Effective Communication Strategies in Workplace

This assignment discusses the significance of communicating changes effectively in a workplace, particularly in a hotel setting. It explains how changes should be communicated to top-level, middle-level, and lower-level management, including face-to-face meetings, emails, notices, announcements, and personal letters. The importance of conveying changes directly and clearly is emphasized, especially for salary or financial benefits which affect employees' wellness and expenditure.

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Approaches of self-managed learning..............................................................................1
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional context can be encouraged at
Travelodge Hotel....................................................................................................................2
1.3 Benefits of Self-managed learning...................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Evaluating current skills and competencies against profession standards and
organizational objectives........................................................................................................5
2.2 Development need and activities required to meet above professional standards and
organizational objectives........................................................................................................7
2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future needs; Opportunities available
inside and outside the hotel to improve skill development needs..........................................8
2.4 Personal and professional plan based on the identified needs by focusing on skills needed,
how to develop them and when to develop those skills.........................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
3.1 processes and activities required to implement develop development plan...................11
3.2 Document development activities as planned................................................................12
3.3 Critically reflect learning against original aim and objectives set in development plan13
3.4 Update development plan prepared before based on evaluation and feedbacks............13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................15
4.2 Communication in variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels..............16
4.1 Solution to work based problems...................................................................................16
4.3 Use of effective time management strategies.................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
Appendix-1....................................................................................................................................21
Traffic light skill audit..........................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development helps us to manage our own growth and learning throughout our lives and career. It is
very much important to develop, boost, improve and learn new things, knowledge and skills to ensure that our work is done in an
effective, efficient, safe and legal manner. It is important to keep our knowledge up to date accordingly so that we do not fall behind
both personally and professionally (Cunningham, 2017). This assignment will lay emphasis on Travelodge Hotel case study with
various tasks such as different self-managed learning and which is suitable for the hotels staff, purpose of lifelong learning, benefits of
self-managed learning, evaluating our own current skills and competencies and development needs and activities to meet the required
skills, development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs, personal and professional development plan, processes and
activities to implement the development plan, solution to all employee turnover rate, communicating changes to various levels of
organization, using effective time management techniques. All the above points have been discussed in details in this assignment.
TASK 1
1.1 Approaches of self-managed learning
Self-managed learning can be defined as different ways an individual can use to acquire knowledge from their surrounding or
from their work place (Bennett, 2017). It is important for an individual to enhance their knowledge that can be used to achieve goals
of an organization. There are different approaches to self-managed learning that can be used for employees in various ways such as:
Coaching: Managers can attending coaching which will help them to improve their current skills, learn and develop new skills
(Cowan and Peacock, 2017). This approach has its own advantages as well as some disadvantages:
Advantages: We can identify all the flaws and mistakes we commit normally by attending coaching centres. This will help us to boost
and improve our skills as well as develop new skills
Disadvantages: Main disadvantage of coaching is that we need to give proper and fixed time in order to attend coaching classes and if
for any reason we miss our classes then it will be a disadvantage.
1

Observation: One of the basic self-learning approach is observation. We can learn new things, improve our skills by observing
others. This will also help us to understand all the areas that will help us to understand all the flaws in ourselves.
Pros and Cons: One of the biggest disadvantage of observation approach is that there is no way to know whether the things we will
learn are correct or not.
Research: Research is also an effective self-learning approach that can be used for learning and improving our basic skills and
learning new things.
Internet or Online: Internet is one of the most important approach that can be used by individual for self-managed learning. It
provides different articles, books etc. which can be provided by individuals to boost their knowledge. It provides various information
that are useful for a person personal and professional development. Even internet learning has its advantages and disadvantages such
as:
It is helpful for staff members as well as me to gain vast variety of knowledge and experience from the websites or articles or books
available on internet. Different productive information is available on internet which can be gained by people which they can transfer
and implement in the workplace.
Pros and Cons: There is no self-discipline in internet learning as people might from their work and engage in other sort of things.
Social networking: It is mostly used by many individuals nowadays as it is a platform where people can easily express their
views freely with others. Many people from different background express their experiences for others to learn from it (Smilde,
Advantages: We can adopt positive attitude from people and learn many things which they can adopt at their work place.
Disadvantages: It also has a disadvantage that there is no guarantee that the experiences shared by others are correct or not or whether
they are applicable in real life or not.
Here I will use Research, Observation, online learning approaches for myself and coaching for my staff.
2

