Poor Training, Hostile Work Environment and Low Work Performance: A Case Study of Training from a Young Employees Perspective
Author: Ana Pitka
1 Commentries
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to investigate poor training of young employees and how that impacts their work performance within the hospitality industry, whilst also referring to manager involvement and the ways they can help to better training as a strategy in the workplace.
Key words:
Poor training, Training strategies, Young employees, Work performance, Work environment, Manager Involvement, Hospitality.
Discussion:
The hospitality industry is a major social and economic success in the UK (United Kingdom), providing 3-5% of employment with a significant proportion being female workers, young workers, and workers from different minority ethnic backgrounds that fulfil the roles needed to be occupied. They are often to be seen employed for positions such front-of-house and back-of-house staff for instance like waiters and waitresses, kitchen porters, and others. These roles are often considered to be low entry because they do not require a qualification in which requires industry knowledge or necessary previous experience. As such, individuals are hired to enhance their skills and gain experience to have the opportunity to progress in their career.
Young people are referred to be in the age range of 15 to 24 years old, and before the pandemic, employers within the hospitality industry found themselves employing them because they are easier to train and prepare for the working environment. Regarded as the main source of labour supply, young people play an important part in the dynamics of the workforce within the hospitality industry. Barham et a. (2009) supports this by adding that the hospitality industry provides labour that is convenient to young people because they are attracted to the jobs that provide flexibility and do not require any necessary experience or qualifications as intermittently individuals are inexperienced and unskilled coming out of education and are expected to receive training.
Employee training is a crucial strategy that is used to shift people into an organisation which will give them the opportunity to develop skills – soft and hard, that would be crucial for an individual’s work performance and efficiency. Several academics have found that there are several types of training that are used by employers to train their employees and is critical in determining their commitment and job satisfaction towards their role within the workplace. These include formal, informal, on-the-job, off-the-job, online and in-person. The most common type of training is considered to be on-the-job and in-person because it is used as a tool to allow individuals gain experience when working in situations they may encounter on an everyday basis. This not only helps to reduce the stress of the employees and provides them motivation to work in ways that will help benefit them personally and professionally (Karim et al., 2019).
When considering the effectiveness of on-the-job training it has been noted that the strategy has been widely abused by crew trainers to train new employees. Whilst it is an approach used to provide knowledge and develop skills, young people are more likely to feel like that they are not reckoned with seriously because they are significantly inexperienced than crew trainers. As such, individuals are more likely to be thrown ‘into the deep end’ to fend for themselves and learn on the job instead which produces the idea of poor training. Due to this, young employees can be subjected to a hostile work environment because of the lack of knowledge of the role that they have been employed for. Hughes et al., (2019) found that it is key for a business in hospitality, especially food and beverage like services, to have a peer supportive environment which helps to sustain a stable and health work environment, given the prospect for young employees to transition into the organisation. Unfortunately, this is not true for every business in hospitality.
The issue of poor training essentially is that it is conceivably less likely to motivate young employees to act diligently because the skills and knowledge that they need are insufficient to bring about efficient service to customers which subjects them to dissatisfaction and a loss for the business. When entering a new workplace, individuals are expected to learn and be taught by those employees that are more experienced than them, and when that opportunity has not occurred, the lack of empowerment within the workplace produces poor work performance and increased levels of stress which can cause a burnout work culture.
Consequently, the issue with poor training in hospitality is the lack of management involvement. Business should consider conducting follow-ups after a short period of time that the training has been carried out to ensure that the employees have been upskilled noticeably more than when they began employment. This to ensure that they are provided with support and are able to provide feedback that can help bring about insight for any improvements in regard to employee training for forthcoming employees. Therefore, the recommendation would be for managers to be supportive and actively contribute to the employee’s development within the workplace by establishing approaches such as coaching or job rotations to help young employees feel more involved and challenge them perform better within the workplace.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate poor training of young employees and how that impacts their work performance within the hospitality industry, whilst also referring to manager involvement and the ways they can help to better training as a strategy in the workplace.
Key words:
Poor training, Training strategies, Young employees, Work performance, Work environment, Manager Involvement, Hospitality.
Discussion:
The hospitality industry is a major social and economic success in the UK (United Kingdom), providing 3-5% of employment with a significant proportion being female workers, young workers, and workers from different minority ethnic backgrounds that fulfil the roles needed to be occupied. They are often to be seen employed for positions such front-of-house and back-of-house staff for instance like waiters and waitresses, kitchen porters, and others. These roles are often considered to be low entry because they do not require a qualification in which requires industry knowledge or necessary previous experience. As such, individuals are hired to enhance their skills and gain experience to have the opportunity to progress in their career.
Young people are referred to be in the age range of 15 to 24 years old, and before the pandemic, employers within the hospitality industry found themselves employing them because they are easier to train and prepare for the working environment. Regarded as the main source of labour supply, young people play an important part in the dynamics of the workforce within the hospitality industry. Barham et a. (2009) supports this by adding that the hospitality industry provides labour that is convenient to young people because they are attracted to the jobs that provide flexibility and do not require any necessary experience or qualifications as intermittently individuals are inexperienced and unskilled coming out of education and are expected to receive training.
Employee training is a crucial strategy that is used to shift people into an organisation which will give them the opportunity to develop skills – soft and hard, that would be crucial for an individual’s work performance and efficiency. Several academics have found that there are several types of training that are used by employers to train their employees and is critical in determining their commitment and job satisfaction towards their role within the workplace. These include formal, informal, on-the-job, off-the-job, online and in-person. The most common type of training is considered to be on-the-job and in-person because it is used as a tool to allow individuals gain experience when working in situations they may encounter on an everyday basis. This not only helps to reduce the stress of the employees and provides them motivation to work in ways that will help benefit them personally and professionally (Karim et al., 2019).
When considering the effectiveness of on-the-job training it has been noted that the strategy has been widely abused by crew trainers to train new employees. Whilst it is an approach used to provide knowledge and develop skills, young people are more likely to feel like that they are not reckoned with seriously because they are significantly inexperienced than crew trainers. As such, individuals are more likely to be thrown ‘into the deep end’ to fend for themselves and learn on the job instead which produces the idea of poor training. Due to this, young employees can be subjected to a hostile work environment because of the lack of knowledge of the role that they have been employed for. Hughes et al., (2019) found that it is key for a business in hospitality, especially food and beverage like services, to have a peer supportive environment which helps to sustain a stable and health work environment, given the prospect for young employees to transition into the organisation. Unfortunately, this is not true for every business in hospitality.
The issue of poor training essentially is that it is conceivably less likely to motivate young employees to act diligently because the skills and knowledge that they need are insufficient to bring about efficient service to customers which subjects them to dissatisfaction and a loss for the business. When entering a new workplace, individuals are expected to learn and be taught by those employees that are more experienced than them, and when that opportunity has not occurred, the lack of empowerment within the workplace produces poor work performance and increased levels of stress which can cause a burnout work culture.
Consequently, the issue with poor training in hospitality is the lack of management involvement. Business should consider conducting follow-ups after a short period of time that the training has been carried out to ensure that the employees have been upskilled noticeably more than when they began employment. This to ensure that they are provided with support and are able to provide feedback that can help bring about insight for any improvements in regard to employee training for forthcoming employees. Therefore, the recommendation would be for managers to be supportive and actively contribute to the employee’s development within the workplace by establishing approaches such as coaching or job rotations to help young employees feel more involved and challenge them perform better within the workplace.