are involved in. Van Wart (1983) suggested that the training is the application, which drive the process and aim when it comes to the identifying as well as the development of the skills, which are useful in a given situation. Training is the key concept. Training of the employees has been recognized widely as an important activity for the hospitality organization. There is a lot of involvement in training programs for the staff but the output, which will be produced in the delivery of the service, is a gain to the company (Ryan, 2015). Training is a key success to the hospitality industry.  It start from the orientation on the new employees first day to the ongoing seminars in the workers work area. The organization should stress on the training as well as education at every level.

The Role of Training in Human Resource Management

Training provides the function of directing the new staff to their positions as well while offering the learning possibilities for the development of career of the current staff in each level whilst making certain that the information delivered are kept in the line for the organizational objective as well as culture (Ryan, 2015). In substantial companies in hospitality industry training plays the role of the communication chain between the top management along with the staff considering its functionality of updating in addition to informing several individuals at once (Shone & Parry, 2004). To every single altering world , these functions of training contribute in a good deal in a business results because it assist the staff to hone on their pre-existing competencies as well as significantly in order to build new one to cope with the alterations in the field (Tavitiyaman, Zhang, Law & Lin, 2016). In the contemporary hotel business, it will be regarding the proficiency in individuals especially in the qualities of staff. The level of the support quality usually depends on the features of the staff (Taylor & Forte, 2008). The qualities is about the knowledge, skills along with the considered that result in the survival of the hotel. Staff training is essential in several ways; it is going to improve the productivity whilst the workers is going to be armed with the knowledge in relation to the services in wedding and conferences (Tavitiyaman, Zhang, Law & Lin, 2016). Furthermore, staff training motivates as well as encourages the staff by providing the employees all the needed information in function together with the assist them to understand how crucial their work are. The training might be thought to be the vital instrument in the execution of the hospitality industry practices along with policies. Successful hotels normally have staff training as their significant development technique. In every hospitality business today it is all about the competence in the employee, more so on their qualities (Stone & Watson, 1999).  The quality of the service offered to the clients will depend on the qualities of the employees.  The qualities focus on the knowledge, skills as well as the thought, which lead to the survival as well as the development of the hotel. The staff training is significant in many ways that increase on the productivity as well as the performance of the employees. The staff training tend to motivate and inspire the workers by provision of the needed information in the work, which help them in recognition of how their jobs are important. The training as well as the development could be regarded as the key instrument when it comes to the implementation of the HRM practices as well as the policies. A successful hotel will incorporate staff train ing as their crucial development strategy. Based on Taylor & Forte (2008) highlighted as due to the technological development in the industry needs training and much precisely it need to the improved skills in order to overcome any problems as well as barriers occurring (Houdré, 2008). The organization to be able to be ahead in the extremely competitive market, it is recommended that training role is important to promote continuous learning culture. The organization should offer training to guide the staff on how to achieve their purpose as well as advance on the employee’s performance of the delivery of services.

1. Methods, Data and analysis

Benefits of Staff Training in the Hospitality Industry

2.1Research design (data collection) methods

The research design is the method of providing decisions before the circumstance occurs in which the decision continues to be performed. Descriptive research studies are made to be able to acquire relevant in addition to precise data in relation to the present status of the phenomena and whenever feasible to tap into the justifiable general summary from the details found. The descriptive design has been aimed to obtain the information that could be analyzed, pattern extracted and compression made (Mak, 2008). The researcher will use questionnaire, which will comprise of the structured as well as unstructured questions. The target population was used in order to describe as the entire group of people, instances or maybe objects with some of the typical features to which the researcher would like to generalize on the outcomes of the study. Additionally, descriptive investigation includes surveys and investigation inquiries of various types (Law, Tavitiyaman & Zhang, 2015). The primary intent behind the descriptive of the investigation is the description of the state of the affair on the improvement of the staff training on the wedding and conference in hospitality industry.

