Does your Housekeeper need training? There are different factors that come in to play when considering training for your Housekeeper. It can be a great and worthy investment. Or, it might not be needed at all. Because perhaps there are other issues that need addressing instead. Find out here how to get to the bottom of it, so you know what steps to take.
So, does your Housekeeper need training?
Define Problems
Firstly, to understand if your Housekeeper needs training, we need to understand the issues that lead to this thought process. Training can be a great way to develop your Housekeeper’s skills further or improve on certain areas. It can also really help with confidence too.
But before you decide on embarking in training, define what the exact issues are. Just to make sure that training will fix them.
Are there particular skills you feel your Housekeeper could improve on? Training can help with this. Would you like your Housekeeper to learn new skills? Training can definitely help with this. Would you like your Housekeeper to work faster, or more efficiently? Again, training could be a good solution.
However, if you are unhappy with your Housekeeper for other reasons, training might not be the solution. If you feel their personality does not match, for example. Or if they are regularly showing up late for work, or you feel their work ethic isn’t right.
Sometimes a Housekeeper might just not be the right fit for you. Be open and honest and have these conversations with your Housekeeper. There may be underlying issues they are not happy with. And sometimes all it takes is a couple of conversations with clarified expectations of the job, to fix that.
Improve Skills
You might have a Housekeeper who you love, and who fits in really well with your household. Which is a great thing to have, and the right personality match should not be underestimated!
So if your Housekeeper fits in really well, but maybe lacks finesse in certain areas, then general Housekeeping training could be a worthy investment. In a Housekeeping training course, they will be taken through all possible Housekeeping tasks. These might be things they have done for years but never received formal training. Or, they might have only received hotel training. Which can be very different from the domestic household housekeeping skills!
So for them to do a general Housekeeping training will teach them to do their daily tasks more efficiently, and better. Teh will practice skills with a trainer and have assessments. To ensure that all the training material is understood, and they can apply it to their job with you too.
Learn New Skills
Your Housekeeper does need training if you want them to do new tasks. Perhaps you would like the Housekeeper to get actively involved with serving food and drinks? Maybe setting the table for dinner parties, and serving during those too.
Lots of Housekeepers will do this and enjoy doing it, but it is a very specific skill – that should not be underestimated.
If someone has never done (formal) service before, it really requires specific (Silver Service) training to get the hang of this.
This can count for all other things as well. Perhaps your Houskeeper is getting a higher-up position, managing other members of staff, and dealing with payroll. If this is also the first time they will be in charge of this, then some management training can really be valuable. To make sure all would go smoothly.
Select The Right Training
Training can consist of all different types of setups. You can choose to enroll your Housekeeper in a general group training course. This will be suited if you feel they need an overall update on their skills or knowledge.
If the skills you want them to learn are more specific, you will get more out of a private, tailor-made training course. Here you can pick all the exact modules you feel the Housekeeper need. So you won’t waste any time with them doing training in areas they are already excellent at.
Also in this way, the trainer will be able to give really bespoke training guidance to make sure they get the best out of their training programme.
A final option is to have a trainer coming into your home for a surveillance day. This is the perfect way of understanding where underlying issues are, and how they should be fixed. The training will spend a day – or longer – shadowing your staff, and then coming up with tailored solutions to make things run smoother.
How can Polo & Tweed Help?
Polo & Tweed offer the highest end Housekeeping training solutions. from Group weekend training courses to online training and tailormade 1-1 training. Our trainers are the best in the industry who bring their many years of experience to
To find out more about what options work best for you and your Housekeeper, do contact us here now and we look forward to speak to you!