The digital age has seen the replacement of many processes in the workplace but there is no doubt in every hotelier's mind that in the customer facing business of hospitality, computers cannot replace their best asset – their staff.

What they can do however is provide the means by which to train them effortlessly, cost effectively and without disruption to the smooth running of the 24/7 business. Marco Faccini, Account Director, Hotel & Leisure division ThirdForce Plc explains how.

Effective learning and people development programmes are increasingly seen as vital to achieving business goals. The key to any training programme for hoteliers is to identify clear learning objectives for the staff and for them to directly relate to business goals whether it is improving levels of customer service, raising health & safety standards or catering to the needs of disabled guests.

However, for small to medium sized hotels, the provision of training courses for staff either on or off site can not only be a costly exercise but a logistical headache. In house training sessions are labour intensive with varying standards of delivery plus an in house resource may not be available. External courses incur additional costs such as travel and subsistence and put increased pressure on hotel managers to provide staff cover in a business that never shuts.

Compared with traditional forms of training, e-learning offers lots of advantages in a 24/7 service industry with its split shifts and ‘always open' work ethic. A computer based training resource can be set around shift patterns with learners progressing at their own pace to ensure that they retain what they have learnt. We also need to consider that the preferred learning styles of Generation X and Y* employees who are now forming the majority of employees within the hotel industry may be working in front of a computer, at their own pace and even at home!

To ensure a thorough pedagogical experience and quality results, the ThirdForce e-learning solution requires a 100 per cent pass rate. This serves to ensure that staff members retain a comprehensive understanding of the subject material. A record of staff training is stored centrally so that the person responsible for HR/Operations can track staff progress and assess future training needs as required.

Each learner participates in a pre-training assessment, which enables each individual to receive tailored tutorials, to precisely target specific knowledge gaps. This helps to increase learning effectiveness and dramatically reduces the average time needed to accomplish each learning goal.

Types of training courses

In today's litigious society the tracking of learner progress and completion of mandatory training courses in particular is of paramount importance probably even more so for SMEs which quite often outsource HR to a third party. Online training courses offered by ThirdForce include all aspects of Compliance - food safety, health & safety, licensing legislation and disability discrimination awareness. Staff can also learn various job skills from bar skills and cellar management to COSHH, food allergy and intolerance and ICT.

Learning can be paced to suit each individual and administered in bite sized chunks to ensure higher attention levels. The average course time for the traditional one day courses is just over three hours which also leads to considerable labour savings.

Hotel staff can learn during any spare time they have in the normal working day or shift. Hoteliers can focus their training around the peaks and troughs of the day, pre and post lunch times for instance.

Migrant workers and skills for life literacy

The poor levels of numeracy and literacy skills among the adult population in the UK are well documented. This coupled with the increasing number of migrant workers in the sector makes basic skills training a necessity for many hoteliers.

For migrants, English may be their second language and e-learning from both a pictorial and a language support perspective can be far more effective than an English speaking trainer conducting a group session.

Computer requirements:

In order to run an e-learning solution like ThirdForce, companies will need Windows 2000/XP, 512Meg broadband, Internet Explorer 6 and have sound capability in terms of speakers/head-phones. In most cases ThirdForce provide a special web-link to a centralised server which means that learners can access their courses online via a special portal.

If computers in house are restricted to back office operations then hoteliers can access their e-learning solution off line. Learning can therefore be carried out remotely using a touch screen tablet PCs such as the el-box™ or a more conventional notebook computer. El-box™ technology is truly mobile allowing employees to maximise their productivity during working hours, as and when convenient and appropriate.

The nature of the hotel business means that there will always be a need to train on the job as it is a customer facing industry. Far from taking away the human touch, computer based learning makes the time invested in recruitment, on-job coaching and classroom style training even more productive. Good e-learning solutions when combined with traditional training techniques makes for a well balanced provision.

*Generation X, born between 1965-1979. Generation Y, born between 1977-1994

Published in Hotel Business Magazine and reprinted with permission of ThirdForce.com