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Section 2 Chapter 6 Training and Developing Employees To Serve

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Section 2 Chapter 6 Training and Developing Employees To Serve

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CHAPTER 6

Training and Developing

Employees to Serve
HOSPITALITY PRINCIPLE: TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES,
THEN TRAIN THEM SOME MORE

Chapter

The how and why of every operation may be clear as day to you, but it’s clear as mud to a brand new employee.
You wouldn’t believe the number of employees who say “I never could figure out exactly what they wanted me to do.”
They usually say that on their way out the door.
—T. Scott Gross, Positively Outrageous Service

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you should understand: • The principles and methods used by hospitality organizations to
train and develop their employees.
• The importance of training and development to hospitality
organizations. • Methods used by hospitality organizations to measure the
effectiveness of training.

197
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
198 Section 2 The Hospitality Service Staff

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

external training on-the-job training computer-assisted instruction

internal training cross-functional training training at home
mentoring classroom training employee development
coaching simulation
apprenticeship audiovisual training

Heskett, Sasser, and Hart tell the story about a bellman at a Sheraton Hotel who when
confronted with an unusual problem implemented an ingenious solution.1 A departing
guest had locked his car keys in his trunk while checking out. The car was parked in the
middle of the driveway that handled all the arriving and departing traffic and, if not
immediately moved, would bring the entire check-in/check-out process to a halt. The
bellman called for a floor jack, which he had had the foresight to store away nearby, jacked
the car up, and rolled it away from the middle of the driveway. He told the guest he had
called for a locksmith, estimated how long it would take for the locksmith to arrive, and
promised to keep the guest informed as events unfolded. The traffic problem was solved,
the guest’s car problem was promptly addressed, and the guest was spared the
embarrassment of being the cause of everyone else’s delay.
Teaching such resourcefulness to new employees is difficult, but every new employee
in the area learned from the bellman’s example what a Sheraton employee is expected to
do to solve a guest’s problem. The bellman had the big picture: He knew that a creative
solution was expected of him, and he delivered one.
Len Berry and colleagues identified in their extensive research five key factors that
customers use to judge the overall quality of service.2 Of these five, four are directly
related to the ability of the service employee to deliver service in the way the customer
expects, and the fifth, on tangibles, addresses the appearance of the service employee. The
first four factors are reliability (the ability of the organization and its employees to deliver
service consistently, reliably, and accurately), responsiveness (the willingness of the
organization’s employees to provide prompt service and help customers), assurance (the
employee’s knowledge, courtesy, and ability to convey trust), and empathy (the employee’s
willingness to provide caring and individualized attention to each customer).
While the hospitality organization’s service product, environment, and nonhuman
components of the delivery system are clearly important in forming the guest’s impression
of the guest experience, guestologists know that the individual hospitality employee
delivering the service can make or break the organization’s relationship with the guest in
each and every encounter, or moment of truth. Service marketing scholar Mary Jo Bitner
sums up the research on this subject: “First and foremost, customer satisfaction depends
directly and most immediately on the management and monitoring of individual service
encounters.”3 Everyone remembers a truly bad service experience that was caused by an
indifferent, uncaring, discourteous, or ignorant employee. One awful experience can
overshadow the rest of the outstanding experiences that the customer may have had with
the organization. The customer may never return. In addition, that customer may tell
everyone within hearing about the one bad experience, so no one who hears will come
either and, even worse, this customer may create a blog or Web site and describe the bad
experience. Disney estimates that each guest has seventy-four service encounters in a

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Chapter 6 Training and Developing Employees to Serve 199

single visit to its theme parks.4 Disney managers know how important it is to manage every
one of these encounters, by selecting and training the right people to provide the consistent
quality of guest service that customers expect.
The impact of a negative experience on the organization’s reputation can be
devastating. The disappointed guest won’t come back and will spread the bad word.
Excellent hospitality organizations recognize the value of investing time and money on
employee training and development to prevent service disasters. Engineers can design an
efficient service delivery system for a great service product, and the human resources
department can select the right people, but those efforts are not enough. Companies that
consistently deliver high-quality guest experiences also extensively and continuously train
their employees.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING
In the United States alone, roughly $100 billion is spent annually on organizational train-
ing. Although this figure translates to about $800 per employee on average, the best orga-
nizations spend a lot more. The Ritz-Carlton hotel company, for example, provides a
minimum of 310 hours of training for new employees within their first year. They also
pair new employees with mentors to ensure that the former understand how to do their
jobs successfully.5 Overall, they spend 10 percent of their payroll cost on training.6 The
Ritz-Carlton knows the value of ensuring that employees have the ability, skills, and
knowledge to deliver the high-quality service that their customers expect.
Hospitality organizations face the special challenge of training not only in the required
job or task skills; they must also teach the server how to solve inevitable problems crea-
tively and how to interact positively with guests. A car going down the assembly line
doesn’t care if the auto worker has a bad attitude. The customer facing the bartender at
a private club, the front desk agent at a hotel, or the ticket seller at an amusement park
certainly does. Guest service employees must be trained to do the required job task con-
sistently for each guest in real time with a sense of sincere caring, with many people look-
ing over their shoulder. This is a major training task. It goes far beyond the simple
requirements of training someone to mix a martini, check in a guest to the proper hotel
room, or receive money and make change.
We shall describe three exemplary training programs, to show how outstanding organi-
zations train their employees.

Training at Starwood Hotels

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has an extensive portfolio of hotel brands—
Sheraton, Le Méridien, Four Points by Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, Westin,
Element, W Hotels, Aloft Hotels, and St. Regis—and uses a correspondingly extensive
training program to ensure that they deliver the proper service product for each distinctive
brand. For Starwood Hotels, the service product is all about being “on brand,” and so
employees must fully understand what that means.
As in most companies, new Starwood employees receive an orientation. They learn
about the brand of the hotel for which they now work, the history of that specific brand
and Starwood Hotels in general, and something about the entire line of Starwood brands.
This general orientation sets up the next three phases of training, which over roughly the
next two years are designed to build and shape employee attitudes, skills, and behaviors.
These next three phases deliver what Starwood calls service culture training.

The phases are all about teaching employees what it means to be on brand. While
the general training strategy may be universal for all Starwood Hotels, the programs are
customized to each individual brand. The first phase, delivered within the first few
months of employment, lays the foundation. It emphasizes the idea of branding and its
link to customer loyalty. Through classroom content, shared experiences, and storytelling,
new employees learn each brand’s core values. They also learn the brand’s success profile,
which describes what success looks like for an employee of that brand.
The second phase of training, delivered a few months later, emphasizes how the
employee can bring the brand’s core values to life. Again, all the training is aimed at making
every aspect of employee and customer experiences on brand, including specific words
(e.g., employees at Westin are called “associates”; employees at W Hotels are called
“talent”), conversational tone, background music, customer interactions, and so on.
The third phase of the training emphasizes how employees should be “living the
brand.” While the first two phases are delivered mainly through classroom instruction,
the third phase takes place in a variety of non-classroom settings. It includes activities in
pre-shift meetings, e-learning modules, video content, and self-learning exercises.
Overall, Starwood sees training as essential to its success. In their effort to build world-
class brands, Starwood’s management recognizes that all employees need to understand
the unique culture, approach, and attitude associated with the brands for which they
work. They believe that delivering an exceptional service experience unique to each
brand will build customer loyalty to that brand, and ultimately financial success.

Training at Disney
Disney uses an extensive training program to teach new employees how to do their
assigned jobs and how to deal with guests in a manner consistent with guest expectations
about what the Disney experience should be and how employees who deliver it should
act. Visitors to Walt Disney World Resort not only assume that employees will be compe-
tent at the technical aspects of their jobs but also have high expectations about the level of
employee caring, consistency, and enthusiasm. While a street cleaner inside the Magic
Kingdom can quickly learn the mechanics of operating a pickup broom and dustpan,
learning how to do it the Disney way takes more time. The street sweeper is to many
guests the always-handy expert on where everything is, the available extra person to snap
a group photo, or the symbol of continuing reassurance that the park is clean, safe, and
friendly for all. To prepare that person properly for those multiple roles is an essential
training task.
Disney’s innovative Traditions training program is made mandatory for all new employ-
ees from street sweepers to senior management. The program teaches everyone the com-
pany’s history, achievements, quality standards, and philosophy; details the responsibilities
of new cast members in creating the Disney show; and provides a tour of the property. It
becomes the first exposure for new employees to the culture that unites all Disney cast
members in a common bond. Here, they are taught the four parts of the Disney mission
in their order of importance: safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. They also receive an
introduction to company policies and procedures, a summary of recreational and social
benefits available, and an introduction and orientation to each cast member’s new work
area. Above all, and regardless of their job assignments, cast members learn that their fore-
most job requirement is creating happiness in guests. A supervisor or mentor then teaches
the new employee the necessary job skills. The Traditions training is a combination of class-
room experiences, with both instructors and interactive videos at Disney University, which

is later followed by on-the-job training. After a set period of time, the new cast members are
evaluated to ensure that the training provided was sufficient to teach them the Disney way
and their individual job responsibilities.