The data for this study will be the primary data, which will come from the survey as well as the interviews. All of the staff in the food as well as the beverage unit will likely be the sample grouping for this study (Phillips & Louvieris, 2005). The questionnaire that are designed are about the staff-training program for the selected hotel. The questionnaire will likely be split up into two parts , the initial one belong to the respondent fundamental information , on their gender, age, the prior learning in hospitality , as well as the past hotel past experience ( Ryan , 2015 ) . The next component related to the training, which they experienced in the hotel, and precisely how they had felt in relation to the training. Further, it will be on opinions they have in regards to the training system, and how they could realize on the significance of the organized training (Ryan, 2015). The time for collection of the data will take two week, given that the questionnaires were given and they were brought back to the author through the email, which had taken a longer time than the expected to be able to get all of the answers (Mak, 2008). On the research, you will see sixty questionnaire that would be delivered to the employees in the department in hotel in the hospitality industry. The response rate for the questionnaire were answered 70% of the respondents. The interview questions were basically created before the interviews had occurred, the questions are grouped to 3 parts, and initial part is about the interviewees’ background data, positions along with the work experience (Phillips & Louvieris, 2005). The second component relation the purpose along with the goals of the training programs in the hotel case. The last section would certainly concentrate on the enhancements of the way to develop the conference and wedding training programs. The interview were done through the telephone, individually with the assistant manager of the department of the human resource, and the training manager.
2.2 Validity and reliability analysis 
This really is the consistency of measurement, in which the outcomes might not adjust each time whenever the testing correspondingly with the same subject (Phillips & Louvieris, 2005). The measure is fundamentally considered reliable if a person score on the same test provided twice is similar. Reliability can never be assessed it could only be estimated.
Validity emphasizes that in case the measure, which can be supposed to analyse. Legitimacy is about precision of the measurement. It is crucial for a test to be legitimate to allow the result to be precisely be applied along with interpreted.

Literature Review on Staff Training in the Hospitality Industry

In this research, the questions have been designed generalized as well as suitable for the employees, and with support of the personal interviews all, the interviewees are experienced as well as skillful in order to make the results to be reliable (Robinson, Fallon, Cameron & Crotts, 2016). The sample group has been narrowed to the food and beverage department in order to help the author to be able to analyze (Houdré, 2008). The program for the analyses that would be used is the SPSS and there would be use of the frequency as well as the percentages table in order to show a direct and understandable analysis that increases the reliability of the results.

The interview protocol has been divided into two parts. One part is the general questions and then the second part is specific question which are related to the research problem under the study. There is an effective use of the prompts, and probes when interviewing the respondents to be able achieve data that is reliable. The design interview protocol has been highlighted in the Appendix section.

2.2 Data  analysis 

The existing opinions in regards to improving staff training in conferences and weddings in Hospitality industry have been collected through semi structured interview and the results are provided in the table 1 below. There are various themes which have been analysed during the interview as shown.

