Professional Identity and Practice : Hilton hotel

Professional Identity and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction and Overview.........................................................................................................1
Skills and Competencies required by the organization...............................................................1
Benefits and Importance of development plan for enhancing career prospects..........................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................2
Learning Theories and approaches for personal and professional development........................2
Critical evaluation of own skills and abilities with Self-Evaluation Models..............................3
Development approaches............................................................................................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
Professional Development plan with SMART target..................................................................6
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................8
CV for the job role of Hospitality manager................................................................................8
Interview process review the key strength and weaknesses........................................................8
Reflection in evaluating job interview process...........................................................................9
Assess own ability during interview process and critical analysis...........................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for an individual to have Personal and professional development while
working in the organisation as it helps the employee to enhance its skills in order to reach the
desired position( Vetere and Stratton, 2016). Present study is based on Hilton hotel that is a
hospitality company founded in the year 1919 by Conrad Hilton. Report will include introduction
and overview of Hilton hotel and the respective skills and competency that organisations require.
Further report will include benefits and importance of development plan for enhancing career
prospects and learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development.
Report will critically evaluate own skills and abilities with Self-Evaluation Models. Different
development approaches will also be applied in the report. Professional Development plan with
SMART target will also be applied in the report and CV is also prepared for the job role of
Hospitality manager. Report will include an Interview process review with the key strength and
weaknesses and further a reflection will be included in order to evaluate job interview process.
Report will assess own ability during interview process and critical analysis.
LO 1
Introduction and Overview
Hilton Hotels and Resorts are a prominent brand in hotel industry and have their hotels in
various locations spread all across the world. They are extremely renowned for the quality of
services that they provide and therefore being employed in such a prestigious hotel is a dream for
every person. As a person intending to establish his career in Human Resource Management
field, where I am currently working as an HR manager, getting employed in this hotel as an HR
manager would be a major milestone. This is not a easier task and cannot be achieved easily due
to the increased amount of competition and the high skill set that the employer desires in an HR
manager for their company. Further, a person who is fresher to the hotel management is not
appointed directly as an HR manager and would need to complete a certain training period under
the current manager with minimum qualifying levels so that the qualifying person can be further
appointed as an HR manager after a considerable duration.
Skills and Competencies required by the organization
In order to get selected in the Hilton Hotel as an HR Manager, there are a certain set of
qualities that the candidate is required to possess which can be characterized into following
headings:-
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Excellent Communication Skills: Since the HR manager is required to deal with the personnel
working in the hotel and in some cases even the visitors of the hotel, a person aiming for the
manager must be extremely proficient in the communication skills and must have the ability to
address multiple queries with equal satisfaction levels (Bharwani and Jauhari, 2017).
Time management: This is another skill where the manager is expected to manage multiple
activities and roles that are being allotted to the variety of HR personnel working in the hotel and
take out time for every aspect like grievances, appointments, recruitment process, meetings etc.
so that all the roles can be fulfilled efficiently.
Maintaining Professional Standards: The person intending to be a manager must always be
impeccably dressed as per the dress code formulated and should possess the knowledge of how
one should dress for different occasions without compromising the integrity of the culture and
brand image of the Hotel(Murphy, 2016).
Work Ethics: This is another major skill set required by the Hilton Hotel where it is emphasized
that person should always identify the difference between the right and wrong and choose to do
what is right. A person with strong work ethics would be able to lead the personnel in correct
direction motivating them to do what is right and thus improving the work culture of the entire
hotel.
Benefits and Importance of development plan for enhancing career prospects
Formulating and following a personal and professional skill development plan is
extremely beneficial and must be used by individuals intending to develop their and widen their
career horizon. On-going professional development helps in developing oneself while being
employed in an organization preparing oneself for even more challenging and wider job roles
than the current one. Undergoing a professional development plan while being employed in a
company is beneficial for both employees and employers as it helps in overall development.
Employees get benefited by utilising advantages like getting motivated to improve their
performance which ultimately improves the incentives as well, increase in the employability
skills which increases the competency(Gould, 2017).
