Employability Skills for Business Graduates

This assignment explores the importance of employability skills for business graduates. It examines various skills, including communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability, that are crucial for success in today's competitive job market. The document analyzes the role of higher education institutions in developing these skills and suggests strategies for students to enhance their employability. Additionally, it considers the impact of workplace experiences on skill acquisition and the evolving nature of employability requirements in the business sector.

Employability Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1...........................................................................................................................................1
1.2...........................................................................................................................................2
1.3...........................................................................................................................................3
1.4...........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1...........................................................................................................................................5
2.2...........................................................................................................................................6
2.3...........................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1...........................................................................................................................................8
3.2...........................................................................................................................................9
3.3.........................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
4.1.........................................................................................................................................11
4.2.........................................................................................................................................11
4.3.........................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
In the current era of globalisation, it is essential for each and every employee to possess
varied skills and capabilities to carry out the operations within firm. Employers are required to
assess different skills such as communication, leadership, problem solving, teamwork, self
management etc. within their workforce so that they are capable to attaining organizational goals
(Amin-Naseri and Gilbert, 2014). There has been intense competition in market and therefore,
business focuses upon training their workforce so that they can imbibe different employability
skills within them to attain success. In the current report, role of HR manager within Marriott
hotel is required develop their own responsibilities so that business objectives can be attained
effectively. Also, it is essential for manager to adopt different motivational techniques that helps
in improving the quality of workers performance.
TASK 1
1.1
I am currently working as a HR manager and possess varied duties and responsibilities in
order to attain desired performance objectives. Thus, it can be assessed that I need to carry out
effective recruitment and selection technique so that best results can be attained. My another
responsibility is to deliver the best resources to workers as well as identify their needs in order to
fulfil the same and enhance satisfaction. Being a HR manager it is essential for me to fulfil
different roles and responsibilities so that business objectives can be attained. I play crucial role
in carrying out recruitment and selection of employees as well as providing them training
programs to improve their employability skills. It is my duty to select right candidates for the
right job. It is also my responsibility to prepare important documents such as job description and
person specification for selecting appropriate personnel. My another responsibility to provide
technical knowledge to workers regarding managing client data so that it could be used in future.
I also play a significant role in organizing Training Need Analysis program which aims to assess
the needs of workers and provide them appropriate training and development to grow and attain
success.
Similarly, there are different set performance objectives upon which I need to work to
gain proficiency. My role as a HR manager aims to select best skilled candidates that can help
clients in meeting their expectations. My another performance objective is to retain talented
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personnel for long time by providing them different motivational benefits so that their needs
could be fulfilled. Through encouraging workers in Marriott they assist me to work towards
business objectives and overcome competition. Following is my own SWOT analysis-
Strengths
 I am able to manage conflict
 I carry out effective leadership skill
 Communication
 Solving customer queries
Weaknesses
 Inadequate motivation power
 I lack in scheduling activities
 Inappropriate analytical skills
Opportunities
 Opportunities to reach at higher
position
 Learning team working skills
Threats
 Technological updation
 Availability of competitive rivals using
similar strategies
1.2
My own effectiveness against defined objectives is to recruit right candidates for the right
job. Thus, being HR manager in Marriott it is my duty and I found myself effective in regard to
assess the skills and capabilities of personnel who are best suited for the post. Thus, participating
in recruitment process helps me to assess the efficiency and knowledge of candidates so that they
could be hired within firm. I spend lot of time upon preparing the important documents needed
for recruitment process i.e. job description and person specification. Thus, I actively participate
in making decisions regarding scrutinizing the applicants CV and selecting the appropriate
person to work for the welfare of firm.
Further, I also effective participate in organizing training and development programs as it
is essential for business to enhance the skills and opportunities of workers to attain success.
However, all such performance objectives are interconnected with each other and thus help me to
effective attain the same. Moreover, in order to fulfil the objective of motivating workforce I
effectively participate in conducting meeting with top management and introduce various
motivational benefits so that employees could be encouraged towards attaining business
objectives. However, I lack in certain areas in which I need to improve such as identifying
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training needs of individuals, best ways of motivating workers etc. that needs to be improved.
Following is my own effectiveness against defined objectives which are as follows-
 My main objective is to recruit and select skilled personnel and help clients in meeting
their expectations. Thus, such objective could be attained through providing proper
training and development to workers which helps them to overcome their issues and
provide the best working environment within workplace. It would result into enhancing
the efficiency of workers and attain desired results.
