Analyzing Front Office Trends, Required Skills, and Career Viewpoint

This report examines the evolving trends impacting the front office department within the hospitality industry, emphasizing the influence of globalization, technological advancements, and social conduct on the role. It identifies key skills and knowledge required for a front office receptionist, including communication, customer service, problem-solving, leadership, organizational abilities, and expertise in hospitality and MS Excel. The report further evaluates the author's interest in the role, highlighting relevant skills and experiences. An interview simulation is included to demonstrate practical application of these skills. The conclusion underscores the importance of continuous skill development for career advancement in the dynamic hospitality sector. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Career Viewpoint
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
General trends which impact front office department............................................................1
The skills / knowledge and experience required....................................................................2
Evaluation...............................................................................................................................4
Interview.................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................7
Job advertisement...................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Career refers to a planned management of an individual in the organisation. This is
considered as work related experience related with the course of life of individual (Gati, 2017).
Development in career comprises of the activities that an individual undertakes in order to
improve his profile. The process of career development can be individual or organisational.
Career development is dependent on several aspects such as skills of the candidate, growth
prospects in the industry and the micro & macro environment related with the job profile. This
report covers the general trends that impact the front office department in the hospitality industry
along with the knowledge and skills required in the respective industry.
MAIN BODY
General trends which impact front office department
There are several factors in the industry including in the micro and macro environment which
directly impact the working in the front office department. Front office department is considered
as face of the business as they directly deal with the customers on a regular basis (Ng, Chiu and
Li, 2021). They are obliged to do tasks such as reservation, guest services, assignment of rates
and managing the maintenance. General trends which impact the respective department are
discussed below: Globalisation- Globalisation refers to exchange of services and goods around the globe.
When the hotels start expansion in the foreign countries, they need workforce for these
hotels. Sometimes they do not conduct a hiring process instead they transfer their
employee's on the basis of promotion. The front desk department should be able to adapt
to the culture, values and language of the country. This has a major impact on the
working of this department as their major role is to elevate the customer experience. They
act as a major link between the organisation and the customer and they need to
understand the needs of the people. Technological Changes- Changes and innovation in the technology majorly influence the
operations of the hotel. Front office department interact and communicates with the
customer, this requires top-notch technology as this increases the experience of customer.
While booking accommodation facilities to the customer, they are required lag free IT
technology to assist and give best offers that are available for the customer. Innovation in
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the technology also helps in increasing productivity as the data related to the rooms and
customers can easily be entered, stored and managed.
Social conduct- Social behaviour is one of the most essential part of the hospitality industry as
this industry is totally dependent on the consumer's choice and preferences. The social behaviour
conducted by the front desk receptionist and the customers is essential in communication (Tien
and Wang, 2017). Communication establishes a clear understanding between the receptionist and
the customer. The job of the front desk department is to sincerely greet the guest and ask for their
needs. Understanding the preferences of customer is prime job of receptionist, as they offer them
with different schemes that they have according to their demands. Therefore, social behaviour
has a major impact on the front desk department as they are required to comprehend and analyse
the demands of the customer.
The skills / knowledge and experience required
After analysing the trends of hotel industry there is huge changes and development in the
different sector of the industry with the changing technology and globalisation. All the changes
in the business of the hospitality industry also lead to changes in the requirements of their
specific job role (Spanjaard, Hall and Stegemann, 2018). With the above trends in the hotel
industry there are some significant skills and knowledge and expertise required for the job role of
Hotel front office receptionist are discussed below:
Skills
Communication skills: for the job role of front office receptionist this skill is highly essential as
the primary responsibility of the front office receptionist is communicate and interact with the
guest of the hotel in efficient manner with appropriate clarity and vocabulary. The effective
communication helps the person in communicating politely and formally with guest which is the
part of good customer service. The good impression of front office receptionist on guest through
good communication increases the hotels customer service and also guest feel satisfied and
acknowledged.
Customer service skills: the good customer service skills are the part of hotel industry job role.
Therefore, it is very important for a front office receptionist to have highly efficient and sharp
customer service skills (Muryanto, Kharisma and Nugraheni, 2021). This includes greeting the
guest while check-in, thanking during check out, clarifying their doubts and issues, assisting
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them with other facilities of the hotel etc. are the responsibility of the receptionist and are
considered under effective customer service skills.
Problem solving skills: there are the times in the hotel industry when the guest faces some
issues regarding the services or staffs that are very essential to be solved immediately in order
maintain good customer service and decorum of the hotel. For this a front office receptionist
must contain the problem solving skills in order to resolve the issue and to apologize for
inconvenience as the part of good customer service (Lämsä and et. al., 2017).
Leadership skills: the front office receptionist has to take care of different activities of the front
desk such as calling porter, housekeeping for room service, luggage carrier etc. for which
effective leadership is highly essential otherwise the service of the hotel will become slow. Also
in order to become in charge of your own work as a front office receptionist leadership skills are
highly necessary for this job role in hotel industry.
