Job Training

Part I: The Importance of Training

A new employee in the job of Banquet and Conference Services Manager will need training so that they can be as effective as possible in their job function. Although the new employee will come to the Statler with at least two years of experience in banquets or catering, there are still many skills to be learned or improved upon. Through the needs analysis that was conducted with the current manager, we found that even the best employees can always use a little more training. Even though the new employee may come with experience under their belt, they still need to be trained to do their job within the Statler organization. Since most new employees in this position come from a corporate background, they need to be acclimated to the Statler and its unique culture and position as a teaching hotel. The employee also has the need to be trained in just what their duties on the job are, beyond what the job description tells them. This type of training needs to be done within the first weeks that the employee is on the job, so that they can perform their job function as effectively as possible.

Management skills in particular are not usually fully developed until someone has been working as a manager for years, and even then, there is often room for improvement. Since the new employee in this situation may only have two years experience, and in what may have been a limited managerial role; management training is necessary. By participating in a training program, managers can make more informed decisions in their management capacity. One area that the needs analysis found training to be necessary is in the human resources side of this management position. Thus, one of the key areas a new manager will be trained in his how to hire, fire, and retain good employees. Leadership and teamwork skills are an integral part of working at the Statler. Thus, the training programs allow the new employee the ability to grow their leadership skills and learn how to function well in a team and develop teams among those that they supervise.

Part II: Training Objectives

1. Familiarize the new employee to the Statler culture and operations. The employee should be able to state how their job functions within the whole Statler organization.

2. The new employee will learn what are the responsibilities of their job at the Statler and the correct way to perform their key duties. Within two weeks the employee should be able to manage the functions of the banquet and conference services department with only limited help from other managers.

3. Management development, enhance upon the employee s current management skills so that they may become more effective managers. Evaluate and improve skills relating to human resources. The employee should understand and be able to discuss and the proper techniques for hiring, employee retention, and firing.

4. Improve management leadership skills, so that the manager can more effectively manage their employees. Manager should be able to interact with and work in a team environment on a regular basis. Manager should be able to divide his subordinates into functional team groups to maximize their effectiveness.

Part III: Training Schedule: See attached sheet

Part IV: Evaluation Process

The evaluation process is multi-part because the employee is going to be trained in such a breadth of topics. The first two objectives, understanding the employee s place in the Statler and its culture, and being able to perform their job function with only limited assistance can be evaluated together. After the employee has been on the job for three weeks, the Banquet Dept. head should sit down and meet with the new manager. The department head should discuss with the manager their level of understanding about their job. Additionally, the department head should speak with the employee s coworkers informally to see if they have any constructive criticism for the job that the new manager is doing. The Banquet Dept. head should prepare a performance appraisal for the employee that should state the employee s current level of acclamation to their job. This appraisal should then be presented to the employee and discussed with the department head so that the employee can work on the areas in which they are weak. The appraisal should be presented as something that is purely to help the employee, not as something that will affect things like raises, etc.

The employee s human resource skills, the third objective, will be evaluated in two ways. The first way that the skills will be evaluated is in an interactive test that will be given both before and after training with the Retention and Motivation CD-ROM from the AH&MA. This test will evaluate the employee s skill improvement after they have completed all of the training parts of the CD-ROM. The employee s skills will also be evaluated in an objective fashion by the employee s supervisor, the banquet dept. head. The skills will be given an initial ranking after the head s meeting with the employee in the beginning of training. The dept. head will do a performance appraisal approximately two months after the employee has started. As part of this appraisal, the head will distribute anonymous evaluations to the supervisor s subordinates that ask about his/her motivational skills. This appraisal will evaluate the employee s current human resource skills as well as his/her level of improvement from starting at the Statler.

The team building skills of the employee will also be evaluated in multiple steps. The evaluation will come after step one of the training process, the Increasing Teamwork: Productivity video. Simple tests that quiz about the basics of teamwork will be given to the employee before and after and their performance accordingly evaluated. From the dept. head s meeting with the employee initially, a framework of teamwork skills to work on will be developed. The team retreat will help the employee to further develop his/her skills in this area as well. About two months after the employee has been hired, the dept. head should determine the change in the employee s level of teamwork skills. This evaluation should cover both the manager s ability to work within teams as well as to form then amongst his subordinates.