Wall-to-Wall Training at Scandinavian Airline Services

Other organizations also appreciate the value of including every employee in a training
program. When Jan Carlzon took over the ailing Scandinavian Airline Services (SAS) in
1980, he immediately recognized the deficiencies in the airline’s strategy and in its
employees’ understanding of the airline’s mission. He launched a service quality training
program for all 20,000 employees that eventually cost several million dollars at a time
when SAS was losing $17 million a year. Because it involved training every employee
throughout the airline, this concept became known as wall-to-wall training. Karl Albrecht,
the author of At America’s Service, says, “He [Jan Carlzon] wanted the message [of service
quality importance] presented in its original, compelling, unfiltered, undiminished form
to every SAS employee.”7 Albrecht suggests that this was the first time a major corpora-
tion used a 100 percent training process to help create an organization-wide cultural
change. Every employee, from shop workers to top managers, went through a two-day
workshop entitled The New SAS.
This program was so successful in creating a total organizational enthusiasm for service
excellence that Carlzon initiated a second program in 1983. This follow-up was designed
to teach everyone in the organization how to read the company’s financial statements.
Carlzon believed that if employees could understand these statements, they would better
understand where the revenues came from, where the money went, how much it cost
to run the company, and how much each employee could influence profit. Carlzon said,
“I didn’t think I could get a 1,000 percent improvement, but I knew I could get one percent
from 1,000 smaller things.” The success of these wall-to-wall training efforts at SAS encour-
aged other organizations to train their entire workforce, including British Airways, which
trained all its 37,000 employees.8
Hospitality service providers should be trained not only in the skills necessary to deliver
the service and interaction expected; they should also be taught the company’s cultural
values, practices, strategies, products, and policies. This knowledge helps them figure out
how to fix a problem when a customer is unhappy. Unless they understand the corporate
values and beliefs, they cannot know what the company expects them to do. Because the
guest defines the quality and value of the guest experience, hospitality service providers
should also learn about their customers’ expectations, competitors’ services and strategies,
industry trends and developments, and the general business environment. Even a cab
driver needs to know more than how to drive a car to meet the service expectations of
the rider in the back seat.

Berry’s Five Training Principles

Len Berry recommends that service companies, including hospitality organizations,
should follow five key principles in developing an effective training strategy9:
1. Focus on critical skills and knowledge.
2. Start strong and teach the big picture.
3. Formalize learning as a process.
4. Use multiple learning approaches.
5. Seek continuous improvement.
We shall discuss each of these in turn.

Critical Skills
Berry’s first principle involves identifying the skills that service employees simply must
have. A hospitality organization can identify these critical skills through a systematic anal-
ysis of the service, delivery systems, and staff. They can also determine them by asking
their guests and employees. The guests can tell you what employee skills are related to
their own satisfaction, and employees can be trained to ask the guests what it takes. The
organization can survey regular customers who know the business well. Employees should
become involved in the design of training as they have a pretty good idea of what critical
skills they need for their positions. Ask the best service providers in the organization.
Study the servers who do things well to understand what everyone else needs to learn.
Study what the best do and what they know.

The Big Picture

In an earlier chapter, we stressed the importance of teaching the organization’s culture to
give employees a way to make sense out of their jobs and how they do them. The best orga-
nizations do this consistently and well to show employees the big picture. Teaching the big
picture means teaching employees the organization’s overall values, purposes, and culture,
and how what they do helps the organization succeed. This is what Jan Carlzon did with
SAS, and it paid handsome dividends for this organization. Once he told the employees
what things they did that helped and what they did that hurt the organization, they could
understand for themselves how their performance and skills added to the airline’s success.
New employees in any organization are usually eager to learn the organization’s core
values and what the company is all about, so they can see how their jobs fit into the big
picture. When an employee is later confronted with a problem situation that doesn’t exist
in a handbook or training manual, the core values learned and accepted during training
should lead that employee to do the right thing for the customer. Since so many situations
in services are unplanned and unplannable, teaching the big picture and the culture’s core
values is especially critical. People who are taught the values and beliefs from the first day
are far more likely to make the right choice for the customer and the organization when
the situation calls for both personal judgment and decisive action.

Formalized Learning
Formalizing learning refers to the process of building learning into the job, making learn-
ing mandatory for everyone, and institutionalizing that expectation. Give employees learn-
ing opportunities, and do it on company time. By putting their money where their values
are, the best hospitality organizations send a strong message to employees that learning is
vital to the organization and that everyone must participate.
Gaylord Palms has made a strong commitment to employee learning and linked formal
training programs to the company’s mission and strategic objectives. For example, it set
an objective of promoting from within and designed a curriculum to teach its employees
how to achieve that objective.

Varied Approaches
Because different employees will learn differently, using a variety of learning approaches is
also important. Berry recommends leaving no opportunity unexplored. In addition to tra-
ditional methods, he suggests that organizations sponsor book clubs, send employees out
to observe exceptional organizations in the service industry to benchmark against the best,
and constantly practice the necessary skills through a variety of means.

Continuous Improvement
A commitment to continuous improvement is essential. The initial training found at most
organizations provides the KSAs that enable employees to begin doing their jobs. But
training shouldn’t stop there. The best service organizations and their employees want
continuing employee improvement through on-the-job training and supervision, special
training sessions, video demonstrations, online courses, and the full range of training
methods available to modern organizations.

DEVELOPING A TRAINING PROGRAM

What Do We Need to Improve?
Training should always be preceded by a needs assessment to determine if perceived organi-
zational problems or weaknesses should be addressed by training or by some other strategy.
What do we need to improve? Will training give it to us? For example, a service problem
might be initially identified as a training issue, to be solved by offering servers a short train-
ing session. Upon closer examination, however, the issue might turn out to be a fault in the
nonhuman part of the service delivery system. For example, constant guest complaints
about slow beverage service at a local restaurant might seem at first to require training for
the servers. But maybe the coolers in the beverage service area are too small. Or perhaps
there are simply not enough servers on staff to manage the volume of orders. All the server
training in the world cannot correct a flaw in some other part of the service delivery system.
Needs assessment takes place at three levels: organizational, task, and individual. The
organizational analysis seeks to identify which skills and competencies the organization
needs and whether or not it has them already. If, for example, the organizational analysis
reveals a need for several new restaurant managers in the Boston market and people to fill
that need are not available, the organization would initiate a training program to prepare
either existing employees or new entrants to be restaurant managers in that market.
The second level of analysis is the task. What tasks need to be performed? Are they
being done well, or is training needed? Most training in the hospitality industry is at the
task level, either to prepare new or newly promoted employees to perform the necessary
job tasks or to retrain existing employees when existing task requirements change. At the
third level, that of the individual, the organization reviews the performance of people
doing tasks to determine if they are performing up to job standards. For example, low
customer satisfaction scores may reveal that employees need to be better trained in
customer interaction skills. Once the organization has assessed its needs at these three
levels, it can set up training programs to meet them. Table 6.1 shows examples of training
programs commonly found in the hospitality industry.

Solving the Guest’s Problem

The needs assessment also leads to identifying the objectives of training and learning
goals. If the needs analysis reveals a lack of some important employee skill, the training
objective would be to ensure that each employee needing that specific skill to perform
effectively has it. If, for example, guest comment cards show general dissatisfaction with
the effectiveness of a hotel’s front desk agents in checking guests in and out, the training
objective would be to improve their mastery of the check-in and check-out procedures.
With the objectives known, specific learning goals should be specified. It should be
clear to both the trainer and trainee what is supposed to be learned during the training
process. Continuing the above example, what do front desk agents need to learn in order

to improve their mastery of the check-in and check-out procedures? Depending on the sit-
uation, it could require better customer service skills, or perhaps better knowledge of the
company’s information systems. Once you are clear on your learning goals, it is much
more straightforward to design a training program to accomplish those specific needs.
This is what is ultimately needed for a training program in order to improve employee
job performance.
Guest feedback about service problems or failures should serve as an important trigger
for evaluating relevant parts of the service delivery system and for considering training as
one way to solve the problems. It should concern you if your guests are dissatisfied with
your employees’ performance, whether your needs assessment has revealed a problem or
not. Training may or may not be the answer. Service failure could be a result of strategic
issues (misidentifying the needs of the market), inadequate staffing (providing an insuffi-
cient quantity of staff to deliver services in expected time frames), poor selection (hiring
people without the right skills or capability to learn the job), or delivery service issues
(not having the right equipment to do the job correctly). The environment may cause a
service failure (such as an approaching hurricane or a major earthquake that forces a
resort to evacuate), and a poorly designed service delivery system can lead to poor service
(e.g., the layout of the hotel kitchen and the hotel’s rooms makes it impossible for room
service to deliver food while still hot). Of course, training cannot fix the inadequacies that
led to these failures. However, if you have enough employees to handle the demand, if
your systems are properly designed, if the environment or setting doesn’t interfere, if
employees are ready and willing to perform, and if they have the capability to learn, train-
ing can give them the specific skills they need to provide the desired service quality and
value to the customer.
Effective hospitality organizations constantly measure and monitor the performance
of their staff, systems, and service products to identify problems. Many problems in
delivering the guest experience are caused by the people comprising the delivery system.
If managers learn about these problems quickly, either from surveying guests or
from their own observations, and identify their connection to training issues, they can
quickly institute corrective training to address the issue before other guests have the
same problems.

