Importance of Training in Catering Industry

Introduction The title of the research is â€Å"A study on Training and Development of Work Force in Catering Industry in Wrexham Area†. Training is one of the most important elements in each and every organisation for the betterment of its employees. The aim of the research is to study the Training programmes conducted for the staffs or employees of an organisation to improve the company’s performance and productivity. The research aim is mainly to identify the importance of training requirements in catering industry and to identify the benefits of it. Research Question aims to find what all successful training and development programmes or schemes are adopted by the management in catering industry to motivate the employees of a company and also to improve the performance of the overall organisation with the help of total work force employed. The three important research questions will be: 1. What are the benefits obtained by a company after providing trainings to their staffs? 2. What costs are involved in training? 3. How will a company ensure that the training is successful? Research Objective is to conduct an investigation through qualitative analysis by interviewing the managers and the staffs by distributing printed questionnaire containing open and closed end questionnaires. Also collecting details provided by the interviewed persons orally. A detailed investigation on the topic will help to give more ideas to the management to implement more training courses to develop the skills of the employees working in the company and also will be able to judge how effective productivity can be made with less cost and wastage. Also the research would be helpful to understand whether the employees are happy towards the current training programmes and how helpful is it for the employees or staffs. Limitations of the study: While conducting the research there may arise many limitations with respect to sampling and also due to the non – random sampling. The research which is to be conducted will have managers and employees who works in a catering industry. Literature review Human resource management plays an important role in an organisation providing various characteristics of employment in catering industry. The success of catering industry depends on its manpower. Training and development plays an important role in human resource management. Training is essential in every work environment and has become everyday aspect of human life. The government has taken certain initiatives to improve the catering industry’s standard. One of the important establishments in the field is the Hotel and Catering Board (HCTB). In most of the organisation, training is provided on: Computing studies Supervisory skills Food and Beverage management House keeping The reason to provide training is to avoid; The failure to attain the targets like gross or net profit on food or liquor. †¢ Dissatisfied customers. †¢ Slow service. †¢ High labour turn over and low morale. †¢ Unhealthy relationship between two departments. Types of Training There are two types of training; 1. On the job training: As most of the staffs working on catering industry will have direct contact with the customers , so new staffs are given training ‘on the job’ to experience dealing with customers. 2. Of the job training: This type of training takes place away from the actual work place. Real working environment will be crated to train the new staffs. Training need and Analysis The need for training should be considered from employer’s point of view and employees. There will be always a person assigned to provide training to staffs whenever required in consultation with the line managers. The line managers will identify, analyse the requirements of training or problems or opportunities and exploit training with assistance. Benefits of training The benefits of training to the organisation will be short term or long term and it includes: †¢ Increased customer satisfaction †¢ Help to develop relationship between staffs and departments. Increased customer demand †¢ Safe working mode †¢ Wastage reduction †¢ Less staff turnover Process involved in training Before the actual training process it is to be considered ‘who is to do the training, what is to be taught, how to train and evaluating the success of training. The actual process of training includes: †¢ Identify the training and development needs. †¢ Design training and development strategies and plans. †¢ Providing learning opportunities, resources and support. †¢ Evaluate the effectiveness of training and development. †¢ Support training and development advances and practice. Development Development is the main part of any training session. Development may be defined as those activities designed to provide the organisation with competent work force which is able to meet the target in short, medium or long term objectives. In development stage the trainer’s knowledge and skills are transferred to the trainees. The other concepts of development includes: recruitment, induction and appraisal. Some of the examples of development programmes are: Trainee management programme, junior supervisory position, new project department, trainee officer, and assistant to area manager. The main objective of training and development will be to ‘Develop human potential and assist organisations and individuals to achieve their objectives’. Health and Safety training Accidents and healthy problems in places of work occur very frequently and so health and safety training will have to be provided to all the individuals working in an organisation. There are two laws which have to be followed in hotel or catering industry and they are the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (the HASAW Act) and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH). Health and Safety Training at work includes -preventing accidents and dealing with accidents; the ways in which accidents happen and what all ways to prevent such accidents. It is the objective of Health and safety training to identify the health problems and accidents happening in work life and to take important steps to minimise them. Research Methodology Types of data employed There will be different types of data employed in a research. Primary data: Collection of Primary data includes Interviews and Questionnaires. Secondary data: Secondary data will be collected from the staff training record sheets. Sampling Technique: Sampling Techniques includes Non Random Sampling and other techniques. Methods of Data