No learning department is an island, isolated from the rest of the organization. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts North America knew this when it embarked on a massive initiative to improve guest service. The only way to do it successfully was to create a partnership between the corporate operations team and the learning function, each bringing its own expertise to the table.
"Our team provided the learning aspect, [and] the operations group became the subject matter experts," said Christy Sinnott, vice president of learning and development at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts North America. "[Now] they are the face of our major training initiatives, and we are really the support division to help them be successful."
In its first year, this guest-service initiative trained 1,000 front-desk and restaurant managers from more than 120 hotels across North America on service delivery. Four years later, Hyatt hasn't stopped the process. The organization is retraining two to three guest-facing departments each year on service-delivery expectations to ensure hotels consistently meet the changing needs of their customers.
"In year one, we developed the front-desk materials. In year three, those all had to be revised, so it's a constant evolution," Sinnott said. "I think the process will never be done because as the needs of our guests evolve, it requires us to go back and make those changes in our service delivery."
This evolving partnership is a priority at Hyatt because it's the competitive edge. There are many beautiful hotels to choose from, but appearance is not enough. According to Hyatt's customer data, what differentiates these hotels is the service experience.
"The senior team knew that hotel appearance alone [did] not ensure we [were] the preferred brand for our guests," Sinnott said. "As a result, in tandem with physical upgrades to our hotels, we had to elevate the level of service delivery."
The learning team collaborated with the corporate operations group to create training that was relevant and realistic. Without this partnership, it would have been learning in a vacuum without connection to the business or the day-to-day operations of the hotel staff.
"One of the things we've learned in this process is we both bring value to the equation," said Paul Daly, vice president of food and beverage at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts North America. "Christy and her team bring a level of expertise that far exceeds what I or anyone on my team has from a training or learning environment standpoint. And conversely, on the operations side, we have a level of expertise with what's going to work, what's realistic [and] what's viable from a hotel prospective.
"I've been with Hyatt 20 years; I spent 17 of them in the field," Daly said. "But the minute you're not in a hotel, you can't say [you've] got your finger on the pulse because you're not there. You really need to stay in tune with what the hotels are experiencing [and what] the business climate is."
Once the production work is done, the managers are trained by the operations team. While the actual training content and delivery may change from year to year, all the managers still come to a central location, and there is a balance between internal expertise and external consultants.
"When we needed to focus on professional presentation skills, we used an improv group to come in an lead some workshops on how improv can help in service recovery or employee engagement," Sinnott said. "We didn't want to be perceived as the subject matter experts in everything, and we wanted to bring in external perspectives on how we could be better, as well."
Once the managers are trained, they go back to their hotels and train their employees. As a result, managers not only had to understand the service-delivery expectations, but they also had to learn how to train others. Ultimately, giving managers a role in this process instilled a sense of ownership, Sinnott said, and helped them become better leaders.
"By involving and engaging [them] in the role of training, they develop [and] strengthen relationships with their own staff," she explained. "Stronger communication skills, more interaction and more feedback and coaching: All of those aspects help them [to] become better leaders in their role[s]."
To chart its progress with guest service, Hyatt analyzes its guest survey data on a monthly and quarterly basis to see if this training is having an impact. The process of evaluation, though, is one of continual analysis, evolution and progress.
"We're able to keep a very good pulse on where we are making progress and where have areas of opportunity,
Additionally, retention has increased in the departments that have participated in this training.
"While I think retention is a difficult thing to pin down and [say] it's specifically because of training, we have seen [it] increase since this period of time," Sinnott said.
Even beyond the guest-service initiative, Sinnott's team works to create learning that is closely aligned with Hyatt's mission and goals.
"Our [company's] mission is to provide authentic hospitality; our goal is to be the preferred brand," Sinnott said. "[In] everything we do as a [learning] group, we [ask], 'How does it relate back to the mission of the organization?
In a 24x7 environment in which guests can be checking in at 10 p.m. or checking out at 6 a.m., the challenge is to design content that is flexible and creative. And that's what Sinnott enjoys - the chance to be innovative day in and day out.
"It's not a job I come in and I feel like I'm doing the same thing every day," she said. "In fact, it's the exact opposite."
For learning to be effective at Hyatt, it needs to fit into the work environment, so the learning department has to work around the schedules of Hyatt's 40,000 employees. For example, some days, general managers (GMs) only have a few minutes to spare right before their day begins. To meet this time demand, Hyatt developed short podcasts that could be listened to as the GMs' schedules allowed.
"The idea of taking someone out of the workplace for a significant period of time is not really an option for me," Sinnott said. "[We have to] understand the operation priorities and how we as an organization support those priorities and work with them in tandem to figure out how to make that blend happen."
Another way to get content to learners is through pre-shift meetings, where managers will bring their staffs together for five to 10 minutes before a shift starts.
"We will parcel a lot of content into five- and 10-minute segments," Sinnott said. "It might be something that's 30 minutes, [and] we cut it down into three 10-minute segments and it's delivered in a pre-shift over a week. It fits within the workday, and it sets the tone, the priority, for the day and reinforces service delivery."
Hyatt's learning function tries to use opportunities that already exist, such as the pre-shifts, to dispense learning.
"A key focus in our group is how we can use our current infrastructure and be [creative]," Sinnott said. "[So we look] for those small opportunities that may be easy to take advantage of [and] are easily accessible by employees."
As she looks ahead, Sinnott sees opportunity to utilize Hyatt's new global learning management system that was launched in the first quarter of this year. Going forward, the goal is to centralize the learning resources around the globe.
"Our next step is focusing on individual employee development [and] creating individual development plans," Sinnott explained. "We don't recognize a one-size-fits-
"They have different career aspirations, whether they want to be the best front-desk clerk at Hyatt or they want to move to manager or general manager. It's important we understand what those are and [use] the resources in the learning management system to help them get there."
Hyatt's senior leadership supports Sinnott's learning endeavors. Just as learning groups cannot function as an island, senior management cannot cast them away.
"Our senior team is very involved in learning," she said. "They have great ideas, they love to share ideas, they're very open to feedback, and they take a lot of ownership [in learning]. And I love that."