Research Questions (RQ)	Interview Questions (IQ)	Power Quote
RQ1. What are the challenges for the staff training in the hospitality industry?	Could you tell me the problems, which you have attained to date since the period you have worked at the Training Department of the hotel and in what way it has affected the q station hotel?	Respondent: “we believe that the most difficult problems is the employee’s motivation to study. Many of the staff often have the inclination of choosing to work as compared to gain training.”
RQ2. What can be done in the future to improve the effectiveness of the staff training in conferences and wedding in hospitality industry without requiring so much budget?	What makes q station be doing to improve the Training division?	Respondent: “I believe the teaching which will be offered would relate with the task competencies, which can be carried out by the operation departments by the training activities usually are managed by the Training Department”.
RQ3. What types, methods and areas of staff training offered in hospitality industry?	What method will examine the effectiveness of the training in the q station hotel	Respondent: “we believe as a hotel we would offering on job training especially on soft skills, customer service program and towards the end of each program, each one training is p resented the program assessment form. Given that the form would not really need of the staff to complete their titles, it can be reasonable concerning analysing on the quality of the training program in addition to convey on their free viewpoint. The business has acquired numerous reviews, that happen to be both good whilst others bad. This offer the important source particularly to the trainer to be able to look back and even determine when they have performed well. Aside from this approach, it could turn out to be very hard to examine on the effectiveness of the training”.
RQ4. How do staff training affect the service quality from the perspective of management?	How does the q station hotel staff training impact on the services quality from the perspective of the management?	Respondent: “I have observed that over the years we have carried the training among our staff we have observed significant changes especially to the delivery of the service. The employees have amicably used the skills they have learnt towards the delivery of the services to the customers. I believe training is part of the growth of the employee especially those on the job or the newly employed”.
5.  How do staff training influence on the service quality from the perspective of the staff?	How do the training of the staff in q station hotel influence the quality of the services?	Respondent:  “I believe in a competitive industry such as hospitality companies are aiming in providing the best services as comparison to the others. I believe as an organization we have achieved a lot and staff training is part of that growth. I believe with more training we can deliver the best to the customers”.

The table 2 below shows some of the interesting themes that I have identified from the interview I carried out.

Interesting Themes	Interviews	Note
Training	Respondent: “Our organization does wants to implement the training program to help improve on the quality of the services and hence satisfy the client we serve”.	Respondent seems to be concerned on the issue of implementing of the training program.
Task competencies	Respondent:  “our company strive to offer the best training to the employees who develop various competencies that will be a great assets to the organization during the delivery of the services”.	Respondent: I was happy that the workers would be able to grow as they develop their careers.
Policies	Respondent: “our company aims to maintain a professional approach to offer quality services to the clients. It is important to develop training program to be able to achieve these goals for the organization”.	Respondent: I was very delighted to have policies to be set in place to be able to achieve the best services.

The table 1 highlights how the respondent agreed on the significance of training for the employees in the organization, but he has also highlights some interesting insights in regards to the staff training. To be able to demonstrate how each research question has been addressed through the data as well as the evidence which has been collected for all the major issues of the research, there was a content analysis approach which was carried out.

From the research it was observed that the respondent was excited in improving the staff training in the Q station hotel. He was glad that the improvement of the staff training would help improve on the service delivery to the customers. Further, he highlighted that it is through teaching and training would there be an effective delivery of the service in the hospitality industry.

The most significant part of this chapter is the analysis of the issues in regards to staff training of the employees on conference and wedding training especially in the hospitality industry, which gives the answer for the research question for the study (Law, Tavitiyaman & Zhang, 2015). From the research question and objective, the staff are the major pillars in the delivery of service in the hospitality industry. It is important for their continuous education through the training. In order to improve on the performance in the improvement for the services in the weddings and the conference it is important to implement the various methods, which contribute in the provision for the high quality of the services. The staff training is concerned with the implementation of the effective behavioral interventions (Van der Wagen, 2010). One very common is the staff training, which is used in to provide the employees with new as well as advanced knowledge or perhaps the skills, which could assist them to perform their job much better. These require all those who are involved in the intervention are knowledgeable thoroughly in regards to the competent use of a specific intervention technique. The staff training on the wedding and conference to the employees in order to improve is all about the implementation of the rules and the procedures that the staff are much familiar with, before they could commence on starting to work in the organization. Moreover, there is additional formula to which would show them how to work properly as well as effectively. As the selection matches the employees, the training would prepare them to undertake a specific job more effectively, which would lead satisfied guests. In order to improve on the level of the training there should be several things which should undertake place within an enterprise. The training is all about the evaluations of the skills that are significant to perform the job as well as the assessment of the skills, which the employees have.