collection Primary data: face to face interaction, questionnaire, telephonic interviews. Secondary data: books, training records, internet Data analysis The method of qualitative analysis and qualitative analysis will be employed in the research study. Qualitative analysis will be helpful to analyse the interview outputs. To analyse the interview questionnaires qualitative analysis will be employed. To analyse the research questionnaires, quantitative analysis will be employed. Primary data will be collected through face to face interviews. Face to face method of interviews was taken to overcome any communicative difficulties if arises. Closed and open – ended questions will be used to implement the survey questionnaire. The aim of using open – ended questionnaire is that the respondent will be free to give up his ideas or opinions. The closed ended questions will be analysed by using regression technique which is a quantitative approach and the interviews will be analysed by using qualitative approach. Conclusion The time period for the research to be conducted is estimated to be three months and the samples taken for the research will include the managers and his subordinates working in a hotel or in a catering sector. Survey questionnaire will be made before starting actual research. A detailed analysis will be conducted with respect to literature review. References Literature Review Training and development One of the major anxieties in an organisation is about the training. It may be due to more staffs or because of the labour turnover. For an effective training programme there should be sufficient funds allocated for it in an organisation. There will be more benefits for an effective training scheme. The benefits of a training programme include: ? Less wastage and speedy work performance by the trained worker. ? Less mistakes or accidents in the organisation. ? Less damage of machines and equipments. ? The complaints from the customers will be reduced. ? Another important benefit is that the trained staffs require less supervision and guidance. ? The trained staff will be more resourceful when other staffs go for holidays or any absence problems arise. Training will improve the job satisfaction and confidence in employees and will let them perform well in the organisation. ? Another benefit is that the potential to work and personal benefits of working efficiently and safe. Training needs analysis To design the training method, it is required to identify the training needs. It will be the responsibility of the trai ner or the line manager. He should attempt to identify the problems and opportunities which could be made better with the help of training. For this the training needs of individuals has to be studied through the appraisal reports and detailed discussion with the manager. Identification of individuals training needs will lead to corporate training needs. For example, if a catering company wishes to expand its business in a limited time, it is important to identify the staffs that are to be transferred or promoted to the new unit and the kind of training required for them to adapt with the new business unit. This may range from preparing some assistant managers and trainee chefs or stewards to do more responsible job like cooking food for the customers. The availability of sufficient trained persons in the organisation will give a successful growth to the company. The training needs arise from unexpected circumstances or conditions. For example if a restaurant makes new menu launch, the waiters or waitresses has to give training about the new products, service and selling techniques which plays a big role in sales and profits of the company. Training is considered as one of the vital tools of management. It helps the management to increase the efficiency of the company. Different skills and knowledge and attitude could be developed with training to achieve company’s objective. Training enables an individual to go through increased competences and confidence and to gain promotions. Methods to identify training requirements Job Analysis Job analysis is one of the major roles of Human Resource Management. Job analysis is conducted to check the efficiency and effectiveness of a job. Job analysis highlights the needs of training to be conducted for the job or activity to be performed. The trainee’s actual work inside the organisation is evaluated and more training will be given to improve their performance up to company’s standard. Job Evaluation Job evaluation is another method to identify the requirements of training. It is essential that a person such as chef should be well trained to acquire knowledge and skill. The type of factors assessed for training in job evaluation is: Knowledge, skill, responsibility, social skills and working conditions. Performance appraisal Performance Appraisal is one of the methods to identify the training needs. Performance appraisal is conducted in every six months or annually. It is actually a review of performance of each staff by the manager. It usually compares the actual performance of the person with the set standards of performance, company’s objective, consent job objective, specific core competencies. Performance Appraisal helps the employees to identify whether they require more training to achieve their objectives as compared to the present performance. Self Assessment Self assessment can be formal or informal. Formal assessment methods suggest the employee to asses or rate their performance against the performance standard set and will be provided if they ask for more training if they feel training would benefit. Informal assessment is method is up to the employees. The employee can ask for training if they feel would be useful. It depends upon the organisations training policy and training budget. Direct Observation Direct Observation is another method to identify the training requirements in an organisation. Observation may be with or without the knowledge of the employee. For example, in a call centre, the line manger would spend time to listen to calls attended by the staffs to find how many of them are following the prescribed standard. Otherwise a mystery caller would make a call from outside the organisation where he pretends as a customer to find the outcome. Different methods of training The two main approaches are: †¢ On the job training †¢ Off the job training On the job training in hotel or in catering industry In a hotel or a catering industry most of the staffs will have direct contact with the customers. So