 Another objective is to retain skilled personnel for long time within firm so that success
can be attained. However, such objective could be attained through providing proper
motivational benefit to workers and thus encourage them to work hard towards stated
objectives. It would result into enhancing the efficiency of organization and improve
individual performance as well.
1.3
It is essential for me to improve the skills in which I am lacking so that business
objectives can be attained. Working as a HR manager of Marriott hotel I need to improve the
training skills of workers which would help them to satisfy customer needs and wants. Also, I
found difficulty in managing workload and therefore, I need to work accordingly in regard to
manage the operations effectively and efficiently. Improvement is also required in relation to
improve ability of working upon electronic techniques such as MIS in order to maintain records
of customers. Therefore, I need to gain proper training so that I obtain sufficient knowledge and
information which would help me to attain success.
Furthermore, in order to improve the inadequate skills, I need to join different coaching
and mentoring techniques so that I can effectively handle the issues. I also face difficulty in
identifying the motivational benefits therefore it is essential for me to improve my understanding
regarding different motivational techniques that helps me to encourage workers and attain
business objectives. Identifying the different ways of motivating i.e. monetary and non-monetary
that aids me to improve the ability of worker towards business performance. Such skill could be
improved through reading different motivational authors and listening to speakers helps in
improving the skills and attaining business objectives. It can be assessed that the current situation
within workplace could be improved through recruiting and selecting skilled workplace and
improve their efficiency to attain desried results. Also, such objective could be attained through
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undertaking effective training and development activities so that best results can be attained.
Further, it also results into improving the efficiency of firm in market and achieve desired goals.
Moreover, another objective is to retain skilled candidates within workplace and thus for that
employees need to be encouraged so that efficiency could be enhanced. It would result into
performing the best functions so that success can be attained.
1.4
It can be assessed that motivational techniques helps in improving quality of performance
among workers. Through using different motivational techniques such as Herzberg two factor
and Maslow Need hierarchy theory for the aim of motivating workers within business. Herzberg
theory adopts two different factors such as hygiene and motivational which aims to improving
quality of performance towards stated objectives (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005). For instance,
being HR manager at Marriott I need to motivate workers by adopting both these factors and
rendering promotion and build an effective environment within workplace. Thus, such
motivational techniques helps me to improve encouragement and quality performance among
individuals.
In the similar way, Marriott manager also uses Maslow needs hierarchy theory through
identifying different stages of motivation. Here, workers are required to feel satisfied by
identifying their social requirements and thus obtain encouragement in relation to improve the
team working within firm (Arthur, 2012). Furthermore, I also assess any specific requirements of
workers and try to fulfil them so that they can encouraged to work with full zeal and enthusiasm.
It helps organization to attain desired objectives as well as improving quality performance
among workers. Through obtaining motivational techniques it aids in improving individual's
performance to gain customer satisfaction. However, using motivational theory results in
improving the quality of performance and thus improve the performance of firm in market.
Therefore, it is significant for firm to enhance the efficiency of individual and thus result into
performing desired actions so that best results can be attained. For instance, through using
Maslow and Herzberg theory it aids in encouraging the workforce within firm and thus improve
the quality of performance so that customer satisfaction can be attained.
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TASK 2
2.1
Following are the different work based problems faced by business and the possible
solutions to overcome the same which is stated underneath-
 Training Need Analysis- Here, HR manager of Marriott faces issues regarding providing
better training programs to workers. Therefore, it is essential for firm to assess the
training requirements of workers and then deliver them appropriate training so that best
results can be attained (Baptiste, Le Pape and Nuijten, 2012).
 Developing action plan- It is another work based problem faced by individuals and
therefore, it is essential for business to prepare appropriate action plan in regard to
improve the skills and capabilities of workers. Through identifying the training methods
and planning appropriate time schedules helps in overcoming such work based issues
(Moen and et. al., 2013).
 Conflict among workers- There are different conflicts that arise among workforce and
thus it is essential for team members to identify the solutions so that conflicts can be
avoided to attain business goals. Marriott needs to implement different solutions such as
organizing team meetings to develop relationship among workers and help them to
understand each other so that they does not face any conflict situation (Sanders and De
Grip, 2004).
