Best practice selection on upskilling and reskilling from Spain: HOSBEC

In today’s rapidly evolving tourism industry, developing a strategic approach on skills development within organisations is crucial for a futureproof sector and workforce to remain competitive and responsive to changing market demands. In this series of best practices we highlight key areas of skills development necessary for the digital and sustainable transformation and inclusive tourism growth. We discuss best practices that have been carefully selected in the PANTOUR project countries to get inspired. In this blog, we zoom in to Spain for the best practice HOSBEC.

 

Background information

The initiative that has been identified as a Best Practice of this organization is its career development program, specifically in the context of promotions. HOSBEC implements a continuous training process to enhance various skill sets. The primary objective is to create multidisciplinary job profiles, ensuring that current employees are well-prepared to apply for new positions or job profiles within the organization. This strategy holds substantial value, particularly considering the organization’s rare initiation of external selection processes. HOSBEC is the Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community (Asociación Empresarial Hotelera y Turística de la Comunidad Valenciana). Moreover, it is the destination entity of Benidorm, one of the most popular destinations of the Valencian Community. HOSBEC is highly committed to digitalization and environmental sustainability. Concerning digitalization, the organization is consistently undergoing transformations, tailoring relevant training programs to accommodate emerging trends. HOSBEC implements a continuous training process to enhance various skill sets

Analysis and overview

HOSBEC emphasizes the significance of actively listening to and observing the sector, while also supporting its associates in staying informed and fostering innovation. In terms of environmental sustainability, the organization is dedicated to promoting this message on a daily basis and modifying their workspaces to maximize sustainability. Additionally, HOSBEC has introduced electric bicycles to facilitate mobility during visits to their associates, effectively reducing their carbon footprint.

Key principles

For HOSBEC, there are 2 key principles:
● Adaptation by the company to its employees: this is a key aspect to achieve the working comfort in the company. This has to be well established according to the different profiles of the employees. Maybe some of them need more understanding about mobility, as they live out of Benidorm and have to travel everyday to the offices; or maybe others need more understanding about the autonomy and flexibility in scheduling as they have to get their children to the school.
● Well-coordinated communication of the team: it is a good option to create areas in which skills and information can be shared through the teammembers; and also, having weekly meetings for the committee (consisting of the Secretary General and the Heads of Department) to keep everybody updated.

Examples and case studies

The interviewee’s journey exemplifies the company’s successful internal promotion strategy. After almost twenty years in several roles within the organization, she was appointed as the esteemed General Secretary. Remarkably, her promotion led to a domino effect, allowing another internal candidate to assume her previous position. This showcases the company’s devotion to nurturing and advancing talent from within

Potential pitfalls and challenges

The biggest challenge facing HOSBEC, like much of the Spanish tourism sector is the talent drain. The idea that “we are people working for people” must be present when working on the welfare of the workforce. By focusing on employee welfare, HOSBEC will retain and consolidate their teams. Furthermore, it is crucial to prioritise innovation to prevent the company from becoming outdated in the constantly evolving industry landscape.

Benefits and outcomes

The two main benefits that we can get from this initiative are:
● Efficiency in adapting to the new position, thanks to the already achieved skills
● In case of management roles, leadership by getting to know the team beforehand This transfer of competences is generated in the weekly meetings that the committee holds, as mentioned above. Each department presents its situation and its new needs, so that not only that department is trained in them, but everyone is on the same page with regard to the development of digital, social or environmental competences that is carried out.

Measuring succes

The success of this initiative is measured in the reduction of the cost of change due to adaptation to new positions. If these multidisciplinary positions were not developed, the company would have to spend a larger part of its budget on training people from scratch for the position they are to fill. The fact that all staff have common training to be able to cope with other positions when the time comes, ensures the success of the organisation. This is not only beneficial in terms of the cost of change but also in creating a high level of employee self-confidence. Also, another tangible KPI is the amount of promotions produced in a year at the company compared to the ones in a similar organisation without multidisciplinary position.

Responsibilities and Accountability

Human Resources have to examine the current positions at the time of promoting some employees, and also, to adapt their training in view of these possible changes of job profiles.

References and external resources

This is the link to the new where HOSBEC informed that the new General Secretary was promoted: HOSBEC