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Making the “dean’s list” at Cape Cod’s Wequassett

Imagine a 120-room seasonal resort with 70, count them 70, training classes so staff members can more consistently deliver passionate service with a higher level of proficiency. It sounds overwhelming for a small, seasonal hotel, right?

In fact, for Mark Novota, managing partner of Wequassett Resort & Golf Club on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, it has not been the case. Rather, he said, for 10 years now the training academy has served to further motivate his team and helped the team earn for the past two years 5-star status through the Forbes Travel Guide.

“We were surprised how much our team longed for it because often there is a false assumption that people don’t want to sit in these courses or be over-taught,” said the 31-year veteran of the luxury property, who became a partner in 1991. “Just the opposite; people want to know how to do their jobs and to do them well.”

“We were surprised how much our team longed for it because often there is a false assumption that people don't want to sit in these courses or be over-taught.” – Mark Novota
“We were surprised how much our team longed for it because often there is a false assumption that people don’t want to sit in these courses or be over-taught.” – Mark Novota

Ever since the academy’s inception, Novota also had to manage the fear of losing highly skilled line staff to greener pastures after investing in them and growing their skill set. Again, it turned out quite to the contrary, according to Novota, as the team of 475 during peak season has become more loyal as a result of the training.

The internally developed, collegiate-style program conducted in classroom-like settings, with a tagline “where passion meets proficiency,” is divided into four diverse disciplines: technical training, information and technology, management, and the resort’s customer-intimate operating philosophy. There are “deans” of each discipline (members of the executive team) and a grade point average based on tests helps determine the “dean’s list.”

Most classes are about four hours and new staff must finish and pass about six or seven courses that match their job functions before they are ever allowed to interact with guests (no exceptions when the wait staff is down a few servers) and are encouraged to take as many more courses as they desire to increase their overall knowledge bases. It’s not uncommon to see a housekeeper take a wine course or a food and beverage worker take a public speaking course.

Recognizing the important to earn Forbes’ highest recognition, classes surrounding Forbes standards, such as more focus on anticipating needs of guests, or showing a more genuine sense of concern, are incorporated into the curriculum. “It helps us make sure that our execution is at a 5-star level, where historically it was probably built more at a 4-star level,” Novota said.

At this level of detail, the academy sounds expensive. Not really, says Novota, as most of the training material was created internally, taught by department heads and the only serious expenses are the full-time director of learning and about two extra weeks of payroll for team members to train. The biggest investment is time, which Novota said is well spent as he believes the classes have positively affected the resort’s bottom line.

“We’ve had a dozen years of incredible growth here we definitely attribute to the academy our ability to grow our average rates,” he added.

Wequassett Resort & Golf Club on Cape Cod in Massachusetts
Wequassett Resort & Golf Club on Cape Cod in Massachusetts

The improvement and consistency in service delivery has not gone unnoticed by guests, many of who ask Novota about “his secret.” The conversation usually ends up on the academy and has even led to some guests asking for Novota to come speak to their businesses about the program and philosophy behind it.

With more guests and business acquaintances asking all the time, Novota has been more seriously thinking about creating a side business rolling the academy concept outside the resort. “We probably haven’t devoted enough time to make that a priority, but it’s on our short list,” he said. “We will get there with that as our director of learning would be more than capable of spearheading this type of opportunity. I think we’re in a good place to perhaps make this a reality in reasonably short order.”

The payback for Novota is a lot of gratification. “It gives me a great sense of gratification when people are succeeding and moving onto opportunities in part because of what we’ve been able to teach them.”

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