1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional context can be encouraged at Travelodge Hotel
Lifelong learning is also a self-motivated learning for both personal and professional reasons. It helps in enhancement of self-
sustainability, personal development, competitiveness, active citizenship and employability (Lifelong learning, 2019). It can enhance
our understanding of the world around us as well as provides us with more and better opportunities in order to improve our quality of
life .
There are many ways lifelong learning can be encouraged at Travelodge Hotel like:
By allowing employees to self-direct their learning: Instead of directing employees of what they should learn they should be asked
that what they actually want to learn. This way managers will be able to take advantage of their employee’s personal interest by
encouraging then to self-direct their learning (Jõgi, Karu and Krabi, 2015).
Learning goals should be made equivalent important as performance goals: As it is already known that employees have limited
time to learn anything so it is quite natural that learning will come under work goals shadow. In fact learning should be a permanent
part of performance goals (Jõgi, Karu and Krabi, 2015).
Using casual learning check-ins: one of the most simple and cost-efficient way of encouraging lifelong learning in a hotel employee
is to take interest. People should be given an opportunity to share their observation and learning with others from the activity they
have attended (Jõgi, Karu and Krabi, 2015). These check-ins help us to understand how an employee has been growing and
understanding through their work and training. Weekly department meeting can be conducted organization wide where employees will
be asked about their learning and understanding.
Employees should be connected with inspirational mentors: Mentorship programmes should be used to encourage employees to be
lifelong learners. This program involves involving more experienced employee to interact with other employees so that they can
discuss their views, challenges, ambition etc. for the growth of their carrier. It has some advantages such as it helps employees to
become comfortable with their seniors or industry experts which eventually help them to boost their knowledge. But it also has some
3

disadvantages such as sometimes it can be used for political aspects as employees can be influenced for their political profit (Jõgi,
Karu and Krabi, 2015).
1.3 Benefits of Self-managed learning
Benefits to me as an Assistant manager: As an assistant manager it can help me in strengthening and adopting in current situations.
It will help me to learn new things within the hotel or outside and will eventually help in expressing their own opinions and views to
be shared with others. Like attending organizational seminars will help me to improve my organizing skills and use it for managing
and adopting the current situation. It can also help in improving my skills so that we can progress and gain situation advantage like
meeting challenges and objectives, understanding certain skills, self-resistance, self-awareness, knowledge about ways to learn and
progress, self-conscience, learning new ideas, things and sharing it with others (Cunningham and Bennett, 2017). For example,
interacting with senior employees and listening to their advices and experiences can help in understanding some skills in a better way
so that I can progress and improve my skills and way of working.
This self managed learning can help the hotel staff in strengthening their present current skills. Like attending Coaching will
help them to understand all the flaws and their weakness in them. With the help of online approach they can learn and develop new
skills required for their job in the organization. These approaches will help in motivating their staff in many ways and will also help
them to take more interest in their job in order to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.
Benefits to the organization: In hotel it can be used for maintaining variety of relationships within the organizations like in
Travelodge Hotel it can be used to maintain relationship of employees with their seniors, managers, internal staff working, colleagues
etc. and also helps in additional support and knowledge for help, improve oneself learning and ways it can be used to approach others.
4

