Employee Performance in the Hotel Industry

1.1 Background Information:

Employees are the assets for an organization. This is true because the success or failure of any organization depends upon its employee too. The importance of an employee in hospitality industry becomes more significant because of its nature- manpower intensive industry. In hospitality industry and hotel sector especially it is very important for organizations to stay focused on employee performance and so how to get enhancement in the employee performance.

There are many reason of providing training to the employees. One basic reason is to fill the performance gap after having been identified the same. This gape can be known while having performance evaluation process. These days hotels have been taking continuous efforts to provide most practical and relevant training to the employees of all the functional area of the hotel concerned. These efforts of the hotels are more towards integration and getting more concrete results. Those hotels earning good profit have their well-developed training systems and they resort to a planned approach to training its employees. This level of hotel organization has regular training programmes regardless of its concrete tangible gains or not. There are many hotels where they have different approach to train the employees, that approach is intentional training, this includes providing training to all the employees irrespective of their deficiencies and strengths. This kind of approach of training goes on as one of the function of the organization. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K (2005)

Employee performance is more important in this industry because employees are having direct interaction with the guest and secondly it is employee of the hotel industry that satisfies its guest. So it is very important for the manager concerned to know the factors that affects employee performance.

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There is a saying that perfection of work depends on pleasure at job. So pleasure and performance both can be achieved by quality education about the subject area and systematic training of the same. As far as Indian hospitality industry is concerned, a report commissioned by the department of tourism, Government of India, revealed that the annual demand for trained manpower in hotels and restaurants is likely to touch 29,000 by the year 2010. This figure is likely to increase to approximately 39,000 by the year 2020.And the actual supply of manpower? A total of approximately 18,000 students are being trained in hotel management and food craft annually in the country. Currently, in hotels, attrition rates are at 18-25 per cent per annum, and growing at an alarming rate of 10 per cent per annum. This, exacerbated by an escalating wage bill of 10-12 per annum with a five-year forecast pegged at a minimum increase of 40 per cent over current levels. Thus systematic training will play a life saving role in hospitality industry to counter with the current scenario. www.indiatoday/may2007/page24

After having basic information about systematic training and its significance to the hotel industry author would like to provide definitions of the key terms of this research.

1.2 Definitions:

“Training means learning some new things for increment or development of the working personnel. Training is becoming a necessary for having skills and attitudes as a part of each individual’s working life for the higher performance.

Performance Management: it is a process which is designed to improve organization, team and individual performance and which is owned and driven by line manager”. Fool.M, Hock.C (2002).

“Training constitutes a systematic approach to training which includes taking the time to analyze what results the organization needs from its employees, if employees are accomplish those results. A systematic approach includes evaluating approaches before, during and after training to ensure employees truly benefited from the training in terms of enhanced results to the organization”. www.managemertthelp.org/trng-dev/basics/sd.htm.

“Training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities.” Golssmith.A, Nickson.D, Solan.S, Wood.R.C,; (1997).

“Training is a systematic process through which an organization’s human resources gain knowledge and develop skills by instructions and practical activities that result in improved corporate performance”. Frank.M.G, Mary.L, Monchello, BaumJ (1996).

1.3 Aim and objectives / Research Questions / Hypothesis:

1.3.1 Aim and Objectives:

Purpose of this research work is to explore systematic training as a major factor in enhancement of employee performance in service department of hotel Industry.

• To explore the term “Systematic Training” and employee performance in hotel Industry.
• To explore the determinants of employee performance
• To find out relation between systematic training and employee performance.
• To explore training as motivational tool that leads to employee satisfaction.
• To explore the process involved in systematic training

1.3.2 Research Question:

R.Q.1: What are the factors that influence employee performance in hotel sector of hospitality Industry?

R.Q.2: How systematic training will ensure employee performance in hotel Industry?

R.Q.3: What is the mechanism (process or technique) of systematic training? Is training works as motivational factor?

1.4 Rationale behind choice of this research topic:

Employee performance is key to success of hotel organizations. So this is a prime area of focus because employee performance leads to organizational success and especially in hotel industry because of its nature that is manpower intensive industry. This is the reason employee performance is always a matter of consideration. These are the reasons author felt to explore this area with the help of systematic training.

