Why Training Matters In Hospitality

Getting people to change the way they do things is no easy task, often a simple change feels impossible. It can be easy for us as leaders to see the problem and get frustrated when others can’t. Similarly, we get annoyed when people don’t act when we give them the advice needed to change.

Lisa is S4labour’s Customer Training Manager. She has a lifetimes experience in the hospitality sector, having been, amongst other roles, a general manager of a premium country pub for Mitchells & Butlers.

,Back when I was General Manager of a country pub, I remember getting frustrated with the team letting the fire go out. It was on the task list, and getting it going in the morning was no problem but it would always die out just as lunch got really busy! When I pointed out to the team that it had gone out, they would rush to re light it, spending ages doing it because of the ash build up and having to use more expensive kindling to get it going again. We were all busy and during service the fire seems like the last thing on the to do list, but the reality is, add a shovel of coal or a log at the right time is all that it needed, so it must have been something else? When eventually I stopped and questioned if I was missing a trick, I realised I needed to change a couple of things if I wanted this to land. I needed to share why it was important, both from an atmosphere point of view and a cost point of view to keep the fire going and not letting it die out and re-light it. Additionally I needed to stop delegating and disowning the task.  All the tools were there, the equipment they needed but I hadn’t encouraged the right habits. As soon as I spent time getting them to understand why it was important and encouraging them by reminding them even with a simple “Your fire looks instagramable, your challenge is to keep it looking like that all day” then reminding them throughout service with a simple reminder, habits started to form and eventually the fires continued to roar throughout the day and the team could focus on giving great service and all the other things that helped push our spend per head up.

The example I give was a simple task and it took a while to get the right habits in with all the different people involved to make an impact and change the way we did things. Every change still had its challenges, some more than others. I know change is hard and some people adapt quicker than others, however, this is where I get my buzz, because this is where we reap all the great rewards change brings, like improved team happiness and retention, improved sales growth, high net promoter scores and that’s what makes it exciting.

S4labour is a fantastic tool, I wish I had that level of visibility to allow me to make better decisions, it would have helped me to develop more confidence in my commercial decision making, but the challenge doesn’t stop with having the right software. It’s like being a member of the best gym in the world and not going or just walking on the treadmill a couple of times a week and expecting the results. Sometimes to get the most out of the gym we need a personal trainer to show us, guide us and give us a plan to work on when were on our own to ensure we get the most out of that gym membership and get the results we deserve and expect. It is the results that change brings that inspire the team around us too in other areas of the business.  I spent a lot of time supporting my district to achieve a successful training culture and shaped my career and moved into different learning and development roles. So when I joined S4labour I was able to  draw on my experience of running pubs, developing leaders and creating training interventions to create these effective masterclass programmes. The training programmes will embed and promote good habits within labour management. Each programme explores why the habit is important and then how you can implement them, inspiring positive change, strong leadership and sustainable changes, ensuring companies get the most out of S4labour seeing the results they deserve.