Are your employees checking out almost as fast as your guests?  Are you spending a great deal of your time recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new employees?  If so, you are not alone.  High turnover is a fact of life in the hotel business.  There is, however, something you can do to reduce turnover and retain good employees. 

Effective training  not only makes employees more productive and better able to serve guests; it can also raise self- esteem, increase  confidence, and strengthen  commitment to the employer.  Higher self-esteem and  increased confidence make employees more self assured, more productive,  and less likely to look for another job.  Often a small investment in training can return big dividends by improving job performance and reducing turnover.  

The ultimate  benefit from an effective training program is increased guest satisfaction.  Your best guests are those who keep coming back because they are well served by a competent and experienced staff.   Replacing the guest you lose because of incompetent service is expensive and almost impossible  in today’s very competitive environment.

As you consider the training program best suited to your needs, I would ask you to consider the following “truisms”: 

• Training is gentle pressure relentlessly applied
• Training  costs, but it pays dividends
• Training begins at the top
• Your managers and supervisors MUST be involved 
• Effective training is continuous
• An effective training program helps you identify 2 types of employees:
• The ones you should retain and reward
• All others

What is the criteria for an effective training program?  I believe there are three  requirements: 

1. it must meet your property’s needs, 
2. it must be continuous, and 
3. it must hold your managers and supervisors accountable.    

1. Establish specific job tasks and performance standards for each position, and ensure that each  employee knows exactly what you expect
2. Develop procedures that will meet or exceed your established standards 
3. Select or develop competent and committed trainers
4. Determine when, where, and how to train
5. Conduct training
6. Assess the efficacy of training
7. Conduct retraining as needed
8. Review/revise training as needed to meet changing objectives
9. Set up a system to regularly measure the results of your training

• Former head of AAA Lodging/Dining Ratings Program. 
• An independent consultant serving the hospitality industry. 
• A Special Training Consultant to the Educational Institute, American Hotel/Motel Association