TASK 2
Traffic Light Skill Audit
Skill audit is done in order to record or measure skills of an individual. So in order to evaluate my current skills and competencies I
have used a traffic light skill audit which is attached in Appendix 1. In this skill audit I have explained all the skill in which I need
training in order to improve it, skills that I need to work on and skills that I am confident about. All these skills have been explained
in details in the skill audit in Appendix 1.
2.1 Evaluating current skills and competencies against profession standards and organizational objectives
Current Skills Professional Standards (Inc. Academic
sources)
Travelodge and Job Role Objectives
Oral Communication Skills- I have an
ability to express my ideas and point of
view to others in a discussion and can
patiently listen to others ideas carefully and
can respond accordingly which can be
helpful for me as well as others.
Ability to communicate is the most valued
skills valued by employers and is a good
skill for presentation (Margaret and
Chimezie, 2015).
Passionate about serving customers is the
main job role (Travelodge Job descriptions,
2019).
Time management- I am also capable of
self or time management, as I am capable to
manage many tasks in the given time.
Time management is desired by employers
as it helps in accomplishment of a task in
given time period (Claiborn and Stricker,
1979).
Assistant manager must have time
management skills and must be able to
resolve any task (Travelodge Job
descriptions, 2019).
5

Written Communication Skills- I am also
confident that my written communication
skills are also good. However, I am not
confident about the grammatical mistakes I
make.
Documentation helps in easy understanding
of a task which is required in every job
profile (Claiborn and Stricker, 1979).
Assistant manager must be able to
document successfully all the task they are
assigned (Travelodge Job descriptions,
2019).
Information Literacy- My Information
literacy is also good i.e. I am capable to
find any information for variety of sources
Research is required in every field which is
required to understand a task successfully
(Margaret and Chimezie, 2015).
It is also desired and required at every part
in an organization whether it is to find out
about the competitors or wide range of
customers etc (Travelodge Job descriptions,
2019).
Problem Solving Skills- One of my current
skill that helps me to come out of any
situation is that I have critical thinking and
problem solving skills. If I devote myself to
a problem, I can easily find solutions to that
problem. But I do not prefer to take advice
on that situation and may advices confuses
me many times which results in some
unexpected results.
Problem solving skills are mostly valued by
many professionals and can be useful in
future projects (Margaret and Chimezie,
2015).
Action must be taken to resolve an issue
wherever necessary.
Assistant manager must have an ability of
being a quick thinker (Travelodge Job
descriptions, 2019)
Resilience- This is one of my strong skills Resilience is useful in overcoming any Travelodge has flexible approach in making
6

through which I am able to adapt to any
changes. Thus, I believe that I am
approachable and flexible while doing any
task or work.
adverse situation by giving quick solutions.
This aids in enhancing the work
environment by laying the positive outlook
(Margaret and Chimezie, 2015).
any modifications. Such skills would help
in understanding the individual's ability to
recover in effective manner (Travelodge
Job descriptions, 2019).
Creativity- I am very creative and like to
make my projects interesting and attractive.
I prefer that the presentation must always
be above average to make it appealing but
at some times in my work I get confused to
show my creativity.
Creativity helps in making things or tasks
look presentable to gain the attention of the
audience in proper manner.
The Manager must be creative to attract
their clients and customers which in return
is useful in forming the loyal customer-base
(Travelodge Job descriptions, 2019).
Analytical Skills: I am good in collecting
and analysing information in order to solve
any problem or for decision making.
However, I still need to improve them as I
get confused when I get or receive
information on the same topic differently
Analytical skills are one of the most useful
skills that are required in different projects
(Margaret and Chimezie, 2015).
The manager must be efficient enough to
solve any problem in order to complete any
task or work on time (Travelodge Job
descriptions, 2019).
2.2 Development need and activities required to meet above professional standards and organizational objectives.
Skills that are needed to be developed Methods of developing those skills
I need to improve my Presentation skills. I will give more presentations in order to improve my oral communication skills and will
practice it multiple times before presenting it in front of everyone. I will also try to attend
7