Organisational skills: For the job role of front office receptionist organisational skills are highly
important as in the hotel industry there are a large number of guest rooms and different services
for which organisational skills are highly important for the receptionist as receptionist are the
responsibility of maintaining records of the check in of the guest checkout different keys room
services except and in order to manage all of them effectively and efficiently organisation skills
are highly necessary for the front office receptionist
Knowledge and Expertise
Knowledge and expertise in hospitality industry: In order to become the front office
receptionist in the hotel industry it is very important to have a deep knowledge about the
hospitality industry and its customer service. This includes in-depth knowledge about the laws
and legislation related to the employment and the customer service of the hotel industry,
knowledge of different functional areas and their job roles within the hospitality industry,
expertise in managing the guest (Gwyn, Thomas and Kirchhof, 2017).
Knowledge and expertise of MS Excel: Front office receptionist has to work with the different
applications of the computers such as MS Excel in order to feed and record the information and
data related to the guest and this was taken by them in a very constant manner for which front
office receptionist must have a key expertise in operating the software’s like MS Excel and other
data feeding software’s. For this front office receptionist must contain a deep knowledge and
expertise in the computer applications (Alshahrani, Ross and Wood, 2018).
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Evaluation
After analysing the skills and expertise required for becoming a front office receptionist in
the hospitality industry I was highly attracted towards this job role I possess many of these skills
and knowledge and want to explore the wide range of hospitality industry. Identifying the
vacancy e of the front office receptionist in one of the most top most hotel chain of UK to apply
in UK as the role seems very fascinating and interactive to me. Hospitality industry is one of the
most fascinating and attractive industry among the business environment and also to work in
such industry is a great pleasure and highly experiencing. These factors make me relate to my
potential of skills and knowledge that are required for the job role of front office receptionist in
the hospitality industry. I have excellent communication skills and love to interact and help
people which will justify my potential choice of becoming a front office receptionist in the hotel.
Rising the advertisement of the well-known organisation of the UK is not able to resist myself
for the job opportunity over The other as the hotel is the top most leading organisation of the
hospitality industry the job opportunities for the future career view point white it and also I will
be able to gain ongoing learning and development within the organisation. Yes, this new and
emerging job role of front office receptionist in the hospitality industry is likely to be my future
post as I want to pursue my whole career in the hospitality industry in the different job roles and
look my future career as a senior manager at the front desk officer of the top most hotel industry.
Interview
INTERVIEW
Interviewee: “Good Morning, Sir.”
Interviewer: “Good Morning!”
Interviewee: “Thank You, Sir!”
Interviewer: “Shall we start with the interview?”
Interviewee: “Yes, Sir!”
Interviewer: “Alright. So, how do you manage your workload when it’s really busy?”
Interviewee: “I used to manage five course from which three of them had final exams which was
scheduled over the same two days. I also had assignments because of that time, so I need to
prioritise my work. I also set out the work schedule of time so that I could make sure that all my
time was being used in an effective manner”.
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Interviewer: “Do you have experience with multi-line phone lines?”
Interviewee: “I have not that much opportunity to operate the multiple phone lines, but I am also
confident that I would catch over the pretty quickly. I’m also willing to take training in advance
as of my start date so if I am selected for position.”
Interviewer: “Alright, you may leave. Thank you so much!”
Interviewee: “Thank you for your time. I’m hoping to hear from you soon!”
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that for the development of the career it is very
important and therefore, improvisation of the skills and knowledge as per the requirement of the
particular role is essential. It is analysed that in the hospitality industry the market trends change
very spontaneously that also change the skill requirement of the job roles of the industry.
Therefore, skill and knowledge enhancement is the part of career development. Thus, skill and
knowledge development is always helps in personal and professional growth and development
and also it helps an individual to upgrade itself on the particular job role or to plan for future
career development.
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References:
Books and Journals
Alshahrani, A., Ross, I. and Wood, M.I., 2018, August. Using social cognitive career theory to
understand why students choose to study computer science. In Proceedings of the 2018
ACM conference on international computing education research (pp. 205-214).
Gati, I., 2017. Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice: A Viewpoint from a Member of the
Editorial Board of the Journal of Career Assessment. Society for Vocational
Psychology: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice.
Gwyn, J.C., Thomas, M.R. and Kirchhof, P., 2017. Triple antithrombotic therapy in patients with
atrial fibrillation undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: a viewpoint. European
Heart Journal–Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, 3(3), pp.157-162.
Lämsä, A.M. and et. al., 2017. The expatriate’s family as a stakeholder of the firm: a
responsibility viewpoint. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 28(20), pp.2916-2935.
Muryanto, Y.T., Kharisma, D.B. and Nugraheni, A.S.C., 2021. Prospects and challenges of
Islamic fintech in Indonesia: a legal viewpoint. International Journal of Law and
Management.
Ng, T.C.W., Chiu, D.K. and Li, K.K., 2021. Motivations of choosing archival studies as major in
the iSchools: viewpoint between two universities across the Pacific Ocean. Library Hi
Tech.
Spanjaard, D., Hall, T. and Stegemann, N., 2018. Experiential learning: Helping students to
become ‘career-ready’. Australasian marketing journal, 26(2), pp.163-171.
Tien, H.L.S. and Wang, Y.C., 2017. Career adaptability, employability, and career resilience of
Asian people. In Psychology of career adaptability, employability and resilience(pp.
299-314). Springer, Cham.
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APPENDIX
Job advertisement
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