 Coordination issues- HR manager of firm also faces the issues related to coordination
among workers and thus it affects in completing the desired targets on time. Therefore,
management aims to develop coordination among workers and enhance the skills in
regard to overcome work based issues (Savery, 2015). Following is the main work based
problem such as-
 High staff turnover- It is considered as the main problem faced by Marriott and therefore,
it is essential for management to encourage workers and thus improve their efficiency so
that the can be retained within firm for long term. However, it is essential for cited firm
to overcome such issue and provide specific solution to such work based problem in
order to improve efficiency and result in satisfying employees needs.
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2.2
Following are the different levels within organization and specific strategy that need to be
adopted in regard to solve the issue such as-
 Strategic level- Reports and E-mail form of communication is being used in regard to
communicate to employees if the problem is being occurred and thus try to solve the
issues effectively and efficiently.
 Functional level- Telephone, instructions manual etc, communication style is being used
in regard to carry out effective function and thus perform the desired operations so that
better functions could be attained.
 Operational level- Moreover, it is also significant for firm to carry out effective
operational level and thus use briefing and formal and informal meeting so that proper
communication can be carried out in terms of operate the business successfully and
overcome the issues.
HR manager of Marriott hotel needs to develop effective communication styles so that it
helps in interacting among workers at different levels. Here, preparing crucial documents i.e. job
description and person specification aids in selecting personnel for two different roles i.e. at
management and staff level (Smith and Comyn, 2004). Here, in order to communicate at
management level HR adopts formal way such as video conferencing, e-mail while
communicating at staff level it adopts informal way such as telephone, notice and message etc.
Therefore, different communication styles are required in regard to communicate among workers
at different levels that is as follows-
Job description and specification of Marriott hotel Chief Operations Office that reside at
management level
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job designation Chief Operations Officer
Location South East London
Reporting authority CEO
Job aim To direct and maintain the proficiency of business effectively to
overcome competition
Duties and
responsibilities
 To check the current performance of services provided by hotel
staff
 To increase the morale of workers so that they can work towards
business objectives
 To comply policies and procedures formulated by government
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JOB SPECIFICATION
Qualifications MBA in Human resource management
Work experience More than 15 years of working with any global firm
Attributes & qualities  Time management
 Conflict solving
 Leadership
 Delegation
Abilities & Skills  Communication
 Friendly
Job description and specification of Front office personnel of Marriott at staff level
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job role Front Office personnel
Location South East London
Reporting authority HR manager
Work purpose To provide information to guests regarding their issues and solving them
to maximum
Main duties  To resolve the queries of clients
 To maintain proper record of customer check in and check out
JOB SPECIFICATION
Qualification Diploma in customer service or graduate in any field
Work experience Minimum 3 years of working within hotel field and handling customers
Attributes  Effectively handling customer complaints
 Friendly
Skill  Interpersonal skill
 Influential skills
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2.3
There are different time management strategies that helps employees to manage the time
accordingly to attain business goals. It is as follows-
 Prioritizing workload- Here, HR manager identifies the most crucial task and give
priority to them so that it can be accomplished on time. Also, it is essential for
management to deal with less crucial task later through preparing proper checklist and
customer satisfaction can be attained (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012).
 Setting work objectives- It is essential for firm to set specific work objectives in regard
to improve the business performance by attaining desired functions. Also, it is crucial for
firm to improve its objectives and achieve them specifically so that firm performance
could be raised.
 Delegating- It is another objective that results into delegating the tasks from superiors to
subordinates so that work pressure could be released. However, it also results into
maximising the work pressure and thus improve efficiency so that best results can be
attained.
 Scheduling- Marriott management also prepares scheduling in relation to schedule the
time appropriately and accomplish business goals. Here, scheduling does not mean to just
record the task to be done but also making a time commitment that the things will be
accomplished in appropriate time (Coyle-Shapiro and et. al., 2013).
 Avoid multi-tasking- Manager of hotel tries to avoid multi-tasking functions in order to
save time. Also, through carrying out various task at one time affects another task which
needs to be accomplished. Therefore, it is essential for HR manager to assign one task at
a time and thus concentrating and maintaining focus upon the same so that it could be
accomplished (Baumann, Amara and Limbach-Reich, 2014).
TASK 3
3.1
People play crucial role while working in a team and thus they are focused to work
together in order to attain shared goals. COO of Marriott focuses upon formulating policies and
complying with the UK government regulations so that operations can be accomplished
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accordingly (Clouder, Broughan and Steventon, 2013). They play the role of coordination,
motivator and communicator so that other individuals working in the firm can listen to them and
work accordingly. It is the best way through which business can work in a team and attain
organizational goals. Further, individuals work as a team because every person possess diverse
skills and capabilities that helped them to work together towards business goals.