on the job training will be beneficial for the trainees to acquire knowledge about how to deal with the customer. On the job training plays a vital role in catering industry. If the trainer is talented in training techniques and if the objectives are clear then on the job training is the best possible way to teach the trainee the manual and social skills. In some companies new employees are put together with experienced employees who are not capable of training others. If the experienced employees are interested to train the new comers, then it will good for the company that they could save the expenses paid for specialist trainer and also the experienced employees will be able to train the new staffs in the work place along with them. They will be able to share their knowledge with the new staffs. The experienced employees should be given apt training before they are asked to train the new employees. In off the job training the progress of employees according to the training has to be checked from time to time by the person who trains. For example, the training for barmen include: bar preparation and cleanliness. The benefits of on the job training are: †¢ Training is provided in the same working environment itself. The trainee will quickly understand the nature or the standard of the job that he has to be followed. †¢ Training could be provided in exact timing. No pre-determined schedules need to be followed. †¢ There may be fewer requirements for special equipments as it is possible to use the operational resources. Off the job training in hotel and catering industry Off the job training takes place away from the actual work place. In off the job training a variety of methods and techniques are applied. The main methods used are: †¢ Talks- talks are the methods used to share knowledge regarding the nature and policies of the company, rules and regulations and other legal matters. There should be question and answer session to check the progress. †¢ Case studies, projects and business games are the best ways of off the job training techniques. Role plays are identified as the best ways to develop skills to interact with customer, how to handle customer complaints, up selling and interviewing. †¢ Some time visual aids such as films on different hotel and catering industry are used to train the new staffs of the company. †¢ Other techniques of off the job training include Programmed texts and teaching machines which could be helpful for the individual to learn at his convenient time. It does not require the presence of any instructor. The disadvantage of this method is that sometimes it could be expensive to design and the training can not give on manual skills. Staff induction Staff induction is one of the training methods. The term induction training means process by which the new staffs are given ideas about the nature of business, its structure, rules and regulations of the company, conditions of employment and duties to be performed. Induction training is not compulsory as per legal Acts. But for the welfare of the new employees or staffs, companies would indent to have staff induction when they employ new staffs. The important information concerned under the staff induction is: 1. Contract or Terms and conditions of employment. . The condition to perform a job and to whom the person is accountable to. 3. Grievance procedures, Disciplinary rules and procedures. 4. Policies regarding promotion and training. 5. Health and safety rules 6. Other social and welfare benefits The new employees should be given formal induction training to avoid unhealthy or malfunctions inside the organisation and to develop attitudes, norms and practises. The role of training agencies In developing countries importance is given for quality and standards rather than individual productivity. In Britain Industrial Training Act was established in the year 1964 to maintain the quality and supply of skilled labour so it led to establishment of Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board (HCITB). The main aims of the Board are: ? To provide advise to the companies, how to implement effective training. ? To conduct research and to develop new methods of training and materials and practises. ? To allocate sufficient funds for training needs and to aid companies to conduct approved training. To co-ordinate the supply of labour to hotel and catering industry, the Manpower Service Commission was established in 1973. It provides funds for training young people and retraining schemes for those who are unemployed. There are plenty of colleges which has department of hotel and catering. Organising training Each aspects of training have its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages of On the job training is that it is cheap as compared to the other methods of training. The trainee will be able to learn from the actual work place the standards or procedures of work that he has to be followed. On the job training is flexible and can adapt to any pressures of the work environment. Just like the advantages, there are disadvantages also. The trainer may find it difficult if he has had no instructional training. And so he will not be able to adopt the work pressure and will withheld training considering it as less important. Inexperienced trainers will not be able to provide effective training. On the job trainer would be able to share only those knowledge which he possessed when he was trained. The advantage of off the job training is that the expense involved in training can be measured already and the company can allocate budget and control for the off the job training programme. There will be a well trained instructor to provide training. The training will be conducted in a planned environment with good equipments. Another advantage is that training can be conducted in logical way after preplanning. The disadvantage of off the job training is that the trainee will find difficulty while facing actual work environment. The principles which he learned from off the job training have to apply in actual work place. The existing workers may feel uncomfortable to attend off the job training programmes. Systematic training Systematic training is the process of actual implication of training in a system. Systematic training is divided into three phases and it operates as a cycle. The three phases are : planning, implementing and reviewing. Planning The different stages of planning include: 1. Formulation of policy 2. Identifying training needs 3. Decision on priorities 4. Preparing a plan Formulation