1.5 Structure of Dissertation:

This section is about presentation of the dissertation. First chapter after this introduction section is LITERATURE REVIEW which is chapter No.2, in this section author has presented his secondary research. After that chapter No.3 is METHODOLOGY chapter where in author has explained the methodology used to achieve the aim and objectives of this research. After methodology section there is chapter No.4 which is basically ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS with the help of tables and graphs. And at last chapter is 5 which contains CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. After these there is BIBLIOGRAPHY section which is nothing but list of references, followed by APPENDIX section which contains sample questionnaire and other additional material related with this research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction:

Literature review section of this report is secondary research related to the topic area and aim and objectives established by the author. This section of the research has been proving the research related to the topic area with the help of secondary research. All the variables of this research has been taken into account and all possible factors are also explored which is statements and quotes and sayings of scholars.

2.2 Significance of performance management:

“Performance management requires a willingness and commitment to focus on improving performance at the level of individual or team everyday. It focuses on performance and potential appraisal, performance review and feedback, and 360-degree feedback. All these processes center round improvement of performance levels of the employees. Its main purpose is to improve

performance at all three levels- individual, group and hotel. A direct application of performance management is raising competency levels and potential of employees through employee training and development. Training and development efforts need to be linked with performance and potential appraisal systems prevailing in the hotel to improve results from training. Concrete gains from such training efforts initiated for employees can be achieved. Where performance appraisal has indicated poor performance, training focused at improving needed performance levels can yield significant improvement of performance by initiating need based professional development programs.” Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

“Managing higher performance in a hotel is very much dependent on adopting a systematic training approach by which training gives better results and is more effective for both the individual as well as for the hotel. Training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in a activity or a range of activities”. Goldsmith A, Nicleson D, Solan S, Wood RC: (1997)

“Training includes systematic training, which includes the different approaches like Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. Therefore systematic training means to analyze the needs and training goals of the organization with knowledge and skills to perform according to the hotel needs. Then a design of training system is there by which a training package is developed, which is inclusive of audio-visual, graphics, manuals etc. and at last implementing the package, which is developed. Simply approaches of systematic training provide a phase to next phase as it is a ongoing process”. www.managementhelp.org/trng-dev/basics/sd.html.

2.3 Types of Training and Development:

2.3.1 Informal Training and Development

“Informal training and development is rather casual and incidental. Typically, there are no specified training goals as such, nor are their ways to evaluate if the training actually accomplished these goals or not. This type of training and development occurs so naturally that many people probably aren’t aware that they’re in a training experience at all. Probably the most prominent form of informal training is learning from experience on the job. Examples are informal discussions among employees about a certain topic, book discussion groups, and reading newspaper and journal articles about a topic. A more recent approach is sending employees to hear prominent speakers, sometimes affectionately called “the parade of stars”. “Informal training is less effective than formal training if one should intentionally be learning a specific area of knowledge or skill in a timely fashion. Hardly any thought is put into what learning is to occur and whether that learning occurred or not. (However, this form of training often provides the deepest and richest learning because this form is what occurs naturally in life.)” www.managementhelp.org/trng-dev/basics/sd.html.

2.3.2 Formal Training and Development:

“Formal training is based on some standard “form”. Formal training might include:

Declaring certain learning objectives (or an extent of knowledge, skills or abilities that will be reached by learners at the end of the training), using a variety of learning methods to reach the objectives and then applying some kind(s) of evaluation activities at the end of the training.” “The methods and means of evaluation might closely associate with the learning objectives, or might not. For example, courses, seminars and workshops often have a form – but it’s arguable whether or not their training methods and evaluation methods actually assess whether the objectives have been met or not.”http:/ /www.managementhelp.org/trng_dev/methods/slf_drct.htm

2.3.3 Formal, Systematic Training and Development:

“Systematic, formal training involves carefully proceeding through the following phases:

1. Assessing what knowledge, skills and /or abilities are needed by learners;

2. Designing the training, including identifying learning goals and associated objectives, training methods to reach the objectives, and means to carefully evaluate whether the objectives have been reached or not;

3. Developing the training methods and materials;

4. Implementing the training; and

5. Evaluating whether objectives have been reached or not, in addition to the quality of the training methods and materials themselves” www.managementhelp.org/trng-dev/basics/sd.html.