and learn from other individuals by observing their way of reciting, gestures, eye contact
and other factors. I will also try to overcome my fear of public speaking as I have lack of
confidence and few misconceptions that they are going to laugh but that is totally wrong.
As audience are mostly sympathetic and listen to one's presentation very carefully in
order to gain knowledge and understand the topic.
Need to improve my analytical skills in
order to become an efficient learner and
quick thinker.
I will try to use my good communication skills and try to understand the problem in a
better way in order to deliver good information. I will also try to improve my skills by
asking advices from experts or mentors so that I can improve my skills in a better way by
applying the techniques or methods used by them to solve a problem by being a quick
thinker. I will also ask advice and take feedback from my manager or seniors. I will also
try to identify all the positive and negative aspects of a problem in order to understand it
in a better way and be a quick thinker.
Need to improve my Written grammatical
skills.
I will try read more and more books in order to improve my grammar. I will also try to
write diaries to improve my skills.
Improve Creativity. I will participate in different creative arts activities such as drama, drawings etc.
Improve my excellency in Information
literacy
I will try to read more books to improve my information literacy and try to learn online as
well.
Improve my resilience skills I will try to communicate with other as much as possible in order to be resilience.
8

2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future needs; Opportunities available inside and outside the hotel to improve skill
development needs
Employee development is a process where each and every employee undergoes through various training programs in order to
enhance their skills and gain knowledge. It is one of the main attributes which is needed and is important for all employees and staff
especially in hotel industry to improve their skills. Travelodge is one of those hotels which provide their employees diploma courses,
training and development programs so that employees can take benefit of those programs and boost their skills which leads in
development of greater opportunities for them to improve their skills for example team leading skills can be improved by such
trainings.
Regular meetings and trainings with my senior, I can understand my role and responsibility towards Hotel and customers in a
better way. I can improve my weak areas like presentation skills and problem solving skills in such a way that I can provide quality
service to Hotel's customers. Training within groups will also help me to improve my team working and oral communication skills.
This training will help me to enhance my communication skills, become an efficient problem solver. This will make me a good
listener, deliver my thoughts in a better way. I can enhance all the above skills by focusing on my training, practising and learning.
This will help me to become a confident person who will be able to fight with their weakness confidently. All such things will bring
me new opportunities both inside and outside the hotel.
I will also attend coaching classes so work under my mentor so that I can improve my skills and fulfil my needs. Attending
coaching classes will help me to identify all the areas where in commit mistakes or skills which I lack. These coaching classes will
help me to improve my skills in a better way. These various kinds coaching classes will also help me in improve my analytical skills,
so that I can easily improve ways in which I can collect and analyse information in order to solve a problem effeciently.
9

2.4 Personal and professional plan based on the identified needs by focusing on skills needed, how to develop them and when to
develop those skills
Development
Objectives
Priority Activities to be
undertaken
Resources Time
duratio
n
Target
start
date
Target
eng Date
Success criteria
To improve
communication
and
presentation
skills
Medium
priority
level
Watch videos
for effective
presentation
skills, read
books, discuss
with manager or
some seniors,
attend other
presentations.
Access to watch you-tube videos
to improve presentation skills,
by reading self help guides to
help us to learn various ways for
improving our presentation
skills, by attending different
presentations of others and
observing their way of speaking,
their facial expressions. By
asking onions form seniors,
researching and practising in
order to improve my skills.
1
months
10th
January
2019
10th
February
2019
Practising in front of
my co-workers and
asking their onions
and feed backs.
Meeting my mentor
on regular basis and
meeting all the
objectives
To become a
quick thinker
and improve
problem solving
skills efficiently
High
priority
level
Attend various
programs to
improve
communication
skills, ask
Funding and time off to attend
training program for improving
communication skills. Learn
some techniques form seniors,
trainers or mentors. Work on the
1
months
10th
Decembe
r 2018
10th
January
2019
Attended training
result and feedback
from trainer
10

