Identifying Functionality of T&D and Training Needs in the Hospitality Industry

 Organizations are systems designed to achieve a goal or perform a particular function. The organizational processes are another element of the organizational systems. Processes represent the chain of planned steps involved as an organization progresses toward its final output. The work performed within the system and subsystems transforms the inputs into outputs (Hervani, Helms, and Sarkis, 2005).

Preparing Employees to Perform

Organizations and industries are different from one to another. However, Despite the variance in complexity and size, all systems have three basic components: inputs, process, and outputs (Lam, A., 2004). 

 The ability to recognize the systems and subsystems of an organization is an important element in all training and development activities. Training and development exist to promote individual and organizational excellence by providing opportunities to develop workplace skills. The design and implementation of effecting training mediation cannot be accomplished without first identifying the various processes operating within the system (Brown, D.R. and Harvey, D., 2021). 

 Salas et al (2012) suggests that; training and development, though primarily concerned with people, is also concerned with technology and processes, or the precise way an organization does business. 

 Key Issues for Training & Development 

 Growth and change are inherent in organizations, they create a plethora of training needs. Learning organizations emphasize the importance of learning at the individual, team, and organizational levels, thereby increasing the likelihood of further developing a competent and competitive workforce (Laird,D. Holton,E.F. Naquin,S., 2003). These changes bring both challenges and opportunities. Following are the key issues for training as evident from surveys that were done on HR executives and HRD managers (Rothwell, W.J., 2005). 

• Aligning training with business strategy 
• Advances in technology 
• Managing talent due to changing demographics
• Quality and improving the training h1nction 
• Legal issues 

 “Training changes uninformed employees into informed employees; training changes unskilled or semiskilled workers into employees who can perform their assigned tasks in the way the organization wants them done; employees become workers who do things "the right way." This "right way" is called a standard and one major function of training is to produce people who do their work "at standard."” (Laird,D. Holton,E.F. Naquin,S., 2003). 

 According to Laird (2003) These are the Steps by which T&D Managers control positions: 

• Step 1. Define the right (or standard) way for performing all the tasks needed by the organization. 
• Step 2. Secure people to perform these tasks. 
• Step 3. Find out how much of the task they can already perform. (What is their "inventory" of the necessary technology?) 
• Step 4. Train them to meet skill gaps—the difference in what they cannot already do and the standard for performing the task. 
• Step 5. Test them to make certain they can perform their assigned tasks to minimum standards. 
• Step 6. Give them the resources necessary to perform their tasks. 

 When people do not know how to do their jobs the right way, there is a need that arises for training. 

 Figure 1.0 Depicts the basic process of a training program according to, Laird (2003) 

 Needs for Training in the hospitality industry 

 

The service nature of the hospitality product sets down how consumption is required to take place. Services are generally described as having three unique attributes-features, specifically, ‘intangibility’, ‘inseparability’ and ‘heterogeneity’ (Lashley and Taylor, 1998; Valachis, 2009). Intangibility refers on how the product may only be experienced or participated in instead of owned. Service Intangibility is a consequence which says that services are intangible and they cannot be felt, smelled, tasted, seen or heard before they are bought and experienced. And production and consumption are synchronized due to the interaction between producer and consumer (Ding, Y. and Keh, H.T., 2017). Heterogeneity means the quality of a service may vary from one service provider to another or may vary for the same service provider at different times of the day or week. (Armistead.1994) coming from a typical service encounter. 

 Highly Significant Training needs in the hospitality industry. 

 Skill gaps 

 Jones and Haven (2005) Summarized Skill gaps according to what several researchers have said as ‘A skill gap is an internal problem. It means that the company requires a certain type of skill and nobody in the organisation currently has that skill. Skill gaps can be solved through recruitment or training’ The same report continues by pointing out that some 14% of employers in their survey felt that a skill gap existed in their organization. This equates broadly with the 19% of smaller firms across the wider tourism sector that made a similar observation. The National Survey of Small Tourism and Hospitality Firms found that almost 70% were satisfied with the skill levels of their employees, with a further 19% dissatisfied. Predictably, bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) and guesthouses were least likely to identify skill gaps, probably as a result of the scale of activity and the ‘domestic’ nature of the service offered, with tour operators and hotels the most likely, at 30% and 27%, respectively. The same study asked employers to identify the skill gaps. 

