Insights From Our Presentation to HBAA

1. 1
The Hard Case For
Building Soft Skills:
Insights from HBAA
Presentation
www.flyingstartxp.com

2. WHAT IS THE SOFT SKILLS GAP IN HOSPITALITY?
61% of hospitality businesses say staff lack skills in customer handling
26% of businesses say they have lost customers to competitors as a result.
53% say staff lack planning and organisational skills, and that 51% lack
communication skills
(Source: The Caterer 2017)
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3. “The loss of productivity for UK PLC, due to the soft skills shortage, will be
over £8.4 billion per annum by 2020.” (YouGov Plc, September 2015).

4. We asked HBAA members at their
March Members Meeting to share their
experiences with new starters and soft
skills in the hospitality industry. We
wanted to find out the key areas where
training was essential to cut frustrations
of managers and build confidence when
starting a fresh in this exciting industry:
4
@The_HBAA

5. Q1. HBAA members scored their
early starters (first two years) out of
10 for core business skills.
We asked:
5

6. Can your early starters understand & use
a budget?
4.7 out of 10 was the average rating

7. Do your early starters
understand their own values &
those of the company?
7 out of 10 members rated early
starters at 5 or under

8. Personal Impact: can
they build rapport &
influence people?
5.2 out of 10 was the
average rating
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9. 9
Negotiation: do they know what a good deal looks like?
The average rating for negotiation skills was 4.4 out of 10.

10. Pitching: can your early
starters help win new
business?
3 out of 5 members rated early
starters as 5 or lower
10

11. Presentation
Skills: can your
early starters
present with
confidence &
manage nerves?
Three quarters of
members rated
them as a 5 or less

12. Can they run a
successful meeting?
7 out of 10 members
rated new starters 5 or
under on meeting skills
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13. Talking the talk: how are
their verbal communication
skills?
The average score was 5.2 out
of 10
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14. Taking one for the team: do they have the right skills
& behaviours to be a team player?
The average score was 5 out of 10
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Image credit: Salford Business School

15. Q2. Which soft skills
REALLY matter in the
hospitality industry?
We asked HBAA members to
nominate their top 3:

17. - Communication skills are the most highly valued, yet members only
gave early starters an average of 5.2 out of 10 for verbal skills.
- Being a team player got the third highest number of mentions as a key
skill, yet members’ average rating for this was just 5 out of 10.
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Hmm, should we
be worried?

18. An increase in training in these 2 areas
alone would decrease frustrations of
managers and increase confidence of
HBAA early starters

19. Q3.What advice can you give early starters, to
make the most out of working in this industry?

25. Q4. Why should young people be excited to work in
this industry?

30. Members then
shared one ‘golden
nugget’ piece of
advice for success in
this industry:
Q5. Share one ‘golden nugget’ piece of advice for
success in this industry:

37. A word-cloud to visualise your thoughts on training new starters:

38. So much to learn! You need
your new starters to pick up
core business skills &
behaviours, faster. Young
people are only at the
beginning of their career
journeys, many are confused
and don’t know the basics of
the working world. From
HBAA concerns, here are 3
strategies to accelerate
learning:

39. 1. HANDS-ON LEARNING: less powerpoint, more role-play.
Experiential learning will be remembered better with more chance to
practice verbally communicating with peers in a mix of situations.

40. 2. A SAFE SPACE: take training outside the workplace so they can
take risks, make mistakes and express anxieties freely. They’ll have
more confidence and become more proactive.

41. 3. TEACH BEHAVIOURS, SKILLS AND TOOLS AND HOW TO
APPLY THEM: get the behaviours right, and they’ll pick up skills
and tools much faster. To do that, they need 3 - 5 days of
behaviour change experience compared to short half day bursts of
learning one skill at a time.

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www.flyingstartxp.com
james@flyingstartxp.com