BUILDING TRUST with NEW MANAGEMENT
Background of this Organization
This is a luxury boutique hotel located in TST Kowloon of Hong Kong. As the new General Manager on board, she would like to get the TRUST of her staff and build a strong team with results.
Key Training and Learning Points
There were several rounds of informal talks, site visits and communication with the Human Resources Manager to agree on the training content as well as to have a better understanding of the training needs.
Altogether, there were 40 participants; all were department heads from both office and operations. It was divided into two classes for two sessions of training.
The first session of training focused on some leadership and team concepts. Experiential learning activities were included to enhance teamwork and trust. Group assignment with a theme related to “Sustainable and Green hotel” was given to each group for presentation in the next session.
The second session of training mainly recapped on what has been learned from the last session and each group presented their projects.
Results and Feedback
From the observations, as well as from the written feedback from participants, this training was quite successful. Participants built up much better understand with each other and TRUST as a team.
The overall rating of this training was 4.2 out of 5, as their satisfaction of this training. Participants also expressed that they have a positive and good learning experience.
STRATEGIC PLANNING and ENHANCEMENT of DEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS
Background of this Organization
This is a teaching hotel which provided educational and training opportunities for students in the tourism and hospitality industry. Though it is a teaching hotel, this is a "real hotel" same as any 5-star hotel. It is also a case for demonstration of good practices and high standard of service to the customers.
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The hotel is highly rated on Trip Advisor and many other hospitality and hotel booking websites.
Key Training and Learning Points
The management team organized a "Strategic Planning" Session for the next year in a Retreat for the senior staff. The management felt that they needed to build up more inter-departmental communication and teamwork.
All Executive Committee Members of the hotel and all department heads joined this retreat. There were around 20 participants and the theme for this training was "Breaking the Barriers".
The first session started with a few ice-breaking activities and then grouped into small group discussion and sharing on the difficulties and barriers for teamwork among different departments.
The second session focused on the raising the awareness of the current status of the hotel and some of the future challenges that it would face. The Mission and Vision Statements were revisited and discussed for refinement.
Results and Feedback
During theinformal talks with some of the participants, they agreed that they had to re-think their position in the market after a few years of operations. They thought that the training gave them an opportunity to build an even stronger team to meet the future challenges. After all, the retreat was a good learning experience.
EXCELLENT SERVICE
Background of this Organization
This is a newly established training school which mainly focuses on providing training and consulting services to small and chain fruit stores in mainland China. The school has successfully organized different types of trainings for shop owners, shop managers and staff.
Key Training and Learning Points
One of the key objectives of the training is to enhance the knowledge and skills of the participants to understand more on the basics of how to provide excellent service to customers. The contents include understanding the service concepts from a holistic perspective and emphasizing the importance of teamwork. The understanding and application of “Service Flow” of the hospitality industry is quite useful to the participants.
As most of the participants only have basic educational background, the language used had to be very simple and easy to understand.
Results and Feedback
Most participants appreciated the learning of concepts and service approaches from the hospitality industry and they found that it is applicable to their setting. In fact, all service industries are with many common characteristics. The key is to help participants recognize the importance of understanding their customers and then use their sincerity and passion to exceed customer expectations.
SERVICE LEARNING & ECOTOURISM PRACTICES
Background of this Organization
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is the first university in Hong Kong to make Service Learning (SL) as part of the graduation requirement. The School of Hotel Tourism and Management (SHTM) has been ranked world number ONE in various rankings. Ecotourism in Developing Regions is one of the SL subjects offered by the SHTM to all PolyU students.
The objectives of this subject are to:
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Introduce to students the concepts and practice of service learning
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Familiarize students with the concepts and practice of ecotourism
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Develop students’ competence in using ecotourism as a tool for poverty alleviation
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Enhance students’ generic competencies in innovative problem solving, communication and teamwork
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Nurture students’ sense of social awareness, responsibility and engagement.
Key Training and Learning Points
The Subject Learning Outcomes are:
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Link students’ service learning activities and experiences with the academic content of the subject
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Be able to distinguish sustainable ecotourism practices from unethical practices or greenwashing
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Display understanding and application of ecotourism as a tool for poverty alleviation
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Appreciate and use ecotourism for community development
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Apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired in university education to deal with complex issues in the service setting
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Work effectively in teams to solve problems encountered in planning and delivering the service
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Communicate effectively with clients and/or other stakeholders
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Demonstrate empathy for people in need and a sense of civic responsibility
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Reflect on their role and responsibilities both as a professional in their chosen discipline and/or as a responsible citizen
Results and Feedback
This subject has been run by the founder of G & D for the last five years. Various services have been organized for different parts of China and Cambodia as well.
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2014 – Chengdu, China
2015 – Yunnan, China
http://htm2s01.wixsite.com/tjx2015
2016 – Cambodia
http://sarahleunghl.wix.com/sl2016
2017 – Inner-Mongolia
https://htm2s012017.wixsite.com/jideng-gacha-eng
2018 – Yunnan, China
https://yunnansl2018.wixsite.com/yongpingtravel
All projects were well received by different stakeholders such as the local governments, Non-government Organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, local and indigenous communities.
The experience of designing, organizing and implementing of this subject, projects for the local communities, as well as the benefits for students have been recorded, documented and analyzed. Different conference papers and journal papers were written to share the knowledge of all these experiences.
In fact, service learning could also be applied to any organization that would like to establish their “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) and enhance their employees’ service attitude.