Managing and Developing People in the Hospitality Industry

This essay provides a critical analysis of staff development and engagement in Belmond Cadogan Hotel, including approaches to performance management, actions required for delivering learning programmes, factors that influence employee engagement, and leadership traits and styles within the hospitality industry.

Managing and
Developing People in
the Hospitality
Industry (Assessment
2: Staff development
and engagement)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical analysis of the approaches to performance management function of HRD within a
hospitality business.................................................................................................................1
Analysis of the actions and plans required for delivering learning programmes for the
employees within the organisation.........................................................................................2
Factors that influence employee engagement for staff development within hospitality business
................................................................................................................................................3
Different leadership traits and styles within the chosen hospitality business........................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Staff development and engagement refers to the process of obtaining better performance
from the employees and higher level of concentration on their work. People working are the true
assets of an organisation, their performance and devotion towards their work decides the fate of
an organisation. Belmond Cadogan Hotel is a five star hotel, which is present at Sloane Street,
London, established in the year 1887. The following essay will describe critical approaches to
performance management process as a part of human resource development with the hospitality
business. Moreover, it will be demonstrating different actions required for planning and
delivering learning programmes to the employees within Belmond Cadogan Hotel. Further, the
knowledge and understanding of the factors that influence employee engagement for their
development within a hotel will be explained. In the end this essay will be providing an
explanation about various leadership styles and traits within a chosen hotel business.
MAIN BODY
Critical analysis of the approaches to performance management function of HRD within a
hospitality business
Performance management refers to the proper evaluation, measurement, analysis,
reconstruction and restructuring of the efforts of employees to achieve organisational goals
(Bolthouse, 2021). It is mainly related to finding the deviations or gaps in the performance of the
employees and aligning them to the predetermined objectives or goals of the organisation. The
hospitality business flourishes on human relations and quality of services provided and in order
to enhance the ability of employees to provide better services to the people performance
management is required.
The performance of employees determines the level of consumer satisfaction in Belmond
Cadogan Hotel which is crucial for maintaining consumer loyalty and business efficiency. The
performance management of the company includes measurement, development and management
of the process of the activities to improve the performance of individuals, departments and teams
working within an organisation (Bonnel, Smith and Hober, 2018). The activities of the Belmond
Cadogan Hotel are many and appraising the performance of each member on continuous basis is
1

very difficult. Therefore, the formal systematic approach to performance management is
conducted on the semi-annual or annual basis with the four major purposes.
The main purposes of formal systematic performance management includes create
awareness among the employees of their current performance as per the rating criteria, discover
the best employees to raise merits, identify the employees who lack in performance and identify
the best people for promotion (Dickinson and et. al., 2021). The performance review helps to
focus on the past performance of the employees and enhance their future performance by
avoiding their mistakes and solving their problems.
The Belmond Cadogan Hotel uses various tools, techniques and methods to improve the
performance of its employees in the hotel. The use of KPI or key performance indicators helps
the company to identify the skill gaps among the employees to make quick fixes and improve
employee performance. This provides a clear picture of the employee performance and helps to
enhance it by improving their skills and knowledge by training and development.
The performance appraisal in Belmond Cadogan Hotel helps to identify the deviants and
realign their goals with the goals of the organisation. The employees are motivated and
influenced to work better by rewards or punishments so that efficiency at work can be attained
(Evans, and et. al., 2021). This helps the organisation to improve the overall working of the
seniors, managers, staff members, leaders, teams and the employees by testing their efficiency
and effectiveness.
Analysis of the actions and plans required for delivering learning programmes for the employees
within the organisation
An effective learning programme for the employees should be built by following a
systematic, step by step process. Learning incentives that stands single may fail within a huge
organisation and may not fulfil objectives and expectations of a company (Fahmi and Mohamed,
2020). The need for effective on-going learning that can also be delivered online is similarly
important with rapidly increasing workforce at the workplace. Threrefore, Belmond Cadogan
Hotel has framed a way to provide learning to its employees with a comprehensive experience
management strategy which follows a series of steps for employee learning.
Assessing the needs of the employees is a first step for developing the learning
process/programme in Belmond Cadogan Hotel. The employee may already possess the required
2

