Personalised career pathways in hospitality: The key to retaining and developing staff

At Access Hospitality, we are adept at finding innovative solutions to industry challenges; our LMS offers simple but powerful opportunities for hospitality businesses to develop and engage their staff. One of these is the ability to easily create personalised career pathways. 

In this article, we’ll look at why career pathways are so important for successful hospitality brands, and the best way to implement them across your business. 

Importance of offering career pathways to your hospitality staff

Lack of progression opportunities is often quoted as a key reason for large numbers of staff leaving the industry. Research conducted by Caterer.com showed that employees rated career progression as a more important factor than even salary when it came to staying in a business.  

However, that doesn’t give the full picture. This study carried out by CGA on behalf of Access CPL Learning suggests that it’s not necessarily about a perceived lack of opportunities in the industry as a whole. They found that 58% of frontline hospitality workers reported that they believe the sector offers good career opportunities.  

The problem seems to be more about employees feeling as though they aren’t being allowed to develop professionally. Despite a general awareness that career development is possible in hospitality, only 38% of respondents said they had a clear career pathway. 

All of this makes it clear that one of the most important considerations when it comes to retaining hospitality staff is not only making sure they have a clear understanding of their potential career progression but also putting in place a plan to make it happen.  

Creating a clear and robust career pathway for your employees can add significant value to your hospitality business. It’s not just about staff retention, it’s also about ensuring they remain invested in the success of the business. Employees who can envision a future with your brand and take pride in their work will be more likely to invest their energy into doing the best possible job. This engagement in continuous improvement is further strengthened when they can see and understand what they need to achieve to earn their next promotion.  

CGA’s research showed that more than half of staff who intended for their time in hospitality to be short-term would remain for longer if their employers invested more in training and progression. 

The potential downside to doing this is the knowledge that even when you do everything right, some team members will still leave, taking with them the value that you have invested in them. This is why it’s so important to create a culture of transparency so that staff with short-term aspirations can be honest about this

Key steps in building hospitality career pathways 

Listen to your teams 

Take time to understand your employees’ aspirations and ambitions. If they want to build a career in hospitality, gathering feedback on what they want out of a career pathway is the best place to start. This will not only allow you to build effective pathways, but it will also let your staff know that you are genuine about investing in their future. And for those who don’t intend to stay, you can make sure that they know there is a future for them if they choose it. 

Visibility matters 

It’s crucial that your staff can see the opportunities available to them, and they understand what they need to do to get there. Make sure any career pathways are visible, simple, and clear. And make sure that staff members understand the responsibilities and expectations of the role they are working towards.  

Prioritise wellbeing 

Keeping employees engaged with both your brand and their professional development is much easier when a business is invested in wellbeing. When you make this a priority and properly communicate it, staff feel valued and are more likely to want to commit to a long-term future with you. 

Share success stories 

By sharing stories of team members who have successfully developed their careers with your brand you will inspire employees. Not only will they see that it is possible, but they will be able to see real-world examples of the pathways available to them. It can also be helpful for team morale; learning that a GM, Operations Manager or other senior team member has been where they are now can reduce resentment and increase respect for those assigning shifts and enforcing the rules. 

Highlight the benefits 

A clear career pathway can be inspiring and exciting, but it can also be daunting. If your staff don’t understand the benefits of working toward promotion they may view that promotion as nothing more than extra work, increased responsibility, and stress. This is one of the many reasons that it’s important to have robust systems of communication in place across your organisation.  

Incentivise loyalty and engagement 

Consider offering awards and recognition to long-serving team members. Perhaps you could offer a benefits package for staff who stay with you for a certain period. By incentivising loyalty, you are showing your commitment to a long-term relationship with your staff, and therefore engendering mutual trust. 

Personalise the experience 

Offering a more personalised career path is more likely to keep your staff engaged, and to deliver the right outcomes for both the staff member and the business. When your staff feel heard and seen, they are more likely to stay. And when your career pathways are built around the structure and needs of your business, you end up with a team of people who have the right skill sets for their roles. 

Keep the lines of communication open 

Feedback and communication are vital for successful employee development. Make sure staff have clear and easy channels through which they can communicate with senior team members. At the same time, make sure that you have provided the support and environment where senior staff are able to listen and act on that feedback. 

Offer flexibility 

People’s plans change, and as they become more familiar with the business, they may feel that they are better suited to other roles. If their priorities shift, and you can’t be flexible about the pathway you are offering them, they are likely to look elsewhere. 

The problem with standard career pathways in hospitality 

Different styles of learning, different career routes, different aspirations… there are lots of reasons why a ‘one size fits all’ approach is likely to be less successful than personalised career pathways.   

Standard career pathways are a good way for those outside of the industry to get an overview of the potential opportunities available in hospitality, but they rarely reflect the reality of working in individual businesses, particularly larger multi-site brands.  

Standard career pathways also don’t allow for the very human tendency to change our minds or priorities. When this happens, even the most dedicated individual will likely give up on the path set out in front of them if it’s too rigid. 

Instead of trying to make your business, and your staff, fit into a generic career path model it could be best to consider looking for a solution that allows you to personalise the experience for staff members. 

What are personalised career pathways? 

More and more hospitality businesses are choosing to recruit into entry-level positions for ‘soft skills’, and then providing the training needed to help those recruits to develop into highly skilled team members. This is a successful strategy when the training is customised in a way that both fits the business and nurtures talent. 

An effective personalised career path will take into account the individual team member’s skill sets, talent, and aspirations. Training will be built around how they learn, and offer opportunities for them to pursue a suitable career within your organisation.  

A personalised career pathway is not only built around the needs of the individual, but it also offers the chance for them to progress at their own pace. By offering achievable routes to progression, you are providing a level of support and motivation which will improve staff retention rates, and keep your team engaged. 

How does CPL Learning support career development and growth in the hospitality industry? 

One of the core benefits of Access CPL Learning is the truly personalised experience it offers. It is fully costomisable and brandable and offers a collaborative experience.  

We have talked a lot in this article about the importance of good communication throughout your organisation when it comes to building effective career pathways in hospitality. Access CPL Learning makes this possible through a mix of functionalities. From surveys to coffee chats for one-to-one communication, to the Activity Centre for updates and tasks, Access CPL Learning puts effective communication at the heart of its offering. 

Our user-friendly platform is accessible on any device, making it the perfect option for busy hospitality staff. This means your team can engage with their professional development plan from anywhere, at times to suit them. 

When it comes to creating personalised plans, Access CPL Learning has you covered. From the outset, we’ll work with you to create and deliver engaging content that fits with your brand values. In addition, our LMS for hospitality offers the tools you need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member so that their learning and career development can be built to suit them. 

Access CPL Learning also allows your staff to develop a unique learning experience to suit them, keeping them engaged in their development as they progress through their career pathway. The training offered on the Access CPL Learning platform is comprised of a mix of e-learning courses, microlearning resources, professional development tools, and traditional compliance training. 

Ultimately, Access CPL Learning aims to offer you all of the tools you need to be able to identify, retain, and nurture talent within your business. If you would like to learn more about the platform and understand what it can do for your hospitality business, you can view the demo here.