Professional Development and Career Prospects: Hilton Hotels Report

This report examines professional identity and practice within the context of Hilton Hotels. It begins by highlighting the importance of professional development for various stakeholders, including employees and employers, and outlines the key skills and competencies expected for roles like Front Desk Manager and Head Chef. The report then assesses the author's own abilities in relation to these job roles, followed by a discussion of different learning theories and approaches, such as Behaviorism and Cognitive Learning, used for personal and professional development. The importance and benefits of professional development in relation to career prospects in the hotel industry are also explored. Finally, a SWOT analysis and skills audit model are utilized to evaluate the author's personal skills, identify skill gaps, and suggest areas for improvement to align with the requirements of roles at Hilton Hotels. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and the importance of continuous professional development for career advancement in the hospitality sector.

Professional Identity and
Practice


Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Importance of professional development for different stakeholders in an organization............1
Skills and competencies expected by the employer for different job roles in organization.......2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of own abilities in relation to specific job roles at Hilton Hotels...........................3
Different learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development...3
Importance and benefits or personal and professional development of individual in relation to
career prospects at Hotel industry...............................................................................................4
Evaluation of personal skills and competences in relation to match the current skills with the
required ones at Job roles in the Hotel industry..........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

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
 INTRODUCTION
Professional Identity refers to a recognition of a person in relation to his skills and ability
with respect to a particular job or profession. For opting any profession or job, an individual
needs to posses some skills related to that job which will make him qualified to perform the
activities for that job. This report is based on the professional skills required in careers at Hilton
Hotels, a luxury Hotel and multinational hospitality company in United States and dealing within
85 countries across the world. The report will highlight the importance of professional
development and self-directed learning in enhancing identity and career opportunities. The
report will also include the assessment of individual skills and competences as well as different
learning and development approaches.
 LO 1
l Importance of professional development for different stakeholders in an organization
Professional developments is much important for the employees, employers as well as
other stakeholders and staffs in Hilton Hotels. The following are the arrived benefits out of the
professional development of individuals at workplace.
For Employees-
 Enhancement in productivity and performance in relation to the tasks performed at the
Hotel(Van Waes and et.al., 2016).

 Development of pursuit of excellence among the employees in relation to development in
knowledge, skills and service being pursued by the individuals.
 Increase in Job satisfaction and morale at workplace while performing tasks.
 Increased capacity to adapt new technologies and methods in relation to task performance
at Hilton Hotels.
For Employers-
 Increase in employees efficiency which results in enhancement of financial gain by the
company.
 Reduction in employee's turnover in the organization.
 Betterment of the company image for Hilton Hotels.
 Increase in the betterment of service and customer satisfaction.
 Increase in innovative techniques by Hotel as due to better adaption by the employees as
they are capable enough to use their professional skills in learning new methods.
Thus, as from the above points it can be stated that professional development is not only
important for employees in betterment of their performance and productivity or make them
qualified enough for a specific job but also posses equal importance to employer as well by
improvement in services, increasing productivity, customer satisfaction and growth in Hotel's
business as well.
l Skills and competencies expected by the employer for different job roles in organization.
In order to understand the required skills for particular job at Hilton Hotels, two job roles
as such- Front Desk manager and Head Chef jobs have been taken into consideration. The
following are the essential skills for these jobs-
Skills for Front Desk Manager-
 Computer literacy and technical skills in relation to IT.
 Effective communication skills (oral and written).
 Ability to address and serve the guest politely.
 Better interpersonal skills.
 Multitasking skills and good memory for passing on the information to various other
Hotel Personnel.
 Ability to stay calm in pressure situations and stand along for longer periods.
Skills for Head Chef-

 Best cooking skills.
 Creativity in case of food preparation and dishes.
 Better knowledge to create different menus that are popular and affordable.
 Understanding and knowledge of ingredients and recipe.
 Leadership and management skills as well as ability to guide others at kitchen.
 Time management and capacity to work under pressure.
 LO 2
l Assessment of own abilities in relation to specific job roles at Hilton Hotels.
The following are my current skills in relation to the specific job role of Front Desk
Manager at Hilton Hotels-
 Communication skills and ability to address and approach the people with comfort and
politeness.
 Good hands on computer operations and knowledge regarding the IT literacy and
software.
 Better confidence in approaching the people and ability to guide them or provide them
information effectively.
 Ability to remember a number of things being informed during a particular time.
l Different learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development.
In order to understand the concept of personal and professional development in detail, the
following learning theories and approaches are been considered which can be used for
personality and professionalism development of an individual-
Behaviourism Theory
Behaviourist theory is based on the concept that the knowledge is being existed
independently and outside the people. It states that skills and learning in an individual can be
developed by a change in existing behaviour or new behaviour in an organization that results in
responses by the individuals(Hildebrand, 2018). It can be practised through following activities
to be pursued by an individual-