External Training
Some large organizations can afford internal training departments. Others rely on individ-
ual managers, high-performing employees, and supervisors to provide the training for
both new and existing employees. If companies choose to go outside, they generally turn
to training consultants or independent training organizations. These external training
companies range from small organizations with an expertise and reputation in training
within some specialized area of a particular industry to large multinationals that offer
training programs on just about any skill, area, or topic imaginable.
Universities and colleges are also important sources of training as their faculty mem-
bers frequently have job or industry expertise and the teaching experience and ability to
convey it. Many universities offer night, week-end, or online classes to accommodate
degree-seeking employees who cannot attend classes during the typical workweek. Also
offered are various forms of executive education, including short courses during the sum-
mer, periodic courses over the year, or custom training programs developed for specific
companies. Universities offer a lot of potential options for delivering training to workforce
members wanting to supplement their education and skills. The people teaching knowl-
edge and skills to college students can also teach your employees.

TAB LE 6. 1 Examples of t h e Typ es o f Tr ainin g Pr og rams O ff e red i n t he

H o s p i t al i t y I n d u s t ry

Mandatory training
EEO/diversity training
Orientation
Safety training
Skills-oriented training
Basic skills training
Computer training
Crisis training
Cross-functional training
Language training
Retraining
Specialized skills training
Competency-oriented training
Communications training
Customer service training
Ethics/values training
Remedial/basic education
Team training
Wellness/health training
Managerial training
Change-management training
Cross-cultural training
Leadership training
Performance feedback and management training
© Cengage Learning 2012.

While many companies contract with training organizations that develop and deliver
customized on-site training, others send their employees to more generic, often less
expensive, external programs. If the required training is in a highly specialized area or if
only a few people need it, a company-specific program would probably not be worth the
expenditure, so employees needing training are sent outside to get it. Advanced techni-
ques of financial management, information systems design and use, Web design, and
new marketing strategies are examples of specialized programs frequently offered through
universities and other organizations that provide generic training for the general public.
These programs may lack specific application to the hospitality industry or firm, but on
the plus side they are relatively inexpensive.
Training in even more general topics such as supervision, human relations, and service
orientation is frequently available through these same organizations. Universities offer
similar programs through their executive development and continuing education pro-
grams. These programs can be fairly inexpensive and one or two key employees may
be sent to get important training if producing a specially tailored in-house program
would cost too much. Frequently, trade associations offer programs that focus on topics
of interest to their members, such as working with unions, new purchasing techniques,
sanitation in food-service organizations, and the rules and regulations defined by the
Americans with Disabilities Act. The common benefit of membership in trade associa-
tions is that the organizations can collectively hire an expert consultant, or use someone
from a member organization who has mastered a topic to educate and train others in the
industry. Trade associations also frequently offer certification programs in topic areas of

interest to their members. The Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging
Association, Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the Profes-
sional Convention Management Association, and the Destination Marketing Association
International have all developed training products for their members.

Internal Training
In-house training departments are found in larger hospitality organizations. Every major
company has an internal training unit that provides programs to its employees. Hilton,
Hyatt, Marriott, McDonald’s, Holiday Inn Worldwide, Sheraton Hotels, Darden and
Disney are all multiunit organizations that have internal training departments. Some
companies have even set up their own “universities,” such as The Ritz-Carlton’s Leader-
ship Center, instituted in 2000.10 With courses like Onboarding New Talent … Everything
Matters, The 21st Century Luxury Experience, and It’s All About Leadership, the center sup-
ports the growth and expansion of the company’s products and services and helps provide
training to the company’s employees. The Leadership Center also provides training to
other companies interested in learning about The Ritz-Carlton’s approach to customer
service and employee development. In fact, roughly one third of the participants in the
center’s programs come from outside the company.11

Training Costs
Although some organizations keep all training in-house to preserve organizational security
and culture, the usual determinant of whether to use in-house or outside training is cost.
The number and location of employees who need training and the level of expertise they
need to acquire determine the cost. If only a few employees need highly technical training,
it will be expensive for the organization to deliver it. If the employees are scattered at mul-
tiple locations, the training will cost even more. But if those employees need only basic
skills training, the organization will probably offer it internally. If many employees at a
single location need training, the organization will probably find a way to do its own train-
ing. The high employee turnover that is a basic problem for many hospitality organiza-
tions can influence the decision. An organization of 2,500 employees with an annual
employee turnover rate of 80 percent has the same basic training requirements for new
employees as an organization of 20,000 employees with a 10 percent turnover.
Likewise, the level of expertise that the training must develop has an important impact
on the training cost. If considerable employee expertise will be required, training costs
will be high. Offering 100 training hours to 10 employees who will be responsible for
operating a sophisticated point-of-sale electronic system, like ticket sellers in a theme
park, might cost about as much as offering 5 training hours to 200 employees hired to
work at a fast-food drive-through window.

TRAINING METHODS
The most common training method is on-the-job training. Other common methods are
classroom presentations, simulations, audiovisual programs, home study, and computer-
assisted instruction (see Table 6.2). Training programs deliver their content in varied ways.
Many rely on extensive interpersonal contact, such as coaching and mentoring. Other train-
ing programs use a combination of presentation techniques with increasing emphasis on
Web-based methods, as computers have become more widely available and people more
comfortable with this way of learning. Table 6.2 shows a variety of training methods, rang-
ing from those with high personal contact to those with high reliance on technology and no
or little personal contact. We now discuss the characteristics of each of these programs.

TAB LE 6. 2 D i ff e re n t M e th od s of Em p l oy e e T r ai n i ng

Mentoring A formal relationship between junior and senior colleagues.

The mentor gives advice regarding functioning in the
organization and career development.
Coaching One person who has necessary knowledge instructs other
individuals on a one-to-one or small group basis.
Apprenticeship Trainees spend a set period of time learning a craft or trade
under the guidance of an experienced master.
On-the-job training The employee learns the job by doing. The individual is
placed in the work situation and a supervisor or coworker
instructs the employee on how the job is done directly at
the work station.
Cross-functional training The trainee moves through a series of job assignments
over specific time frames.
Classroom training Content is delivered to trainees using a lecture-based format.
Simulation The employee practices the job in a simulated work
environment.
Audiovisual training Training using video, such as through DVDs or online
content.
Computer-assisted instruction A computer program guides the trainee through a prepro-
grammed training course. The training is conducted on a
computer, often at the schedule of the trainee, and at the
trainee’s desired pace.
Training at home Self-paced and self-directed learning where individuals
learn the material in his or her own time, and away from
the job site.
© Cengage Learning 2012.

Mentoring
Mentoring is a relationship in which an experienced manager is paired up with an indi-
vidual early in the latter’s career or when new to the company. The purpose of the rela-
tionship is for the experienced employee to convey interpersonal, organizational, and
developmental skills. Mentoring can help employees acclimate to a new organization
quicker, reduce stress by providing an efficient way for employees to get help, and allow
employees to better develop their own careers within the company by using the advice of
their more experienced mentors.
Research has shown mentoring to be associated with a number of beneficial outcomes,
including higher job performance, motivation, satisfaction, helping of others, and lower
turnover and stress.12 It is important to point out that while the research shows a number
of statistically significant relationships associated with mentoring, the size of these effects
is modest. Thus, while beneficial, the overall value of mentoring should not be
overestimated.

Coaching
Coaching involves a relationship between an individual (a teacher, supervisor, or trainer)
and either an individual or a team of employees. Coaching requires a strong relationship
between the coach and the individual(s) being trained, but it is not the same as mentor-
ing. Whereas mentoring focuses on providing career advice, coaching focuses on building
skills or competencies.

Coaching requires opportunities for both observation and feedback. Coaches need to
be able to explain appropriate behaviors, articulate why certain actions need to be taken,
provide suggestions to improve performance, and reinforce desired behaviors. Coaching
may be conducted by outside consultants, specialists within the organization, supervisors,
or by particularly skilled peers.

Apprenticeships
An apprenticeship is a training program that combines on-the-job training with related
instruction so that a worker learns how to perform a highly skilled craft or trade. In
exchange for the instruction, the apprentice works for the trainer or training organization
for an agreed period of time. Apprenticeship programs can be run by individual employees,
trade groups, unions, or employer associations.
Apprenticeships are historically and most typically found in construction or related
jobs (e.g., carpenter, electrician, plumbing). In the hospitality industry, though, appren-
ticeships are still common in food-related occupations (e.g., baker, butcher, chef,
pastry chef).
In the United States, apprenticeships need to be certified by the Department of Labor.
Practices vary widely around the world. While apprenticeships are not very common in
the United States, they are a major component of the educational system in Germany
and cover many more occupations than in the United States. Apprenticeships are still
common around the world, and while they share some common elements (i.e., time
spent under the supervision of a master of the given craft), the nature of the programs
varies by country.

