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Embedding e-learning globally at Hilton University

Background – Hilton International and its University


Hilton International is well-known for its operation and management of hotels throughout the world. With headquarters in North London, it has over 400 hotels in more than 80 countries, employing more than 70,000 team members who are serving more than 10 million guests a year. Hilton International is organised in 5 geographic areas and operates all the Hilton hotels outside of the United States.

Hilton is committed to offering learning opportunities to its team members irrespective of location; in 2002 it established an e-learning platform, Hilton University. In part this followed recognition that, given the geographical dispersal of the operation, there were limits to what could be achieved through the provision of residential courses. To quote from a Company vision statement:

“Whether people are working in a small hotel in Madagascar or a major hotel in London or Paris, we want to offer them the same learning opportunities – irrespective of background, gender and ethnics. We take the view that e-learning is the ideal method to achieve this ambition”.

From the outset it was felt that, provided it was properly embedded and supported, e-learning was particularly appropriate for the hotel environment. People could learn in their own time and in short study periods, acquire relevant information to help them do their jobs and develop personally.

The next section outlines the approach that was used to ensure that e-learning would be effective and the subsequent section describes the results and implications of a survey of learners undertaken in 2005.

The approach


The Hilton University Learning and Development team have taken a number of steps to ensure that e-learning is of benefit to the organisation and is valued by the individual learner. These initiatives can be grouped under the headings of access, service and relevance. Much of the local interpretation and delivery of these initiatives lie in the hands of the Regional HR and Management teams.

Maarten Staps, the International Learning and Development Manager, talks of ‘five building blocks of the learner experience’: hardware, software, connectivity, learning zone and service.

Access


Clearly, any shortcomings in the technical requirements (hardware, software and connectivity) will be all too evident and cause frustration to the learner. Here it is important to emphasise that content needs to be accessed by learners in more than 80 countries. The intention is that learning zones, equipped with computers, headphones, printers and internet connection are made available at all hotels, even the smallest.

Service


Service is about personal support. Every hotel has a HR manager; most have an e-learning champion and/or a learning manager – though the individuals concerned will be combining this responsibility with another job. The precise responsibilities of those supporting roles are determined locally – it is considered wrong to be too prescriptive but the clear intention is that the individual learner receives support as well as access opportunities.

Relevance


Currently the University is organised into seven faculties: management, finance, operations, business development, human resources, executive education and research and an IT professional development programme. Hilton International have found much value in making generic material available but as the University develops, are increasing the provision of bespoke or customised learning activities. Across the generic range of content the most used materials include time management, communication skills and the finance courses, the popularity of these items is thought to reflect the need to acquire new skills as learners advance to a management position beyond a specialised functional role in a hotel. Customised and bespoke material covers ‘Hilton specific’ areas for example e-commerce and distribution, reservations, account management and marketing.

The e-learning material is delivered through a public website – www.hilton-university.com to enable learning at any pace and in any place, and is supported by a Learning Management System. As a result the number of people who access e-learning across the company is known exactly. Some of these users are encouraged to participate by line managers perhaps at the time of their annual development review; some e-learning is required before team members attend residential courses. However, most of the learners select their own courses out of a library of more than 600 courses. Hilton International is satisfied with this profile at this time. In the words of Andrea Kluit, Hilton’s Director of International Learning and Development:

“E-learning requires considerable self-discipline in a hotel environment and the good news is that so many people are doing it. It has by now become an integral part of our learning and development activities worldwide.”

The survey


By late 2004 there was a recognised need to improve the technological infrastructure for the Hilton University. Learners were gaining access through a number of different systems and there was a need to achieve consolidation through the introduction of a single learning management system. The implementation of the system was considered an appropriate time to gain information on the learner perspective – access, usability and quality of experience and their perceptions on the value and relevance of the learning activities available to them.

Accordingly between April and May 2005 an internet survey was sent to 4,500 learners worldwide – over 1,800 submissions were returned, a completion rate of some 40% which is good for a survey of this nature.

The overall headlines were encouraging. On most areas there was a positive message: for example, over 70% strongly agreed with the statement, “after the login it is easy to find learning activities which satisfy needs”. Most importantly over 90% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement that, ‘the courses help with my personal development’. Even more encouragingly, over 70 % strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, ‘what I learned yesterday in my learning activity, I use today at my work’. This is a remarkably high figure for learning transfer – even taking into account the element of self-selection amongst some of the Hilton University learners in the first place and those who were sufficiently committed to return the internet questionnaire.

Almost 90% strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, ‘I am happy with Hilton University’, and 98% with the statement, ‘If a friend or colleague ask me if I could recommend Hilton University, I would say yes’. One important question, given the challenge of staff retention, was ‘the opportunity to develop myself through Hilton University is THE factor in me deciding to continue my career in Hilton’. Here 37% said yes and 50% said ‘it isn’t the (decisive) factor but it is important to me’.

The future direction of e-learning


As a result of the survey, and the overall impression on e-learning’s value and acceptability, Hilton feels certain that e-learning will continue to play an important role in the learning, training and development of its team members.

Plans for expansion include the provision of more customised or bespoke learning activities. The 2005 survey will be regarded as an initial benchmark to ensure that access and support improve. Other targets relate to volume expansion – a greater number of learners and more use of the range of learning activities are desired.

Another set of ambitions surround the use of technology as a collaborative tool for learning. The current system has asynchronous discussion forums to allow community discussion and support – the 2005 survey indicates that these were found useful by the learners. However there is some education to be done before the organisation and the individual takes full advantage of the potential offered by this facility.

The Hilton University and its scale, scope and ambition is unique within the hospitality sector. To fully appreciate the level of enthusiasm and commitment of those involved, it should be remembered that the entire project was conceived and implanted at a time when the hotel industry was going through one of its most turbulent periods.

The University is currently starting to use a Virtual Classroom solution which will soon be fully integrated into the Learning Management System – to improve the seamless provision of all sorts of learning activities to the learners. The Hilton Learning and Development team are optimistic that developing technologies will emerge to further enhance the learning experience.

 
 
 
 
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