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HR & Education

Training for peak performance

The Indian hospitality industry's rapid growth is being derailed owing to high attrition
and fickle loyalty of its most important resource - people. Neeti Mehra finds out how
training can ensure peak performance as technology develops, guest demands increase
and outsourcing of jobs swells

Greek philosopher Aristotle had stated that pleasure at job

puts perfection in work. Both are a derivative of a deeper
understanding about the task on hand - depending on
quality education and comprehensive training. And the
latter mentioned dual-pronged strategy is the solitary
talisman available to the embattled Indian hospitality
industry, currently reeling under a manpower crunch and
heightened attrition rates, which threatens to ruin its
swelling fortunes. Education and training, since the
inception of the hospitality industry in India, has played a
secondary role, though an undoubtedly critical one, to its growth per se. A punishing
environment, it demands exceptional performance from employees, while promising
great rewards, career opportunities and job enrichment. The skill sets required by an
employee have evolved over the years, transforming their linear roles to multi-functional
operations.

Today, the misguided notion that the dwindling supply of trained manpower will keep
pace with its increasing demand is a prognosis of the industry's downfall. And this
insatiable demand for trained manpower fails to cease. A report commissioned by the
department of tourism, Government of India, revealed that the annual demand for
trained manpower in hotels and restaurants is likely to touch 29,000 by the year 2010.
This figure is likely to increase to approximately 39,000 by the year 2020.

And the actual supply of manpower? A total of approximately 18,000 students are being
trained in hotel management and food craft annually in the country. Currently, in hotels,
attrition rates are at 18-25 per cent per annum, and growing at an alarming rate of 10
per cent per annum. This, exacerbated by an escalating wage bill of 10-12 per annum
with a five-year forecast pegged at a minimum increase of 40 per cent over current
levels.

Resource crisis

Where does this snowballing crisis leave the industry? The Indian hotel industry is
renowned worldwide for its warmth in service standards and impeccable staff. Today, the
industry is finding its feet, domestic chains re-brand and enter into each segment, only
to find themselves bereft of staff in that category. Hovering around the myriad options
available to recruit a well-rounded individual is a fundamental question - Is the current
supply sufficient in quality and quantity? And if not, how can the industry address these
concerns, especially when the industry is cruising on lofty RevPars and buoyed
occupancies?

To circumvent the impending dilemma of quality and quantity, the first visible change in
the landscape is domestic hotel brands leaping into the hospitality education fray, to
ensure their own expansion plans don't set adrift amidst manpower shortages. Apart
from that, for each employee, comprehensive training facilities are being put into place.
Eventually, each organisation hopes to create and retain managers for the future
through internal progressions and develop their leadership skills, keeping in mind the
brand philosophy of the organisation.

Today, investing resources like capital, time and manpower into training is a necessity
that one must ignore at one's own peril. To integrate an individual into the workforce
and create a sense of belonging is paramount. And with a greater portion of jobs being
outsourced, training needs to be imparted to ensure that the agency meets the brand's
set standards. To train, or not to train, there is no question.

Seeking high, seeking low

The first step in the process, which will prevent future grief, is selecting and recruiting
the right individual who will be the right fit in an organisation, and is suitable for
training. The hospitality work environment in India demands exceptional performance
from its employees yet is a harbinger of great rewards - whether in terms of career
opportunities, job enrichment or in providing a supportive working environment.

With so much on offer on a platter, the requirements for this service industry doesn't
skim the surface requirement of a mere pleasant personality as was previously sought,
but an assemblage of character traits. Sandeep K Mathur, regional director (human
resources) at The Park Hotels, says, "We look for young, dynamic, committed people
who are with the times and are keen to serve others. They should exhibit a passion for
their work and should be able to think differently."

Recruiting is critical to sift out potential candidates, who would be the right fit for the
hotel and the brand, preventing a lot of grief encountered during subsequent training
and appraisal processes. Today, manifold options are available to both prospective
employers and employees to reach out, including internet portals, head-hunters and
also, employee's referrals. The preferred candidates for specific areas of operations are
individuals from a hotel management background and from the industry, while for other
functions are those with requisite educational background for their job role. In the end,
the industry is a creative place, and human resource personnel scout out for those with
job knowledge, experience, communication skills, educational background, potential,
grooming, leadership skills and analytical ability, etc.

While few hotels have management training programmes, such as IHCL's Taj, EIH's
Oberoi, and The Park, which serves as an apt training ground, other brands recruit
young graduates from varied institutes, a fact that yields them a disadvantage, that
having inadequate resources and infrastructure to train batches of trainees. Every
prospective employee is scrutinised by the hierarchy in place, including the human
resources team, the respective department heads, and for higher vacancies, by the
managing director and the chairman. And recruitment tests are no longer the plain
vanilla modules one was accustomed to, with psychological tests coming into fray. Says
Patrick Rodrigues, director (HRD) at Mars Hotels & Restaurants, "We initiate our
selection process with an IQ test which lasts for about 30 minutes and this enhances our
process of selection by deletion. If required we further conduct a psychometric test to
enable us to get a 360 theoretical view of the candidate."

