During the courses I’ve taken at Disney, one thing that I learned that appealed to me most was training and development which is one of the four main parts of human resource management. The article I will be using is “Skills and Training for the Hospitality Sector: a review of issues” by Tom Braum.
This article talks about the skill requirements that is needed from an employee to make it through the hospitality industry but that doesn’t necessarily mean people with low skill level is not fit for a hospitality job. Just because someone does not possess the skills at the moment doesn’t mean they will not obtain the proper skills throughout their hospitality careers. In order for the employee to gain the proper skills needed, they will need proper guidance and leadership from others.
There are basic skills that are needed within every job such as communication and teamwork, but in the hospitality industry there are unique skills that must be obtained such as knife skills if that person wants to be a chef. Though many people can obtain some unique skills, not many can refine these skills. It is important that with training, it should help an employee to refine their skills and learn how to adapt to changes.
The article continues with talking about how skills can be obtained but skills can also be lost through de-skilling. In order for someone to maintain their skills, that person will need to sharpen it by challenging themselves and not let mistakes get the best of them. With de-skilling, it doesn’t just affect one person but also the hospitality industry itself. Since fast food has been more popular, there has been a lost in traditional service which led to the decrease in skill requirements for certain restaurants.
Overall I believe that what this article is saying is that everyone can have skills and talent but it’s up to the person to get the proper training and development to help themselves surpass their own limits. Just because a person got trained already doesn’t mean that they know everything. Training and development should happen occasionally to make sure the skills are still up to par and improve on those skills that are lacking or falling off. A company may hire an unskilled employee, but with the proper guidance and training, that person may become one of their most skillful employees.
I also took the human resource management class and learned a lot. Training and development is the topic I focused on for our group project. I do agree with the article when it says that just because they don’t have the skills doesn’t mean that can’t be learned trough training. I agree because I’ve seen it myself when they hire new staff at my job in NYC that don’t know anything that has to do with pastries but they learn through training and guest interactions and end up leaving with why more then they came in knowing. I think skills I learned through experience that’s why it disappoints me when job listing say 2-3 years of experience for a job that someone can a acquire the skills through training.