Through technology and a culture of learning: how Reikartz Hotel Group adapted its business to war conditions. 4 elearning cases
Problems of employee shortage? Loss of valuable staff due to relocation?
The need for super-fast business adaptation?
Yes, the full-scale war has become a real challenge for Ukrainian business.
It was also a catalyst for important changes that required revision of traditional approaches, implementation of new strategies and updating of processes.
Reikartz Hotel Group quickly realized that the methods they had been using were not enough. The crisis requires the use of various variations of technology, creativity, and, of course, compliance with corporate culture.
Thanks to the well-established corporate training process in LMS Collaborator, the company managed to implement important cases as quickly as possible.
These include training new managers from the talent pool and organizing external retraining for staff to renew their working capital.
We will tell you more about the tools and their implementation in the following case.
About the company
Reikartz Hotel Group is an international hotel chain that unites 40 hotels in Ukraine and abroad. Today, five hotel chains in Ukraine are united under the Reikartz Hotel Group brand: Reikartz Hotels, VITAPARK, Optima Hotel, RAZIOTEL and Reikartz Collection Hotel.
Reikartz Hotel Group has been working with the LMS Collaborator platform for over 5 years. Currently, more than 1200 employees are trained on the portal.
The challenges of war: the story of Reikartz
With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainians began to move to the west of Ukraine in search of a safe place. During this period, Ukrainian Reikartz hotels experienced overbooking. Hotels in the east of the country also continued to operate, but due to the departure of employees to safer areas, there was a shortage of staff. Due to the high workload in March-April, employees had to perform several functions simultaneously. Head office employees started working in hotels. During this period, corporate training was suspended.
Many employees also lost their jobs. Kherson and Mariupol were under occupation, and the hotel in Mykolaiv came under rocket fire. The company faced the following challenges due to staff reductions:
– shortage of working capital;
– partial reduction in the quality of services;
– increased workload for remote work.
Due to the challenges of the war, the company faced the question of how to resume work and business in the new environment.
Corporate learning cases: business adaptation
By combining the technologies of the LMS Collaborator distance learning system and the Reikartz Hotel Group approach, the company managed to implement 4 important cases in 2022:
1. Replacement of managerial positions from the internal talent pool.
Challenge: Due to the war, some hotel managers were forced to leave/move. As the positions became vacant, they had to be filled immediately. This required speed, so the company used its internal talent pool.
Solution: The team developed an online course to train the talent pool, which lasted 3 weeks. Heads of the company’s line divisions and employees of various positions were invited to attend. The LMS Collaborator platform was used for training, where employees attended lectures online and completed course assignments.
Result: Out of 21 employees who attended the course, 4 became managers of hotel and restaurant complexes.
Iryna Magaletska – Head of the Training Center of Reikartz hotel group
«It is a very good result. Because in June, it was impossible to find new employees in three weeks, train them and adapt them to our specifics of work so that they could work effectively. And with the help of the talent pool program and LMS Collaborator technologies, we managed to do it.»
2. Resumption of training for newcomers.
Challenge: Due to a shortage of working capital, in July the company began actively recruiting new employees. Therefore, it was important to resume the onboarding program and adaptation of newcomers.
Solution: To train line employees, the company uses LMS Collaborator learning paths, which include 26 different courses. This process helped speed up the adaptation process and automate the work of portal administrators. Since the trajectories allow you to automatically assign tasks to employees at the selected time, according to the configured conditions.
Result: The company trains new employees from scratch in 1 month.
3. Regular learning and compliance.
Challenge: The company regularly holds mini-trainings for employee development every month. The LMS Collaborator training portal creates a course from small resources that contain information on updating standards, changes in the company, innovations in the HoReCa market, etc.
Solution: To provide access to training 24/7, Reikartz Hotel Group has implemented mobile learning. Employees can study at the workplace using their smartphones. Provided that this does not interfere with operational work and the employee is not in the field of view of the guest.
