Hospitality industry stakeholders identify good work culture as key to business growth

To enhance sector competitiveness, business sustainability and growth, stakeholders in the hospitality industry have identified the need for players to take their jobs beyond service delivery to consumer experience.

They also believe that building a positive and strong work culture among employees in the industry will enhance value creation that impacts the performance and growth of the hospitality business in Nigeria.

At a panel discussion during the 3rd Edition of the Quarterly Forum organised by Women in Hospitality Nigeria (WIHN) the stakeholders pointed on the need for women to move out of their comfort zones and take leadership position in the industry.

The Conference held in Lagos with the theme: ‘Raising the Bar: Developing a Service Delivery Improvement Model’ saw participants across the industry value chain including hotels, tourism, consultant, trainers and academic.

Amaka Amatokwu-Ndekwu, president of WIHN  in her opening remarks said her group is committed to changing the narrative on position of women in the industry, with focus to bring women in leadership position in the hospitality industry”.

According to her, WIHN is about going into partnership with an international firm ‘Castell Project’ with specialty in capacity building for women in hospitality industry, nothing that this will enhance the role of Women in the industry.

The panelist including Belinda Nwosu, research consultant, W Hospitality Group; Misan Rewane, CEO, Wave Academics; Shijil Unnikuttan, GM, Lilygate Hotel; Khadijah Jumaid, principal, Deft Consult and Justina Ovat, CEO, Calabar Hospitality House who shared their view, unanimously agreed that hospitality is a life style and not a service, and so requires that players bring in their human nature to intuitively make customers experience rewarding.

To also enable customers get more satisfaction, players should move from standard operational procedures (SOP) to minimum operational procedures (MOP), so that organisations could go beyond certain limits to make the customers happy.

Besides, they also pointed on the need to improve empowerment guidelines to enable some level of staff take certain decisions to facilitate consumer experience, without having to wait on topmost authorities within a given short time.

The panelist also emphasised the need to embrace quality human resources management in the hospitality industry to ensure employees satisfaction, increased productivity, and reduction in employee turnover in the sector.

WIHN  is a group of strong women operating in the hospital and tourism industry in Nigeria, and primarily support and unify women in the industry as well as other practitioners through educative, expository and engaging initiatives.

Its quarterly forum is gathering of the best minds across various sectors that are associated or affiliated with the hotel and tourism industry in Nigeria.

The aim is to foster discussions on trends and pertinent issues as they affect the entire value chain, for stakeholders to better understand how global trends and local dynamics interplay in shaping this nascent but very promising travel, leisure and hospitality sector.

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