 Observance of the daily routine at workplace.
 Noting down the changes occurring.
 Being practising repeatedly the routine work and adapting the behaviour by considering
the above two steps.
 Focus towards the basics and the instructions by the supervisor or manager.
 Repeat the same process and work on the mistakes occurred.
Cognitive learning Approach
Cognitive learning approach is based on the internal processing rather than external
learning than that of behaviourist theory. It focusses on mental processes of an individual rather
than observing the external behaviour of others. Here the changes in behaviour are been
observed and is used as indicators of what's happening in learner's mind(Avidov-Ungar, 2016).
The below activities shall be undertaken by an individual for learning and development of his
skills using cognitive learning approach-
 Classifying and collecting the information.
 Linking the older concepts with the changes being occurred.
 Connecting the problems with the real life examples and framing the strategies related to
it.
 Structuring the work process into meaningful ways for conducting the tasks smoothly.
 Solving the imaginary problems in relation to the workplace issues.
l Importance and benefits or personal and professional development of individual in
relation to career prospects at Hotel industry.
The following are the important benefits of personal and professional development for
enhancing job related career at Hilton Hotels-
 The development of professional skills will enhance the individual performance and the
ability to do things efficiently, which in turn will be useful for him to initiate his career at Hilton
Hotels.
 The development of skills and learning different techniques will also help an individual
to adapt the changes, new technologies and other operations in the dynamic environment of the
service industry and make him capable enough of being updated with the innovative techniques
in relation to his job.

 The learning related to the critical situations and handling the issues which is being
arrived through professional development of skills like being patient enough, problem solver,
ability to stay calm etc(Sangster, 2017). will enable the individual to deal with complicated
situations during his career at Hilton Hotels.
 It will be benefited to individual by developing his multitasking skills that will be again
useful for him in his task performance and handling at Hilton Hotels.
l Evaluation of personal skills and competences in relation to match the current skills with
the required ones at Job roles in the Hotel industry.
In order to evaluate my personal skills, SWOT analysis and Skills audit model has been
used for better understanding of the current skills, gaps and the improvements to be made further
to match the requirements of Job role like- Front desk Manager.
SWOT analysis
 StrengthsWeaknessesCommunication skills (Both verbal and written)
 Confidence in addressing the guests and approaching the people.
 Good technical and IT skills and hands on computer operations and
software.Multitasking skills and confusion while performing number of tasks at a time.
 Unable to adjust the combination of long-standing stamina and performing the duties at
same speed.
 Stress under pressure situations and handling numerous tasks at a
time.OpportunitiesThreatsBetter career opportunities at Hilton as due to good communication
skills.
 Career opportunity at admin jobs in Hospitality sector as due to better computer
operation and technical skills.Difficulty to handle the critical situations which are the regular
components in the Hotel industry.
Problem while performing different tasks at a time due to lack of multitasking skills.
Skills Audit

Need to work on it. Not totally sureConfident
TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENTAbility to perform the tasks as per the least time
requirements.Make Scheduling of all the activities to be performed.Setting up reminders for the
delayed tasks.CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVINGAbility to perform the
duties diligently under stress situations.Ability to make simple structure for the complex
problemsAbility to make decision in stress and critical situations.COMMUNICATIONAble top
communicate with the people with politenessAble to address the guests and provide them
required informationConfident in addressing the customer problems and responding them with
polite words for solution.Ability to handle the grievances and issues among the guests and the
Hotel staff.MULTITASKINGAble to perform several tasks at a time with ease.Establish
coordination between people when there are number of tasks to be assigned. INFORMATION
LITERACY: READINGOperate computer programs and software.Good hands on data entry
and recording the large data bases.Ability to structure the databases as per the time schedule.
Analysis- From the above skills audit table and SWOT analysis in relation to Front Desk
manager job there are various skills gaps and weaknesses being identified that needs to be
improved for the job role. This included mostly the multitasking skills and ability, setting
reminders as well as handling the grievances. All these elements is considered to be hurdle and
needs to be improved for enhancing career at Hilton Hotels. I can improve all these lacking skills
through following activities-
 Prioritizing the tasks and differentiating the complex and the simpler ones and then
combining both together which can be performed during specific course of time.
 Searching articles on internet related to case study on different issues and grievance
handling in Hotels and learning the applied concepts from it.
 Setting up reminders for task performance and category.
 CONCLUSION
From the above report it is summarized regarding the importance of personal and
professional development for an individual to enhance his career in Hotel industry. The report
stated the skills competencies required by an individual for performing different job roles. The

report also included the study of different approach and theory for development of professional
skills of an individual. The report concluded by evaluating the current skills of an individual
thorough SWOT analysis and Skills audit that resulted in identifying the skill gaps and weakness
of the individual.
 REFERENCES
Books and Journals.
Hildebrand, J., 2018. Bridging the gap: A training module in personal and professional
development. Routledge.
Avidov-Ungar, O., 2016. A model of professional development: teachers’ perceptions of their
professional development. Teachers and Teaching. 22(6). pp.653-669.
Van Waes and et.al., 2016. The networked instructor: The quality of networks in different
stages of professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education. 59. pp.295-308.
Sangster, C., 2017. Planning and organizing personal and professional development.
Routledge.