Result:
Iryna Magaletska, Head of the Reikartz hotel group Training Center
«Using this format of training and mini-trainings helped us to gradually catch up with business problems and improve the quality of service from 70% to 89%. What the results of our audits and the assessment of mystery guests confirm.»
In addition, the integration of LMS Collaborator with data analytics systems helps the company to monitor real-time learning outcomes, analyze training results, and draw conclusions based on them.
4. Blended learning retraining in 4 weeks.
Challenge: Due to the increase in domestic tourism, the workload in hotels remained high, so there were many vacant positions. The company faced the challenge of finding new employees, including managers.
Solution: The company launched a training course to find talented and ambitious employees, including those from different fields of activity. The company received more than 250 applications from employees who were unemployed at the time and were ready to change their main activity. 9 of them were selected for a 4-week retraining course. The training was held in a mixed format. Employees studied the theory they needed on the LMS Collaborator portal and then did practical training in hotels under the mentorship of experienced mentors.
Result: 3 course participants became hotel managers.
Speech by speakers Myroslav Botsula (CEO&Co-Founder LMS Collaborator) and Iryna Magaletska (head of the Reikartz hotel group Training Center) with the Reikartz hotel group case at the conference “PEOPLE MANAGEMENT: Planning the future”.
For ease of viewing, select EN subtitles in the settings.
Maintaining and restoring the corporate culture of learning
Reikartz Hotel Group supports 2 important components of the corporate culture of learning:
- Focus on standards.
- Mentoring and support.
With the help of LMS Collaborator, Reikartz Hotel Group managed to improve and support these processes. They also managed to adapt and bring their business out of the crisis they faced with the onset of a full-scale war.
The use of technology allowed the company to implement 2 more important components:
– organize free access to knowledge and provide employees with opportunities for improvement;
– implement Getting Things Done in training and information.
Standards as a value
Employees are free to choose the knowledge and training they need. From existing resources, the company flexibly creates new courses and training trajectories for new needs and positions.
Iryna Magaletska, Head of the Reikartz hotel group Training Center
«With the help of the online LMS Collaborator platform, we have relevant and updated information on our standards collected in one place. This helps us to train all employees in a centralized way. We are a standardized company and all procedures, algorithms, and steps are written down. Of course, this is required in the work of every employee. Our focus on standards is evident in all online and offline training. With the help of e-learning, we are able to quickly and easily convey this to each employee.»
Mentoring and support
Due to staff turnover, the company conducts onboarding and training of interns. For this purpose, the company uses a staff of mentors, who are also trained by the company. Mentors are trained using the blended learning scheme: using the online LMS Collaborator system for self-study and offline learning.
Using the LMS Collaborator functionality, we managed to make the process of training mentors easier and reduce time costs. Mentors receive the necessary reporting and track the learning outcomes of their subordinates.
Accessibility of knowledge and opportunities for improvement
All materials that the company creates and uses in training are stored in the Knowledge Base. This helps to train not only employees but also the entire company. The advantage of the Knowledge Base is that all the knowledge gained is stored and remains in the company. It is available on request at any time and place.
GTD (Getting Things Done) for learning and informing
Learning resources are created based on the ToDo list principle. An employee is assigned a list of training tasks, and after completion, the task disappears from the list. This helps to track learning progress and assign new activities. In addition, the employee can return to the completed tasks to recall and repeat what they have learned.
Using LMS Collaborator, the company managed to automate the routine work of administrators: assigning tasks, generating and sending reminders, etc..
Conclusion
The case of Reikartz Hotel Group is an example of a combination of a good idea and technology. A perfect synergy that helped to achieve effective results and adapt the business to critical conditions.
- Training of new managers using the talent pool.
- Regular training without interrupting the work.
- Organization of fast and high-quality onboarding.
- Retraining of new employees in 4 weeks.
And this is not the whole list of cases that can be implemented with the help of LMS. The crucial point is to choose a strategy and technology that will solve your tasks.