of policy: formulation of training policy should be given importance as like the other policies of the company. A training policy should include company’s attitudes to training and the place it will occupy in its activities. It should point out the budget allocated for training requirements. Should have specific responsibility for the implementation of training policies and it should be communicated to all staffs and management. Identifying training needs: training need can be identified if there is a clear standard which is followed in a company. Sometimes the departmental managers will make assessment whether the employees is performing up to the company’s standard. Job analysis and job evaluation are two methods to identify the training requirements. Decision on priorities: because of economic and practical reasons an employer will not be immediately be able to undertake all the training needs. And so the employer will have to set a priority. Managers in developing countries need to take staffs with more training on western style. Preparing training plan: a training plans may originate from two sources. One is the man power requirements and the other is the detailed analysis of training requirements. A training plan will make plan about the methods of training, who to conduct the training and the responsible person to implement the training. It also plans the costs involves in training and other financial considerations. Implementation Implementation involves three areas: attitude training, knowledge training and skills training. In hotel and catering industry attitude training plays an important role as the customers expect a pleasant and active service. Attitude training is important as some jobs can not be supervised closely, so the person carrying out the job should have a well attitude. For any kind of skill knowledge is required. Most skills are based on the foundation of knowledge. There should be knowledge about application of tools and equipments, methods and procedures, knowledge about the menus and recipes, food, hygiene, health and fire safety, cost control standards and onditions of employment. Those who are in higher post require more knowledge. Knowledge training may include the following: †¢ Talks and lectures †¢ Handbooks and instruction manual †¢ Posters and charts †¢ Video tapes or CD’s †¢ Programmed training packs Knowledge training is not expensive. The materials used for this kind of training can be re-used. With the help of relevant and realistic and in a very attractive manner the training can be made effective. Skills training are very important in a hotel and catering industry in order to maintain the accuracy, consistency and speed. It therefore helps to reduce the wastage and helps to produce the standards required. The skilled person always is able to work fast without mistakes or less mistakes. The two general types of skills are: social skills and physical skills. Physical skills Physical skills include movement of hands, the fingers, the eyes and other senses. Examples of the use of senses in carry out of skills include flavour for wine specialist, touch for pastry cooks, to gauge the consistency of dough, etc. Social skills training Social skills are being used as motivational technique and as a method to control a work group inside an organisation. Social skills are always attached to attitudes. A social skill is a trained ability to perform with apt behaviour in different situations. Methods of skills training There are four methods of skills training: Informal training: the informal method includes observation and hearing. It is not possible to plan and control in this method. It totally depends on the experienced worker, who performs correctly and he should be helpful. Training within the industry: this method is well organised and involves demonstrations and copying. The task will be broken down to different stages. This method requires mental thinking and judgement. The discovery method: this method enables the trainee to perform correctly through his own deductive process. This method requires great amount of preparation and careful monitoring. The skills analysis method: this method involves explanation of principles in different stages and also requires comprehension and active participation of trainee. The trainee should establish some sort of interest in this method. The training objective should be clear and the trainee has to be confident about what he has to perform. Supervisory training Supervisor is a part of management and has the responsibility to direct and control the work of others. A supervisor in an organisation is expected to maintain loyalty and reduce conflict. As supervisor’s job vary it is difficult for them to provide only general training. They would need specialised training. First the job of internal supervisor has to be analysed to asses the training requirements for a supervisor. The special areas include: †¢ Maintaining staff relationship by encouraging staff motivation and group performance development. Ensure disciplinary actions are being taken to correct and improve the performance of the employees. †¢ Industrial relationship in consideration with use of procedures. †¢ Health and safety A high proportion of training should be given to supervisors in order to enable them to face problems and different situations. Group work will help to identify each other and to solve the problems of each department. Supervisor plays an important role in the industry and good supervisory training would be an asset to the organisation. Development of personnel in catering industry The word personnel imply a particular activity which is conducted by a qualified person or a trained staff. There will many factors which will help the development of personnel in a catering industry. The five major factors which influence the development of staffs in hotel and catering industry are: 1. The growth or prosperity of catering industry on world wide basis. 2. The growth of the medium sized hotels. New traditional approaches were taken into consideration to manage the large work force. 3. The number of labour turn over is another factor concerning the catering industry. . Large number of unskilled or part time workers or casual workers creates more stress on the skilled labour. This could be avoided by creating a separate training squad in the company. 