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Written by Professional Academy's Business Development Manager Philip Perren
‘People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.’ - Marcus Buckingham
From my experience with the right attitude and a work ethic, that drives you to take on the hours to do what is necessary, you will often progress in your hospitality career. Leading by example and setting the standards for your team will often inspire, but is this the best method for choosing and developing your future leaders?
This approach has always meant you have hard-working staff being promoted into management roles that they do not yet have the skillset or knowledge to perform the tasks they are required to do. Whilst the individual now feels they have recognition and a sense of achievement, the challenge has only just begun.
Without the right training and support this is a recipe that will end up leaving a bad taste and will affect, not just the manager’s motivation, but the team as a whole. It is essential to confront this head on with a structured training programme, which can be implemented earlier rather than later to ensure this situation does not occur. Often individuals will not leave an organisation because the job is bad, but more that they are being poorly managed. A bad manager will have a knock-on effect to the whole operation, within a department or across multiple departments.
When it comes to recruiting a manager, organisations tend to look externally rather than internally. Whilst not always a negative it can be a risk – a new manager can be pivotal in how the team will continue to perform, and a manager sourced externally will have a lot to prove and there is no guarantee how they will perform before they get started either improving, or worsening, the department they are now in charge of. Promoting from within gives all sorts of benefits to a team and assurances for an employer who knows their work ethic, that they can be trusted and with the right support will do very well. You will show that there is opportunity, you will have someone that is known and potentially already respected, but also if you take advantage of the apprenticeship training programme they will have a structured learning outlet, tailored to their needs, to continue their development and give them the tools they need to succeed.
If you do not have the candidates internally now, then this is an opportunity to begin structured training via an apprenticeship to start developing those with potential. In the meantime, if you need to recruit externally, including an apprenticeship programme as part of the recruitment will allow you reassurances that you will be able to immediately enrol them onto a tailored programme of training to ensure the right support is in place from the start. This will also allow you the opportunity to hire a candidate based on their personality and creativity, someone who will fit into the team, and given the right hands-on support, achieve results.
Creating a culture for learning within a hospitality environment shows a commitment from the employer, a culture that means you are taken seriously, as seriously as you are expected to take your job role. Learning will need to always be hands on, and therefore an apprenticeship fits the bill perfectly. A blended approach of training on the job, and off the job – giving a balance to their personal development and commitment to their work for the benefit of themselves.
This is a fantastic opportunity for all to take advantage of an apprenticeship programme that has been given the stamp of approval from industry experts, and aimed at those at all levels of their professional development. The added benefit is that this will be funded through the levy with a bump up of government funding. It is an opportunity to put in place, in each outlet, a programme of training to create your future leaders. Allowing organisations to recruit and promote based on personality, creativity and hard-work, knowing there is a structured programme in place to help give the skills and knowledge to be a real asset to the company.
If you would like to talk to someone from our business development team about the apprenticeship programmes available and how the schemes work, please do contact us via our Apprenticeship contact form, or drop us a call on 01223 365 505 and one of our team members would be happy to have chat at any time.