knowledge which may not be required for the employees to learn and they may lack at certain
points which needs to be developed. For understanding the knowledge gaps and prepares best
suited learning process the hotel conducts assessment of employee needs.
Setting the objectives for organisational learning is the another step in comprehensive
action plan and it includes learning theories, instructions, contents, modulations and other
training equipment to enhance learning process. The managers at Belmond Cadogan Hotel
conduct a suitable plan to be executed for enhancing the learning process of the employees in a
convenient manner.
Implementing learning incentives is the next step where the learning comes to life and the
employees who conduct the learning in their practice are rewarded (Gates and Youngberg-
Campos, 2020). It also helps to decide where the learning process should be conducted at the job
or off the job and how the employees KPI can be improved.
Evaluation and revising of learning programme of the employees by the company helps to
identify whether the employee had learnt and brought it in their practice or not. It helps to
evaluate the performance of the employees before the learning programme and after learning
programme to understand the impacts of learning. If the performance of employees is positive
and higher than their previous performance the learning is considered successful. On the other
hand if the learning programme is not successful the revaluation of the learning programme is
done to improve it.
Factors that influence employee engagement for staff development within hospitality business
Employee Engagement can be defined as a method, which helps employees to identify
their responsibilities, activities, tasks and be more focused toward it at their workplace (Lord,
2020). It also helps to identify the core of organisation including leadership practices, polices and
appraisal systems, communication and culture of the company. In regards to employee
engagement, Belmond Cadogan Hotel states that it is the passion, willingness and eagerness of
employees to perform their work effectively and efficiently.
The employee engagement of Belmond Cadogan Hotel is decided by their policies and
procedure regarding employee remuneration, recognition, growth, perks, rewards and incentives
to the employees for their work. Employee engagement is the measurement to employees'
motivation and experience gained from its workplace. Employee engagement highly depends on
3

type of job, designation or authority, required skills demanded for a particular job, etc. There are
certain employee engagement strategies and drivers that are used by the hotel to maintain
employee engagement and performance. These drivers and strategies include learning and
development, employee well-being, employee work recognition, employee motivation etc. to
enhance their work performance. The employee engagement also helps in enhancing the learning
activities and staff development process within a business (Mason, 2018). There are many factors
that influence the employee engagement for staff development which affects the overall
performance of employees in Belmond Cadogan Hotel.
The company had identified that the overall well-being of the employees highly affects
their psychological health and this affects the employee engagement and willingness to learn and
grow. The well-being of employees is the priority of Belmond Cadogan Hotel to maintain good
relation with the employees which enhances their positive behaviour towards clients. The well-
being of the employees is considered important aspect to enhance the ability of staff members to
develop themselves and improve their abilities.
It is also discovered by Belmond Cadogan Hotel that their learning and development
activities has impacted the employee engagement for the staff learning. It is because of the
consistency of efforts of the managers to provide with the latest knowledge about their work to
enhance their understanding about their job and encourage them to take active part in the
activities. The company should continuously thrive toward investing in the long term growth of
the employees and staff members to encourage them towards their work in the hotel.
Employee recognition is another consideration that affects the employee engagement for
staff development because it creates enthusiasm among the employees to learn and grow
(McPherson and Talbot, 2018). The employee recognition states that the employee efforts and
victories should be praised and awarded by the colleagues, superiors and leaders. The Belmond
Cadogan Hotel has success rewards and employee recognition schemes for creating a
environment of positive competition and enhance employee development.
Moreover, the employee relations and team building activities are major aspects for
employee engagement and development activities because as a team all the employees tend to
work better. The Belmond Cadogan Hotel practices team work where every other person tries to
improve the performance of their teams by improving their standard of work. This helps to
4

develop most effective team relations among the employees and encourages them to gain
development and growth opportunities.
Different leadership traits and styles within the chosen hospitality business
Leadership refers to ability of one individual or group of individuals which help to
influence and guide their followers and other members within an organization. Activities which
are included in leadership are teamwork, volunteering, and organizing, maintaining good
behaviour with others and so on. There are certain qualities, characteristics and requirements
necessary when leading a group of people in order to ensure the proper working of people to
attain the objectives effectively and efficiently. These qualities, characteristics, values and ethics
which are required to lead the people in bet possible ways are called traits and styles of
leadership. The most successful leadership traits and qualities which are adopted by the
managers at hospitality business such as Belmond Cadogan Hotel are demonstrated.
Social an emotional intelligence is very important for the leaders in hospitality business to
effectively interact and manage a diversified group of customers. The people have different
abilities of managing people and everyone manages situations differently, but a manager at
hospitality industry must be calm and straight while handling difficult situations.
Integrity is another requirement of a leader in hospitality firm because doing the right thing
while no one is watching is non-negotiable. Being a trustworthy person and modelling their
behaviour in different scenarios of the business and guarantee positive relations across the board.
Communication must be clear, concise and positively toned in order to maintain good
healthy relation among the employees and the managers. The manager at Belmond Cadogan
Hotel has fluent, clear, concise and positive speaking ability to maintain healthy relation with
their employees.
Positive attitude is among the most common behaviour that must be within a leader at
hospitality business to ensure good relation of manager and employees, and employees as well as
customers.
Empathy makes the change for a better employee relation the leader must care about their
employees in and out of the office and do not hold grudges and practice forgiveness
(Shaughnessy and et. al., 2018).
5

