The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far-reaching. The hospitality industry has taken measures against COVID-19 in two ways. One has been the increased sanitization and new cleaning protocols. The other has been the decline in business for hotels. The idea of traveling and staying in an environment attended to by strangers can seem risky to potential customers. And this decrease in travel has hit the hospitality industry financially.
Other issues that have arisen from this decrease in business include supply-chain issues, necessitating hotels to carefully manage resources. One way the hospitality industry can mitigate the financial loss from the pandemic is through improved training manuals. These manuals typically cover a wide range of topics, including company policies and procedures, job responsibilities, and required skills and knowledge. Training manuals can ensure that your current and future employees have the training to help adapt to new practices adopted during the pandemic, as well as perform their jobs at an optimal and efficient level.
Why The Hospitality Industry Needs Updated Training Manuals
Training manuals are a valuable tool in any industry. Even before the pandemic, employee training manuals were an essential piece of documentation for businesses. The hospitality industry especially requires updated training manuals. The decline in business for hotels due to COVID-19 has meant that employees have to work harder to satisfy customers’ concerns, while also working efficiently to manage the hotel’s resources.
In fact, one of the financial impacts on the hospitality industry from the pandemic is potential layoffs. This has created a need to up-skill or re-skill the hospitality industry’s labor force in order to ensure that current employees can perform extra work if needed. And for future employees to be able to easily transition back into the workforce once the industry is back on the rise. Training manuals can help speed this process up, so all of your employees can be ready from day one.
Hospitality training manuals primarily focus on instructional courses that train employees to do so. Some of these practices that have been adopted include increased cleaning and sanitization of the building or managing the use of resources to adapt to supply chain issues. By adopting these new procedures, you can ensure that visitors are able to have a safe stay. You also guarantee the health of your employees by implementing safer methods for them to perform. This will also lessen the chance of an outbreak in your hotel. The implementation of all these practices will assuredly lead to improved customer satisfaction and retention.
5 Benefits of Training Manuals for the Hospitality Industry
There are many benefits that come with having adequate training material. The top five most important are listed below:
Consistency: Training manuals help ensure that all employees are held to the same standards and receive equal training. This consistency helps ensure that guests receive a consistent and satisfying experience, no matter which employee is serving them.
Efficiency: Training manuals can help reduce the resources and time required to train new employees. By providing a clear, structured guide to the job, employees can quickly learn the necessary skills and start performing their job duties effectively.
Improved Quality: By providing detailed instructions and best practices, training manuals can help employees perform their jobs more effectively, leading to higher quality service and a better overall guest experience.
Safety: In the hospitality industry, safety is a top concern. Training manuals can help ensure that employees are aware of safety procedures and know how to respond in case of an emergency.
Customer Satisfaction: Ultimately, the hospitality industry is all about creating a positive guest experience. By providing employees with the skills and knowledge they need to perform their jobs effectively, training manuals can help ensure that guests receive the best service possible, leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction and increased business profits.
What Technical Writers Can Offer for Hospitality Training Manuals
The best course of action for creating training manual documentation for a hotel is through hiring a technical writer. EDC’s technical writers are the perfect choice given their previous experience with creating training materials for other companies. Hiring a technical writer to create employee training manuals comes with this success because their skills are well-suited for such a task. These skills include clear and direct writing, technical expertise on a subject, as well as designing the layout of your documentation. These three features are the essential requirements for a well-crafted training manual. This is because these three things add up to a more engaging learning experience.
A technical writer can provide an engaging training manual in these ways:
Design:
The design of a training manual is as important as the content. Technical writers take design into account by considering the best way to learn the material, as well as what context the training is taking place, such as whether it is remote or not. By having a well-designed manual, users can easily navigate through the course material and have an easier time learning. Technical writers can do this by labeling the instructional material from beginners to advanced and listing out the tasks for the course, so users can progress through the material naturally. In addition, technical writers can identify whether a specific subject is better taught through visual aids or written out instructions. Taking all these design elements into account is an effective way to create engaging training content.
Technical Expertise:
To create the content for your training manual, the writer needs to understand the subject well. For the hospitality industry, this translates into being able to identify both what subjects to teach, as well as what type of method to do so. And with new regulations brought by the pandemic, technical writers are also up to date on these new updates. So, technical writers can take into account what learning methods fit a training manual for your business. These methods can range from courses to learning new methods, prospective hires shadowing employees, or specified training for the technology your staff operates.
Clear communication:
When it comes to training manuals, the writing should be clear and direct. The writing skills of a technical writer allow for this, as they can break down the course materials into concise terms. The writer of the training manual is in charge of the course material and training methods. So, by choosing a technical writer you can ensure that your training documentation is easily accessible to as many people as possible. Which in turn would lead to increased employee productivity.
The Layout of A Training Manual
A technical writer employs their design, technical, and communication skills to craft a well-formatted training manual suitable for hospitality employees. All parties in the company should be aware of the proper layout of a sufficient training manual so proper protocols and training methods can be carried out.
Here is the proper layout of an employee training manual:
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Introduction: The introduction should provide an overview of the manual and explain its purpose. It should also introduce the company and its mission, vision, and values.
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Job Description: This section should provide a detailed description of the employee’s job responsibilities, including the tasks they will be expected to perform, the skills they will need, and any special requirements for the position.
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Policies and Procedures: This section should outline the company’s policies and procedures, including its code of conduct, attendance policy, and other important rules that employees must follow.
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Safety Procedures: This section should outline the company’s safety procedures and any special safety requirements that are relevant to the employee’s position.
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Training and Development: This section should provide information about any additional training or development opportunities that are available to employees, including on-the-job training, workshops, and other resources.
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Benefits and Compensation: This section should provide information about the employee’s benefits and compensation package, including health insurance, retirement plans, and other perks that are available.
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Glossary: A glossary of terms and acronyms should be included at the end of the manual to help employees understand any technical jargon or terminology used throughout the document.
Training manuals are an essential part of any business. For hotels and others in the hospitality industry, this is especially true given the events of the pandemic. The risk of contracting COVID may put people off traveling. This in turn leads to worse business. However, with updated hospitality industry training manuals that take into account hygienic practices, you help lessen this problem. By reassuring potential visitors of your hotel’s cleanliness, you can increase business during this difficult time for the hospitality industry. And in addition, you ensure excellent service from all your employees, leading to skilled workers and improved customer satisfaction.
How EDC Can Help
Whether you need a team of consultants to produce a complete line of documentation or a single technical writer for a brief project, Essential Data’s Engagement Manager will lead the project from start to finish. At Essential Data Corporation, we guarantee the quality of our work. Contact us today to get started. (800) 221-0093 or sales@edc.us
Written by Stanley Chu
