Staff training and performance in the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry in Uganda has undergone economic ups and downs related to political turmoil and macroeconomic fluctuations. While there were hotels that went under receivership as a result of defaulting on bank loans, a number of Ugandan hotels are now witnessing more profits and customers coming their way. Industry players say the renewed interest in the hospitality sector is driven by the growth in Uganda’s economy (Mwaura & Sekitoleko, 2012).

Training is the process that provides employees with the knowledge and the skills required to operate within the systems and standards set by management (Sommerville,  2007). Staff training is an essential and indispensable part of Human Resource Management, the importance and value of staff training has long been recognized (Mcclelland, 2002). Staff training is a path for the management to know about their employees, it is a way to help employees to make best use of their own abilities, and it is a method to assist employees to become more professional at what they do. With the help of HRM, business performance is partly guaranteed (Xiao, 2010).

These hotels have 59 comfortable and spacious guest rooms, all fitted with high quality soft furnishings. All rooms are air conditioned with luxurious walk-in showers and flat-screen TVs. In addition, there are 11 impressive suites. All rooms have free Wi-Fi. In modern hotel business, it is all about competence in people, and especially the employees‟ qualities. The level of service quality depends on the qualities of employees. The qualities are about knowledge, skills and thoughts which lead to a hotel’s survival and development. Therefore, staff training is essential in many ways; it increases productivity while employees are armed with professional knowledge, experienced skills and valid thoughts; staff training also motivates and inspires workers by providing employees all needed information in work as well as help them to recognize how important their jobs are (Wang, 2008).

Staff training in the hospitality industry

Staff training is an essential and indispensable part of Human Resource Management,. Consider the popular and often repeated quotation, Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a person to fish and you feed him for a lifetime (McClelland, 2002). This understandable and far-sighted saying was from a famous ancient Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius. It has explained clearly how important it is to train an employee to conquer his/her work than just give him/her a job of income. By observing today’s business climate and the exponential growth in technology with its effect on the economy and society, the need for training is more pronounced than ever.

Training and development can be seen as a key instrument in the implementation of HRM practices and policies (Nickson, 2007). Successful hotels always include staff training as their important development strategy. With the development of the technologies and the whole business environment, employees are requested to be more skilled and qualified, even if you are a good employee today, you could be out of the line some other day if you do not keep studying. A company needs organized staff training if wants to be competitive among others (Wang, 2008).

Staff training is the key task to help everyone in the company to be more united. An enterprise could hire experienced employees or train employees to be skilled. When the company trains their own staff, by providing and forming a harmonious atmosphere, accurate work specification and the passion of work, team spirit will be built between employees and management team within the process.

Training of work tasks is one of the main aspects of staff training, including principles at work, professional knowledge and skills, by offering employees these essentials, staff training helps personal abilities match with business requirements. Training could be enormously demanding and should be in-depth; lack of training or poor training brings out high employee turnover and the delivery of substandard products and services. Staff training enhances the capabilities of employees and strengthens their competitive advantage. Effective training will improve the personal characters and professional abilities. Not only employees, management and organization would benefit from staff training, customers and guests benefit as well, because of the received quality products and services (Sommerville 2007).