It\u2019s been said that only someone who has worked their way to the top would be able to understand how important hard work is. Jennifer Ong is one such person. The Founder\/Publisher of Hospitality Asia was already making a name for herself in the hospitality industry with a targeted, revolutionary industry specific magazine, but it took an unnamed waitress to spark what would become the regional hospitality industry\u2019s audited recognition awards programme \u2013 HAPA Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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HAPA GROUP SDN BHD (Formerly known as WAP INTL SDN BHD) launched the HAPA Academy, a training and consultancy programme by the HAPA brand. At its core, HAPA\u2019s objective was to give recognition to the men and women of the hospitality industry who strive to deliver extraordinary service and hospitality experiences. The HAPA Academy on the other hand, will focus on Audit, Review and Training services. HAPA sets service benchmarks for the hospitality industry and the HAPA Academy will play a role in providing comprehensive audits and reviews as well as the necessary training required as part of its consultancy services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Most people involved in hospitality would\nargue that service is what drives the industry and that there has been a\ndecline in service levels over recent years. While industry practitioners wax\nlyrically about warm hospitality and professional hospitality standards, those\nat the coalface of service delivery know that they can\u2019t always live up to the\nhype. More importantly, many customers realise that service standards in some\nareas have declined with little prospect of improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennifer reminisces, \u201cI was on a business\ntrip to Singapore in early 2002 and was sitting in a hotel when I noticed a\nwaitress cleaning a table. There was a determined look on her face as she\ncarefully placed the flowers and tidied the sugar bowl. That look reminded me\nof a young airline flight attendant named Jennifer Ong, who had the same look\nwhen tidying the galley. That look was one of satisfied pride in a job well\ndone. It was a look that said, \u201cThere; it\u2019s done perfectly!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo many times, patrons treat service\nstaff like this waitress as invisible \u2018elves\u2019 who set everything just so and\nvanish. These hospitality \u2018elves\u2019 are often faceless and nameless. Right there\nand then, I decided that these people needed to know that they mattered, that\nthey were important and, of value to the business,\u201d remarks Jennifer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was this insightful moment in the hotel lobby that initiated the creation of the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards (HAPA Awards) to recognise all the unsung \u2018heroes of hospitality\u2019 from every level, including the committed waitress through to the most enterprising entrepreneurs. Platinum, the most expensive precious metal in the world was chosen to mark the esteem in which all nominees were to be regarded. Unlike most fledging ideas, the inaugural HAPA was help in 2002 to give recognition to the men and women of the hospitality industry who strive to deliver amazing hospitality experiences and presented in a format which has been constant over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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To\nthis day, HAPA continues to champion the call to excellence via its lauding of\nindividuals, departments, restaurants, and hospitality establishments, with\nspecial emphasis on the crucial but often unrecognised back-of-the-house\ndepartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the first dazzling gala, HAPA has continued to grow\nin leaps and bounds, keeping abreast with the growth in the industry, and\nresolutely championing the cause of the men and women who work in the\nbackground to ensure that each hospitality experience is perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\nwhile there are many in the industry who strive for service excellence, there\nare others who are frustrated with the current levels of service. So does the\nindustry simple accept that the situation shows no sign of improvement, or does\nit do something about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennifer explained, \u201cFive years ago, I had the idea of\nstarting a HAPA Academy for the hospitality industry as I\u2019m a true believer\nthat good service standards are a must and people can be trained to deliver\ngood service. After creating a hospitality industry awards programme for the\npurpose of recognising and rewarding establishments and individuals who deliver\noutstanding service, my ultimate dream was to build a service academy \u2013 not\njust any academy but an academy with soul. It\u2019s about the right mindset and not\njust s set of skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She continued, \u201cAfter 15 years of running an awards\nprogramme in Malaysia and regionally, I witnessed the level of service in\nMalaysia was inconsistent and declining. It came to a point where it really\nirked me to be experiencing bad service and worst of all; nothing was being\ndone about it despite many complaints. Some blamed it on lack of staff, and\nsome said it was due to the language barrier of foreign employees. To me, it\nwas simple \u2013 lack of training or, no training at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lack of skilled staff isn\u2019t just Malaysia specific;\nSingapore too is facing a similar challenge due to government policies on\nforeign labour. \u201cIn my opinion, the service standards around the region doesn\u2019t\nmatch standards of two decades ago. When I first started publishing Hospitality\nAsia in the 1990s, regional service standards were exceptional,\u201d claimed\nJennifer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staff can\u2019t be expected to perform when they aren\u2019t\nequipped with knowledge and skills. By the end of 2016, Jennifer realised that\nthe situation had to change, so the opportunity to put her dreams into reality\nbecame possible. She started forming a team to work on designing the training\nprogramme and exploring collaboration possibilities with various parties. She\nalso started working on the training concept that will ensure a far different\napproach from how a typical training is conducted. As part of the brand\ndirections, Jennifer