Abstract: The hotel and hospitality business is made up of skilled workers responsible for the provision of food, accommodation and other services. Standards for the service delivery must be kept high at all times to ensure customer satisfaction. One of the crucial challenges for the human resource management in the hospitability sector is how to align the staffing needs with the strategic goals of the institution and contend with an environment of increased competition and growing demands in the hospitality sector. In view of this, there is the need to identify and tackle the challenges that hamper the delivery of quality services. Ideally, business enterprises should have a clearly defined strategy and set of objectives that direct and drive all the decisions made for training and developmental decisions. Firms that plan their training and development process are more successful than who do not. Most importantly, they normally do not face daunting problems and challenges that are likely to be encountered otherwise. A well-conceived training and development program can help a firm to succeed. A program structured with the company’s strategy and objectives in mind has a high probability of detecting challenges such as human resource requirements for that training and development program, using the appropriate training technique. In view of the above importance of training and development, this study found out the training and development practices in KNUST and SNNIT Guest Houses and the problems and challenges associated with it, evaluate the relative importance of the various training systems and examine how training and development affect productivity in Guest Houses. Descriptive research design was employed with Stratified and convenient sampling methods. After administering questionnaire and conduction of interviews, data was collected and analyzed. It was found out that, majority of respondents rated training as important to their duties at work. The major problems that influence the need for training and development were found to be significant customer activities, fast changing business, new and growing businesses. Majority of the respondents however mentioned significant customer service as the challenge that influences training. Form the researchers recommendations, management at both guest houses must always ensure effective training and development techniques devoid of challenges, since the employees rated training and development as key to productivity. The quality of employees and their development through training and education are major factors in determining long-term profitability of businesses. If companies hire and keep good employees, it is good policy to invest in the development of their skills, so they can increase their productivity. Training often is considered for new employees only. This is a mistake because ongoing training for all employees helps them adjust to rapidly changing job requirements.
Keywords: Staff Training, Customer satisfaction, Job requirements, Human resource, Strategic goals.
Title: Staff Training and Development in the Hospitality Industry, Problems and Challenges – A Comparative Study of SSNIT and KNUST Guest Houses at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana
Author: Grace Acquaful, Victor Dedume, Stella Appiah
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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