Discover the value of language training for the hospitality industry with this article.
In an ever-globalized world, communication has become all the more important for businesses. This is no different for those within the hospitality industry, which involves hotels, bars, restaurants, and the like. For these businesses, having high levels of communication—especially in English—is vital as it is a requirement to ensure excellent service quality. English is the top language used in this sector, followed by Spanish, German, French, Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic.
Since catering to tourists and travelers is vital to this industry, one might expect frontliners to have some grasp of the language. But that isn’t always the case. The hospitality industry, like any other sector, faces its own set of issues—including limited language proficiency among frontline staff. This is detrimental to these businesses’ future expansion and growth.
Continue reading this article to learn more about the reality of language proficiency in the hospitality industry and how language training may be the solution this sector needs to fill the gaps it experiences.
The Reality of the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality sector is undoubtedly a massive industry that provides jobs to many. Despite being heavily affected by the global pandemic, it’s expected to face a huge comeback, contributing to the need to hire and relocate workers. One article states, “2022 brought 22 million new jobs to the sector, representing an almost 8% increase since 2021.” This is expected to grow further in the years to come.
With the growing demand for tourism post-pandemic, businesses in this sector look to hire more. Staffing shortages contribute to this issue. This leads to hospitality businesses needing to constantly hire seasonal workers. In fact, “Only 28% of hospitality workers are on full-time hours,” further indicating how reliant these groups are on seasonal and part-time workers.
Moreover, many of these frontliners aren’t fluent in English or the local language. This insight is concerning as limited proficiency makes it difficult for these workers to communicate and do their jobs efficiently.
However, many hospitality companies hesitate to invest in their staff due to high staff turnover and the prioritization of senior staff over contractual workers. These issues are further exacerbated by seasonal employment, perceptions of minimal career growth, and job insecurity among frontline staff.
The Importance of Language Skills in Hospitality: Providing a Competitive Edge
Due to the expected growth of this industry in the upcoming years, finding ways to support and engage frontline staff is vital for hospitality businesses.
Investing in language training helps solve the issues of the hospitality industry. The best part is that over time, these employers will reap the benefits of investing in a language training program—causing it to be more relevant and competitive in the long run.
Here are the benefits of providing language training for frontline hospitality staff:
Communication and language skills
The most important and apparent benefit of language training is that it helps improve workplace communication between frontline staff, line managers, and customers. The hospitality industry is made up of staff that come from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. People of color make up the majority of this workforce.
Because of this, hospitality companies need to support them in strengthening their communication skills. A LinkedIn article mentions that proper coordination is vital in providing high-quality services. Effective communication aids in this. It helps prevent cases of misunderstandings and elevates service quality.
Good language and communication skills allow hospitality businesses to provide better guest experiences at every touch point. The hospitality industry requires many of its frontline staff to face and interact with customers. It also heavily relies on gaining and retaining customer loyalty. So establishing strong customer satisfaction through clear communication can help build the relationship between customers and frontline staff. When frontliners and management understand what customers say about the business, they can explore ways to enhance their services accordingly.
Since language training allows frontliners to gain confidence in their speaking abilities, they become more adept in their roles. This confidence also helps them manage conflicts. In turn, they win customers’ favor. One journal article shows a strong positive link between language proficiency and customers’ ratings, thus proving that providing frontliners with the necessary language training in languages can help them meet customers’ needs. This then leads to increased satisfaction and better customer experience.
Inclusivity and cultural awareness
Language training also helps boost inclusivity and cultural awareness within the workplace. Language learning involves exploring other cultures. With the right solution, it can even serve as an effective way to promote diversity. Implementing this type of solution within hospitality businesses creates more awareness of different cultural nuances. This understanding then helps prepare them to handle a wide array of clients with an open perspective—creating an inclusive environment for clients and themselves.
Talent Retention
Language training fosters employee retention and loyalty. It’s a way to support frontliners in their career progression. One study highlights that when frontliners feel that training has helped enhance their skills and capabilities, their loyalty to the hospitality business and job performance grows. Offering language training, especially as a company benefit, then serves as an effective strategy for retaining frontliners.
Language training can be further strengthened when it isn’t limited to face-to-face training. By implementing a solution that’s available on a variety of platforms, especially on mobile devices, hospitality businesses allow their staff to take learning with them on the go, anytime and anywhere. It can be paired with convenient integration features. Overall, these features allow frontliners to stay consistent in their learning.
The Future Steps: What to Expect from the Industry
Language training is an effective way to build the skills of frontline staff. In the end, this helps ensure positive experiences between them, guests, and management. Hospitality businesses can gain a significant advantage over competitors, keeping them relevant.
With the industry expected to continue growing as more countries promote travel and tourism, hospitality businesses need to start investing in their people, particularly through language training. So start strengthening your hospitality business one step at a time with language training. You can even take it further by pairing it with a solution focused on recruitment.
goFLUENT offers a centralized eLearning platform containing a variety of hospitality-relevant materials and courses from which to learn. This platform is called Language Academy. With it, frontliners can further expand their knowledge and skill set beyond everyday tasks, keeping them engaged and happy.
With goFLUENT, you can have a holistic language training and assessment solution that encourages learning among your frontline staff and provides an improved customer experience.
Explore the benefits of language training with goFLUENT today!