hand-picks her trainers to ensure that the programme is\ncarried out by specialised trainers and coaches with the right expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March 2017, The A.R.T Lab by HAPA was born. The A.R.T Lab represents a workshop concept rather than a classroom as the programme incorporates the benefits of the audit assessment of the HAPA Awards, followed by a review with owners and operators to identify the gaps before crafting a dedicated training programme. As of 2019, in line with the HAPA brand, The A.R.T Lab is now the HAPA Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The\nmain objective of this new project is to provide training workshops to address\ncritical service standard issues such as managing and meeting customer\nexpectations, bridging the gap of internal expectations, understanding the\nfoundations of quality service delivery, effective communication, overall\ngrooming and demeanour as well as the importance of leaving a lasting\nimpression. It concerns the cultivation of a \u2018commitment to excellence\u2019 mindset\namongst service staff and recognising the opportunity to make a positive impact\nin customer service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process starts with a consultation session with the establishment\u2019s owner and head of operations followed by mystery and group audits to identify the gaps and challenges faced. This will be followed by a three-day training workshop and potentially more days based on audit performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Auditors,\nassessors and trainers are hand-picked from HAPA\u2019s network of industry\nprofessionals who have the skill, knowledge and expertise in the world of\nhospitality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The HAPA Academy is endorsed by the Malaysian Food and\nBeverage Executives Association and the International Food and Beverage\nAssociation. These associations have never endorsed any training programmes before,\nbut they have agreed to come on board to support and work with the HAPA Academy\nfor this programme. The Presidents, Vice Presidents and their committee members\nare industry professionals with decades of experience in the field of\nhospitality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an industry training programme supported by\nhospitality associations. It is a HAPA-certified programme and hence it must\nmeet the service benchmarks of HAPA. It\u2019s auditors, assessors and trainers are\nfrom the HAPA Panel of Auditors who have been on the panel for the past 15\nyears, carrying out audits for the HAPA Awards programme regionally. This panel\nconsists of over 40 industry professionals from various backgrounds and\nprofessions. It is also of worth noting that HAPA places great importance in\nthe selection of our panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HAPA is the only awards programme in Asia to present each\nparticipating property with a report card containing the property\u2019s scores to\nthat management teams can benchmark achievements and set out more targeted Key\nPerformance Indexes for their staff. The HAPA Awards programme is an audit\nsystem carried out by industry experts and corporate individuals who physically\nvisit each nominee off on-site inspections, food tastings, as well as\none-on-one interviews, regardless of the location of the nominated\nestablishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All auditors have to adhere to strict audit guidelines\nwhere they must conduct their assignments as a \u2018Mystery Guest\u2019 and assess the\nnominees according to the benchmark standards set by HAPA. All auditors conduct\ntheir assignments based on a common criteria form issued by the HAPA Committee\nfor each specific category. There is no voting exercise for the HAPA Awards\nprogramme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each auditor has to enter a score for every single attribute in the criteria form as part of their auditing process. The scores are then submitted to our audit server for tabulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The\nHAPA Group (formerly known as WAP) was established in 1994 to produce high\nquality hospitality, food and beverage, and travel publications for industry\nowners and operators, those in related corporate industries and, interested\ntravellers. On this journey in the field of hospitality, the HAPA Group has\nexpanded its portfolio to include awards and events management, and now training\nand consultancy services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The HAPA Group now has five brand portfolios \u2013 Hospitality\nAsia (Publishing), HAPA (Awards), MAD (Events), No Address Society (Dining\nClub) and, the HAPA Academy (Training and Consultancy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennifer believes with HAPA Group\u2019s 23-years of experience\nin the hospitality industry, it can share its knowledge and know-how on setting\nhigh service benchmarks, applying the right mindset in delivering consistent\nquality hospitality experience, creating a service-oriented culture within an\norganisation, and raising the bar in achieving impeccable service standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If no one seeks to find a solution to fix the issues of\nmeeting service standards, the industry will only get worse. With the\nescalating cost of running businesses, there will be many unhappy customers\nhaving to pay more but receiving less satisfactory service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The HAPA Academy has been conceived in response to declining service standards but, with a mission to ensuring that this trend is reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The\nfollowing core services have been carefully curated by HAPA experts and the\nHAPA Academy for the service industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To evaluate compliance to best practices in the\nrelevant service sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To conduct comparative analysis in identifying\ngaps and preparing a detailed report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To build skills and competencies for organisational and individual sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cQuality is not an act, it is a habit.\u201d <\/p>Aristotle<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t think of what it costs to train your employees in customer service \u2013 think what it costs NOT to train them!\u201d<\/p>Shep Hyken<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"