Training the Heart of the Hotel

When I first began my career in training, I was more than a little concerned when asked to train a group of housekeepers in a classroom environment. This is something that the company had not previously offered to this particular department. Having started my career in housekeeping, I was concerned if our return on investment would be worth the payroll impact of keeping the largest hotel department in a classroom for eight hours. Also, could I keep their attention? Keep in mind that this is a group of people used to being on their feet eight hours. Would they resent sitting in a classroom knowing they had anywhere from five to fifteen rooms left to clean? My guess was …Yes. I could not have been happier to find that I had greatly misjudged this group, as well as the return on our investment.

I opted to start our training with Educational Institute’s G.R.E.A.T. (Guest Room Exceptional Attendant Training) Workshop. It was perfect! Not only did it cover guest interactions, but everything from ADA to OSHA to security issues. The bonus to our participants was that at the end of the workshop our room, laundry and public space associates could elect to test for their H.S.C. (Hospitality Skills Certification) with all expenses paid by the company. This in itself was such a motivating factor that I had no trouble keeping their attention for four hours and to my amazement the entire group was actually excited to return the next morning for an additional four hours. At the end of the workshop each and every participant elected to pursue their H.S.C.

Why do we as an industry tend to neglect this department when it comes to classroom training? Including our housekeeping department in this type of training reinforces that they are very important members of our team. Today when I am called to a property to train the front office staff, sales representatives or supervisors, I know that housekeeping must be included or we will hear about it. We have expanded the training to include our own workshop creations; Moments of Truth in Housekeeping, a Housekeeping Refresher Workshop, a housekeeping specific Safety and Security Workshop and WOW! (a customer service/teambuilding class which housekeeping attends with all other departments).

We as a company realize that we not only train to impact behavior and skill sets, we train to impact motivation. We realize that we cannot motivate someone. We all know that motivation comes from within the individual. But, we can certainly create an environment for motivation with praise, incentives and believe it or not… training.

After our housekeepers complete the prerequisites for their H.S.C., we ensure that the local paper receives a press release with a picture of all participants. Not only does this greatly impact motivation and morale, but we receive more qualified applicants after the publication of this information. Why? Our associates and applicants tell us that while our competition may say they appreciate the housekeeping department, we show them that we know they are our HEART.

Lizz Chambers conducts in-house training and training assistance for all properties managed by Newport Hospitality Group. She coordinates and conducts supervisory skills workshops to prepare supervisors to earn their certification through AH&LA's Educational Institute.

CONTACT
Lizz Chambers, CHA, CHE, ACI
Email: InnTrainin@nhghotels.com

ORGANIZATION
Hospitality Net Newport Hospitality Group, Inc. (NHG)
http://www.nhghotels.com
4290 New Town Avenue,
USA - Williamsburg, VA 23188
Phone: (757)221-0100
Email: info@nhghotels.com