Research Design and Methods

The improvement of the staff training could be achieved when the expectations of the customers are taken into the perceptions of the service quality vary. The employees should be in a position to evaluate as well as adapt to the best they could to the needs of the guests. Moreover, the individual capabilities as well as the commitment of the employees in the achievement of the high quality of the services additionally, teamwork is also significant aspect of the issue. In most of the organizations, which are in the hospitality, industry teamwork has been regarded as a prerequisite to the successes as well as leadership.  

1. Discussion and implications

3.1 Addressing research questions

1. Future methods of improve the effectiveness of the staff training

The questions that will be addressed on the facts about the training are to identify if the training is compulsory or otherwise and regardless of whether the employees have to utilize the trainings.

For the future ways of improving the staff training for the Q station hotel, there is need to undertake training which relate to the individual task competencies. This will be done in the operational department by formulating some training activities that will be under the management of the training department. The organization will also need to have team building activities which are aimed to encourage the staff and motivate them to enable them deliver on their jobs better. On the identified results reveals that Training is essential and could be deem as an instrument for the self-development or maybe the building of the self-confidence and training are very important since they encourage the workers to be able to perform in a competitive along with provide a channel for the communication between both the management and the staffs. The expectations of the training hospitality industry on the conference and the weddings are very high, and there should be daily training, which are to be organized in order to improve on the qualities of the workers as well as assist them to deliver better customer service more continuously (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). In the cases where possible, when the budget allocated for training has allowed, training outside the organization could be worth organization since it would bring diversity and increase the interest of the training and in case the training methods have been used well the results could be much better than the expected.

1. challenges for the staff training in the hospitality industry

From the study, there are various challenges, which are facing the staff training in the hospitality industry and this need to be addressed in order to be able to improve on the quality of service offered. From the survey given the employees highlighted problems like the safety issues was one of the major shortcoming they were facing (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). The employees frequently they are in situation, which are unsafe as they perform part of their jobs. The staff professionals they more often realize that the occupational safety rules in order to prevent injuries as well as lawsuits. Nonetheless, the managers’ personnel find that their hotels or perhaps the restaurant does not have safety rules, which are in place, or maybe the rules that are in place are not followed (Van der Wagen, 2010). There are situations for injury in this industry especially on the ladders, when they are planning an event, breaking of the glass, and the cleaning chemicals. Most of the staff may be ignorant in following the procedures and in the event of occurrence of an injury; the organization has to cater for all the medical expenses (Shone & Parry, 2004).  Another challenge may be issue of theft. In an event planning, may it be a wedding or a conference there may be supply of expensive wine, food, as well as the high end equipment. Some of the employees could not resist the temptation to steals some of these items (Rahimi & Kozak, 2017). Theft of such kind has been common in the hospitality industry and it could be extremely expensive to the business. Sometimes the managers may instill sense of loyalty in the staff, but this is not enough in alleviating on these costs. This only can trickle down to the personal morals of the employees (Hartley & Rand, 2000). There is also the challenge of the harassment claims in the hospitality business, which can influence negatively on the business. In the hotel or perhaps the restaurant environment, there could be many opportunities for the harassment in every detrimental aspects (Hartley & Rand, 2000). The staff who are suffering from the episodes of the harassment situations usually become fearful and they unable to perform their duties more diligently or perhaps concentrate on providing the best services to the guests. The manager should be charged with the investigations as they can possibly fire or even relocate the staff who are involved.

1. Staff training influence on the service quality from the perspective of the staff

On the question of the influence of the staff training on the quality service delivery many respondent highly spoke that it is helpful, since it encourages them to perform better in their work fields (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). The staff could benefit so much on the job training in order to learn new ways of delivering the services better as the industry it is dynamically changing and many aspects needs to be addressed (Law, Tavitiyaman & Zhang, 2015). Many of them were satisfied with the staff training and they highlighted that it is well planned, as well as organized which makes it pleasant for them to participate.

