Enough with “Training and Development”!

Summer is a great time to be a Prof…..for obviuos reasons!  It is also the time of year when I do most of my heavy reflecting, on my life and the industry I have been a part of for over 30 years!  This last week saw me ‘hook up’ for coffee or a glass of wine with several restauranteurs that are close friends of mine, it was also convocation week at my school and I got to catch up with many of my ex-students.  It is also the time of year where many students are checking in with me via email to tell me about their summer jobs.

The conversations and connections of the last week galvanized what I have been hearing for several years, since I stopped being a restaurateur and started listening!  In almost every conversation I have with them, restauranteurs think that offering ‘training and development’ is the key to winning the hearts and loyalties of employee which will result in  them  staying longer with their organizations.  On the other hand, educated new entrants into our industry are more concerned about their ‘ physical and mental work environment’.   Some of these students will accept the long hours, six and even seven-day work weeks, being on their feet all day for the ‘learning opportunity’ that we provide them, but most will then take this initial learning experience and leave our industry once they realize that there is no light at the end of the tunnel….and I don’t blame them!

All I hear about this time of year is the ‘long hours’, inevitably rewarded with inappropriate compensation.  Most realize very quickly that being a manager means making less dollars  per hour than being a server, please explain to me how that makes any sense?  Last year I had two students meet with me in my office on the verge of tears (one actually did cry)  because of how hard they had been worked in their summer jobs.  The end result of these conversations was that the students had indeed learned a valuable lesson, they sure as hell were not going to continue to forge a career in restaurant operations, not if it meant sacrificing ‘their lives for it”.  Operators, including myself need only look in the mirror to see where the real issue lies.   If we really think about it, most of us provide very unappealing  work environments and we accept it as the norm and a reality that can’t be changed.  I even hear many of my colleagues throughout hospitality schools say  that students need to suck it up, pay their dues with long hours early in their careers.  For what I ask?  Work inexcusable hours early in your career (for crappy pay) so you can move up the ladder and then you will be able to work inexcusable hours in the later years of your careers (for crappy pay)?

There is a ‘reality gap’ in the restaurant industry that people are avoiding.  The gap lies between what is an acceptable work environment for educated new entrants into our industry, the ones that can provide ‘leadership, innovation and change’, and what operators are offering.  Something has to give, something has to change if we are ever going to stop the exodus of bright young people from our industry and I can tell you it is not going to be by changing the ‘values of a generation’. 

Training and development were hot topics du jour when I was growing up in the restaurant industry  and  today  I feel for those that still consider them the remedy to our issue of the retention of great people.  Reflecting on my time in the  business I often felt that my focus on training and development was at the root of any successes I had.  Since leaving industry three years ago, studying a fair bit and  working with various organizations I have come to realize that my own success were in fact generated by two other factors…..trust and relationships!  As an operator today, these are the things I would look to build in my restaurant organization and I would also add a third….time!   Not even gold is as precious as time in our world today and we must consider the ‘time needs’ of employees more than ever.  

Don’t get me wrong, the restaurant business is an incredibly rewarding, wonderful profession that could be a life long career for many of our brightest young people….. but not in its current state.  We can all see that the world is changing at ever-increasing speed and our industry has a lot to catch up on.  The first step is to ‘acknowledge’ the real issue and until we do this I’m afraid we will continue to struggle with retaining our brightest young talent!!

I welcome your comments,

TRP