seniors in order
to bring
improvement in
ourselves and
them work on it.
feedback and results which we
get and at last by researching
and learning few things myself.
To improve
written
grammatical
skills
Medium
priority
Attend online
courses, read
books
Funding for attending Online
courses for improving my
written skills. By reading more
and more books
I month 10th
February
10th march Results and
feedback of online
Courses
To improve my
creativity
Low
Priority
Attend classes
and activities in
order to improve
creativity
Fundings from manager to
attend creative arts and thinking
activities or classes
15 days 10th
march
25th march Feedback of the
classes
Improve my
excellence in
information
literacy.
Medium
priority
Reading books
can improve
information
literacy.
By having access to reading on-
line and offline book liberaries
through online courses
1 month 25th
march
25th April Results of the online
courses
Improve my
resilience skills
Low
priority
Participating in
various
activities in
order to improve
In participating in group
activities by arranging such
activities with the help of my
mentor.
10 days 25th April 4th may Results of group
activities and
feedback of the
montors
11

resilience skills.
TASK 3
3.1 processes and activities required to implement develop development plan
Implementation of development plan is important to improve one's skills for personal and professional growth. So, to improve
my skills I have made a personal and professional development plan and to implement it there are various processes and activities that
are required for it. Implementation of development plans is a process which turns strategies in to actions to achieve final goals and
objectives. I will try to make my goals SMART i.e. they will be specific like I need to improve my presentation and quick thinker
skills. These goals will be measurable i.e. I will measure the time and amount that I will invest in order to improve these skills so that
both my time and money are not wasted (Lewis and et.al, 2016). Both my gaols are attainable, relevant and will be achieved within
time. I will attend seminars related to improvement of communication skills so that I can improve way of interaction with anyone
which help me to convey my ideas to anyone else in a better way which will eventually enhance by presentation and problem solving
skills.
As these conferences and seminars are addressed by various industry experts who share their knowledge with us in order to
bring improvement in ourselves. I will attend training programs to improve my quick thinking skills, gestures, expressions which are
one of the most important things in Hotel industry as these are important when communicating with our clients and customers. For
these things I will have a meeting with my manager and persuade him to give me a time off or organize such type of conferences,
training sessions and seminars for everyone so that we can learn and improve ourselves. I will also try to take advice from my mentor
and seniors, take their feedback and comments positively, try work on those stuff and will also try obtain the techniques and tactics
that my mentors and seniors uses so that I can improve my skills. I will also make a time table of attending these training programs,
seminars and meeting with mentors so that I can achieve goals of my development plan in the specific time duration. I will also attend
coaching classes in order to bring improvement in myself in my skills as well as achieve all the goals and targets with the help of all
12

the tactics that I will learn during the classes. I will also try to learn from other resources such as you tube or through self-help guides
etc. as there are various videos available on you tube which can help me in improving my skills in various ways.
3.2 Document development activities as planned
Activity
week
Activities Things to be learned Outcome Future actions
1st week Research techniques of
time management on
internet and YouTube
Need to teach time management i.e.
how I should spend my time in order
to manage both my work and
development actions by making a
time table researching ways of
managing and at last producing a
graph to get a clarity of it.
To complete my daily work
on time. Prioritize my work
in such a way that I can
complete all the assigned
work to me on time so that
I can work on my skill
improvement. Learn time
management skills required
to complete my work on
time.
Review the time table I
have created an analyse
where I missed fulfilling
my priorities.
2nd week Attend all the three
Seminars and
Conferences organized
by the hotel
Need to learn ways of improving my
communication skills in order to
improve my communication and
interaction skills
To achieve the goal for
which these conferences are
organized and improve my
way of explanation and
expression of my ideas.
Make notes of the things I
have learned in the
seminar and conferences
and work on it by
practising it.
3 and 4th Attend every day Need to learn ways of improving my To work on the feedbacks Practise all the things
13

