Employability Skills Report: Travelodge Hotel Case Study

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Employability SkillsSTUDENT NAME: MONICA ELENA BUCUR
STUDENT ID: 16001759

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 – Development of a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives.....................1
P1.2 – Evaluation of own effectiveness against defined objectives............................................2
P1.3 Make recommendations for improvement..........................................................................3
P1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve quality of performance.....3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
P2.1 Develop solutions to work-based problems........................................................................5
P2.2 Communication in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels...............6
P2.3 Identifying effective time-management strategies..............................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P3.1- Explain the roles people play in a team and how they can work together to achieve
shared goals.................................................................................................................................8
3.2 Analysing the team dynamics...............................................................................................9
3.3 Alternative ways to complete tasks and achieve team goals...............................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Tools and methods for developing solutions to problems..................................................10
4.2 An appropriate strategy for resolving the problem of labour turnover...............................11
4.3 The potential impact on the business of implementing the strategy...................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Employability skills are the transferable skills which are needed by an individual to make
it employable (Employability skills. 2017). These skills are very much important for an
individual to an employee because they are necessary to make an individual as a professional.
These types of skills help an employee in implementing its technical and professional skills with
effectiveness. The organization used to explain the employability skills is Travelodge. This is an
individually owned company working in hotel and hospitality sector. This is a second largest
budget hotel sector, operating its business in UK. In this report, the responsibilities and
performance of a manager at Travelodge are explained. Development of inter-personnel and
transferable skills are also explained. Apart from that, the way of working with others and
strategies for problem solving are also explained.
TASK 1
P1.1 – Development of a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives
In the Bromley Central Travelodge hotel, I have been working as a hotel manager. In order to
meet my desired performance, I have set my own responsibilities and performance objectives,
which are demonstrated below.
 Team management – I have to manage and develop the hotel team for ensuring that
everyone at Travelodge is delivering outstanding customer experience
 Operational management – I am responsible for ensuring compliance with operational
standards, plan rotas and allocate responsibilities to the hotel management team members
for consistent service delivery (Boella, 2017)
 Customer service – I am responsible for driving and motivating the team to deliver their
best through training and coaching, implemented for ensuring excellent customer
experience
 Resource management – I have to plan for the current and future hotel resource
requirement for ensuring that the customers’ needs could be delivered adequately with an
outstanding customer experience
 Commercial delivery – I am responsible for driving the team for maximizing the revenue
opportunities for meeting and exceeding targets, while managing costs
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 Stakeholder management – I am also responsible for managing hotel reputation with key
stakeholders in the business and customers, for delivering a positive hotel impression and
ensuring that their needs are met (Turner et al., 2017)
 Change management – Being a manager, it is also my responsibility to promote positive
change for improvement of organizational operation
 Decision making and influencing – Being a manager, I am responsible for making and
influencing strategic, operational and leadership decisions at hotel
I have also set my performance objectives, which are as follows:
 To communicate effectively and build strong rapport with others
 To be able to plan and prioritize in decision making
 To be able to do multitasking
 To be able to delegate and motivate others effectively
 To be open-ended and patient
 To engage in continuous development as a supportive leader
P1.2 – Evaluation of own effectiveness against defined objectives
I have evaluated my own performance as a hotel manager at Travelodge, with the help of the pre-
defined performance objectives. In order to do this, I have used the 360 degree performance
appraisal tool for assessing my performance.
To communicate effectively and build strong rapport with others – It is crucial for hotel
manager to communicate with a lot of internal and external stakeholders. Communication skill is
one of my key strengths, which helps me to build strong rapport with fellow staffs and
customers.
To be able to plan and prioritize in decision making – As I have demonstrated above, I have to
plan and prioritize as well as take decisions about different things in regards to the organizational
activities. In order to do this, I must have effective problem solving skill. However, from the
feedback from my colleagues, I revealed that I am lacking effectiveness in this skill, which is
often reflected in my urgent decision making.
To be able to do multitasking – To be a responsible manager, I have to do multi-tasking.
However, I often fail to work on different projects at a time, due to poor time management skill,
which has also been highlighted by my seniors.
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To be able to delegate and motivate others effectively – I am a good and supportive leader,
while continuously motivating my fellows to be committed towards excellence. I am also able to
understand their needs, based on which I delegate tasks and resources.
To be open-ended and patient – I am enough flexible towards the fellows as well as customers,
while following two-way feedback procedure to effectively communicate with others. However,
staffs have claimed that I often lack patience, which I need to improve.
To engage in continuous development as a supportive leader – Being a manager, it is crucial to
ensure that I am engaged in continuous improvement of business processes, for which I have also
engaged myself in continuous improvement of my skill set and leadership traits.
