Author: Yulia Kosenko, Chief Operating Officer of Ribas Hotels Group
Online systems for internal employee training began to appear in Ukraine 10 years ago. However, in recent years, both external circumstances and the change of generation, which requires more gamification and microlearning, have pushed employers to do so even more.
Before that, companies used to train employees through offline training. Today, there are a lot of training programs on the market that help automate processes, and there is really a lot to choose from. They include a variety of features, facilitate the work of the manager, and speed up the process of employee onboarding.
Advantages of programs for employee training
Today, such online systems are one of the best opportunities to attract people and form teams in the face of a staff shortage. Our company is joined by people who have never worked in the hospitality industry, and thanks to a step-by-step, easy-to-understand training system, we can quickly explain the standards of our network to them. Going deeper into the work with such programs, let's look at the main advantages of using them for managers.
- Providing an opportunity to understand the company's values. In our case, during onboarding, we need to explain to people what good service is. We added materials about our service rules to our internal training systems and emphasized what we want from a particular employee. We also provided information about our company and its values.
- The ability to teach them to work the way you want them to. When there is no corporate training, an employee has several options: either do what others do or do what they were taught to do in another company. And it's not a given that the values and rules of another company will suit your company.
- Keeping in touch. As a management company, it is important for us to keep in touch with all employees. It is important for them to understand that there is a company that cares about their training and whether a particular training format is suitable for them. Moreover, such training does not end only at the onboarding stage, but continues throughout the employee's employment. New trainings are added and the previous ones are updated.
- Fast adaptation. With the help of online training, an employee can adapt faster and, accordingly, start working sooner. Moreover, at first, all work tips are always available online.
- Testing the desire for development. Having training programs at the internship stage can increase candidate turnover, because not all people are ready to spend their time before they have officially started a job. For us, this serves as a test of the degree of seriousness in the approach to work. After all, if a person is not ready to spend 15 minutes a day learning something, then he or she will probably work in the same way. A commitment to learning and self-development indicates that the candidate shares our values.
How to choose a system for internal employee training
I once attended a web summit in Portugal, and I remember a speech by an IT company CEO. He said that after a long time of work, he and his team had stopped at a certain point in their development and could not understand how to move forward. According to him, the realization that there was a person on the other side of the screen helped them. Since then, the company has changed its approach to work. Similarly, when choosing an online training system, one should not forget that there will be a person on the other side of the screen. The company needs to find a program that will be a useful tool for its employees and will take into account their interests as a target audience.
In addition, it is worth defining additional goals: what you want to achieve by implementing the program, at which stage you will apply this training, and to divide for yourself that one part of the information will be provided at the pre-onboarding stage, the other part - at the onboarding stage, that is, to determine in what period of the newcomer's work this or that information will be provided so that it meets his or her needs at that very moment of work. You also need to think ahead and anticipate the system's capabilities. For example, you need to find out whether you can upload videos and what size they are, how many people can watch the training, and whether there is room for scaling. But make sure it is convenient and in line with the company's values.
It is also worth considering that the process of transferring data from one program to another is complex and time-consuming, so it is better to think through all possible aspects of the company's development in advance.
Online training systems are very similar in that they include the division of training into stages. There are programs that are designed and work well for up to 100 employees. They are convenient, but not suitable for scaling. Therefore, you should pay attention to the flexibility of the platform.
For example, the portrait of our employees is now changing towards younger generations, and now, if there is no convenient mobile version for training, most employees will be dissatisfied with the format. On the other hand, we have a large pool of employees in positions, such as technicians and maids, who do not actively use smartphones, so the mobile version of the training will not be relevant for them. So we create different conditions for everyone.
We changed the platform several times in the process, as the company itself changed, grew and scaled, changed its structure, approaches, and goals. Another important point was that the interest in training was periodically decreasing, and we needed to apply more gamification. We are moving towards the point where training has an additional impact on financial motivation, and people who learn receive higher salaries than those who do not want to develop. Our aspiration is for employees to earn conditional points through training that they can exchange. This should further encourage them to study.
Forecasts of trends in HR and learning systems
In the future, companies will compete more in training than in additional motivation. The number of training programs will increase. I am sure that external hospitality schools from management companies will be created in our industry. This will be organized in order to attract new employees through training, as well as to strengthen the brand's reputation.
In addition, gamification will be relevant. The younger our employees become, the more our approach to working with them changes. Therefore, companies will increasingly need to present themselves as an understandable, interesting brand. And such a tool as gamification makes it possible to do this.
Recently, there has been a tendency to move offline. People are somewhat tired of the "zoom" and want to meet in person. Therefore, in my opinion, digitalization in companies will continue to be combined with the offline component.
Operational management of the Ribas Hotels Group hotel. More details follow the link.
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