“A systematic approach is goal-oriented (hopefully, to produce results for the organization and/or learners), with the results of each phase being used by the next phase. Typically, each phase provides ongoing evaluation feedback to other phases in order to improve the overall system’s process. Not all formal methods are systematic. Some courses, workshops, and other training sessions have goals, methods and evaluation, but they are not aligned, or even integrated. The methods, in total, do not guide the learner toward achieving the training goal. The evaluations are too often of how a learner feels about the learning experience, rather than of how well the learning experience achieved the goal of the training”.

http://www.managementhelp.org/trng_dev/rnethods/slf_drct.htrn

2.3.4 Self-Directed and “Other-Directed” Training:

Self-Directed Training

“Self-directed training includes the learner making the decisions about what training and development experiences will occur and how. Self-directed training seems to be more popular of late. Note that one can pursue a self-directed approach to informal or formal training. For example, self-directed, informal training might include examples of informal training (book discussion groups, etc.), as long as the learner chose the activities and topics themselves, either for professional or personal reasons. Self-directed, formal training includes the learner’s selecting and carrying out their own learning goals, objectives, methods and means to verify that the goals were met.”

htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com/

Other-Directed Learning

“This form, of course, is where someone other than the learner drives what training activities will occur. Other-directed, informal training includes, e.g., supervisors sending employees to training about diversity, policies, sexual harassment in the workplace. Other-directed, formal training includes where someone other than the learner specifies the training goals will be met in training, how those goals will be met and how evaluation will occur to verify that the goals were met. This form of learning is probably the most recognized because it includes the approach to learning as used in universities, colleges and training centers. This form of learning typically grants diplomas and certificates. Note that this form of training, although readily available in universities, etc., is usually somewhat “generic”, that is, the program is geared to accommodate the needs of the most learners and not be customized to any one learner. Therefore, a learner may pay tuition fees to learn knowledge and skills that he or she may not really need”.”Another form of “other-directed’, formal training is employee development plans. The plans identify performance goals, how the goals will be reached, by when and who will verify their accomplishment”. htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com/

“Other-directed’, formal training can be highly effective for helping learners gain desired areas of knowledge and skills in a timely fashion. A drawback is that learners can become somewhat passive, counting on the “expert” to show them when and what they should be doing.”

htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com/

2.4 Systematic Training Approach:

“Adopting a systematic approach to training helps ensure that supervisors are getting the most out of themselves and their employees. A systematic approach to training includes the time to analyze what results the hotel needs from its employees, if employees are accomplishing those results, and what training and what training and development approaches are needed by employees to better accomplish those results. A systematic approach includes evaluating approaches before, during and after training to ensure employees truly benefited from the training in terms of enhanced results to the organization. These also have to be linked with performance management. Effective training and development includes using sound principles of performance management and effective training techniques”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

2.4.1 Steps:

Analysis-: “Analyze the hotel needs and identify training goals which, when reached, will equip learner’s with knowledge and skills to meet the hotel’s needs. Usually this phase also includes identifying when training should occur and who should attend as learners. Purpose of training analysis is identifying training goals. A training analysis is conducted ultimately to identify training areas and plans for learners to help them acquire higher competence levels and contribute to accomplishment of the hotels goals (usually in terms of a performance standard)”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Design:-

“Design a training system that learners and trainers can implement to meet the learning goals; typically includes identifying learning objectives, need facilities, necessary funding, course contents, lessons and sequence of lessons”.

Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Designing the Training Programs-:

“The step requires listing of typical activities involved in designing training. During the design phase (which is usually closely integrated with the development phase), trainers work from learning goals to design a training system that learners and trainers can implement to meet the learning goals. This phase also typically includes identifying learning objectives, need facilities, necessary funding, course contents, lessons and sequence of lessons. The various training media are selected, e.g.: instructor-led, computer-based, worldwide web based, self-directed, interactive and computer-based, or multi­media. Therefore this design phase can also include identifying evaluation criteria to evaluate if course content is understandable by learners. There are some points considered for the phase which are as follows:

• The nature and type of training that is to be imparted.

• The anticipated that learners may take to learn the particular aspects desired to be imparted from the training.

• The financial provisions that can be possible to be made for the particular type of training.