1. How do staff training affect the service quality from the perspective of management?

 In any competitive industry such as the hospitality organization such as q station hotel, their aim is to provide services of high quality as comparison to their competitors. As an organization they aim at achieving growth and having a competitive edge over the rival companies. On the perspective of the management, staff training is an important tool in order to enhance the level of service delivered to the client (Stone & Watson, 1999). The clients want the best and based on their own perspective. The management aims that all their staff have the best training to enable them to perform their duties more diligently and professionally (Stone & Watson, 1999). The management totally approves the training since they know the benefits in the long run what the organization would be able to achieve. Based on the q station hotel, the respondent who was interviewed in regards to this issue was part of the management of the organization and he agreed that as part of the management team, they take the staff training with utmost preference and as a company they aim at providing the best training possible to be able to equip the employees with skills to enable them do their job well.

1. Types, methods and areas of staff training offered in hospitality industry

Over the years the Q station hotel has carried training of their employees and this has significantly has made changes to the delivery of the services. The workers have gained various skills as well as competencies towards the delivery of the services to their high end clients.

There are various kind of training which have been offered to the employees some of these are on the time management and planning. The employees should make the most when it comes to efficiently use of their time (Phillips, 1997). The training programs which are offered focus on the time management, planning, and the delegation skills which would help the employees to make the most of their time as well as resources. Moreover, there are training techniques on the safety and the emergency (Rahimi & Kozak, 2017). The safety of the employees is very important and a major concern to the organization, the employees should be aware of the potential risks and how to handle these emergencies. Aside from the specific job related the safety as well as emergency training procedures are also very important. Other training are on the customer services. This training include training on the conflict resolution, communication as well as the problem solving (Rahimi & Kozak, 2017). This training is geared towards the customer related issues rather than on the company. There is need for the employees to make customer centric decision within the allowable set limits of the company policy (Phillips, 1997). The company could invite various speakers as well as team building retreat to change environment when training is done.

It is important to help the workers in order to know the staff training as well as understand the significance of it. The Human resource department may highlights to the staff about the objectives of the trainings, and the benefits associated with the training (Callan & Hoyes, 2000). Moreover, the employees could be told how the use of what they have learnt from the course of the training in the future (Callan & Hoyes, 2000). The human resource could also invite other organization to come and tell the employees the experiences they have had in the industry as part of their learning process.
In the improving of the staff training increasing communication between the management and the employees is very important. This can be achieved through getting the feedback from the staff to be able to know what they like and what could be improved in the training to be able to get the best outcomes. It is also important to guide the staff for them to realize that improving themselves is the main aim for any training (Guan, Luo & Tang, 2015). The main objective for the training of the staff in the case organization in the hospitality industry is to improve on the staff qualities to be able to provide better services especially in the planning of the conferences and the weddings. These events requires one to be creative and offer the best services possible and self-development is the vest reason for training.

The major obstacle, which was found in the research, was the survey, which were limited on the time. The time allowed for the completion as well as the return of the questionnaire was very short.  As a result, there was an extension, which was given to the employees that proved it was a wise decision, given from the eventual high rate of the response.

4. Conclusion remarks

The human resource management are actually extremely significant in the hospitality business, dealing with the staff; the necessity for the business would be to have a unique internal relationship between the management and them. A positive HRM it would ensure there is business growth, as well as the staff training which is the most effective way for developing of the staff to have a good HRM. Therefore, the staff training is concerned more nowadays in most business. the staff training has been regarded as the essential management tool, it has many benefits for example it shortens on the study time, increases on the effectiveness of the delivery of the services, helps the staff as well as the organization to compete in the changing dynamics of the business, and there is reduction of the wastes and damages. Staff training methods involves motivation of the staff, upgrading of their competencies, widening on their expertise along with organizing them for self-development. The following are the recommendations for enhancing the employees training in conference and wedding in the hospitality industry. Finally, from the study, the importance of the staff training is found, to have the ability to guide the human resource department in the hospitality industry to be able to resolve problems in the staff training as above highlighted and possible recommendations given. In the improvement of the current situations, it need time as well as cooperation from both the management and the employees.

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