Unfortunately, it can also be a stale and boring process for new hires.
It is especially important, as your staff is the face of your business. If you intend to have consistent branding through strong operations, you must hire to win. The better trained your staff is, the easier it will be to market your brand to your audience. This is because your hotel branding has everything to do with your hotel experience.
Naturally, you want to inform your new team members and prepare them for the work they will be doing. But if you fail to make a lasting impression, what you share with them could quickly go in one ear and out the other.
So, how can you implement a training program that teaches them the essentials while also providing them a dose of inspiration?
Determining the scope of the training is key to presenting the information in an easily digestible manner. In other words, you need a plan.
If you already have a training program in place, then take time to audit and review it. Is there anything missing? Is there anything you need to add or tweak or bring up to date? Ensure the material is exactly what new hires need – no more, no less.
Also, focus on training a little bit at a time. What is the minimum amount of information a team member needs to move onto the next part of the training? Help them build a foundation first, and then flesh out the details later.
Setting the rails also means making it easy for your new team members to know exactly what they need to learn at this moment in time. You should make it easy for them to follow the path ahead. Ease their anxieties by making the information available in multiple ways. This way, they won’t feel the pressure to hold it all in their minds.
A major oversight of many training initiatives is that they don’t utilize different teaching methods or provide multiple perspectives on a single issue. Though repetition is important to a learner’s success, hearing the same thing delivered the same way multiple times does nothing for retention.
What you need is multiple people sharing, or multiple viewpoints on the same issue. Mixing things up keeps the learning process fresh, allowing learners to absorb the information. It also gives them the chance to gain a firmer grasp on concepts that may not have fully “stuck” the first time around.
This also pertains to the content you share. Learning from a single instructor can be great, but you can enhance the learning experience by utilizing videos, PowerPoint presentations, quizzes and surveys, eLearning tools, other instructors, and more.
By mixing things up, and even surpassing expectations (or surprising new hires), you can help your trainees gain more from their training.
Not every hire requires the same information to do their job well. If you can customize the training for each role, you’ll be more successful in helping your employees learn and retain key information.
Training isn’t about the quantity of information you present. It’s about the quality of information. People become overwhelmed very quickly, especially if they are forced to read the company manual without knowing which parts are relevant to their job, and which aren’t.
Also, remember to work on the pacing of the training program. Forcing new hires to sit in a classroom for eight hours per day will only get you so far. Offer frequent breaks, mix things up, and ensure they are only learning what’s essential right now.
Training can be fun and engaging. Sometimes, this is forgotten in a corporate setting, and no effort is put into developing training centered on the trainee. But in general, people learn more when they’re having fun, and when their emotions are involved. Use the above three tips to enhance your training program, and you’ll see your new hires thrive in a new working environment.