• The level of participants group.

Formulating Program Learning Objectives-:

“Training programs should be designed by the trainers and/or learners to achieve certain overall goals. Programmes should also include various learning objectives that will help in achieving the overall goals of the training programme. Care must be taken while designing a training programmer’s learning objectives. These should be designed and worded to the extent that others can clearly understand. These training objectives have to be clarified to the learners in the beginning of the programme so that they know from the beginning what specifically are the programme objective and whether the same have been achieved or not”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Develop :

“Programme development requires developing right from the programme outline to training manuals, trainer’s manuals, specific cases, so that programme objectives and learning goals can be achieved with optimum efforts for training made. It must be developed and implemented in a manner so that the best results from training are achieved. The way the entire programme is conceived and developed is also an important determinant for the success of the training effort. It contains the following main activities:

Developing Programme Learning Activities-:

“Every programme must contain a set of learning activities consisting of a mix of role-plays, exercises, games, instruments, cases, etc. these learning activities have to be compiled theme and sub- theme wise. Training material must be systematically developed and finally each sub-theme, theme with the help of various learning activities must culminate in concrete learning’s. Development requires documentation of all these and compiled a trainees and trainers manuals to use as resource material for conducting programmes systematically”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Develop System of Continuous Learning-:

“Programme can be developed in such a way that the process of continuous learning is in-built in the programme structure itself and learners continue to learn even after the programme is over. Therefore it is important that the process learning must continue. This can be possible through developing mechanisms for reinforcement’s by the learner’s superiors, post training follow-ups, and helping learners develop a plan of action for implementing in the place of work both in short term and long term. The techniques to help facilitate occurrence of continuous learning on the various programme themes, has to be planned and integrated into the programme development phase”.

Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Implement-:

“This phase involves implementing the developed training package, which includes scheduling and delivering the training materials, and running the programme. This phase can include many administrative activities, such as copying, taken attendance data, billing participants, arrangements for program logistics and support facilities to create a favorable environment for learners. The major activities requiring care in this phase among others mentioned above are:

Selecting a Trainer-:

“This activity is the most important activity. The appropriateness of the trainer will determine the effectiveness of the programme as well as the cost. The most important consideration when selecting a trainer is if they are well suited to the training design required to meet the learning goals. For e.g, if learners prefer computer-based instruction, then they will benefit most from a trainer only when he will have a thorough understanding of on-line/web enabled training technologies with a high level of personal mastery. Trainers may be chosen from among the following depending on needs, suitability and costs”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Evaluate-:

“Training evaluation is extremely important phase and preferably, must be done before, during and after implementation of training. Evaluation process must adopt approaches that are practical and relevant. Typically evaluation could be carried out at four distinct points of time”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Evaluating Before the Implementation Phase-:

“The evaluation at this point must find out whether:

• The planned training package will really result in enhancing the employee’s knowledge and skills needed to perform the task or carry out the assignment roles.
• The same has been attended by other employees in the hotel and that how useful have they found.
• The employees are/will be comfortable with the training pedagogy.”

Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Evaluating During Implementation of Training Programme-:

“It requires finding out:

• How are the participants feeling about the relevance and usefulness of the programme, getting more and more interested or disinterested?
• Continuously undertake recapitulation before the next day and sum up before the close of the day.
• A short-programme evaluation could be structured and taken during the middle of the programme to take any corrective action required”.

Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Evaluating Immediately After Completion of the Training-:

“The training programme must be evaluated properly after the same has been completed. This can be done by:

• Giving each participant a feedback form and taking a structured written feedback.
• Take the participant’s verbal feedback to check for anything that has not been covered up in the written feedback”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

Evaluation after completion of 3-4 Months of Training:

“This is generally done by an expert evaluator from inside or outside the hotel to evaluate what have been the concrete gains to both the learner’s knowledge and skills and to the hotel as well”. Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

2.5 Advantages of Systematic Training:

“Training involves an expert working with the learners to transfer to them certain areas of knowledge or skills to improve in their current jobs. Development is a broad, ongoing multifaceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or new role in future. The typical benefits are as follows:

Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees.

Increased employee motivation.

Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain.

Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods.

Increased innovation in strategies and products.

Reduced employee turnover.

Enhanced hotel image.”

Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005)

2.6 Dimensions of Systematic Training and Development Processes:

“Systematic Training and development processes could be described using two dimensions – one for the degree of formality and one for the balance between self-directed and other-directed learning. These two sets of choices result in four overall approaches. That is, one can take an informal approach to self-directed or “other-directed” learning. Similarly, one can take a formal approach to self-directed or “other-directed” learning”.

htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com

“The decision about what approach to take to systematic training depends on several factors. These factors include the amount of funding available for training, specificity and complexity of the knowledge and skills needed, timeliness of training needed, and capacity and motivation of the learner. Other-directed, formal training is typically more expensive than other approaches, but is often the most reliable to use for the learner to achieve the desired knowledge and skills in a timely fashion. Self-directed, informal learning can be very low-cost; however the learner should have the capability and motivation to pursue their own training. Training may take longer than other-directed forms”. htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com

“Highly specific and routine tasks can often be trained without complete, formal approaches. On the other hand, highly complex and changing roles often require more complete and formal means of development, which can be very expensive as a result. If training is needed right away, then other-directed training is often very useful, e.g., to sign up for a training course at a local university, college or training center. Or, a training professional can be brought in. Again, other-directed training is usually faster and more reliable, but more expensive. Self-directed forms of training require that the learner be highly motivated and able to conceptualize their approach to training, particularly in formal training”. htpp//:www.authenticityconsulting.com

2.6 Factors affecting systematic Training Programme:

“After having a series of discussions with the trainers/management consultants several factors were identified and grouped into which affect the training programmes negatively. Some of the factors which contributed to the negative results of training programmes are grouped as the reasons for failure of a training programme. Some reasons are identified for less effective training programmes and the responses were collected on a five point scale. All the reasons were listed in the questionnaire and the respondents were asked to rate the reasons for the less effective/ poor quality of a training programme. In the opinions of the respondents and the mean values of the reasons for less effective training programmes, the following are the factors, which affect the most of the training programme results:

• No follow up after the training programmes.
• Too much of individual difference among the trainees.
• Lack of motivation to trainees after the training.
• Inadequate opportunity to perform what the trainee has learned during the programme.
• Resistance to change due to uncertainty of outcomes.
• Communication gaps at the programmes.
• Too short duration.
• Lack of genuine support from top management.
• Very little planning or problems in the design itself”.

( Srivastava.V.N, Shafiq.M, Ghosh.K; (2005))

Informations of this section have been taken from work of many scholars as a part of secondary research. Based on the secondary research author would like to conclude that to have enhancement in performance of hotel staff systematic training would be a vital factor. Now author will conduct primary research and discuss the concept based on his own experience after having interaction with the samples while conducting primary research. Author will replicate this conclusion based on secondary research, in the conclusion section of this report, while writing conclusion based on primary research.

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design:

A research can be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory. The determination of a particular research (as whether it is exploratory, descriptive or explanatory) is based on the aims and objectives of the research.

Exploratory research seeks to get new insights into the subject, answers the research questions and assesses a phenomena from a new perspective. In other words, such research attempts to understanding or clarifying a problem (Saunders et al, 2005). Further they add that exploratory research goes through the processes of reviewing literature and consulting to experts on the subject through selected methods of consultation. They further put that exploratory research is advantageous in the sense that it is flexible and adaptable to change. Thus while conducting exploratory research a researcher can change his/her direction considering the new data and new insights.

On the other end, as according to Saunders et al. (2005), the purpose of descriptive research is to highlight an accurate profile of an event or situation. This research is also termed as an extension of exploratory research, where a clear picture of phenomena is required before collecting the data.

Finally there comes explanatory research, which according to Saunders et al. (2005), establishes relationship between variables and in such type of research focus is given on studying a situation or a problem (through explaining relationship between variables). In such type of research various statistical tests are conducted in order to examine the relationship.

The aim of this research is to examine five star hotels on the basis of systematic training to the staff of service department and staff performance point of views.

3.2 Research Method

Business and management Research, like any other study, has evolved through years of theoretical foundations and conceptualisations. Research may be defined as something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). Research would not be meaningful if it is not done in a systematic way i.e. it should have a clear purpose and data collection should be done accordingly followed by assembling of data collected along with interpretation without which it is not considered a resea