Unreported and latent skill deficiencies 

Rowley et al. (DfEE, 2000) suggest that these surveys of employer perceptions of skill gaps and shortages can be limited by managers not knowing what it is that they do not know. 

 

Keep and Mayhew (DfEE 1999: 43) summarize a point made by others: ‘Without a more skilled managerial cadre it is hard to envisage how any effort aimed at systemic improvement and upgrading in the strategic managerial capacity of the sector can succeed. The ability of management to analyse, develop coherent long-term plans and offer the practical and strategic leadership needed to promote and manage the transition to a higher quality, higher value-added approach to competition is a prerequisite for creating a world class sector.’ 

Conclusion : The unique nature by which the hospitality product is both supplied and consumed at the same time means that any generalised assertion such as ‘training can improve the quality of the hospitality product’ must be considered with care. In manufacture industries, employee performance failures end up when the products fail to be produced and are rejected. Customers buy only the “perfect” products while never see these failed products and rejects. However, in the hospitality industry, employee performance-related failures are obvious since most of the mistakes are immediately visible to the customer; each failure directly affects guest fulfilment. (Valachis et al 2008) 

Highly significant training areas being skill gaps and, Unreported and latent skill deficiencies, identifying/ assessing the exact training needs under the mentioned areas, and implementation of right training to the employees with a sense of understanding in the limitation for Training and development will be discussed in the next blog. 

References: 

Armistead, C. (1994). The Future of Services Management. London: Kogan Page. 

Brown, D.R. and Harvey, D., (2021). An experiential approach to organization development. Pearson Education. 

Ding, Y. and Keh, H.T., (2017). Consumer reliance on intangible versus tangible attributes in service evaluation: the role of construal level. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(6), pp.848-865. 

Hervani, A.A., Helms, M.M. and Sarkis, J., (2005). Performance measurement for green supply chain management. Benchmarking: An international journal. 

HtF (2001) Skills and Employment Foresight 2001 for the Hospitality Industry. HtF, London. 

Jones, E. and Haven, C., (2005). Tourism SMEs, service quality, and destination competitiveness. CABI. 

Keep,E. and Mayhew,K. DfEE (Department for Education and Employment) (1999) The Leisure Sector. Skills Task Force Research Paper 6. DfEE, London. 

Laird,D. Holton,E.F. Naquin,S., (2003) Approaches To Training And Development. New York : Basic Books 

Lam, A., (2004). Organizational innovation. 

Lashley, C. & Taylor, S. (1998). Hospitality retail operations types and styles in the management of human resources. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 5(3): 153-165. 

Rothwell, W.J., (2005). Beyond Training and Development. pdf. 

Rowley, Gill and Purcell, Kate and Richardson, Mike and Shackleton, Ruth and Howe, Sally and Whiteley, Peter. DfEE (2000) Employer Skill Survey: Case Study Hospitality Sector. DfEE, London. 

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S.I., Kraiger, K. and Smith-Jentsch, K.A., (2012). The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological science in the public interest, 13(2), pp.74-101. 

Thomas, R., Lashley, C., Rowson, B., Xie, G., Jameson, S., Eaglen, A., Lincoln, G. and Parsons, D. (2000) National Survey of Small Tourism and Hospitality Firms: Skills Demand and Training Practices. Centre for the Study of Small Tourism and Hospitality Firms, Leeds. 

Valachis, I., Christou, E., Maroudas, L. and Sigala, M., (2008). Assessment of training quality in hospitality industry: an exploratory model. In 26th EUROCHRIE Congress “Building a Legacy, Living the Dream (Vol. 2020). 

Valachis, I., Christou, E., Sigala, M. and Maroudas, L., (2009). DEVELOPING HUMAN RESOURCES’SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY THROUGH THE DETERMINATION OF QUALITY OF TRAINING PROGRAMS. Tourism and hospitality management, 15(1), pp.61-72.