Another team member could play the role of front office personnel and assess the
requirements of customers in an effective way. Through such way business focuses upon
improving their skills and encourage them to meet business goals. Involving such people within
the team helps in overcoming consumer complaints and rendering them best services so that they
can be retailed for long term within firm (Coetzee, 2014). Here, Marriott also focuses upon
developing open communication among team members which results in avoiding conflicts and
misunderstanding. Delivering information to group members helps firm to overcome issues and
work towards share goals. It can be assessed that main purpose of team work is to improve the
overall efficiency of organization and thus results into performing the best functions so that
success can be attained. Also, its purpose is to identify firm's needs and thus improve overall
efficiency and individual skills and capabilities could be improved which results into performing
desired actions. Within group work it is effective to carry out business operations and thus
provide effective training to employees so that their personal skills and capabilities could b
enhanced.
3.2
Team dynamics is considered as the forces that influences the direction of team's
behaviour and performance. It also affects the productivity of firm in market. However, team
dynamics in Marriott are formed through different factors such as nature of team working,
individual's working within firm and their working relationship so that it possess direct result
upon profitability and productivity of firm. For instance, team dynamics can be good as it results
in forming relationship among individuals when they improve overall team performance and
obtain best team members out of group (Cottrell, 2015). On other side, it could also be bad
because at the time when they cause unproductive conflict, demotivation as well as preventing
team from achieving desired goals. It is essential for HR manager of Marriott to form effective
relationship with every personnel in order to help them to work in team and lower their stress
level. There are different situation that help workers to obtain positive team dynamics and
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develop trust and relationship among workers to attain shared goals. Team dynamics also helps
hotel to make any strong decision so that effective team members are being selected for
accomplishing business targets (Gallagher, 2013). Following is the Tuckman's team formation
theory which is as follows-
 Forming- It assesses that here team members are positive and focused towards
attaining desired results.
 Storming- In such stage, it identifies that individual is being pushed against the
boundaries and thus work within different situations.
 Norming- Here, team aims to start to resolve their differences and respect the leader to
attain success.
 Performing- It is essential for team to focus upon hard work and thus leads to attain
team goals.
 Adjourning- Team members are present for a fixed period and thus restructure the
team again in terms of improving business efficiency.
3.3
It can be assessed that there are different alternative ways of completing the tasks and
attain team goals. However, in regard to attain the objective of providing appropriate training
programs to workers it is essential for Marriott to consider different ways of accomplishing the
goals such as providing best training methods to attain success within firm. While, another
alternative available is that business aims to assess the needs of workers and then provide them
best methods so that quality performance could be attained (Jackson, 2014). Business also
divides the responsibility of every worker so that they can attain shared goals. Marriott aims to
fulfil such objectives through identifying t he roles of its front office personnel and provide them
appropriate responsibility of dealing with customers and solving their queries. It is the best
alternative way through which appropriate quality services can be attained within hotel. It also
aids individuals to identify the responsibility of dealing with customers and attain team goals.
Further, in order to satisfy customer needs it helps firm to place additional employees at front
office that possess effective service quality in relation to comply with the business practices so
that team goals can be attained (Muhamad, 2012). It can be assessed that team would prove to be
beneficial for recruiting, selecting and training new personnel so that they prove to be beneficial
for opening of new flagship store. It also results in satisfying the needs of workers and therefore,
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it encourages the team to overcome work pressure and results in satisfying their needs. Through,
selecting skilled personnel it would result into providing benefits so that best results can be
attained.
TASK 4
4.1
It can be stated that there are different problems faced by business such recruiting skilled
workforce for the right post, organizing training programs etc. All these problems are being
faced by Marriott and thus adopting appropriate tools such as effective recruitment and selection
process that helps in hiring skilled candidates for the post. Such technique assists in considering
the best solution to the problem and thus set results can be attained. Marriott management also
aims to undertake effective training programs which encourages workers to grow and develop
their talent so that issues faced by workers can be overcome. Another issue that is faced by
management regarding demotivation among workers (Omar, Bakar and Rashid, 2012).
Therefore, it is essential for Marriott to encourage workers by adopting different motivational
rewards and benefits which motivates them to attain desired success. All such solutions to the
problems help in adopting appropriate tools and methods that enhance the skills of workers and
achieve shared goals. There are different problem solving tools such as analytical tables and
graphs, flow chart and brainstorming which are considered as an effective method that results
into developing solutions to problems and thus result into performing desired results. It also
helps in effectively meeting business requirements for new staff working within Marriott. It also
proves useful for them to enhance their efficiency and thus results into performing desired
actions and perform best operations within firm.