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LO 2
Learning Theories and approaches for personal and professional development
Professional development is when employees develop themselves with respect to the role
they play in organisation by understanding there job and making improvement accordingly
(DeFrain and et.al., 2016). It is way to ensure their knowledge and understanding with respect to
particular area in which they are expert. HR managers at Hilton Hotel uses the following learning
approaches:-
 Behaviourist approach to learning: - HR managers use this approach, as they believe
that learner respond to stimuli with respect to the environment in which they work. HR
manager play a key role to provide relevant and useful stimuli so that the employees are
able to gain the knowledge by responding to these stimuli. As a result there personal
skills with respect to communication get develop and that leads to their professional
development. This helps in building a right path for their career.
 Social learning theory: - According to this theory, employees learn directly or indirectly
by observing others in the working environment. Here, HR managers work on
interpersonal interactions of the employees as they learn from each other individually or
by working in team. While interacting with each other, their observing and replicating
skills get develop and this helps them to develop professionally(Illeris, 2018)
 Cognitive learning theory:- According to this theory, employees are having their own
thinking processes which vary from each other. There are many internal and external
factors that produce learning in each employee. HR managers help the individual to
reflect their own experience and find new solutions by encouraging them. This develops
personal skills to be attentive and to retain in task as their motivation level rises and it
helps them to grow professionally (Waters and Craske, 2016).
Critical evaluation of own skills and abilities with Self-Evaluation Models
Skill audit:-
It is a process that is used to assess individual and group skills with the help of a
questionnaire. It is helpful in identifying the knowledge gap in the organisation as these gaps
may affect long term plans of Hilton Hotel and its employees. The Skill audit is having following
steps:-
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 Ensure you have management backing:- It is very important for HR managers at Hilton
hotel to audit cost time, resources and money so that they have knowledge whether scope
is in-line with respect to the goals of the business. HR managers are always prepared with
change plan as they are having backup plans(Fleming and Daw, 2017).
 Create your scope:- In order to adapt changes and bringing growth of Hotel Hilton, HR
managers must have good interpersonal and leadership skills so that the respective
changes can be adopted by other employees. For the same managers must have
motivating and disciplinary skills to make the employees motivated and disciplinary in
order to bring the changes.
 Competency framework:- HR manager establish a clear link with the company and have
integrated knowledge and skills which they use in order to perform their job effectively.
 Communicate with your team:- Before sending questionnaire, HR managers at Hilton
hotel talk with the team members and they reassure to them that data will be confidential
so that they answer it without any hesitation.
 Collect and analyse own data:- HR manager at Hilton hotel collect this data and analyse it
in order to understand where they are lacking behind so that respective training is given.
SWOT:-
Strength:-
 Having effective communication and motivation skills
 HR managers have skills to attract the most top talent and retaining the engaged workers
for long period.
 Setting long range goals and working to achieve them with effective planning
(Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019).
Weaknesses:-
 Not able to manage the task with respect to time.
 Lack of decision making over important tasks.
Opportunities:-
 Hire professional employees having knowledge and skills to manage Hilton hotel
effectively.
 Increasing staff and making them train for achieving the business goals.
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Threats:-
 Vacant positions in organisation may affect the business process and these vacant seats
are need to be filled.
 There is need of strategy for organisational sustainability.
 Change in wage law may impact ability of Hilton hotel to pay their employees.
Brunel Skill audit:-
HR managers at Hilton Hotel use this skill audit in order to identify the skills for which
they need to work for the improvement.
Time and self-management:-
NO Not
sure
YES
I am able to manage time with the respective deadlines
I am always on time in business meetings
I avoid wastage of time
I have focus on my future task while continuing present tasks
Problem solving:-
NO Not
sure
YES
Always have alternative solutions for problems
Easily breaks complex tasks
Work with others employees to solve problems
Effectively solve the problem within given time period
Communication:-
NO Not
sure
YES
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Listen to every individuals ideas
Easily convince others
Have confidence with respect to communication skills
Put ideas in group discussions
Development approaches
Personal development approaches:-
 Know yourself:- It is very important for the individual to understand own attitude and it
helps the HR managers to have effective management style and hiring practices in Hilton
Hotel(Langford, 2018).
