Workplace and Training Workplace Learning

Workplace and Training

Workplace learning plays a significant role in organizational performance and productivity as well as effectiveness of the organizations. According to Vaughan (2003, p. 9) there are many difficulties of gaining a competitive advantage for the organizations that fail to have a suitable learning style. It is therefore advisable for managers in each organization to constantly implement the strategies for workplace learning to enable them cope with any kind of changes within the environment as well as operate effectively. Learning is essential for everyday life whether in academic or professional situations and it can be carried in any place an individual feels like he/she is comfortable in. The main aim of this paper is to analyze workplace learning and organization performance and how they affect retention in hospitality. Workplace learning can permanently change the behavior of individuals' interaction with the environment.

Learning at the workplace enables individual to learn from others by listening to teammates, staffs, managers, individual reflection and observation of what other employees might be doing. Workplace learning can be acquired through employees, staffs as well as managers. However, learning through managers in general helps in broadening the knowledge all through the organization. According to Lee et al. (2004, p. 6). Managers can facilitate good learning in an organization if only their learning styles are too essential. It is therefore their duties to develop a positive learning atmosphere for the employees and to identify the knowledge and management skills to assist in learning climate promotions. People need to continue learning within the organizations since these enable them to develop new knowledge skills as well as strategies that helps in achieving the mission, vision and goals of the organization.

The managers can promote workplace learning by training employees on how to use new technologies such as new systems and software in organization, as well as providing continuous mentorships atmosphere and incentives particularly to the new employees or employees who may be transferred across departments.

According to Alam (2009), workplace learning increases competition within the organization, he points out that workplace is a key site where employees can develop a generic skills which involve communication, teamwork, problem-solving as well as customer service skills. The skills tend to be very critical today in different workplace, especially to those companies majorly concerned with employability. Availability of workplace learning and organizational performance makes employers to develop an innovative capacity in enterprise; however, the ability of developing that innovative capacity may only depend on the skills of the workforce as well as the internal environment of an enterprise that can promote higher performance in the organization.

Continuous learning opportunity and strategic leadership for learning should be created by the management within the organization so as to understand the different learning styles for every employee. The employees can be classified in different learning groups such as concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation to enable the managers in understanding well the learning style preference of each individual hence leading to the identification of learning types that are most suitable for each employee.

Different learning styles help managers in identifying the preferred learning styles of every employee as well as trying to provide a learning opportunity for employees who are most suitable in the group. It also helps managers in ensuring that the learning opportunities are provided for various styles and lastly, the manager's knowledge of diverse learning styles might become so useful in recognizing as well as encouraging his staff in appreciating the different learning styles that allows them in considering the different aspects of learning situations.

How workplace learning and performance affects retention in Hospitality

Research indicates that employees who gain experiences through training at the workplace are more likely to stay in that organization as compared to other staffs who get employed when they are fully experienced and well trained. Most employees are likely to remain at their current working place if the organization offers them an opportunity for advancements. Managers on the other hand have a great impact on retention of trained employees. Well trained and skilled employees usually believe that training and developments in organization is of great importance in a workplace; at the workplace, the employees tend to recognize their own potential and developing them further, however, if there are few of such opportunities, the employees start feeling that the organization is not of importance to them. When employees learn as well as grow in organization, they are more likely to stay in the organization.

Workplace learning develops better communication skills in the organization. Employees get to know and understand one another with their areas of weaknesses within the organization. Unity in the workplace promotes peace and harmony enabling the employees to feel motivated by one another and so high organization performance. Teamwork promotes togetherness making employees not feel neglected or looked upon, and this makes most employees to feel like continue working in that organization increasing retention in the hospitality.

According to Steier (2010), the projected outcomes can be easily linked to the workplace learning opportunities as well as organizational performance. Provision of individual learning is therefore a core management competency needed by most organizations in improving the retention in the hospitality industry. The performance of a hotel or a guest facility has also been linked to the retention in this industry. The highly performing hotel facilitates an atmosphere that makes the employees secure and respected by extension within the industry. Each individual will take pride on the fact that they are working for one of the biggest hotels or tours and travel facility. This will automatically increase the loyalty of the individual to the organization hence increasing retention rate for that employer.

Retention in hospitality is also affected by the workplace learning in that, the employees involved in learning extend the formal workplace training situations to all the activities of the daily business performance. The learning becomes significant to the employees as well as the organization given that, it eliminates dependency of the organization on corporate for either training materials that tend to reduce the costs. Employees on the other hand are capable of improving their performance over and over within a given range of time.

Learning that is incorporated by competency in organization improves the workplace learners to training which therefore increases a knowledge transfer. Workplace learning and organizational performance can on the other hand affect the retention in hospitality by changing the behaviors of the employees to reduce the resident falls while positively affecting their aspects in regards to an engagement. When employees' retention is improved and extrapolated, the whole organization is capable of realizing a huge amount of cost saving hence an increased performance.

Research carried out in different companies shows that hiring and training of new employees is very cumbersome, it is therefore advisable for organizations to retain their quality employees by giving them time to get experiences in their workplaces. Workplace learning makes the company know where their employees are weak so that they provide enough training to them rather than taking new employees who will be costly in terms of knowing their tastes and attitudes towards work, and this can only be done by the organizations who can provide essential elements of retaining their valuable customers.