Hospitality Work Experience: Skills Development and Effective Communication

Introduction

First-year students were given an opportunity to have work experience in the Front of House, Food and Beverage and Housekeeping departments during November and December. Therefore, I chose to take this opportunity to gain experience in all of following departments shown previously. I thought this would most definitely become very beneficial for myself as it can help me develop my skills in the hospitality sector.

As a result, I attended work experience on these days:

• 30th October 2019 at 8am in the Front of House Department.

• 18th November 2019 at 9am in the Housekeeping Department.

• 27th November 2019 at 7am in the Food and Beverage Department.

Skills Gained in My Work Experience

During my work-based learning at the Front of House department, I learned that the reception is the main communicator across the hotel; which means that the data collected needs to be thoroughly accurate and correctly recorded in the system to prevent any form of miscommunication in the hotel. This is important for the business because it can help to foster a good working relationship between the employees which can therefore improve the hotel’s morale and efficiency when delivering service to their guests.

I’ve also learned that the soft skills that an individual needs when working in the hotel industry is crucial and by having the work experience in the food and beverage department. It is clear that the employees there needs to be highly conscious in the safety of the customers and the employees especially at the handling of food. Improperly handled food could cause a consumer from becoming ill or potentially die. The awareness of customer care was greatly learnt during the work-based learning in this department. Each employee is recommended to have a Food Safety and Food Hygiene certificate before handling and serving food; this certificate ensures that the staff are well trained to perceive high-quality service without harming the consumer or themselves.

When having the work-based learning at the housekeeping department, I learned that the employees develop a keen eye for detail combined with extreme efficiency and the ability to follow a prescribed routine quickly and accurately. This came out to be useful for the hotel industry because it implies that productivity can be increased and a quicker turnover for each room can be done. Thus, suggesting that there is a higher chance of gaining higher gross profit as there will be more rooms available to rent out.

Conclusion

In this work experience, I think I gained a deeper understanding that the more the soft skills (teamwork, flexibility, punctuality, multitasking and communication) are improved, the more useful the employees can be in order to produce a good enough service. I think the main skill I developed through this work experience is communicating to the customers with a high level of confidence.