Running head: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 1

Training and Development of Employees

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Training and Development of Employees

Introduction

The hospitality sector is among the oldest business industries whose history can be traced

more than a millennium ago (Kamau & Waudo, 2012). This industry is closely linked with the

transportation sector. In the past, a significant portion of the customers of the hotel industry were

travelers. This is still the case even in the present period. However, the reasons behind peoples’

movement around the globe have evolved as has the nature of hospitality sector over time.

However, there are still a few attributes of the hospitality industry that have remained constant

over time. One of them is that this sector has a critical reliance on the abilities, talents, and

skillsets of the workforce. This is because the main function in this sector is serving other

individuals. This aspect of the Hospitality Industry makes it vital for businesses in the industry to

have a well-trained and equipped employee team since it is one of the key determinants of a

firm’s performance. The Fisher Island Club that is located in Miami, Florida is among the best

rated small hotels in the city of Miami. The Hotel has been mentioned by many hotel reviews as

being among the top ten small hotels in the area. However, with the appropriate training and

development program for its employees, the hotel could transcend its performance limitations

and improve its customer base, revenue, ratings, and positioning in the economy. The sections

that follow will analyze various fundamental elements required for its training program, the

anticipated challenges, the significance of pointing out limitations and addressing them, and a

relevant improvement strategy that suits the Fisher Island Club. In the end, it will be proven that

a training and development program for the employees is an investment whose returns can be

reaped consistently through the improved performance of employees and thus the organization.
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Key Elements of a Training and Development Program

The hospitality Industry carries within it many different career lines that require various

technical skills. Some of the employees in this sector include chefs, barmen, housekeepers,

concierges, and gym instructors where the facilities are available among many others. However,

while competence in these specialized skillsets is critical in the ability of a hotel to serve its

customers, it is usually different and more subtle skills that give an edge to businesses in this

sector. These skills include communication skills, teamwork, improvising and problem solving,

cultural knowledge, the ability to motivate, and leadership (Wilks & Hemsworth, 2011). Each of

the mentioned skills plays a fundamental task in enhancing an employee’s ability to serve the

customer. Each element is briefly discussed below to enhance understanding regarding its

relevance in the Hotel Industry.

Communication skills

The ability to receive and pass across information between the customer and an employee

is vital in the processes conducted in a hotel and the ability of the business to cater to its

customers. However, more often than not, a lot of key information is lost in the communication

process. As a result, the hotel cannot adequately address the needs of a customer thus making

them dissatisfied. This dynamic can significantly cripple a hotel’s performance and thus its

revenue due to a loss of customers.

Teamwork

The labor force of the hotel industry is composed of many different departments that all

collaborate to ensure the satisfaction and contentment of the customer. However, it usually

common for interdepartmental feuds and antagonistic behavior to occur in places that involves
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many departments. Such a situation can have adverse effects on the hotel’s ability to serve its

customer thus the need for unity and cooperation among all employees in the firm. This concept

is not simple since each department in an organization has certain processes that it perceives at

more critical as compared to the rest of the tasks. Therefore, for cooperation and unity to be

achieved across the whole organization, all employees need to understand the main priority for

each department which will, in turn, enables productive inter-departmental interactions and

cooperation.

Improvising and problem solving

While planning of tasks, processes, and events in a business cannot be emphasized

enough, it is also crucial for one to acknowledge that plans do not always translate accurately to

real-life situations. It is therefore key for individual members of the workforce to have the ability

to quickly adapt to a situation and make the best out of it. A workforce that always looks up to

the management for guidance on how to tackle every small change is inefficient at best and

disastrous at worst. This is because it is not uncommon for emergency situations that require

quick decision making and precise action to occur in hotels. Therefore, this attribute does not

only positively affect the performance and revenues of a hotel but in particular cases, it can be

the difference between life and death for an individual when such an emergency occurs in the

workplace.

