Upskilling Employees Through Acts of Service, Beyond Learning Class

Ristiana Manao, Corporate Director of Human Resources, Padma Hotels

If I have a ten-thousand-rupiahbill  for each time I heard. “We  are very busy right now. I am  sorry, but we really have to cancel  our training session.” I would be a  millionaire for just how many times I  heard such things during my 25 years  plus tenure in the hotel industry. 

Learning and development can  be an expensive affair. Hence, it is  not really a big surprise when it  becomes one of the first ones to get  cut down during budgeting season  when some cuts need to be done. This  gets interesting when management  realizes all money spent to compensate  guests complaining about poor and/  or inconsistencies of services, and  learning, or lack thereof, becomes again  the number one culprit. Other reasons  for aforementioned problems, such  as communication breakdown, poor  supervision, inadequate resources like  tools and equipment, and technical  glitches, to mention some, most of the  time only come after. 

Say, learning really is the answer  to service-related problems; how will  we beat the very reason that can make  me a millionaire? On a more serious  note, I’d like to discuss an alternative  approach to the problems, that is by  ensuring leaders focus on their team  members’ growth and development  not only through learning sessions but  also by listening to the team members,  building trust, promoting a culture of  collaboration and enabling everyone to  reach their fullest potential. 

"Through regular  communication with the  team, leaders are at the  same time building trust.  Trust is fundamental in the  workplace"  

Addressing service inconsistencies  still require comprehensive learning  sessions, going through established  standards and procedures while making  sure the parameter of success, such as  response time, employee attitudes, bill  accuracy, customer satisfaction, etc., are  attained. However, this time, we will go  beyond learning sessions and involving  all leaders. Sounds fantastic already?

 Putting learning aside for once,  let’s find out the right problems. Does  the team have adequate tools and  equipment? Does the team have the  supervision level that they need? Is  there sufficient staffing to serve the  guests? We really need to ask these  questions to our team members who  have been dealing with guests upfront.  Yes, communication matters. From the  team members’ answers, we can deal  with the problems right, whether it’s  about buying more tools, changing the  schedule of Supervisors, etc. So, no,  it’s not always about learning; many  times, it’s about listening to your team  members.

 Through regular communication  with the team, leaders are at the  same time building trust. Trust  is fundamental in the workplace.  With a high level of trust among  the team members, they will likely  work together more efficiently  and effectively, thus improving  productivity. They will also be more  open to voicing their ideas, feedback,  concerns, as well as challenges. With  such a high level of engagement, many  problems can be tackled timely. 

Regular communication that  allows team members to speak about  their successes and best practices also  promotes a culture of collaboration.  Not everything has to be made from  scratch; team members can benefit from  each other sharing of successes and best  practices. With proven ways and/or  strategies, they will likely succeed and/  or solve problems better. All the above  approaches will eventually see team  members achieve their fullest potential.

 I’m not saying learning is not  important, but there are ways we can  do to upskill our team members  beyond the class setting! This is  particularly vital as we also realize the  concentration span of adult learners can  be pretty short, so learning on itself  may not be effective, but the above  approaches are done consistently and in  a holistic way by leaders whom team  members work closely day in day out  can be the answer!