On-the-Job Training
One of the best ways to learn something is to actually do it. On-the-job training com-
prises having an experienced employee help a new employee actually do the job. One-
on-one supervised experiences are a typical on-the-job training method. The trainee may
attend a short classroom introduction and then go to a work station, where a supervisor or
trainer can demonstrate, observe, correct, and review the employee performing the
required tasks. Because the skills required to do some jobs are often unique, the only
cost-effective training method to perform them is to put new employees into the actual
job and let them learn the job by doing them in real time, under close supervision.
Hospitality organizations use the on-the-job training technique extensively because
many tasks are best learned by doing, while supervisors or coworkers with more experi-
ence are standing by to assist. Veteran servers help new ones; a new front desk clerk will
often quickly find himself checking guests into the hotel, but with an experienced
employee standing close by to ensure that all procedures are properly followed. Many a
small organization, like Ralph’s Restaurant on the corner, does the same thing. If Ralph
can’t hire someone with the experience he needs for one of the restaurant’s many jobs,
or can’t afford to send a new employee to an external training course, then the most effi-
cient and cost-effective training method is for Ralph to teach the new employee “Ralph’s
Way” of washing dishes, making spaghetti, or serving meals.
If managers are conducting the training, they themselves may benefit from on-the-job
training as the training specialists can coach them while training their employees. Jenny
Lucas, director of education and development for Loews Hotels, says, “Our training man-
agers are out there, watching training being delivered, watching managers in action, doing
spot checks, and giving feedback afterward.”13

New chefs often train

under the watchful eye
and careful guidance of
a master chef.

Image copyright olly, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Besides sometimes being the only way to train an employee in a job with varied and
changing duties, on-the-job training has added advantages. First, employees find out
directly what the job requires because they are actually doing it. There is no question
about how well the training carries over to the actual task, because the trainee is doing
the actual task. Another advantage is that the company is actually getting some productiv-
ity out of new employees, whereas if they were in classrooms, they would not be contrib-
uting to achieving organizational goals.
Of course, on-the-job training has its drawbacks. Because the trainee is actually doing
the job, errors due to lack of experience may directly affect the customer and the organi-
zation’s reputation for service. The impact of poor service delivered by untrained new
employees can be compounded if management does not take its commitment to on-
the-job training seriously. Jerry Newman describes his first day on the job at a cash regis-
ter in a fast-food restaurant.14 At first, a manager stood with him and gave him some
guidance, but once the lunch rush started, the manager disappeared to do other tasks.
Although he had told Jerry “I’ll be here if you need me,” Jerry was left totally on his
own. Customers noticed his poor performance and were not favorably impressed.
On-the-job training can be a very effective way to help employees learn a new job, but
it needs to be carefully planned and implemented. Is the job one that can actually be
learned by doing? Are experienced employees ready, willing, and able to provide the nec-
essary assistance? What are the business- and service-related consequences of having a
new employee learn by doing on the job? In short, learning by doing can be a great way
to learn, but companies that want to preserve their reputation for providing excellent cus-
tomer service do not use it to force new employees to “sink or swim.”

Cross-Functional Training
Cross-functional training enlarges the workforce’s capabilities to do different jobs.
Gaylord’s Opryland Hotel cross-trains its front desk personnel and telephone-reservation

agents so that each can help out the other. The front desk often needs help when many
people wish to check in or check out within a short period of time. The hotel has set up a
separate registration desk in the lobby, and when the lines at the front desk begin to reach
unacceptable levels, these cross-trained agents are called to the separate desk to help serve
guests. Some hotels cross-train employees from many departments on how to provide ban-
quet service. On banquet days, current employees can be temporarily redistributed rather
than hiring more employees. Since all hospitality organizations have similar variability in
their demand patterns, cross-functional training is often necessary to handle the sudden
surge in guests at different points in the service delivery system. At the same time, it pro-
vides task variety and higher interest levels for employees, which has significant benefits in
employee motivation and morale. Cross-functional training is often a win-win-win for
guests, hospitality organizations, and employees.

Classroom Training
Another common training method is training in a classroom environment. Classroom
training can follow a variety of formats. The most usual is the lecture presentation. A
knowledgeable expert speaks to employees so that they will learn the necessary skill or
knowledge in the available lecture time. This listen-and-learn approach is based on the
assumption that an expert can train the uninformed by speaking to them. That this
assumption has been questioned by research on how people actually learn doesn’t seem
to deter its continued use. University teachers and students alike know that not everyone
listens and not everyone can learn by listening.
Nonetheless, the method has advantages: It is inexpensive, time efficient, and to the
point. If a top performer in the company stands up and tells you what she knows, she
may not feel the need to develop elaborate visual aids, instructional screens, or anything
else that takes time and money to produce. She and the company may assume that since
she has been there, done that, and done it well, she is obviously worth listening to and
will have great credibility with employees. Most of the time, these assumptions prove
accurate. This strategy should be combined with on-the-job training and mentoring to
help reinforce the important points made in the classroom presentation.
Another basic classroom technique is the interactive case study. Here, the organization
provides learners with case material for discussion. The material may be related to the
skill they need to learn, or it may be material to teach the more general skills of decision
making or problem solving. This technique requires a skilled facilitator, to keep the dis-
cussion focused and the learners engaged.
More recently, with the increasing organizational emphasis on teams and leadership,
team-based training has become popular. Leaderless groups may be given a problem to
solve or an issue to address and asked to form collaborative problem-solving teams to
tackle it. People learn to work together, but they also learn about discovering and sharing
the tremendous amount of knowledge that often exists within a team. Smart managers
believe in training their people to take advantage of the wisdom of teams; other managers
never discover their value.
The modern approach to classroom learning emphasizes learner involvement and fre-
quently uses a mixture of educational formats to reach as many types of learners as possi-
ble. While some can learn from listening or watching, others can learn only by doing.
Those facilitating classroom experiences mix short lectures or videos with case or problem
discussions with role playing to engage and retain active learner interest.

Classroom learning pro-

vides an efficient means
to instruct a large num-
ber of employees.

Image copyright VladKol, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Simulation
While learning by doing is often the most effective way to train new employees in certain
areas, the consequences of failure may be too great or expensive to allow the employee to
fail in real time with real guests and equipment. Sometimes, employees should learn by
practicing a task in a controlled and safe environment, a simulation.
Airlines provide the clearest example. They use sophisticated flight simulators to teach
their pilots how to fly different airplanes into different airports and how to prepare for
emergency situations. They create a virtual airplane with all the controls, physical layout
of a cockpit, and simulated motions so that pilots flying the simulator feel like they really
are flying an aircraft. You do not want to use on-the-job, real-time training to teach a pilot
what to do if two of the airplane’s four engines fail or if the airplane flies into a flock of
seagulls and has to ditch in New York’s Hudson River!
Simulation can be used in a variety of settings. Some hotel companies use employees
to act as guests with a complaint in a mock check-in scenario. Often based on real experi-
ences at the hotel, the simulation lets the new employee learn by doing without the risk of
mishandling a real situation and losing a real guest’s business. One luxury hotel chain
uses a simulation for its new bartenders. A preset number of orders come in, and the
new bartender has to make the drinks in precise proportions within a certain length of
time. To help prepare everyone for the real opening night, new restaurants will often
have a mock opening, with chefs making meals and servers taking orders from each other
or from local dignitaries who are served a free meal.
Success in a simulation does not automatically mean success in a real situation. And
simulations can be a very expensive way to train employees, even if they are not as sophis-
ticated as flight simulators. But in situations where employees need hands-on experience
to truly learn how to do their jobs and service failures are costly to risk in real time, simu-
lations can be an effective way to teach employees the skills they need.

Learning in small groups

can help develop both
skills and the ability to
work in teams.

Image copyright Yuri Arcurs, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Simulations provide a
safe way for airline pilots
to practice their skills
without the risk of
Image copyright Jordan Tan, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

harming guests.

Audiovisual Training
Another major training technique involves using videos, either through DVDs or delivered
on-line, collectively referred to as audiovisual training. Audiovisual training is fre-
quently used in conjunction with a live presentation as a way to bring in new material
beyond the expertise of the classroom presenter or to add variety to the presentation. For
many hospitality organizations, videos are a cost-effective strategy. A centralized training

