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What kind of
people does a five star hotel need? This
is a question posted by both the hotel management and many applicants.
In the recent 10 years, and following the internationalization of the
hospitality industry, the structure and source of hotel staff have changed a
lot. In the early
1990¡¯s, there were only a few five star hotels in Shanghai. These hotels, with
their professional management and relatively high pay scale, attracted a lot of
young people with good education and a supposedly high quality style.
These people had impressed others as a young, well-educated, smart and
high-income group. However,
following the reform and openness of China, more and more multinational
companies have invested in China. Many
new and high-growth industries such as manufacturing, telecommunication and IT,
have been expanding swiftly. A large number of hotel employees had thus been
drawn out from the hospitality industry to join these industries. Now, no one
can accurately quantify as to how many hotels in Shanghai, and it has become an
ordinary affair to be employed by a five star hotel. Therefore, the perceptions
of hotel employees have also changed, to that of an environment of a
hardworking, complicated relationship with qualifications of a low-level
diploma; many hotel staffs aim to practising English with resident westerners,
and, having acquired the language skills of English, then go out to find other
career opportunities. The ideas of
applicants have therefore affected the recruitment and training of specialized
staff of five star hotels. So it¡¯s necessary for us to understand what kind of
employees that the five star hotel would need. 1
Major requirements
The major
requirements mean the skills of hotel services. There are many skills and rules
in the hotel services, such as the skills of customer services, phone call
manners, complaints handling, etc. If
you do not know or possess these skills, the hotel will arrange you to get the
proper training. Usually, to work
in a five star hotel, you have to accept the systematic, effective and
specialized training. And it is not
the key issue whether your education is high or not, as long as it¡¯s good
enough for your position. However,
if you do want to pursue a senior management position, you must have the high
education background in addition to the specialized skills for improving the
services and standards of the hotel. 2
Language skills
Five star
hotels are internationalized with guests from all over the world.
So it is important to understand some foreign language, especially
English. Also, hotels will provide
all kinds of training to improve your language abilities, as well as your
communication skills. 3
Personal qualities
The five
star hotels pay more attention to the candidates¡¯
personal qualities, which include integrity, behavior, style of conversation,
even the pronunciation and clarity of English, etc.
It is a known fact that the quality of applicants has been decreasing.
So, it is helpful to have a good working habit. The
hotel can train you on how to standardize yourself on these qualities.
It will also help your future work and life. 4
Sense of service (service level)
The
sense of service (service level) is the soul of the hotel/hospitality industry.
To gain the satisfaction of customers has been the long pursuing objective of
hotels, especially for five star hotels. They
try to provide customer oriented and personalized services.
Hotel training classes emphasize on the levels and sense of service of
their staff. So the applicants to
any employment in a five star hotel must have the sense of focusing on the
customers first. That is a very
important issue. 5 Attitude
The
applicants must have the attitude of working hard and ambitious.
In a way, the attitude decides on your career prospects.
The wrong attitude may lower the quality of the hotel employees. For
instance, someone may choose to sit in the office than be a waiter in the hotel;
however, these people must think about the following questions: Is sitting in
the office helpful to you? Is that
your career? Is that your
specialty? And so on and so forth.
In
the past, the recruitment resources are graduates from professional schools; but
nowadays, a lot of graduates with good English skills choose to go to
universities. If their objectives
cannot be met, they would rather stay at home.
This is one of the causes that lower the quality of hotel applicants. The
ideas that, the position in a five star hotel is only a means to an end, or that
hotel industry is not helpful to one¡¯s career development, are not correct at
all. There are many divisions in
the hotel that can provide a lot of
opportunities for the employees,
such as, finance, administration, management, services, engineering, information
technology, etc. Those who have
specialty will have many chances to develop.
Also the hotel can provide a very good working environment. Most
of the five star hotels are global players, so there are many opportunities for
the staff to take training and improve themselves; sometimes, some good
companies will also send employees overseas for training. The
requirements mentioned above seem to be simple.
In addition, patience and experience are also important factors.
I hope that this article is helpful to those who want to start their
career in the hotel industry. |
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