Flexibility is another aspect of a good manager and the employees at the Belmond
Cadogan Hotel are very efficient because the liberal environment at work. The rules govern the
employees and the manager also follows some flexibility in their behaviour to let the employees
get suitable to a particular client or situation.
Humour an aspect of Laughing at yourself! Even as a leader, it is okay to have fun with the
colleagues and show your “human” side every now and then. This creates a sense of happiness
and familiarity among the employees which is very crucial to enhance their working and
progress at the workplace. The employees are the very crucial aspect of every business and the
leaders decide how the employees will perform and what the outcomes will be of their
performance.
There are many leadership style and practices that may be applicable in a hospitality
business. Some of the leadership styles and traits are underlined along with their intensity of use
in the hospitality business.
Leadership School Intensity of activity
Trait
Behavioural
Contingency
Relational
Skeptics
Contextual
Information-processing
New Leadership
(Neo-charismatic/Transformational/ Visionary)
(Very active)
(Mostly inactive)
(Moderately active)
(Moderately active)
(Mostly inactive)
(Very active)
(Very active)
(Very active)
Source: Antonakis et al. (2004a)
For fulfilling the promises and completing activities as a leader proper understanding of
leadership theory is important for the manager at Belmond Cadogan Hotel.
Behavioural theory is focuses on in which manner leaders behave with other people. The
other name of this theory is style theory and it is also based on linear behaviour of leader.
Relationship theory is mainly concerned with interaction or relation between leader and
employees. Because in this theory leaders are like a mentors for them, as a mentor leaders are
6

responsible for scheduling time foe talking with employees. As a leader he must provide proper
guidance and knowledge about their work.
Contingency theory is also known as situational theory. It is mostly focused on situations
which was handled which was handled by leader. It is necessary for leader that they are ready to
handle any type of situation in the business.
Participative theory is also called democratic leadership theory that is commonly practiced
in Belmond Cadogan Hotel. It is mostly focused on high participation of employees in various
activities of organization. For engaging employees leader are responsible for motivating them.
Management Theory is also called transactional leadership theory. It is mainly focused on
supervising, organization and group performance. It also referred to the system of giving rewards
and punishment to employees regularly in business.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it had been identified that the human resource is a integral part in any
business and a business may never sustain without proper performance and engagement of the
employees towards their job. Similarly in the hospitality business the human resource plays a
very crucial role in performance management of the employees and enhancing their knowledge
and skills through learning programmes. It had been identified in the above report that there is a
performance management process in HRM that is helpful in enhancing the capabilities of staff
members to work effectively and efficiently. Moreover, the essay had been evaluating the
planning and delivery of the learning programmes to enhance their development in the
hospitality business. Further, this essay had been describing those factors that influence the
employee engagement for staff development within the hospitality industry. At the end, there is a
presentation of different leadership traits and styles such as autocratic leader, transformational
leader etc. used within a hospitality business.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bolthouse, I.I., 2021. Youth Engagement and the Impacts of Socially Just Classroom Curriculum
in the Time of COVID-19.
Bonnel, W., Smith, K. V. and Hober, C., 2018. Teaching with technologies in nursing and the
health professions: strategies for engagement, quality, and safety. Springer Publishing
Company.
Dickinson, M. and et. al., 2021. Clinician Engagement in Quality: A Literature Review. Quality
Management in Healthcare, 30(1). pp.36-45.
Evans, C., and et. al., 2021. Adapting Active Support Interactive Training to a special school
context to upskill classroom staff and increase engagement in pupils. British Journal of
Special Education, 48(3). pp.369-392.
Fahmi, T. M. and Mohamed, H. A. S., 2020. Examining the Relationship Between Talent
Management Practices, Work Engagement and Intention to Quit of Academic Staff:
Insights from Egyptian Faculties of Tourism and Hotels. International Journal of
Hospitality & Tourism Systems, 13(1).
Gates, J.A. and Youngberg-Campos, M., 2020. Will You Escape?: Validating Practice While
Fostering Engagement Through an Escape Room. Journal for Nurses in Professional
Development, 36(5). pp.271-276.
Lord, A., 2020. Enhancing wellbeing and motivation for staff working with patients who have
inconsistent or challenging engagement in services. The Wiley Handbook of Healthcare
Treatment Engagement: Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice. pp.313-334.
Mason, P., 2018. Clackamas County Public Health: Employee Engagement in Quality
Improvement and Performance Management Activities. Journal of Public Health
Management and Practice, 24. pp.S22-S24.
McPherson, P. and Talbot, E., 2018. Disruptive technology: Saving money and inspiring
engagement in professional staff. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 34(3).
pp.E1-E3.
Shaughnessy, M. K. and et. al., 2018. Transformational leadership practices and work
engagement among nurse leaders. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(11).
pp.574-579.
8