4.2
Adopting appropriate strategy in regard to overcome the problem of recruitment needs
within Marriott. It is as follows-
 Carrying out internal recruitment- It is one of the significant strategy that helps in
recruiting best candidate for the post. However, Marriott focuses upon adopting internal
recruitment process, business adopts such strategy because it aids HR manager to fill the
vacant post in hotel. Also, such approach is suitable as it helps in saving cost and time
and deliver best training to workers to enhance their goals (Quendler and Lamb, 2016).
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 Referral policy- It is another strategy adopted by Marriott that focuses upon effective
referral policy so that existing workers refer to other individuals for their selection in the
enterprise. With the help of such method HR managers focuses upon selection of
individual because they are directly in contact with the referral workers and know their
ability and skills. Through adopting such method it assists in resolving the recruitment
problem in firm (Ryan, 2012).
It can be assessed that using brainstorming and analytical tables and graphs method is
being useful in terms of meeting the business objectives and thus prove to be useful so that best
performance could be attained. It is also being effective in terms of performing desired actions
and thus result into achieving desired efficiency so that performance of firm could be achieved.
Adopting such method result into effectively solving the problem and thus improve business
performance so that best results can be attained.
4.3
It can be stated that implementing recruitment strategy possess hi8gh impact upon
selecting and recruiting candidates. Therefore, it is essential for Marriott management to adopt
effective ways of selecting personnel as it has high impact upon the growth and development of
business. However, through applying recruitment strategy assists workers to obtain desired
knowledge who are best suitable for the workplace (Savery, 2015). Thus, through such strategy it
aids in recruiting right candidate for the right job. It possess high influence upon firm and thus
helps Marriott to carry out the operations in an effective way. It also assists in improving
customer satisfaction and thus enhance the sales and profitability of firm in market. Adopting
effective recruitment strategy helps in selecting skilled candidates and improving the brand
image of Marriott in market. However, through implementing brainstorming and consultancy
method results into performing the best action and thus improve the business strategy so that
morale of employees could be enhanced and assists workers to get retained so that overall
business success could be attained. Also, it is significant for firm to implement such strategy and
thus results into retaining skilled workforce and thus improve team work so that overall business
success can be attained.
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CONCLUSION
It can be articulated from the study that employability skills are essential to be obtained
by different workers in regard to carry out the business goals. Therefore, HR manager of
Marriott focuses upon improving the employability skills among employees in regard to help
them to overcome competition and attain success. Through identifying different time
management strategies and implementing it within hotel helps business to manage the time
accordingly and accomplishing significant task early. HR manager also aims to prepare crucial
documents such as job description and person specification for selecting suitable candidates at
different levels i.e. management and staff and adopting different communication tool to inform
them regarding their duties.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Models: Exploring the Challenges. Pedagogy That Makes A Difference: Exploring
Domain-Independent Principles across Instructional Management Research within the ITS
Community. 49.
Arthur, D., 2012. Recruiting, interviewing, selecting & orienting new employees. AMACOM Div
American Mgmt Assn.
Baptiste, P., Le Pape, C. and Nuijten, W., 2012. Constraint-based scheduling: applying
constraint programming to scheduling problems (Vol. 39). Springer Science & Business
Media.
Bassett-Jones, N. and Lloyd, G. C., 2005. Does Herzberg's motivation theory have staying
power?. Journal of management development. 24(10). pp. 929-943.
Baumann, M., Amara, M. E. and Limbach-Reich, A., 2014. First-year at university: The effect of
academic employability skills and physical quality of life on students' well-being. Work.
49(3). pp.505-515.
Clouder, L., Broughan, C. and Steventon, G. eds., 2013. Improving student engagement and
development through assessment: Theory and practice in higher education. Routledge.
Coetzee, M., 2014. Measuring student graduateness: Reliability and construct validity of the
Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale. Higher Education Research & Development. 33(5).
pp.887-902.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for Success: Personal Development and Employability. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Gallagher, K., 2013. Skills Development for Business and Management Students: Study and
Employability. Oxford University Press.
Jackson, D., 2014. Business graduate performance in oral communication skills and strategies for
improvement. The International Journal of Management Education. 12(1). pp.22-34.
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