Once an individual has entered the system, they are given an induction and
subsequently trained, a stepping-stone to ensure peak performance. Perhaps one factor
which requires utmost attention initially is training an employee to understand the
corporate philosophy and culture of a property and brand, says Andrew Mensforth,
general manager, Park Hyatt Goa, without which an employee can never completely
integrate himself as a part of the other associates, and be completely in and comfortable
sync with the hotel's unique service style.

Induction: First impression is the last one

This is perhaps the most pertinent process in familiarising an employee to

a brand's corporate philosophy, the hotel's service style, and acclimatising
one to the city. This initial training is the first interaction that an employee
has with an organisation, and hence is a critical factor that hotels need to
pay attention to.

An usual induction programme is spread over a day or two and covers

presentation skill training, property tour, meeting with key department
heads, and exposure to key activities of each Department, apart from
basic knowledge about the city. Narpat Singh Rathore, deputy general
manager (HR) of HRH Group of Hotels, says, "As a part of induction we
take all care to make new inductee settle down in such a manner that he
acquaint himself with all his colleagues at working place and also know the
functioning of each department." Apart from this, the group arranges an
orientation programme 'Know your property' for better understanding of
the organisation, apart from providing employees with an induction
booklet, which gives fair idea about the dos and don'ts.

Scoping out current hospitality training scenario

An employee is the biggest asset in this service industry. Building loyalty and keeping
him motivated is a function of two things, among others. By showing a clear career
growth path to an employee, and training him to achieve those meaningful goals,
supplemented by monetary compensation and job satisfaction will go a long way to
retain them. Today, training techniques have metamorphosed. The Holy Grail among all
HR managers is to hone the general, rather than mould a specialist. The emphasis leans
towards improving holistic behavioural trends and technical skills, with more exposure
given at an early stage. To supplement this, corporate trainers, role-playing, case
studies, practical drills, situational handling skills, etc come into play.

Training also impinges on that portion which education fails to deliver. It looks at
enhancing the repertoire of a young employee's skill, which will groom him to take over
senior managerial positions in the future. Not only that, exposure across the various
properties of the brand, as well as international exposure is a great motivational factor
for team member as are good and modern back of the house facilities, recreational
facilities for team members, and profit sharing concepts.

For instance, at The Park, employees who are found suitable are also selected for special
courses at leading training institutes overseas like the Cornell University in the US.
Employees are also sent for suitable courses in leading institutes in India. Explains
Mathur, "To ensure that they have relevant exposure for their jobs, we send them to
participate at various international travel marts and international market blitz."

A successful programme incorporates business awareness, mentoring and focussed

personnel development, career planning and coaching. And the importance of training is
percolating across the industry ranks, and across all brands. Sarovar Hotels, in its 30-
odd hotels across the country and five brands, there is a unit training manager for each
property which has either 70 rooms, or a Rs 10 crore turnover or 150 employees. "The
remaining properties are handled by our five managers, who are regional resources,"
says Zubin Ghiara, director of training, Sarovar Hotels. The training broadly falls within
three separate categories - soft skills and customer service; technical training which
differs from each department; and supervisory and management training, conducted at
the corporate level.

While training in an organisation is need-based or time-based, with each hotel/unit

having designated training hours and mandatory modules to be clocked, appraisals are
also used to determine individual training needs. But critical to this is to ensure
transparency to the entire process. Coming to the rescue are e-enabled processes, such
as the 'Management by Objectives', used by The Park which sets down Key Result Areas
at the beginning of the financial year, in relation to the business objectives of the
unit/each hotel, and on this basis, individual measurable and achievable goals based on
a five-scale matrix, which gauges the competency levels of team members. This
methodology is extremely effective. At the InterContinental The Grand Mumbai, Manfred
Keiler, its general manager, explains that using key performance objectives across
different categories, based on a percentile system, an employee knows exactly where he
is in terms of goals set at the beginning of the year. "The half-yearly appraisals are
taken into cognisance during the annual appraisal, and the success percentile in
achieving the goal is absolutely transparent, ensuring that these can't be disputed, and
aren't affected by personal bias." From this documented appraisal, personal goals and
training sessions with the respective department heads can be pin-pointed. One-size-
fits-all philosophy is discarded in this regard, with customisation of training needs per
team member's needs makes it easier to chalk out goals of the team and synergise it
with the organisation's goals. Says Rodrigues, "Once we understand how our team
members learn, we tailor our training methods to fit their learning style. For example, if
one of our team member learns through observation and questioning, 'job shadowing'
would be an effective way for that person to learn."

Developing the synergy between appraisals and training helps in retaining right people
at right place on right time, opines Rathore, "We identify the training need in appraisals;
accordingly the training calendars are made. Training on regular interval ensures that
each employee is adding value. By potential mapping, career planning and training we
obviously shape the future of our employees," he adds. Another emerging trend of part
time and contract employees, and outsourcing internal functions, such as housekeeping,
requires that the department heads play a greater role in imparting training. The
hospitality bible of standard-operating-procedures serves as a yardstick for performance,
which, if the aforementioned worker excels at, is rewarded suitably, by getting absorbed
into the workforce.