department can make or buy video presentations and then ship them to individual units,
all over the world if need be, or host them on a Web site. Smaller, independent hospitality
organizations can obtain a wealth of video instruction through either commercial retailers
or their trade associations. Larger organizations often create their own.
Starwood Hotels uses DVD videos to supplement many aspects of its various training
modules. Obviously, having business leaders from the entire company share their experi-
ences with every new employee would be prohibitively costly and time consuming, so
Starwood uses a DVD video presentation to provide what it calls Lessons from Leadership.
The DVD video includes testimonials and examples from leaders throughout the com-
pany—from the corporate level (the CEO), to the different business units, to the different
divisions, to property leaders—about what the service culture means to them. The use of
these realistic on-the-job examples from company leaders helps teach and inspire new
employees to deliver the appropriate customer service experience.
In view of the traditionally high turnover in the hotel industry and the constant need to
train new employees, an instantly available video is useful and practical. New employees
can watch it by themselves anytime and learn the basics of how, for example, housekeeping
is to be performed in a W Hotel. Darden’s restaurants uses a series of videos to educate
new employees about its various restaurant brands, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden,
Seasons 52, and Bahama Breeze. New servers learn how the different menu items are to
be prepared and served, how guests are to be greeted, and how the waitstaff are supposed
to do their job. Darden’s goal for its standardized training is to teach its people to provide
the same high-quality restaurant experience in every facility throughout the entire chain.
Indeed, one of video training’s many advantages is to standardize the presentation of
the material so that everyone learns from the same source of information and learns how
to do the required tasks in the same way. Being able to offer the same high-quality experi-
ence every time in every location is quite important for a multi-unit operation like a chain,
franchised restaurant, or branded hotel where guests have standardized expectations about
what the organization is supposed to do, how it provides its service, and what it looks like.
DVD and online videos are also relatively cost effective when organizational locations are
numerous and widely dispersed. The cost and logistics to send a corporate trainer to every
location of a brand every time a new employee is hired would be prohibitive, but sending
training DVD videos to every part of the world or providing access to streaming video
through the Web is easy. A well-designed and well-produced video can do an excellent job
of holding the new employee’s attention, portraying outstanding role models of expected
service behavior and stressing important points. With professional actors or star employees
in a video showing the correct means of providing guest service, a new employee can see far
more easily what the expected behavior is than if an instructor spoke for several hours.
Videos can also overcome language barriers. Homewood Suites created a training
video to meet the needs of its multilingual housekeeping staff. The videos demonstrate
procedures, but no words are used.15 Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words when it
comes to training in the highly diverse hospitality industry.
The making of videos can itself be used as a training technique. The organization can
call upon its best employees in the training video’s subject area and ask them to create
and produce the video. Such a home-made video lets the participants see that the organi-
zation appreciates the quality of their job performance, gives them ownership in the train-
ing role, and provides live role models for the new employees to follow. Making a video is
an enjoyable and status-enhancing recognition reward for service jobs well done, though it
takes time away from other activities.

Streaming video, video conferencing, and Webinars (seminars conducted via the
World Wide Web) are often used to conduct training simultaneously in multiple loca-
tions. Live transmissions allow participants from around the world to ask questions and
interact with the instructor. Also, the content can be saved and downloaded as desired
by others who need the training but could not participate in the live session.
The cost of broadcasting live training sessions to remote employees is declining
rapidly. Once the company has acquired the technology to deliver this sort of training,
the incremental cost of additional training sessions can be minimal. After the technol-
ogy is in place, companies can have their own experts share their knowledge with the
entire company, and both present and future employees can learn from the content.
The increasing availability of video conference and teleconference facilities, advances
in Internet technology, and the escalating costs of sending people to central training
locations are making streamed and live video presentations increasingly desirable
training options, especially when employees and service units are geographically
dispersed. DVDs and videos come quite close to providing the just-in-time education
and training that is needed in industries like hospitality where organizational requi-
rements, guest expectations, available technologies, and employees are diverse and
change rapidly.
Of course, DVDs and on demand, streaming video have limitations. The key issue is
the extent to which managers and new employees take them seriously. Jerry Newman
describes one example of being “trained” in the fast-food industry. He was sent into a
back closet with a video player and told to come out after he had watched a training
video. No one emphasized that the video was important; no one checked to see if Jerry
had learned anything; no one even checked to be sure he watched the video. It was simply
something that “had to get done” to satisfy a corporate policy. As is true of all forms of
training, videos will work only if management is committed to their use and if trainees
take them seriously.

Computer-Assisted Instruction
As with all other areas of business, technology has changed the way training can be
delivered. Computer-assisted Instruction, such as with Webinars and streaming
video, can allow interactions between instructor and learners across the world. Exper-
tise can be delivered anytime, anyplace, to anyone who is online. These advances are
expanding the reach of much classroom training and are even blurring the distinctions
between classroom and at-home training. Computers can help with on-the-job training,
as technology can monitor an employee’s speed on check-ins, accuracy in placing
orders, and so forth. For example, Choice Hotels has a training initiative called
ResCoach. Distributed by CD, the program is a self-paced course that teaches the
basics of telephone etiquette and reservations selling. This training is then followed up
with on-site workshops, and its effectiveness is tested through three random phone calls
each month to every hotel property.16
Hyatt has created its own Hyatt Leadership Network, which makes hundreds of train-
ing programs available to any Hyatt employee anywhere and anytime. If a manager needs
refresher training on how to conduct a performance appraisal, there is a program for
that. If a new property management system requires employee training on its use, there
is a program for that too. The network contains so many training programs that some
managers now assign specific topics as part of an employee’s improvement plan to over-
come weaknesses identified in a performance review.

The newer technologies mean that colleges and universities no longer have a monopoly
on education in their geographical areas. These developments are a boon to the hospitality
industry, as many organizations are multi-unit and geographically dispersed. Getting their
people to an educational center or a centralized training program is costly, difficult, and
sometimes impossible. Getting these same people to log onto the Internet is compara-
tively easy, and the amount of information, knowledge, and training they can obtain
through this medium is enormous. Internet capabilities make just-in-time education a
reality as the people needing training can log on to the appropriate site at exactly the
time they need it.

Training at Home
Self-study is another major training method, and training at home can prove efficient
and effective for both employees and organizations. Here, a trade association or private
training organization produces materials that people can receive in their homes by mail
or online and study at their own learning pace. When they have gone through the materi-
als, they take an exam online, at home, or at a central location often with a proctor. The
American Hotel and Lodging Association uses self-study material extensively for pro-
grams leading to industry-recognized certification and diplomas. The self-study is ideally
backed up with classroom experience, but the geographic dispersion of hotels makes offer-
ing classes difficult except in cities where a lot of hotels are clustered. Universities offer
online courses, allowing people to take courses on their own time and often at their own
pace. Self-study courses work well in the hospitality industry; they provide skill and
knowledge training in topics unique to the hotel business at times and locations conve-
nient for employees—after hours and at home.

Further Approaches to Training

Training can be very specific or somewhat general. The specific is typically used for new
entrants who must quickly start performing a job skill well to justify their salary. Conse-
quently, the major training costs tend to be for skills training. It can cover a wide variety
of topics, ranging from literacy to complex electronic systems. According to the American
Management Association, companies report that over one-third of applicants tested by
major U.S. companies lacked sufficient reading and math skills to do the job they sought.
Some restaurateurs even find it necessary to teach employees basic hygiene, including
teaching food handlers how to wash their hands.
Large hotels may need to provide training just to teach new employees to know their
way around. The Wynn hotel and resort complex in Las Vegas has a novel training pro-
gram for new employees. The resort is so large—with dozens of places to eat, an extensive
casino environment, many shops, a nightclub, a theatre, and so on—that new employees
need the basic skill of knowing to their way around the property. To help acquaint them
with the entire facility, they are asked to participate in a scavenger hunt, searching the
property for artwork, items, landmarks, and so forth, and in the process they learn about
the entire resort.
There are other types of training that companies offer for specific outcomes. For exam-
ple, retraining is often made available to employees who have burned out, have become
unable to perform their current jobs because of technological developments, or whose
jobs have been eliminated. Disney has operated a retraining program for many years that
tries to sprinkle “Pixie Dust” on employees who have become disenchanted with their

present jobs or have otherwise lost their enthusiasm. In the program, it retrains such
employees for new jobs that might help them recapture their enthusiasm or rethink
why they are unhappy with their existing jobs, to regain the spirit of doing it the way the
guests expect.
To encourage employees to be more effective and responsive to guests, outstanding
hospitality organizations offer training in special competencies, such as working as a team,
creative problem solving, communications, relationships, leadership, and guest service ori-
entation. These organizations realize that having the job skills is only part of the service
requirement for their employees.
Companies have learned that diversity training, attitudinal training, and other efforts to
change how people look at other people can have significant payoffs in improving the way
their service employees interact with each other and with the many types of guests. There
are more than fifty languages spoken by employees at the Waldorf Astoria in New York
City, and employees come from an even greater number of different cultural back-
grounds. In today’s diverse environment, companies need to train employees in how to
get along with and understand each other and their guests.

The Message: Guest Service

One benefit of training is to remind the employees of what management thinks is
important. Sending people to a training program that focuses attention on service
sends a powerful message to all employees that management cares enough about both
its commitment to service and its employees to invest time and money in its people to
improve service quality. Any training tends to make employees feel more positively
about the topic covered because they recognize the training as a visible show of orga-
nizational commitment to improve the area.

CHALLENGES AND PITFALLS OF TRAINING

While training can help a company prepare its employees to provide excellent service,
problems often arise. Common causes are a failure to establish training objectives, mea-
sure results, and analyze training costs and benefits.

Know Your Training Objectives

Training programs can run into trouble if the precise nature and objective of the train-
ing are unknown or imperfectly defined, or if the expected outcome of the training is
hard to define or measure. Such programs are hard to justify or defend when senior
management reviews the training budgets. Typical examples of areas in which the effec-
tiveness of training is difficult to measure are human relations and supervisory skills. Since
these terms are vague and situationally defined, knowing what and how much training
to offer to improve trainees in these areas and how to measure results is difficult.
Hospitality organizations quite naturally want their employees to have a service orienta-
tion, but the concept is as hard to define as it is to know whether the training has
resulted in such an outcome. Such training is important, without question. What
exactly that training should be and how to measure its effectiveness are much more dif-
ficult to determine.

Measuring Training Effectiveness

If you don’t know what your training is or is not accomplishing, you cannot know whether
it is making your organization more effective. Four basic measurement methods are avail-
able to assess training’s effectiveness.17 These approaches range in complexity, expense,
and accuracy.