week training program of
three hours
gestures, postures, expressions and
ways to reach any decision in order
to improve my presentation skills as
well as improving my quick thinking
ability.
and the outcome of these
training programs by
discussing it with my
mentors and the trainer and
then implementing all the
required changes to meet
the desired target.
learned during the
training program and
work on all the advices
given by the mentors
during the meeting with
them and finally trying to
make myself efficient
enough to achieve the
desired goal and target.
3.3 Critically reflect learning against original aim and objectives set in development plan
Critical reflection is a reasoning process which makes the meaning of the experience or we can also say that it is a process to
understand the depth of one's expressions by making a connection between course content and experience (Critical Reflection, 2019).
It is important for us to understand, analyse and examine one's own beliefs and willingness to learn something new.
Critical reflection is one of the most important things in my development plan as communication skills are one of the most
important things in hotel industry to attract customers and maintain the quality of our services and for our own growth both personally
and professionally.
All the activities have not only helped me to develop my presentation and problem solving skills but it has also helped me to
develop various other skills like team work, cooperation, collaboration and significance of self-development, However in some of the
activities were not much effective such as Observation didn't helped me much in analysing and improving my skills. All the training
sessions taught me to work in a team with cooperative nature and helped in self-development. My involvement in these activities can
be improved by solving all the issues that occurred during these activities like attending evening sessions was a big problem for me as
14

sometime it became difficult for me to attend those sessions due to work load. But overall these activities helped me in improving and
developing various other skills that might be useful in future for my professional growth.
3.4 Update development plan prepared before based on evaluation and feedbacks.
Development
Objectives
Priority Activities to be
undertaken
Resources Time
duration
Success criteria
To improve
communication and
presentation skills
Medium
priority level
Learn presentation
skills as well as
gestures and postures
required
By asking permission for
attending others' presentation,
can also organize group
discussions so that we can help
ourselves in improving our skills
by pointing out the obvious
mistakes and working on them.
3 weeks Working in groups and
receiving reviews from
team mates on our
performance will help
in improving our
mistakes conducted
more often.
To become a quick
thinker and improve
problem solving
skills efficiently
High
priority level
Improve interaction
skills becoming a
good listener and
expressing and
understanding each
other’s point of view.
For asking funding from manager
for attending training programs,
logical reasoning test can also be
conducted to improve our
thinking ability and be a good
problem solver this can be done
after work in evening.
4 weeks Logical reasoning test
results will help me to
understand and improve
my problem solving
skills.
To improve written
grammatical skills
Medium
priority
Improve written skills
in order to deliver
By asking for funding and access
for reading online books,
4 weeks Results and test
conducted on coaching
15

perfect reports or
documents in my
work.
coaching classes can also be
attended so that my written
grammatical skills can be
improved in a better way.
classes will help me to
improve my grammar.
To improve my
creativity
Low Priority To improve my
creativity.
Asking for funding for attending
creative arts and thinking
activities I can also watch you
tube videos so that I can learn
new skills for improving my
creativity
2 weeks YouTube videos will
help me to improve my
creativity by learning
various ways of
improving my creativity
Improve my
excellence in
information literacy.
Medium
priority
To improve my
information literacy
skills
Access to online libraries for
reading books where I can also
try to watch and read self-help
guides which might help me in
improving my information
literacy skill
4 weeks Slef help guide will
help me to improve my
literacy as these books
provide us various ways
and options to improve
our litercacy.
Improve my
resilience skills
Low priority To improve my
resilience skills
By asking for organizing and
giving time off to attend various
conferences so that I can interact
with many other persons.
2 weeks Interacting with all the
other people attending
conferences will help
me to understand my
weakness as well as
16

others strength which
will bring changes in
me.
TASK 4
Together we can do it!
Introduction – We are concern about all the work related problems such as low job satisfaction, staff turnover rate, low staff morals,
excessive workload, stress and mental health issues etc.
Solutions for work related problems:
Excessive Workload –
By swaping shifts, giving realistic deadlines which can be achieved.
Reviewing work load regularly
Appointing more staff members during work load
Stress and mental health –
17