 Positive psychology:- It is important for the managers to have positive psychology with
emotional maturity by having self awareness as it helps in developing personal attitude.
Professional development approaches:-
 Presentation approach:- HR managers have to plan for different presentation in order to
develop the skills of the employees and it is the easiest and inexpensive approach. After
its implementation it is duty to incorporate the elements in effective professional
development. The respective results both long term and short term have to be evaluated.
 Feedback:- HR manager have to enhance ability with reflection of own skill and this
helps in self analysis with effective professional skills(Calleja, 2018).
LO 3
Professional Development plan with SMART target
Current Skills and
Competencies used in
personal and professional
plan
Goals Personal /
Professional
Development
Plan
ACTIVITY
(Use SMART
targets)
Indicate how
you have
monitored your
progress,
underpinning
learning and
development
theory
Evaluate the
effectiveness of your
personal development
plan
Effective communication
skills that is both verbal and
non-verbal communication
skills
Short Term
Goals (3 months)
Effective
utilization and
development of
Here human
resource
managers have
to use
constructivism
This helped in
developing effective
communication with
the team members by
training them
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human resources.
Define your
goals clearly to
each and every
individual
working in the
organisation and
ask employees
feedback.
theory in order
to make all the
employees
participate in
their own
learning and
development
which will result
in their own
career
development
and improves
their morale.
This result in
their job
satisfaction and
finally results in
professional
development of
the employees.
effectively. They will
work hard in achieving
the organisational goals
with effective
communication among
each other and this will
helps in personal
development of the
employees and
managers. Employees
feedback helps in
analysing the problems
they face so that it can
be overcome.
Time and self management
skills
Medium Term
Goals (6 months)
Set deadlines in
order to achieve
the goals on time
and with good
efficiency.
With the
Behaviourism
theory it
becomes easy
for HR mangers
to make the
employees work
more effectively
as giving
positive and
negative
reinforcement
impacts the
individual
learning of the
employees and
they work hard
have rewards
instead of
getting any
punishments.
This helps in achieving
the medium term goals
of the business by
effectively managing
the time. The
employees will work
on time and with
efficiency so that they
gain rewards. The
retention rate also
increases as employees
get satisfied with the
reward policies.
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Problem solving Long Term
Goals (1 Year)
Achieve and
maintain high
moral among the
employees and
train them to
develop effective
problem solving
skills. For the
same human
resource
managers can
have training
activities.
With the help of
connectivism
theory, Human
resource
managers can
develop skills,
knowledge and
techniques for
the long term
achievement of
the organisation.
This helps to develop
problem solving skills
in order to solve the
problems coming
toward the organisation
in long run. For the
same they have to be
engaged in various
activities with the help
of which they learn to
manage and solve the
problems coming
towards the
organisation.
LO 4
CV for the job role of Hospitality manager
John
[e-mail]
163253673
Abc street, London, UK
Education
 Hospitality management diploma from London University
Experience
 2 year work experience in pqr 5 star hotel
 3 year work experience in xyz company
Skills
 Communication skills
 I am a strategic thinker
 Problem solving skills
 Know 5 different languages
Achievements
 Awarded as best manager of 2018
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 Increased revenue of pqr hotel by 25%
 Increased customers satisfaction rating by 12%
Interview process review the key strength and weaknesses
From the above interview the reflective strength and weaknesses are as following:-
Strength:-
 I have good communication skills which is suitable for this job role and I also have
knowledge of different languages.
 As a manager I have motivating skills to make employees encourage with respect to the
particular tasks that they have to perform in order to achieve the targets on time.
 I have problem solving that is essential for a managers to handle different clashes and to
handle different situations coming towards the hotel.
 I am a strategic thinker and always come up with innovative ideas and strategies in order
to handle the situations effectively.
Weaknesses:-
 Time management skills are very important for a manager but I am lacking behind it as I
am not having an effective time management skills.