Participant Feedback
The easiest, cheapest, and most commonly used measure of assessing training effective-
ness is to simply ask the participants what they think about it. They fill out a questionnaire
based on general evaluation criteria and respond to questions such as “How valuable
was this training?”. Although asking such questions has merit, responses to these
questionnaires tend to reflect the entertainment value of the training rather than its effec-
tiveness. Such evaluations, therefore, have relatively little usefulness for accurate
program evaluation. They tell you if the participants enjoyed the training, but not much
more.

Content Mastery
Another way to assess a training program is to test participants for content mastery. After
all, if the point of the training was to learn a specific skill, competency, or content area, it
should be possible to design a test to determine whether participants learned what they
were supposed to learn. These measures can be as simple as paper-and-pencil tests similar
to academic exams or as elaborate as on-the-job demonstrations of how well participants
mastered the skill.
Of course, doing well on a test does not mean that the employee will retain that knowl-
edge or use it on the job. Such evaluations also run the risk of having instructors “teach to
the test,” essentially training people how to do well on the final exam and not necessarily
how to be better performing employees.

Behavioral Change
A more advanced level of training evaluation is to assess the behavioral change in the par-
ticipant. Many people quickly forget what they learn in classroom settings, especially if
they don’t apply it. “Use it or lose it,” as the saying goes. College students often say they
learn a subject well enough to get through the final exam and then flush all the informa-
tion out of their brains. To be effective in any meaningful way, training must be followed
by real and lasting behavioral changes when the employee returns to the job. If the train-
ing is well designed, and connected to mastering specific service-related behaviors that are
reinforced by positive results on the job, then positive, measurable behavioral change
should result.
One function of supervisors is to evaluate the behaviors of their subordinates. If the
training affects subordinate behaviors, then the training results should be included in
supervisory evaluations. Supervisors can observe employee behaviors and assess the extent
to which the desired behaviors are exhibited. Companies can also use mystery shoppers to
find out what behaviors their employees exhibit when interacting with guests. Feedback
from actual customers concerning employee behavior is also a valuable way to learn if
the training was effective.

Organizational Performance
The ultimate and most sophisticated level of evaluating training effectiveness is to watch
what happens to the measures of overall organizational performance. The training may
be well received, the employees may remember most of it upon completion, and they
may continue to use it on the job, but the training is useless unless it eventually contri-
butes to overall organizational effectiveness. To maintain the organization’s competitive
position, the training objectives, and the training program require constant monitoring to
make sure they continue to prepare employees to provide the level of service expected by
an ever-changing customer.
The problem with this sort of training evaluation is that it is difficult to know precisely
how organizational results change due to a specific training program. If booking agents
receive training and then room occupancy increases, is this increase a result of the training
or changes in the economy? If front desk agents receive customer service training and
then scores on measures of customer satisfaction improve, how confidently can the com-
pany attribute the gain to the training program? Knowing the exact effects of training on
organization-level outcomes is very difficult.
Even so, organizations must try. One way to approach this is to measure changes in key
outcomes, like the number of guest complaints before and after training or customer satis-
faction ratings. Or an organization could use paid mystery shoppers to sample the level of
service before and after the training. The point of any such technique is to measure the
value added by training. With no “before” measurement, the organization has little way to
know if the measurement after the training represents any improvement. Here, larger orga-
nizations have an advantage as they can use people from different parts of their organization
to test different types of training and statistically determine whether or not one training type
is more effective than another in terms of reducing guest complaints or increasing positive
comments. Another strategy might be for the organization to survey the attitudes of its own
employees toward guests both before and after the training. Since there is a positive rela-
tionship between guest and employee attitudes, measuring employee attitudes can indicate
how your guests will perceive the service experience before and after training.
While measuring the impact of training on the organization as a whole is quite chal-
lenging, all training programs should nonetheless be implemented with the goal of
increasing organizational effectiveness. Training should help make your employees more
effective, which should ultimately result in greater customer satisfaction, greater market
share, higher profits, and other key results.

Getting Good Value from Training

Training programs have obvious direct costs, but they involve indirect or opportunity costs
as well; all the time that trainees and instructors spend away from their regular jobs costs
money. Training is too expensive for the organization to train everybody in everything, so
it must try to get the best value for its money by using those training programs that give the
greatest positive results for the training dollar expended. Too many organizations fall victim
to consultants selling programs of unproven usefulness and value. Organizations should
make the effort to ascertain the value of each training program, and they should assess if
each training program provides the desired results and greater guest satisfaction.

When a Great Training Program Can Hurt You

Sometimes, even a great training program can have negative results. Some companies find
hiring trained employees away from competitors is easier and less expensive than

developing their own training programs. For example, employees from The Ritz-Carlton
are very marketable, as competing luxury hotels know that these employees have been
given excellent preparation and training in their jobs. Similarly, one chain of Japanese
steak houses spends almost no money on training its chefs; instead, the owners travel to
competing restaurants and try to find chefs who are already excellent at what they do.
This restaurant chain finds that providing higher pay to attract another organization’s
experienced chefs is more cost effective than training new chefs and paying them until
they become as proficient as desired. The same sort of “hunting” or “poaching” of
employees occurs in many sectors of the service industry, including casino dealers, restau-
rant servers, and tour guides.
The Ritz-Carlton knows that it risks losing its investment in well-trained employees. Its
strategy is to not only provide exceptional training on how to deliver the top-level service
in which it takes pride but also to select employees who find their fit into The Ritz-
Carlton culture to be so strong that they will stay. The Ritz-Carlton also knows that
showing employees opportunities for growth in the company is another way to help retain
their highly trained employees. No matter what retention strategies a company uses, the
fact remains that it is not only the guests who can recognize exceptional training. Compe-
titors can see it too, and so the risks associated with providing such training should be
kept in mind.

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT
Norman Brinker of Chili’s said, “People either shrivel or grow. Commit to helping peo-
ple help themselves.”18 Walt Disney said, “Get in. Be part of it and then move up.”19
CEOs of the best hospitality organizations agree. They provide many opportunities for
employees to grow and develop, and they give employees the opportunity to work their
way up through their individual efforts. Employee growth can be facilitated by means of
the many techniques covered in this chapter. Organizations should make it possible for
employees with ambition, ability, and a willingness to expend the effort to rise as high
as they want to. Career paths should be made available and visible. The current leaders
of many hospitality organizations took advantage of the educational opportunities
and the promotional paths available and worked their way to the top. When each
entry-level employee can see the same possibility, it provides a general feeling of
opportunity for all. The desire to learn, the encouragement of learning, and the
assumption that learning can lead to advancement should be an important part of the
organization’s culture.
Employee development involves a combination of work experience, education, and
training. Training typically focuses on teaching people how to do the new jobs for
which they have been hired or to overcome deficiencies they may have in performing
their current jobs. Employee development, on the other hand, is typically focused on
getting people ready for their future. Training tends to look at the present to identify
and correct employee deficiencies in performing the job today. Development looks for-
ward to identify the skills, competencies, and areas of knowledge that the employee will
need in order to be successful tomorrow. One problem with employee development is
that knowing exactly what the future will bring is impossible. Therefore, employee
development programs tend to emphasize more general managerial, problem-solving,
and leadership skills. Measuring these general development programs and evaluating
their effectiveness is difficult.

Career Paths and the Right Experience

Preparing for Organizational Needs

In spite of the challenges in predicting what the future will bring, organizations need to
prepare for how they will meet it. Many companies plan to grow and they need to have
people who are ready to rise to higher-level positions as that expansion occurs. Current
expansion in China and India, for example, will see the opening of thousands of new
hotels over the next twenty years. These hotels will need general managers, executive
teams, trainers, managers, supervisors, and staff. You cannot prepare for this sort of
expansion without giving careful consideration to where the people will come from and
what KSAs they will need in order to perform well in those positions.
Companies often want employees to follow certain preferred career paths that will
effectively prepare them to move up into future assignments. For example, some hotel
chains require their employees to have a full range of experiences, in the front-of-house,
back-of-house, marketing, sales, food and beverage, and rooms divisions, before they can
be considered for general manager positions. Ensuring that these experiences are provided
for potential managers in a chain with dozens of hotels takes careful planning and career
tracking of employees.
The most effective organizations know that they cannot simply promote someone from
a functional task into a management position and hope for the best. Training must be
designed to help newly promoted managers make the transition, but the employee must
already possess at least some of the necessary knowledge and skills that turning a “super
doer” into a supervisor will require.

Giving Employees the Chance to Advance

Employees tend to believe that the longer a person is with a company, the more that per-
son is worth to the company. Many organizations support that belief by celebrating anni-
versary dates with parties and pins to show that the organization recognizes and
appreciates the employee’s commitment to the organization.
However, pins and parties are not enough. The outstanding service organizations
recognize that most, but not always all, individuals’ need for personal growth and devel-
opment must also be satisfied in well-designed career development paths. The hotel
housekeeper should be able to see a path upward through the organization that can be
successfully traveled with hard work, dedication, and effort. Too many organizations
typecast their employees, and these people know that no one expects them to go very
far. Indeed, some employees lack the ability, training, or desire to move up and are sat-
isfied with their present positions. Trying to convince a successful bellman at a resort
hotel to abandon his tip money and move up as front desk manager is a tough sell
because many bellmen are not willing to give up their higher income (much of it in
tips) for the lower salary of an entry-level manager with only the hope of long-term
career growth prospects.
On the other hand, very few people picture themselves doing in the far future the same
thing they are doing today. Humans have a need to grow and develop. People who are
helping the organization succeed today should also be getting prepared to help it succeed
in the future, and most of them want to. The outstanding organizations provide
career paths with development support that give talented people the opportunity to realize
their dreams.

