ALKHOBAR, 27 September 2003 — There is a lot of talk about effective job training in Saudi Arabia but it is difficult to find good examples of organizations who have already implemented training programs.
Two years ago, Le Gulf Meridien incorporated Le Meridien Group’s “Commitment to Excellence” program into the hotel’s on the job skill enhancement curriculum. Now, Michael Nugent, general manager of Le Gulf Meridien, has announced that every member of the hotel’s staff have graduated from the Commitment to Excellence course.
“It has taken two years of intensive activity, but now every staff member at Le Gulf Meridien has been thoroughly enlightened on the standard of service expected throughout Le Meridien Group and the best methods for delivering this service standard,” said Nugent.
“Our next effort will be to translate key portions of the Commitment to Excellence training program into Arabic in order to facilitate training as part of our Saudization effort,” he added.
Nugent explained that customer service is the most important element in the hospitality industry today. “What makes the difference to customers is how they are treated,” he commented. “Chandeliers and swimming pools are nice touches, but the customer cares first about service. At any hotel, the back of the house works hand in hand with the customer facing staff. So all employees must understand the service standard and all that goes into creating it. If a chef prepares a dry, tasteless sandwich, no matter how well it’s served, the sandwich will still be terrible. The entire team at this hotel must be committed to excellence for us to succeed.”
Prashant Sharma, Le Gulf Meridien’s revenue manager, added that each staff member must follow through on their responsibilities or the entire team suffers.
“It’s the responsibility of the hotel’s marketing department to work hard to get customers in the door. Then it is up to the hotel’s house staff to retain them. Competition is increasing in the Kingdom’s hospitality business,” said Sharma. “Customers care about service now — not how our service was six months ago.”
George Rooff, Le Gulf Meridien’s training manager, believes the Commitment to Excellence program should be classified as a learning experience rather than training. Thirty-nine of the hotel’s employees, including seven Saudis made up the final group to graduate from the course. The program took place over 8 days with two hours of attention daily given to various themes. The entire focus of the program was on how to provide professional services to the hotel’s guests. The employees learned such concepts as body language, effective listening, responding appropriately and customer care in all situations.
“Implementing this learning experience required commitment to an adequate training budget from our management. The entire staff has been appreciative of that gesture,” said Roof.
“We will continue to move forward aggressively with staff skill enhancement opportunities. These include cross exposure training where junior management level employees of one department work in another department or even another hotel. We also will continue to send our executives abroad to Institute International Meridien in France.
“This enables our senior management to be best informed about advances and trends in the hospitality industry, which we can then bring here to Le Gulf Meridien for the benefit of our guests,” he added.