 Although I am a strategic thinker, it is some time become difficult for me to come up
with effective decisions for benefit of my organisation.
 As a manage I must have knowledge of latest technology, but somehow I am lacking
behind it.
Reflection in evaluating job interview process
During the interview process it was quite tough for me to handle various situations as I
faced many challenges that were as follow:-
 Bad interview question:- During the interview I realised that there were some of the
questions that I was not able to understand and relate to present situation. As a result I
was dumb for that moment and lost my confidence level. This resulted to a negative
impression in eyes of the recruiter.
 General inconsistency:- As the list was huge, they look lot of life to take my interview
that is I waited for a long period to have my turn for the interview. As a result I got tired
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enough till my turn was there. This resulted to a bad mood and I was not able to answer
such simple question that I was having knowledge of.
 Lack of preparation:- I was quite overconfident from my previous experiences and did
not prepared anything and this resulted to a bad impression in eyes of the recruiter as I
was not able to answer some of the easy questions and the answer that I was aware about
didn’t stroked to my mind.
Recommendations:-
 Before giving the interview, it is necessary to refresh the mind and be confident during
the interview process.
 Preparation is very important before giving interview as it boosts the confidence and
gives us right direction to carry the things.
 During the interview if there are questions that you are not able to answer than just have
clear conversation with the recruiter that I am not aware about the current topic or
question.
Assess own ability during interview process and critical analysis
I have the ability to have effective communication with others verbally as well as non-
verbally. This skill is setting good impression in eyes of the recruiters as they see confidence in
my eyes. However, there were some questions for which I was not prepared and didn’t answer
with confidence. Although I am having knowledge of different languages which created an
effective impression in eyes of the recruiters and they appreciated me for the same, but as I got
tired by waiting in queue, it became tough for me to handle that situation. They asked me many
questions to test my strategic thinking and I was confident enough to answer all the respective
questions effectively.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is been concluded that it is very important to have Personal and
professional development of employee in the organisation in order to enhance their respective
skills and knowledge. There are different skills and competencies that every organisation
requires for the job role of HR manager and for the same development plan plays an important
part for enhancing career prospects of employees. Report also concludes that learning Theories
and approaches for personal and professional development Skill plays an important part. In order
to analyse own skills there are evaluation methods like SWOT, Brunel Skill audit that helps the
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employees to make improvement in their skills. Report also concluded that with Professional
Development plan and using SMART target, employees can boost their motivation for enhancing
their skills in which they are lacking behind. Report also concluded that by reviewing the
Interview process different key strength and weaknesses of HR managers was identified by
assessing own ability during interview process.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bharwani, S. and Jauhari, V., 2017. An exploratory study of competencies required to cocreate
memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. In Hospitality Marketing
and Consumer Behavior (pp. 159-185). Apple Academic Press.
Calleja, J., 2018. Teacher Participation in Continuing Professional Development: Motivating
Factors and Programme Effectiveness.
DeFrain, E. and et.al., 2016. Breaking It Down and Climbing Back Up: Learning Theories and
Approaches to Instruction.
Fleming, S.M. and Daw, N.D., 2017. Self-evaluation of decision-making: A general Bayesian
framework for metacognitive computation. Psychological review. 124(1). p.91.
Gould, J., 2017. Career development: A plan for action. Nature. 548(7668).pp.489-490.
Illeris, K. ed., 2018. Contemporary theories of learning: learning theorists... in their own words.
Routledge.
Langford, P.E., 2018. Approaches to the development of moral reasoning. Psychology Press.
Murphy, J.F., 2016. Professional standards for educational leaders: The empirical, moral, and
experiential foundations. Corwin Press.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-203.
Pritchard, A., 2017. Ways of learning: Learning theories for the classroom. Routledge.
Vetere, A. and Stratton, P., 2016. Interacting selves: Systemic solutions for personal and
professional development in counselling and psychotherapy. Routledge.
Waters, A.M. and Craske, M.G., 2016. Towards a cognitive-learning formulation of youth
anxiety: A narrative review of theory and evidence and implications for
treatment. Clinical Psychology Review. 50. pp.50-66.
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