Programme code · DV-GOC-09
Hiring, Onboarding and Keeping the Standard
The three places a service standard is passed on or lost: who you hire, their first weeks, and what gets recognised.
The outcome
I measure this
- Observed consistency between long-tenured and recently hired staff — whether a new starter is distinguishable on the floor
- Whether the standard is visible in daily routines: briefings, handovers, and how the team talks about guests
- Shift-to-shift consistency sustained across the ninety days rather than only immediately after training
You'll see it in your own numbers
- Ninety-day new-hire retention, against an industry rate of 70% annual turnover in hotels
- Time from hire to independent competence
What it won't fix: A hiring problem. Culture spreads whoever you recruit; it does not correct the choice.
Introduction
You train someone well, they leave, and whoever replaces them starts from nothing. That is not a training problem. It is what happens when the standard lives in the people you currently have rather than in how you hire, induct and recognise them. This programme works on the three points where a standard is either passed on or lost: who you take on, what their first weeks look like, and what gets noticed once they are working. It is for owners, general managers and heads of department, and its purpose is simple — that a new arrival takes the standard from the team around them rather than from a folder.
Targeted Groups
This programme is designed for:
- Leadership teams and owners
- HR and people-and-culture leaders
- Department heads driving culture change
- General managers and operations directors
- Training and development managers
- Senior managers responsible for service standards
- Project teams shaping a new property's culture
- Professionals responsible for engagement and culture
Course Objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Explain the business case for a service culture
- Link culture to loyalty, reputation, and performance
- Assess the current service culture honestly
- Hire and onboard for service attitude
- Build service into every role
- Use recognition to reinforce the right behaviours
- Establish rituals that keep standards visible
- Align leadership behind a single standard
- Lead culture change effectively
- Sustain culture through growth and change
- Measure culture alongside service
- Embed service values in daily operations
Targeted Competencies
Participants will develop the following competencies:
- Service-culture strategy
- Hiring and onboarding for service
- Recognition and engagement
- Change leadership
- Leadership alignment
- Culture measurement
- Communication and storytelling
- Values and standards setting
- Strategic thinking
- Sustaining change
Studying Scenarios
Participants build skills through scenarios such as:
- Assessing the current service culture
- Designing a service-focused hiring approach
- Building an onboarding programme for service
- Introducing a recognition routine
- Aligning leaders behind one standard
- Leading a culture-change initiative
- Sustaining culture during rapid growth
Course Content
Unit 1: The Case for a Service Culture
- What a service culture is
- How culture drives loyalty and revenue
- Culture as a competitive advantage
- Assessing the current culture honestly
- The leader's role in culture
- Common barriers to culture change
Unit 2: Hiring and Onboarding for Service
- Hiring for attitude and service fit
- Defining service-related role expectations
- Onboarding that sets the tone
- Building service into every role
- Early development of new joiners
- Embedding standards from day one
Unit 3: Recognition and Engagement
- Recognising the right behaviours
- Designing recognition routines
- Rituals that keep standards visible
- Storytelling as a culture tool
- Engaging and motivating teams
- Celebrating service success
Unit 4: Leadership and Alignment
- Setting and communicating the service vision
- Aligning leaders and departments
- Leading by visible example
- Coaching managers on culture
- Managing resistance to change
- Keeping culture consistent across teams
Unit 5: Sustaining Culture Over Time
- Measuring culture and service
- Sustaining culture through change and growth
- Reinforcing values in daily operations
- Reviewing and renewing the culture
- Linking culture to performance
Final Insights & Key Takeaways
A standard is passed on in three places: who you hire, what their first weeks teach them, and what gets noticed once they are working. Where those three hold, a new arrival learns it from the team around them. Where they do not, every departure costs you the standard again.
Format & Logistics
Every DolceVita programme is individual and tailored: one participant at a time, online or at your property, in live service. Content, pace and case material are calibrated to the competencies and the role of whoever is being trained.
Up to 2 leaders a day at 4 hours each: €1,995 for one leader, €3,990 for two. Or the full day given to a single leader: €599 per day, €2,995 for the programme.