5. Lack of personnel practises and standards within the industry and among the management level will influence the development of staffs in catering industry. Management development Management development may be defined as process of providing organisation with capable and competent management team which is able to meet its short, medium and long term objectives. Most of the managers develop their knowledge, skills and attitude by continuous practise of managing others at work. A management development programme must have a balance between the formal training and work experience. Management development Management development is the process by which the young active talented staffs are trained to supervisory or management positions. It describes how a staff’s performance can be improved effectively and also makes them adapt to changes in the organisation. MINTZBERG studied managerial work and stated that in an organisation compared to other post managerial posts should be given foremost importance. He identified the roles of manager as: interpersonal, information and decision maker. Interpersonal Role Interpersonal roles include manager acting as a Leader and the Liaison. He will be responsible for team integration and motivation. As a Liaison, he will maintain a good relationship with the outside parties who are involved in the business and with the internal parties. Information Role Manager act as a Monitor, who analyses and collects information about the competitors, change of trends, internal and external factors. He will act as a Spokesperson who transmits information to outside parties. Decision Role As an Entrepreneur, manager will make decisions on any changes in the organisation. A manager will act as negotiator representing the organisation. Also, he will play the role of Resource allocator by scheduling, organising and programming subordinates work. Trainee management courses Trainee management course has a very important role in young manager’s career. In order to be a successful manager, a manager should posse’s knowledge and skills about other departments. Trainees must be given departmental training objectives in written form. Regular objectives should be held to check whether the trainees achieved their objectives. Methods of staff development †¢ General management training programmes which are of for a short period of time with theories and practises. It would be conducted in detached centres so that the manager doesn’t have the work pressure and will be free to actively participate in the training programme. †¢ Comprehensive programmes, such as a Diploma course. It requires an extended commitment from the company. †¢ Technical workshops for short term covering the use of new equipment. Job enlargement and Job rotation is another method of staff development. This method is cheap and is within the company’s control. †¢ Informal method including the process of consultation and senior management. In this method, improvement includes individual and specialized standards, expressive resilience, understanding, elasticity, assurance and inspired initiative. Systematic approache s to training Systems approach can be recognized as a rational connection between different stages in the course of examining training needs, designing, delivering and authenticating training. The illustrative image of a logical approach is a effective tool and as such it should be accepted that trainers will sketch up a model which is comfortable for them to utilize as members of a training division who must to observe the advancement of their training projects. Training Objective Training objective is to clearly state as likely what the apprentice are expected to be able to do at the end of their training, the circumstances under which they will exhibit their knowledge and the standards that must be reached to substantiate their level of competence. Written training objectives provide the trainer to decide the methods f training and contents of training and also it provide the trainees a clear target. Too much training is expensive and if inappropriate materials are integrated, then it will be confusing. Training objective act as the foundation for determining the success of training in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude expected of the trainees, the lowest acceptable standards of performance and the situation under which the performance is calculated. Also training objectives can be used to validate the link between the training needs and the actual training provided. It also considered as the first point of reference for any investigation or review in relation to training. Actions by the trainer Depending upon the nature of training to be conducted, the trainer may use different actions to make the training effective. Some of the actions used are: Setting up sub goal In order to lead the trainees towards the organisational goal, the trainer will sub divide the goals and provides motivation and support for the employees. This will help the trainer to monitor the progress of trainee’s achievement. Directing attention While conducting the training the trainer has to ensure that the trainee’s concentration is fully on training programme. They may do this through verbal, pictorial or any other means. The trainer should be aware of the different ways in which ‘to give selective emphasis to stimulus presentations for learning’ (Gagne, 1977). Humor Implementing humour in an effective way will help to stimulate and maintain the trainee’s attention towards training. Use of humour will keep away stress and will provide a relaxed situation. It will improve the communication between the trainer and the trainees. Humour may make the training session more enjoyable and will be a kind of motivation to the trainees. Pictures and demonstrations. Pictures or demonstrations will help the trainees to identify the methods or actions to be followed. It also will help to develop manual skills. Verbal instructions Language is a meditational process which can be used in training to provide information, ideas which could fit into the learning context. Also it could provide explanation about context, rules, principle and theories for acquiring basic intellectual, social and manual skills. Conclusion There are lots of benefits for the employees and the company through an effective and well planned training. With the job effective job training, individual may feel great job satisfaction. And the benefits of training towards the organisation include improved employee work performance and productivity, less wastage, less absenteeism, fewer accidents, and low labour turn over and greater customer satisfaction. Training will also have an indirect impact on the culture of the organisation.