The opportunity is symbolically important, even if employees don’t choose to take it.
For example, the Gaylord Palms Resort sets as a goal to get 60 percent of its leadership
from internal promotions. To do so, it offers three levels of leadership training. The first
and most basic level is offered to all its employees (STARS). The second is for individuals
who have been promoted into leadership positions and is designed to give them the tools
and skills to help them be effective in their new roles. The third level, for those in posi-
tions above entry leadership, provides advanced training in the core processes and proce-
dures needed to operate the hotel, with a special emphasis on the finance and people sides
of the business.20 Even those Gaylord employees who do not enter the leadership pro-
gram appreciate the fact that their organization makes the opportunity available to any
who aspire to lead.

Education
While experience and in-house training are clearly valuable in the preparation for some
tasks, certain jobs require formal education. For example, knowledge of accounting,
finance, human resources, information systems, marketing, and organizational behavior
is necessary for taking on many managerial roles in modern businesses. Chefs are often
required to have formalized instruction. Academics, such as the authors of this book,
strongly believe that formalized education can help train people to perform well in new
areas, think critically, and communicate more effectively. These skills, available primarily
through formal education, may be the best way to prepare today’s employee for the
unknown challenges of tomorrow’s competitive environment. Some companies make
sure to provide opportunities for employees to get the education that they need to grow
and develop within the organization.

Tuition Refunds
A good example of how to provide formal education is the traditional employee tuition-
refund policy that many organizations use to encourage employee development. Compa-
nies may pay tuition in advance for certain programs, or they may reimburse employees
upon the successful completion of a course. Of course, the providing of such programs
needs to be thought out in advance. Will employees have to reimburse the company for
education payments if they leave the company within a certain length of time? What is suc-
cessful completion of a course? A? A or B? Not failing? And what courses should employ-
ees be allowed to take?
Companies may want to reimburse only for courses directly related to the employee’s
existing job. This limitation controls the potential tuition expense and makes it more
likely that the organization will receive some direct business value for the expense. On
the other hand, it might be better for both the company and the employees if the company
pays for any course regardless of field. Doing so expands the total pool of knowledge
available to the organization. Consider what could happen if a group of people who are
studying different topics in different majors are brought together in a quality circle or
problem-solving group session to work on an organizational matter. A variety of learning
experiences expands the creative potential of both the employees and the organization
and, therefore, increases the possibility of finding new and innovative ways to perform
existing jobs and prepare for the future.

Supporting General Education

Supporting any legitimate employee effort to improve, grow, and learn is in the employ-
er’s interest. Such support lets employees know that the organization values their potential
as much as it values their current contributions. Even more important is employee

awareness that the company supports a learning environment. An organization that

actively promotes learning of all kinds sends a powerful message to its employees that it
believes the only way it will stay competitive is to learn continuously. These learning
organizations promote the active seeking of new knowledge that not only benefits the indi-
vidual but the entire organization by building its total pool of knowledge. No matter
how irrelevant the material may seem, the creative employee will use it to connect to orga-
nizational needs.
The organization will eventually benefit from whatever creativity the educational expe-
rience spurred and from the increased loyalty and feeling of support that any employee
gets from working for an organization that supports employee learning. Forward-looking
organizations understand that most of their profits in ten years will come from products
or services they don’t even know about today. Restricting educational reimbursement pro-
grams to those courses the organization thinks are important today may be as erroneous
as trying to predict which products will be around ten years from now.
On the other hand, companies are in business to make money, and the present
needs of the business must often be put ahead of the employee’s needs for long-term
growth and development, important though they may be. Obviously, not all employers
can afford to let all employees take time off for tuition-paid courses, nor can many
employers even pay partial subsidies for classes taken on an employee’s own time. In
difficult economic periods, companies may have to worry more about which employees
to lay off than about funding coursework that may have some return in the future.
Employee development, like any business cost, must be considered in the context of
the broader business picture. While supporting employee growth needs is desirable
and beneficial, business needs must come first if the organization hopes to survive in
the long run.

The Competition Is Watching

While paying attention to immediate business needs is critically important, many organi-
zations are too short-sighted and don’t offer any development programs. Their employees
may feel permanently stuck where they are and, as a result, may feel that the only path to
career advancement lies in opportunities outside their present company. Some organiza-
tions seem to think that keeping their best service employees at the guest-contact level is
smart. Their employees are likely targets for competitors, who seek out stuck people and
invite them to join an opportunity to grow and develop.

At Outback
A good example of an organization that provides advancement opportunities at the mana-
gerial level is Outback Steakhouses. The company starts by recruiting the best restaurant
operators it can find. Then, it offers them something most corporate restaurants do not: a
chance to participate financially in their own restaurant. Many restaurant operators share
a common dream of running their own restaurant. They will tell you that they will work
for someone else only until they can save up enough money to buy their own. Outback
has recognized this dream and has invited the best operators to run Outback restaurants
with an ownership interest. This part-ownership gives them a direct payoff for their ability
to run their restaurants well through sharing in the profits that they help to generate. It is
a true win-win for both Outback and the operator. Outback gains excellent restaurant
operators, and for a relatively small financial commitment, the operators gain an equity
interest in an excellent restaurant.

They Want Your Best

At least some of your competitors will always seek to hire your best people. Scott Gross
is out in your restaurant or resort right now, handing his business card to your
best employees. Ignoring the needs of the employee to grow and develop may be a
money-saving short-run strategy, but it will be a long-run expense. Not giving employ-
ees opportunities to grow means that the hospitality organization itself may not grow
and develop either. The best employees you need for your future can always find
opportunities elsewhere to use their talents if you don’t give them the chance. The key
idea behind organization development is that everyone must continue to grow and
develop. Skill and knowledge development is a continuous process. It must be ongoing
to meet the ongoing changes in the guest’s expectations. It is a never-ending journey.

1. Teach employees not only job-related skills but also interpersonal skills and creative LESSONS LEARNED
problem-solving techniques.
2. Do not train just to do training; know what outcomes you expect from your training
dollars, and measure your training results to be sure you get them.
3. Before training people, check the delivery system technology; the problem may lie
there.
4. Develop your people for your organization’s future.
5. Do more than just believe in your people; champion their training and development.
6. Reward behaviors learned through training to keep them alive.

1. Virtually all organizations give their employees some training. REVIEW QUESTIONS

A. “Training frontline employees is more important to hospitality organizations

than to manufacturing organizations, because hospitality employees are dealing
with people, not widgets.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss.
B. How can organizations try to find out if the training they provided was effec-
tive? Can they ever be sure?
2. This chapter presents Berry’s five principles of training. How would you set up a
training program to apply these principles to restaurant servers?
3. How should a training program for fine dining and casual dining waitstaff be
different?
4. The chapter presents several types of training. Match several of those training types to
employee types and job types. For example, which techniques described in the chapter
might be most effective with restaurant servers? Ride operators at a theme park?
Agents at an information booth on a cruise ship?
A. How do you like to be trained or instructed? Which method or methods work
best for you, and why?
B. If the class shares responses to that last question, how do you account for the
differences among students?

C. How does all that relate to managing the guest experience in hospitality
organizations?
5. What does it mean to develop employees anyway? Why is it particularly important to
develop employees in hospitality organizations?
6. Some types of hospitality organizations typically experience (and accept) a high rate
of entry-level employee turnover. Do you think these organizations should develop their
entry-level employees to reduce turnover? Or would they simply be spending money to
develop employees who will be moving on anyway, possibly to competitors?

ACTIVITIES 1. Interview three friends who have held jobs. Find out which of the chapter’s training
methods were used to train them. To what extent were any of your friends “devel-
oped” as well?
2. Divide into groups. For the group members who have held jobs, make a list of the dif-
ferent training methods that their organizations used. How are they similar to or dif-
ferent from the methods described in the text?
3. The next few times you visit a service provider, take particular notice of your servers.
Although you did not see the training they received, do they seem to be conforming to
some training and doing the job as it was designed to be done? If not, where are they
going wrong, and why?
4. Interview four employees at a restaurant or hotel to discuss their training. Report your
findings to the class.

ETHICS IN BUSINESS In service jobs, training often involves in some ways “manipulating” the customer.
This could be training a service worker how to calm down an angry customer, or
might go as far as how to manipulate a customer to purchase a product even if
the customer may not really need it. Ethically, when does this sort of training go
too far? Servers can be trained to perform certain actions in order to increase tips.
This may not improve the level of service, but creates subtle changes that research
has shown have led to larger tip sizes. Is this appropriate? Salespeople can be
trained to identify psychological characteristics of a potential customer and make a
sales pitch in a way that evidence suggests is more likely to get that customer to
agree to a purchase. Some employees are trained in high pressure sales techniques,
based on the evidence that some customers are effectively manipulated in this way,
resulting in sales of products that the customer may not really need. What level of
customer “manipulation” is ethically appropriate? Can anything be justified in
terms of increasing organizational profits as long as it is not illegal, or should com-
panies have additional standards?

