Get in training!

[L-R]Rinaldo Boscaro, Alexandre Maurisseau, Sandra van Reenen, Dominique Morin and Naji Esta

Maurisseau: In the old days, the difference between what one property and a new competitor offered could be almost triple. But when the crisis started, many of these new players cut positions, which made staff appreciate that money wasn’t everything.

Van Reenen: But looking at the past three years or so, I think a lot of training aspects were cut during the economic downturn, and I can’t help but wonder how that impacted the personal development plans of employees at properties where this was the case.

I think many hotels in this area were affected by that — but I personally believe training is even more essential during periods of instability.

Story continues below

Boscaro: We actually increased training, specifically to retain staff and because there was more time. It’s not only beneficial for the employees but also the brand, because they are then more useful to our sister properties as well and can potentially be promoted.

Morin: In 2007 or 2008 it was very busy — we were asking people to work a lot of overtime, so it was difficult to actually train them. But like many hotels, we stopped overtime last year and now I am finding people coming and asking me for training. So there is a demand coming from the associates themselves, which is great to see.
 

In what capacity do you make use of external learning courses and services?

Morin: We use a lot of online training actually, working with hospitality schools such as e-Cornell, so our students can complete modules and ‘graduate’ online.

We also bring chefs from other properties and countries to train the staff, which is a great opportunity to learn new techniques.

Van Reenen: We also have e-Cornell available; obviously we’re still in the opening phase, but these courses should work well in line with a person’s development plan.

We also have My Fairmont e-Global Learning, and we’re in the process of moving forward with that, which is available across the Fairmont brand.

Then we have FAME, the Fairmont Artistic Mixology Experience, where we have celebrity mixologist Kathy Casey come and pass on her expertise and helps develop our cocktail menus and so on. So that is incredibly useful for our bartenders.

There is still a lot more out there — we’d like to offer items like WSET training for those interested in the sommelier field — but we’ll look at these more selective trainings as we move forward.
 

What’s the biggest challenge you face when it comes to F&B training?

Morin: It takes time to train people. Even though we are less busy in F&B than before, we have less people — even properties that did not make redundancies probably did not fill vacated roles when people left. So operations have become more streamlined and, as a result, time is still an issue.

Maurisseau: Balancing operational needs and training needs is definitely tough.

Boscaro: It’s a bit of a vicious circle — business goes down and they don’t cut you workforce as such, but staff are moved to other properties and you’re left with a skeleton team.

Still, training has to go on — but it can put a dent in operations.

Guest satisfaction will go down because employees are not there, in the same way that if the employees are not training their satisfaction goes down. It’s hard to know what to do anymore!