Providing breakout, quiet or meditation rooms for employees
Arranging fun activities in order to relax employees minds
By providing Gym membership
By providing 2 days weekly off
Reducing work load
Low Job Satisfaction -
By offering competitive pay
By providing various types of bonuses such as: house rent, incentives et.
Low staff morals -
by increasing transparency in the system
By giving recognition to the employees and staff
providing proper training to the staff members
18
We well explain all the three levels present at the workplace i.e. top level, middle level and lower level.
 Top level management here all the changes are communicated on a personal level either through face to face meeting
or through emails or by giving them changes list through a letter handing them personally. Way of communicating all
the changes to the top level employees is important as they are one of the top most employees of the hotel.
 Middle level management can be communicated all the changes either through meeting conducted or through notices
or by informing them through announcements or by informing their seniors to convey all the changes to them.
 Lower level management can be communicated all the changes either by informing their respective head or giving
them a notice of changes made in the management and other things etc.
All the changes made in workplace for various levels should be communicated to the employees directly and in a straight forwards
manner. Anything should not be sugar coated as it will seem like you are trying to hide something. All the changes should be
conveyed to the employees at different levels from their respective department head. Any changes especially in salaries or financial
benefits are conveyed to employees personally, individually by letters or emails by their respective head as it will affect their wellness
and their expenditure and their point of view should also be listened with patience as it will affect them emotionally.

19

4.3 Use of effective time management strategies
Time management is a set of principles, skills, practices, tools and systems that works together to help us to get more value out
of our time with the aim of improving the quality of our lives(Time management, 2011). It is important for me as an assistant manager
as there are various skills of mine that are needed to be improved, So for improving those skills I had to undergo various activities that
had helped me in improving my skills. So for this one of the most important thing was time management as other than completing my
work I had to undergo various classes, training, seminars, conferences, had to watch videos, attend others presentations etc. So, time
management was one of the most important thing that was needed to be dome.
Time management strategies that I follow are as follows: First of all, I make a schedule of whole day and then divide my time
according to the schedule of that day. Making a schedule might take five minutes of the day but it saves several hours of the day that
might get wasted and also the efforts done in that task might get wasted. Then I capture all the task that is needed to be done on
priority accordingly and quickly review all the resources needed to complete that task (Hamilton and Organ, 2018). Then I make a list
of all the activities that are to be done on priority and list all the important points like who are my clients and customers for that task,
where I can face trouble completing that task, what is going to be my contribution for that task and strategy that I need to make in
order to complete that task. Then I try to find all the activities that can disturb my work and try to find a solution for it so that flow of
my work is not broken and I don't get interrupted in middle of something as it becomes very much difficult for if the flow of the work
is broken and it is even more difficult to re-establish the flow of work again.
So, it is important to maintain the flow of work and identify the elements that can disturb us. Making deadlines can help in
eliminating delay of time for example if a meeting is scheduled in two days then it creates a deadline for you to complete your pending
presentation work within two days. This will help in time waste or time delay. It has been proved that multi-tasking created problems
for person to focus evenly on all the task. So, we should plan our task in such a way that all the tasks are given time eventually so that
all the task can be focused and completed eventually in time. At last I review my day by giving it five to ten minutes before I leave my
20

