The fundamental process of developing metrics to measure hotel training success is similar to the process used in other training:

• You identify the processes that you would like to improve.
• You pinpoint and measure key indicators for those processes before your training starts.
• You create training that can bring about changes in those key indicators.
• You monitor those indicators after training has taken place to measure improvements and then continue to measure at regular intervals afterwards.
• You then have a statistical way to evaluate the overall success of your training efforts.

That’s a good game plan. But to get it to work and produce actionable data in the hotel environment, other factors come into play.

We recently found an excellent article, “Measuring the ROI of Training in the Hotel Industry,” that Justin Sun wrote for Hotel Executive. Sun is now a compensation analyst with Lockheed Martin, but earlier in his career he worked as Assistant Housekeeping Manager at The Plaza Hotel in New York, where he helped create training programs and measure their effectiveness. Here’s a summary of some of the reasons he cites why measuring ROI on hotel training can be different from measuring the ROI for other forms of training:

• Top hotel management is often focused on other challenges. Executives and managers are so busy addressing guest complaints and “issues” that it can be hard to convince them customer-service training is also a priority.
• Customer satisfaction rates and online reviews don’t tell the whole story. Sun writes that it is also important to measure certain softer metrics like employee turnover rates, productivity rates and overall profitability.
• Measure “ROE” (“Return on Expectations”) as well as ROI. For example, Sun says that it is important after training to ask managers whether they feel they are serving as better mentors to the people they supervise. “Engagement surveys are useful for evaluating the influence of a training program and building accountability in managers,” he writes. “By focusing on ROE . . . the HR department can build strong relationships with strategic management to show how training can be a crucial component in meeting business goals.” 

Moving the Needle in Hotel and Hospitality Training

If you’re a hotel that has stayed away from training due to other priorities, perhaps it is time to look at what is not working well in your operations and consider how training can help. Even though creating effective hotel and hospitality training can be challenging, the payback can be exceptionally high in customer satisfaction, employee retention and profitability.