CASE STUDIES

The Beef and Reef Mystery Guest

Sally Salkind has worked for two years as a server at the Several days later, Bill Gordy called Sally into his
Beef and Reef Restaurant while getting her degree in office and reprimanded her for not following standard
hospitality management. As a national restaurant chain, serving procedures at the very time when following pro-
the Beef and Reef has specific written standards about cedures was most important.
how guest service should be provided and posts those
“Sally, I had been considering promoting you to head
standards in the kitchen, where all employees can see
server, but I can’t promote somebody who can’t follow
them. The chain also allows local managers considerable
simple instructions.”
latitude in training employees and providing service,
so long as unit financial results are satisfactory. Most of Sally went quickly from surprise, to shock, to anger.
the servers go “by the book” in serving guests, figuring She asked Bill Gordy why, if the procedures posted on
that the company knows best and that they can’t go the kitchen wall were so important, he had never said any-
wrong by following company standards. But Sally has thing about them in her two years with the restaurant.
developed her own very successful way of opening the
“I’m not dumb, Bill. I can learn as well as anyone.
service encounter and delivering service thereafter.
But you never told me that I had to learn that stuff,
Since manager Bill Gordy has had nothing but good
much less taught me how to do it. You threw me in the
things to say about her performance, she has continued
water, and, fortunately, I could swim. I did darn well on
to serve guests in her own style. Apparently the guests
my own, using my own talents plus some things I learned
like it; her tips are among the highest and her average
in my hospitality courses. How can you expect me to
check is the highest in the restaurant.
change my whole way of doing things with 20 seconds
Early one evening, the manager, Bill Gordy, informed notice?”
the servers of a rumor he had heard at a national meet-
Bill Gordy didn’t have an answer for Sally’s question.
ing: corporate headquarters intended to use more mys-
He simply reiterated his criticism, told her that she had
tery shoppers in the following month. He said, “I know
embarrassed him and the restaurant in front of “a big
you all do the best job possible, and I appreciate it, but
shot from headquarters,” and sent her back to her
next month, let’s all lift our service to a new level.”
station.
About two weeks later, as Sally Salkind started to walk
to greet a couple who had just been seated, Bill Gordy Sally had been thinking of trying to get a permanent
whispered to her, “Mystery shoppers. I can tell them a position with the Beef and Reef organization after she
mile away. Do it by the book, Sally, and you’ll be fine.” finished her studies, but she decided that she didn’t
want to work for an outfit that gave her little training in
Sally tried to do it by the book: “Good evening.
how to do the job, complimented her for the way she did
I’m Sally and I’m going to be your server tonight.”
it, then criticized her because she didn’t follow formal
But then she got tongue-tied. She couldn’t remember if
procedures and memorize the silly little phrases. She
procedure called for her to solicit a beverage order, recite
would stick around for now because the tip income was
the specials, or encourage the party to choose an appe-
good, but she would be looking.
tizer. The rest of the meal went the same way. The party
of two had to ask for information that Sally usually ***
related in her comfortable, natural way. But when called
upon to do it by the numbers, she couldn’t remember 1. What went wrong? Who was at fault?
what the numbers were. She had never been so happy
2. Discuss the pros and cons of a strict set of serving
to see two people leave.
standards for everybody.

Flint Hill Beef and Lamb

Just before graduating with a degree in hospitality man- her on the second day, she spent it in much the same
agement, Sally Salkind interviewed with several hospital- way. By the end of the week, with no help from
ity organizations. She was most impressed with Beef and Hamilton, Sally had gathered valuable information,
Lamb, a medium-sized restaurant chain founded by Bob given it much thought, and saw numerous ways in
Beef and Larry Lamb. She was particularly impressed which the already successful operation of the restaurant
that Bob and Larry had come to campus to do the inter- could be improved.
viewing themselves.
The next day, she made her presentation to manager
Sally got along well with Bob and Larry. They invited Smith Hamilton. She was too excited to notice that he
her to corporate headquarters for further interviews, and kept looking at his watch. When she finished, he said:
the impression she made on other Beef and Lamb execu- “Young lady, I have made money with this Beef and
tives was exceeded only by the impression that they made Lamb restaurant every year since I have been here. I
on her. On the second day of her interview series, she have 18 years of experience in the business, and I’ve
was surprised to be offered a selection of several assistant got this restaurant set up just like I want it. Sure, I
manager positions in different cities. She had relatives never went to college, but I know the food business. All
and friends in central North Carolina, so she picked you have is book learning. These ideas of yours might
Flint Hill, NC, a growing community near Charlotte. look good on a homework assignment, but they will not
The week after her college graduation, she headed for work in Flint Hill, North Carolina. I don’t want all these
Flint Hill exuberant with optimism. ‘point of sale’ machines you talk about; they aren’t worth
the money. Neither are any of your other ideas. Maybe
Smith Hamilton, manager of the Flint Hill Beef and
you ought to interview with Beef and Reef; your highfa-
Lamb, had only the day before been told that he was
lutin college notions might be just what that outfit needs.
being sent an assistant manager. When Sally entered
Or you can stick with me and learn something about the
the restaurant, eager to begin the career that she had
restaurant business.”
trained for, make a good impression, and justify the
faith that Larry and Bob had shown in her, Smith ***
Hamilton barely gave her the time of day. He told her
he was busy but said that she should “make herself 1. How did things go so wrong?
useful.” Sally was quite surprised to receive such a recep-
2. Should Sally bear any part of the blame? Should the
tion at the local level, since she had been treated so beau-
institution where she received her training in hospi-
tifully by the company founders, but she resolved not to
tality bear some blame?
be down about it.
3. If you were Sally, what would you say to Smith
Sally spent her first day walking around in the restau-
Hamilton, and what would you do? Would you
rant, meeting people, taking notes, asking questions of
“stick with him and learn something about the res-
employees and guests, and generally getting the lay of
taurant business”?
the land. Since Smith Hamilton was too busy to talk to

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1
NOTES Heskett, J. L., Sasser, W. E., Jr., & Hart, C. W. L. 1990. Service Breakthroughs: Changing the
Rules of the Game. New York: The Free Press, p. 109.
2
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. 1988. SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale
for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64, 12–40.
3
Bitner, M. J. 1990. Evaluating service encounters: The effects of physical surroundings and
employee responses. Journal of Marketing, 54, 69–82.
4
Bitner, M. J. 1995. Building service relationships: It’s all about promises. Academy of
Marketing Science, 23, 248.
5
http://corporate.ritzcarlton.com/en/Careers/FAQs.htm, accessed August 31, 2009.
6
Gavin, T., Johnson, G., & Barbian, J. 2003. The 2003 training top 100. Training, 40 (3), 18–38.
7
Albrecht, K. 1988. At America’s Service: How Your Company Can Join the Customer Service
Revolution. New York: Warner Books, p. 185.
8
Ibid.
9
Berry, 191.
10
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2010.
11
Johnson, G. 2003. Nine tactics to take your corporate university from good to great. Train-
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multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals. Jour-
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Dolezalek, H. 2008. We train to please. Training, 45 (3), 34–35.
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Newman, J. 2007. My Secret Life on the McJob. New York: McGraw Hill.
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Acculturate, educate and Motivate. 2004. Training, 41 (12), 10–11.
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Outstanding training initiatives. 2006. Training, 43 (3), 64–66.
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Kirkpatrick, D. L. 1994. Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. San Francisco, CA:
Berrett-Koehler.
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Brinker, Norman, & Phillips, Donald T. 1996. On the Brink: The Life and Leadership of Norman
Brinker. Arlington, TX: The Summit Publishing Group, p. 194.
19
Walt Disney. 1994. Famous Quotes, p. 55. Printed for Walt Disney Theme Parks and Resorts.
20
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focused culture: An inductive study. Journal of Strategy and Management, 1, 143–167.

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Section 2 Chapter 6 Training and Developing Employees To Serve

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Section 2 Chapter 6 Training and Developing Employees To Serve

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CHAPTER 6

Training and Developing

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

external training on-the-job training computer-assisted instruction

Training at Starwood Hotels

Wall-to-Wall Training at Scandinavian Airline Services

Berry’s Five Training Principles

The Big Picture

DEVELOPING A TRAINING PROGRAM

Solving the Guest’s Problem

TAB LE 6. 1 Examples of t h e Typ es o f Tr ainin g Pr og rams O ff e red i n t he

Mentoring A formal relationship between junior and senior colleagues.

New chefs often train

Image copyright olly, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Classroom learning pro-

Image copyright VladKol, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Learning in small groups

Further Approaches to Training

The Message: Guest Service

CHALLENGES AND PITFALLS OF TRAINING

Know Your Training Objectives

Measuring Training Effectiveness

Getting Good Value from Training

When a Great Training Program Can Hurt You

Career Paths and the Right Experience

Preparing for Organizational Needs

Giving Employees the Chance to Advance

Supporting General Education

awareness that the company supports a learning environment. An organization that

The Competition Is Watching

They Want Your Best

A. “Training frontline employees is more important to hospitality organizations

The Beef and Reef Mystery Guest

Flint Hill Beef and Lamb

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