The year of the Rugby World Cup begins

It’s a new year, and it’s the year of the Rugby World Cup. It is hard to deny this important event being a New Zealand based company. And being a company in the training industry, it is also hard to deny that other than the All Blacks the service industry is going to need all the coaching it can get to meet the needs of a big, roaring crowd!

As much as New Zealand loves to show other nationalities how to have a good time, achieving the professionalism throughout the hospitality industry for the month of September will be a challenge the industry must face now. With $1.5billion expected to be generated by the Rugby World Cup, we can only begin to imagine the need for numbers of flat whites to be served, corporate meeting rooms to be perfectly managed, and enquiries to be answered punctually.

The opportunities are not limited to simple every-day services, and we don’t expect Kiwi’s to hold back on their ingenuity in finding new ways to serve customers better. Here is one idea well-worth developing before the first kick-off- your staff training needs! Rather than leave it to the last minute as hiring is completed, answer your own demands from staff by making it accessible to them before hiring, during hiring, and after hiring. Well after the Cup is handed out staff training will continue to be a win or lose event!

Fortunately the Learning Management System that is TalkTactics OnDemand is designed to be easy to use, simple to start up, and its cost-effective pricing is based on active users- all this creates a brilliant package to quickly get your training straight to the staff and even deal with the increased staffing numbers required. Of course, we don’t have a score-board but no doubt our reporting systems will deliver whatever results the coach has asked for!

Although the topic has been on the media before New Zealand even won hosting rights, the Weekend Herald (22^nd January) featured a great article titled RWC motto: be prepared. There was an important warning for those who plan to dismiss training as a last minute item- “Market pressures of good staff could mean a short-term rise in hourly rates, as businesses serving food and drink pay a premium to attract the skilled and experienced people they need” (Bruce Robertson, CEO of the Hospitality Association of New Zealand, as quoted by Steve Hart, Weekend Herald). The better way to look at the situation is (along with the All Blacks winning) ‘ “it’s up to people… to show how our service sector can shine and use it to show our reputation” ‘ (Michael Barnett, CEO Auckland Chamber of Commerce)

  

Expect more and more media reports on the people-factor as we get closer and closer to the September hype. I’ll leave you with this quote from another type of ‘football’ coach, I’m sure it will inspire your hiring plans:

“No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it’s what his players know that counts”

- Paul Bryant (American football coach 1913-83)