In the challenging post- 9/11 economic climate, hoteliers are realizing the importance of getting back to the basic industry mantra: "Life is service." Accordingly, Radisson Hotels & Resorts is ushering in 2002 with two new training initiatives to keep both its corporate and hotel employees up-to-date on hospitality industry best practices.

All of Radisson’s traditional, on-site training programs—which cover such areas as sales skills and revenue management—will be provided by Signature (www.legendary.net), a hotel industry training company. What distinguishes Signatures’ training program from others, says Steve Outwater, senior director of training, education, and hotel services for Radisson, is that it conducts post-training "mystery shopper" assessments to evaluate the programs’ effectiveness.

In addition to on-site training, all Radisson employees will have access to hundreds of Internet-based courses through CourseLine, CourseLine Plus, and CyberCinema programs developed by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (www.ei-ahla.org). CourseLine provides interactive, online training in topics that range from food and beverage to general hospitality management. CourseLine Plus offers instruction and training for 455 software systems including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. CyberCinema is a series of employee development videos delivered through Web streaming.