Hoteliers turn educators

Given the prognosis of the situation confronting hoteliers - lack of quality and
trained manpower - they are stepping into the hospitality education industry.
With this move they hope to stem not only the lack of quality, but also the lack
of quantity in numbers churned out, as hospitality groups in the country swell.
Bharat Hotels, The Park Hotels, Empee Group, The Chancery Group, Himalyan
Ski Village, Kamat Hotels and Sarovar Hotels are setting-up hospitality
management institutes to meet internal staffing requirements.

John Sims, MD of Himalyan Ski Village, giving his reasons behind starting such
institutes pointed out that the Group would need around 4000 trained
professionals. "The company also plans to recruit school and college students for
its project. "We will groom them and instil qualities required to be hospitality
professional," he adds. This, in itself is a self-serving strategy. Firstly, it provides
specialised manpower trained to suit ones own organisational requirements, and
secondly, it acts a resource to other segments of the hospitality market that
require quality professional training and development inputs. The Apeejay
Surrendra Hotels institute, slated to come up by January 2007 in Navi Mumbai
will be an internal resource for training for the company and will start the
academic year for the external students in July 2007. Approximately 60 students
will graduate from the three-year programme and 40 from the management
training programme.

The institute will also introduce professional development programmes of shorter

durations later. Swinging with the times are the big daddies of the industry,
which have lead hospitality education by their own gumption. In 2004, the
Oberoi Group, started a unique and independent programme, Systematic
Training and Education Programme (STEP), initiated in 2004, this apart from its
Oberoi Centre of Learning & Development (OCLD), formerly the Oberoi School of
Hotel Management. STEP - a three-year programme, provides undergraduates
with an opportunity of acquiring specific and specialised training and knowledge
either in kitchen operations or other hotel operations, at the same time as
pursuing a Bachelor of Tourism Studies (BTS) degree from the Indira Gandhi
Open University. "Through the programme, The Oberoi Group is able to tap
undergraduates and mould them according to the specific requirements of the
hotel industry. This assists the industry in ensuring that there is no shortfall of
skilled manpower," says David Longworth, vice president of Oberoi Centre for
Learning & Development.
The future is bright

What is the future of an individual in the industry? Does it offer a long term growth part,
or will it go the way of the emerging IT and retail industry - job hopping for the next
best offer? Promising to be a model employer, it is yet to offer substance and longevity.
The industry today grapples with attrition at operational and lower levels, exacerbated
with a non-conducive work environment and poor monetary compensation.

And change is but inevitable in the industry. Ideally evolving around the potential,
performance and attitude of an employee, training needs to reflect the changing needs
of the industry which is transforming. While staff to guest ratio is plummeting, the multi-
tasking skills of employees are increasing proportionally. The invasion of technology
through each category of hotels demands that clerical tasks are substituted by
competent service-oriented knowledge workers, and menial tasks are outsourced to
external organisations. This has heightened the need of upping laterally the need for
training to meet these concerns. While training modules are reviewed on a yearly basis
to keep them contemporary, industry veterans point out that educational course
modules need to keep up pace with the changing environment too. While at the
forefront, institutes, especially IHMs with strategic alliances with foreign based
universities keep abreast of it by enabling knowledge transfers and student exchange
programmes, there is still a lot to be done on this front, and the industry will reach
there. From impeccable service standards, the globalised world requires a hospitality
professional to have an enhanced customer focus - people skills to deal with multi-racial
guests, and a rapidly modernising work place. Says Rodrigues, "Finally the worth of a
hotel management degree will be equated to an MBA (definitely not at par with the IIMs,
though) and the deliverable capabilities will be talked about across various industries.
This will help cross training across industries and the exposure will be much higher.
Service staff will be known for their customer focus skills and the hospitality industry will
seam into the customer-focused world." Alas, this seems a mere pipedream today.
Training will decentralise as a function, a continuous rather than a sporadic necessity.
"In future, training is going to be every manager's responsibility and not only the
training department. Development of individuals will be a key factor in growth of team
member," says Mathur. Meanwhile the onus of training will spread and the responsibility
of each manager to take part in this growth process will increase for nearly non-existent
proportions today.

Another trend, which Mathur sees, is self-paced online courses changing the industry to
a great extent. The organisation will play a greater role, by ensuring that they are aware
of employees' goals and by ensuring that employees are continuously part of the
learning process, which is a huge motivator for them. Within this precept, training will
evolve says Ghiara. "It would probably evolve into a more individual-oriented process
rather than a group-oriented process. Education in India, ideally, needs to evolve into a
more comprehension-focussed process from the current memory-focussed process."

Will the industry see a convergence in technology and imparting training? Worldwide
trends dictate that with a click of the mouse, through interactive online tools, hoteliers,
can identify, cull, and share best practices with their entire team of staff and personnel.
But this brings about a question - will the human touch be necessary for its success?
Whatever the trend, the investment which hotels make in training will always bring a
very positive return, both in developing a consistent cohort of employees with higher
skill levels and in reducing labour turnover by building loyalty.