workplace and I achieve anything then I pat myself and if I commit any mistake then I try to point out the where I pointed out the
mistake and why so that I do not make the same mistake next day and my efforts does not go in vain (Megginson and Whitaker,
2017).
Scheduling- But there are some strength and weakness of these strategies such as: Scheduling: Sometimes it becomes difficult
to follow the schedule when some sudden urgent work occurs, however, an advantage of making a schedule is that we will be able to
manage and complete that sudden work on time. This will motivate the staff as they will be able to manage all of their work on time.
Setting Deadlines- Similarly, making deadlines also has some strength and weakness such as: making deadlines help the staff
to complete all of their work within the schedule made but it also puts that staff within some pressure as they need to complete the
work on time, however, this will increase the efficiency of the staff in many ways. Both the techniques will be useful for the
Travelodge hotel as well as for their staff.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been concluded that there are many approaches of self-managed learning like conferences,
seminars, internet, social networking etc. every approach has its pros and cons accordingly keeping in mind we had used Conferences
and seminar self-managed learning for our hotel. There are many ways lifelong learning can be encouraged in the hotel but it has its
pros and cons as well. My current skills that I am good at are oral skills and problem solving skills and based on these skills I had
made a personal and professional development plan. But this development plan needs some process and activities to be implemented
so we had made a process which further changes into actions for this development actions and documented it and based on it I had
updated my development plan accordingly. In last task I had given some solutions to reduce employee turnover rate in the hotel and
communicated various approaches and style to communicate those changes to various levels of the hotel and at last I have suggested
some time management strategies which can be used by employees to manage their work and time efficiently.
21

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bennett, B., 2017. Self Managed Learning in organizations. In Self Managed Learning in Action (pp. 29-48). Routledge.
Claiborn, W.L. and Stricker, G., 1979. Professional standards review organization, peer review, and CHAMPUS. Professional
Psychology. 10(4). p.631.
Cowan, J. and Peacock, S., 2017. Integrating reflective activities in eportfolios to support the development of abilities in self-managed
experiential learning. Reflective Practice. 18(5). pp.655-672.
Cunningham, I. and Bennett, B., 2017. Self Managed Learning and qualification programmes. In Self Managed Learning in
Action (pp. 127-148). Routledge.
Cunningham, I., 2017. The wisdom of strategic learning: The self managed learning solution. Routledge.
Hamilton, N.W. and Organ, J.M., 2018. Each Law Student Must Take Increasing Ownership Over Professional Development During
Law School.
Hopkins, D., 2015. Improving the quality of education for all: A handbook of staff development activities. Routledge.
Jõgi, L., Karu, K. and Krabi, K., 2015. Rethinking teaching and teaching practice at university in a lifelong learning
context. International Review of Education. 61(1). pp.61-77.
Lewis, T.J., and et.al., 2016. Training and professional development blueprint for positive behavioral interventions and
supports. National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Interventions and Support.
Margaret, O. and Chimezie, O., 2015. Professionalism in the Secretarial Profession. International Journal for Innovation Education
and Research, 3(11).
Megginson, D. and Whitaker, V., 2017. Continuing professional development. Kogan Page Publishers.
Smilde, R., McPherson, G.E. and Welch, G.F., 2018. Lifelong learning for professional musicians. Special Needs, Community Music,
and Adult Learning: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education. 4. p.290.
22

Walker, K., 2017. Why continuing professional development is so important. IQ: The RIM Quarterly, 33(2), p.4.
Online
Critical Reflection. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.utc.edu/think-achieve/critical-reflection.php>
Lifelong learning. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/lifelong-learning.html>
Personal and professional development plan. 2012. [Online]. Available
through:<https://faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/assessing-educational-needs/personal-or-professional-development-
plans>
Time management. 2011. [Online]. Available through:<http://www.timethoughts.com/timemanagement/definition-time-
management.htm>
Travelodge Job descriptions. 2019. [Online]. Available through:<https://www.travelodge.co.uk/careers/vacancies/vacancy-search-
results.aspx>
23

Appendix-1
Traffic light skill audit
Skills I am confident, I
can do this
I can still
Improve
I need to work on
it well
Time and Self-management
I know how to organize my time in order to meet all the deadlines X
I know exactly where to get Support in order to complete difficult task X
Problem Solving and critical thinking
I am able to find solution to for any problem X
I can consider the best alternative from range of solution X
Oral Communication
I am confident that I can contribute my suggestions and ideas for group
activities
X
I would be confident for giving presentation to others in front of everyone X
Written Communication Skills
I am confident that my written work or documentation will have the least
number of grammatical mistakes or any other kind of errors.
X
24