Cultural knowledge

This refers to the key information regarding the culture and beliefs of the customer.

While this element can seem to be too broad due to the wide variety of cultures that are in

existence all over the globe, each business has certain key cultures and cultural attributes that are
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associated to the majority of its customer base. A good example is that in the Muslim religion,

taking alcohol or pork are frowned upon. Therefore, a restaurant that is located where a majority

of its customers are of the Muslim religion will have to establish an organizational culture that

aligns with their customer base. Disregarding this key factor can lead to a loss of customers since

the prevailing organizational culture may be against the beliefs of the customers and thus

offending them.

The ability to motivate

The motivation of the employees should not be a task left for the management alone. On

the contrary, individual employees should all possess the capability and skills to motivate

themselves and others. A motivated workforce is always enthusiastic in the execution of their

tasks and thus productive.

Leadership

Like motivation, leadership is another key attribute that should not be limited to the

management only. This is because in the hotel industry there are dynamic situations that come up

which may require the attention of the employees to be split among various groups. In such

situations, the management may be unable to closely oversee each team. Therefore, there is a

need for leadership training for employees in this sector. Equipping the workforce with this key

skill will enable a majority of the employees to possess the capability of overseeing various

organizational functions that come up without the micromanagement of the organization’s

leadership.

Potential Barriers to be experienced during the Training and Development Program

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The currently existing pool of literature has no shortage of studies conducted on various

organizational aspects and the recommendations, measures, and strategies to be adopted so as to

bring about the desired change and its outcome. Despite this, history has illustrated that

organizational change is a complex phenomenon and thus in most instances when individuals or

institutions pursue it usually ends up with failure and disappointment. Some of the factors

credited with a failure in organizational change are organizational politics, a distrustful

employee-management relationship, and lack of employee participation (Rosenberg & Mosca,

2011). The outlined potential barriers are discussed below.

A Distrustful Relationship between Employees and the Management

The relationship between the management and the labor force is vital in the

implementation of any new policies and changes in a business. In firms where there exists a

history of oppression by the management, the difficulty experienced while implementing change

can be attributed to the disbelief among employees that any change brought about by the

management can be good for them. As consequence employees may be uncooperative in their

conduct which will, in turn, result in failure.

Organizational Politics

It is common for a firm’s management to have varying opinions regarding different

issues. However, when the implementation of particular change within an organization is not

fully supported by the management as a whole, there is a high likelihood of failure. This is

because when the management is split about a particular issue and cannot reach a compromise,

adverse office politics ensue (Glimskog & Hagman, 2015). As a consequence, various leaders
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may start using their power and influence to instigate contradictory measures that cannot

successfully facilitate organizational change.

Lack of Participation

There are many institutions where the leadership, governance, and decision making of the

particular entity solely lies in the hands of the top management. In such organizations, the top

management is responsible for the formulation of a firm’s strategy and policies while the rest of

the firm follows instruction from above. In such a scenario, the lack of employee involvement

may end up in the formulation of policies or strategies that are not effective in application. This

is because lack of employee participation may have deprived the policy formulators vital

knowledge about the execution of various processes in the firm that would have been critical in

the formulation process to ensure practicality of the plan. Another reason that may lead to failure

in such a situation is that by not involving employees in the formulation phase, the management

may be unable to efficiently transmit their vision to those entrusted with implementation. This

may result in inaccuracies in execution and also the outcome.

The significance of detecting Organizational Gaps

The process of detecting organizational gaps is critical to businesses and the industry as a

whole. Organizational gap detection involves a systematic review of various theorized concepts,

their application methodology, and the achieved end result. As consequence of this process,

knowledge gaps and implementation errors can be pointed out (Fairholm, 2009). The knowledge

collected from this process is critical in the future formulation and implementation of various

strategies and policies since it usually sheds light on the various reasons that were crucial in

attaining a particular outcome. Through the guidance created by the knowledge collected during
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the detection of organizational gaps, the strategy formulators are able to know exactly what

changes are required to achieve a particularly desired income.

