Hospitality is one of the toughest businesses to be in -

Hospitality organisations are subjected to the whims of fashion at one end and the vagaries of the employment market at the other.

Television travel programmes, traveller's blogs, restaurant reviews and travel websites are continually shaping views on the "ideal experience".

Whether you run a restaurant, Day Spa, Golf Course, Hotel or Conference Venue, instant, unverified information access over the internet can make and break a reputation in the comparative blink of an eye. Your individual influence over what customers regard fashionable is limited.

A tight labour market and indifferent subjective norms towards the provision of service make it more difficult to find and keep staff who are committed to providing service.

Much of the pool of labour that is available is young and inexperienced. This is a particular issue when it comes to supervision. Teenage and twenty something supervisors which have the level of assertiveness required, rather than passiveness mixed with aggression, to lead people to provide excellent service are rare.

Add in volatile currencies and the external environment for the hospitality industry is full of risks.

Opportunities for improved performance

However, as an hospitality leader, there are opportunities which you can take to reduce your risks and improve performance in the hospitality industry.

Change Factory offers an Integrated Performance Management System designed to change the behaviours of your people over a period of six to eighteen months.

For a performance management system to change people's behaviours it must address three fundamental drivers of people's intention to behave in a certain way. It must address the following enablers:

• Employing and retaining people with the right attitude and providing an environment where the "right attitude" is well known and rewarded.
• Setting the standards for people which must be met.
• Giving people the skill sets, authority and availability of data to enable them to do the job to the agreed standards and rewarding them for doing so. It must also address measurement of the level of progress of individual's and groups towards the desired state.

The components of a performance management system to change people's behaviour include:

Getting the right people.

1. Competency definitions.
2. Job descriptions.
3. Behavioural event interview questions
4. Orientation and induction through a probation period.
5. Succession planning.

Setting and maintaining standards.

1. Goal setting and strategy development.
2. Communications strategy.
3. Moments of truth mapping.
4. Standards of operation.
5. Appraisals of performance.
6. Day-to-day coaching and counselling.
7. Customer experience surveys.
8. Mystery shopping.
9. Rewards and recognition programme.
10. Key performance indicators (KPIs) - cascading from the goal.

Empowering people to do their job.

1. Competence development framework.
2. Training

• Face-to-face (half day or longer).
• Micro training (10-20 minutes before or after shifts.
• On-line training. Day-to-day coaching and counselling.
• Special projects and assignments
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of training

3. Employee survey.
4. Responsibility mapping.

Please explore our website following the links above for ways to reduce risk and improve performance in your hospitality business.

Kevin Dwyer is the founder of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more or see more articles visit www.changefactory.com.au  or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au  ©2008 Change Factory.