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Behind that smile lies training

Training of hotel staff goes professional, as quality service is the buzzword

Guest is God. `Atithi Devo Bhava'. An ancient adage, it is the buzzword in the hospitality sector. More so today for the hotel guest is no longer purely a business contact but a client with whom the hotel is eager to build a long relationship and earn goodwill. And to give the guest that divine experience hotel managements are going the whole hog.

Says Vijay Pisharody, Manager, Training, Centre of Excellence, Taj Group of hotels, "We work towards converting the feeling of satisfaction, for the guest, to one of delight." And for ensuring that he has implemented several programmes in all Taj hotel properties in Kerala.

Hitherto the importance of soft skills wasonly secondary to enterprise but of late the world has risen to the fact that soft skills provide a very important support system to any revenue generating business. Hence the hospitality industry, whether it be hotels, airlines, receptions, BPOs, corporates are all seriously training their staff in more than the basic P's and Q's.

Mr. Pisharody says that if the telephone is unattended after three rings in a hotel it points to poor service, if the check-in takes more than three minutes in a business hotel, then it is poor service, if the staff does not smile at a guest it is a sign of very poor training for a hospitality institute. And to counter all this hotels have to train their staff continually. "We train not only hotel staff but Heads of Departments and executives too. We start with standardisation of mannerisms, telephone etiquette, computer familiarity and even simple things like serving coffee properly," explains Mr. Pisharody.

And what does this training entail?

"It is not only Food and Beverages skills that we are looking at and not always that we are training raw hands. In fact we are training adult learners and there we act only as guides. Training a manager is entirely different from training a rookie. Hence we implement different plans at different levels. "

Jamshed Surti, Vice President, Organisational Development, cgh Earth hotels, says that the group has recently set up a training and development cell to look into improvement and refreshment of current staff skills and for fresh recruits. "The idea is to expose the staff to the latest trends and technology. In fact the year 2005 has been declared as the year of HR in our group. Some of the programmes that we follow are customer handling, train the trainers, accounting for Non-Accountants. Where we differ is that the content of our training is very local. For instance, we do not encourage our staff to speak in other languages, say French or Italian. We stress on a traditional `namaskaram' rather than say `Bonjour'. But they are trained in the latest skills and technology required in hospitality sector, anywhere."

Kaizen Hospitality, a firm that provides staff training for hotels, hospitals and related organisations employs the Japanese concept, the Gemba Kaizen, which means continuous improvement as their technique. Explains, Rajesh Sivaram, MD, Kaizen Hospitality, " Seventy per cent of individual hotels in Kerala don't have a training cell. That is where we come in. Training needs of each property are different. For examples a resort in Alappuzha will need a different training approach from a city hotel."

K. Balakrishnan, Associate Director, Resource Hunters, HR Pvt. Ltd., another firm that provides training programmes, explains about the fine detail of training imparted. Citing an example he says, "we are familiarising hotel staff in a Kumarakom resort with Arundhati Roy's `God Of Small Things', as it is set in these parts and a guest may pose a query. Lack of information inhibits the staff from interacting with the guest and that alienates them." For specialised services like valet parking, bartending, and sushi bar skills the staff is given training at outstation properties.

So behind the gracious attendance, behind the poise and polish of hotel staff are hours of serious professional training.

PRIYADARSSHINI SHARMA

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