Strategy to Improve the Business Positioning of Fisher Island Club

In order to positively enhance the business positioning of Fisher Island Club, the key

elements for the training and development program discussed in the above sections need to be

integrated into the labor force. However, numerous case studies on implementing changes in

organizations have proven that this can be a complicated process that more often than not ends

up in failure. Therefore, this emphasizes on the formulation of a customized strategy that will fit

the organization in question accurately so as to facilitate the required changes accurately.

The Agenda of the Strategy

The Strategy aims to alter various organizational attributes of the current organization in order to

first create an environment that is conducive to organizational change before implementing a

training program.

The Training and Development Program

The training and development program to be implemented will comprise of all the significant

employee skills discussed in an earlier section. These are communication skills, teamwork,

improvising and problem solving, cultural knowledge, the ability to motivate, and leadership.

The significance of the various elements to be incorporated into the training program has also

been discussed in earlier sections of this paper.

The rationale for Strategy and Program

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There are three main organizational attributes that influence implementation of a specific

strategy in an organization. These are the leadership style, the organizational culture, and the

organizational structure (Rajasekar, 2014). A good strategy, therefore, needs to consider the three

outlined factors. Altering the three key factors to create a system where the nature of

Management-Employee relationship is positive.

The leadership style and the organization's structure play a key role in influencing how

the employees perceive the management and thus the employee-leadership relationship. The

leadership style should be altered to a more inclusive style that encourages the insight of

employees before the formulation or execution of various policies that affect them. This will, in

turn, enhance trust between the workforce and the leadership of the firm. In addition, the

structure of the organization should be changed in a way that members of the management are

not viewed as dictating superiors but rather employee support systems. This can be achieved by

spreading leadership positions and redefining their functions.

The other key aspect that needs change is the organizational culture. A healthy organizational

culture encourages the firm’s core values and the efficient execution of an institution’s processes

(Fountain, 2017). This is because this factor defines the behavior of employees in the workplace

in terms of interaction with each other, supporting each other, among other key organizational

values.

Expected Merits

There are many benefits to be gained by the suggested strategy. One of them is an

increase in the revenues of the firm. Numerous studies have indicated the relationship between

inclusive leadership styles, employee job satisfaction, and the overall organizational performance
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in terms of revenue (Bakotic, 2016). In addition, the proposed strategy will also save costs

incurred from the inefficiency caused by the antagonistic relationship between the management

and the workforce. Besides, the requested strategy will also enhance key organizational factors

such as organizational commitment and the attitude of the employees.

Conclusion

Taking a look at the above-discussed section, one can easily comprehend the different

factors associated with an effective training and development plan suggested for Fisher Island

Club. The benefit of each factor has also been discussed to enhance understanding. However, the

paper also recognizes that there are potential barriers to be faced in the implementation process

of the proposed training and development program. To transcend these potential challenges, the

strategy for implementation has been formulated in a way that ensures a change receptive

environment before initiating the required change. The various features of the proposed strategy

aim to alter various organizational factors that are credited with the failure of strategy

implementation; organizational structure, organizational culture, and the leadership styles. By

altering the discussed factors, the strategy creates an organizational environment that is not only

receptive and dynamic to change but also one that enhances organizational productivity. As a

consequence, the improvements to be expected due to the proposed strategy and employee

training program include an increase in revenue, employee motivation, and enhanced work

attitudes among many others. The above-expected changes act as great proponents for the

execution of the proposed strategy and employee specific skillset changes that embrace the

concepts discussed in this paper.

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References

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Kamau, S. & Waudo, J. (2012). Hospitality industry employer’s expectation of employees’

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Wilks, D. & Hemsworth, K. (2011). SOFT SKILLS AS KEY COMPETENCIES IN

HOSPITALITY HIGHER EDUCATION: MATCHING DEMAND AND SUPPLY.

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