Learning and development (L&D) has emerged
as an important practice in organisations
worldwide. Hospitality leaders are now
understanding the need for L&D while facing challenges
and opportunities within and outside the industry.
L&D comprises a set of practices concerned with
ensuring organisations have knowledgeable, skilled, and
engaged employees who can contribute to achieving
organisational objectives. As the Indian market is eyeing
international tourists again after COVID-19, it has become
important for us to cater to them as per their expectations
and standards. Hence, L&D has to play a pivotal role in
equipping and nourishing the current hospitality needs,
helping to fulfill the rising demand for high-standard
service and hygiene at hotels and workplaces.
To ensure that Indian hospitality businesses can compete
on a global scale, L&D strategies must be implemented
to fill the skill gap in the current workforce. Most of the
Indian hospitality conglomerates expanding overseas
have also invested heavily in training and development of
employees. This has become a prerequisite for empowering
them to sustain themselves in the global market. Most
organisations have redubbed the term ‘training’ as
‘learning and development’ to make it more meaningful
and not restrict it to just the induction or orientation phase, but also impart hands-on skills, attitude building,
and on-the-job learning.
The past few years have seen
classroom-based training in India evolve into a serious
tool for developing specific skills, actively conducted by in house L&D managers. Companies, in fact, have begun to
invest in equipping their L&D managers.
L&D managers face different challenges, including
language barriers, technological gaps, and a lack of skilled
manpower. To overcome all these hurdles, a lot of time
is invested in employee profiling by the L&D department
and training blocks are formulated. The department must
focus on both proactive and reactive training, which
enables employees to handle guest issues in a better
way.
Proactive training is based on learning systems and
standards to accomplish their daily tasks, whereas reactive
training is formulated based on situations that have
caused a negative impact on guest experience. Training
single point of contacts (SPOCs) should be appointed in
departments to become the eyes and ears of the L&D
team. Training analysis is a must for all employees
Therefore, it is imperative for hospitality leaders and
L&D personnel to rethink strategies for designing work,
enriching job profiles, and reskilling the workforce to
support the ongoing evolution of the industry.