P1.3 Make recommendations for improvement
In the above section, I have analyzed and evaluated my own performance, on the basis of the
pre-defined performance objectives. From the analysis, I revealed that I have some key strength
as well as some key areas of improvements, where I need to work hard. For instance, I revealed
that I have lack of effective problem solving skills, which is hindering me to make effective
decision, especially at urgent situations. Considering this, I would utilize the brain storming and
mind mapping games and activities, for improving my problem solving and reasoning skills. In
addition, it is also related to my lack of patience, which I have also identified from the 360
degree appraisal. Therefore, I need to improve my patience also. For this, I could undergo
meditation, concentration enhancing activities, yoga or music therapy. Further, it is also
noteworthy that I need to improve my time-management skill for improving my multitasking
skill, which is crucial for a hotel manager, especially at a busy and renowned hotel like
Travelodge. In order to do this I would use Time management matrix, “to-do list” or checklist to
prioritize my daily or weekly works, based on their importance and urgency. It would help to
eliminate error or instances of missing pre-defined deadlines. Therefore, I could also act as a role
model to my fellow team members and influence their behaviour towards more consistent about
time management and meeting deadlines.
P1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve quality of performance
Motivation is the detailed technique where person is used to be encouraged and reward to
enhance the stimuli of an employee. This basically helps to raise the performance expectancy of
an employee to get quality outcomes and results. Motivation generally arrived when particular
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need and wants is identified with the purpose to fulfil it. This creates the positive response in the
mind of any person from whom motivation has been initiated. It is basically a tool for enhancing
the performance level of an individual, team and organisation in an effective manner. In context
with Travelodge, motivation needs to be taken in serious and utilized manner. Motivation is
enriched with Maslow theory of needs, which has total five different needs to be demanded by
any employee. Basic needs such as food, water, shelter, clothing, support are considered under
this theory:
Maslow theory of need hierarchy: Maslow has stated that people are meant to achieve certain
needs and that needs take precedence over others. Hence, theory is completely explained over
this context. The theory is classified into the five different types of needs are as follows:
Physiological needs:
These are some biological needs for the human survival (Ismail, S. and Mohammed, D.
S., 2015). This basic requirements are useful for human being to work, live and enjoy. For
example: Air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, sleep etc. It is necessary to food to eat and water to
drink for survival purpose.
Safety needs:
Those needs who belongs to safety and security of a particular person. It involves
security in the personal life, employment or any profession. For example: protection from
elements, security, order, law, stability and freedom from fear.
Social needs:
Those needs which provides the social benefits an support to particular person. The major
aim is to understand their motivation connected with social benefits such as love, affection, care,
belongingness and friendship etc.
Self-Esteem needs:
Esteem needs are of two types: internal esteem needs such as self-respect, confidence,
competence, achievement and freedom and external esteem needs such as recognition, power,
status, attention and admiration.
Self-actualization needs:
This includes the urge to become what you are capable of along with what you potential
you have the potential to become in the life. It includes the need for growth and self-
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contentment. It also includes the desire for gaining knowledge, social service, creativity and
being aesthetic. For example: self-awareness, personal growth, confidence, career etc.
This Maslow model as technique has initiated with the purpose of improving the task and
performance quality of an employee (Ito, H. and Kawazoe, N., 2015). In context with
Travelodge, Maslow has defined needs to understand the stimuli connected to someone's need
and wants. It is helpful to motivate both manager and employee at the greater and optimized
level. The positive impact of the Maslow theory is that, it would help to get motivated and raise
their confidence at the bigger level. Also, it will create the common interest among them to work
effectively. The negative impact is that, it will make an employee more demanding and also they
will increase their needs and wants at the regular period of time.
TASK 2
P2.1 Develop solutions to work-based problems
In the business, where company like Travelodge are performing their activities at right
time and also with right & utilize purpose (Jackling, B. and Natoli, R., 2015). In that condition,
many issues could be raised, which can effect the performance of an employee. It has been
noticed that conflicts and problems are seen in hotel and also, it happens on daily basis but need
to be taken seriously. It is the duty of hotel manager to analyse such issues and take initiative to
overcome problems.
Analysis of problem:
Before concluding at anything, it is necessary to identify and also analyse the problem
such as high turnover rate of an employees, difference in the culture along with behaviour
change. There are various problems matter for Travelodge to get instant solution. The problems
and issues associated with Travelodge Hotel is as follows:
 Culture and environment related to working is not appropriate for an employee's
and even manager too. Due to this, hotel is concerning over improving the
retention rate of an employer for the longer period of time. Also, the workforce
are unable to stop high turnover rate because of biases and unfair with an
employee.
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 Company's environment and culture has been consist of different people with
unequal thinking and behaviour. Even skills is one major reason behind this.
Political activities are the major behind what sort of problems happening in the
Travelodge hotel.
Research for the changes:
After an analysis of problem, it is necessary to find the solution of such problems to gain
effectiveness and profitability for the Travelodge Hotel (Messum, D., Wilkes, L. and Jackson,
D., 2015). Also, prestige and reputation of the hotel has decreased at the industry and market
level. It is necessary for the Travelodge Hotel to look for prescribed changes such as high
remuneration, training & development, motivation through fulfilling the basic and important
needs etc. Research for change is important to bring consistency and efficiency in an
organisation.
Creating and deciding an appropriate solution:
Manager of the Travelodge Hotel is hired for the purpose to manage the company and
make it competent to overcome any kind of issues and problem. Also, manager needs to call
meeting for their employee to weekly basis to be get updated by their own source of knowledge
or any illegal activities running in the Travelodge Hotel. To arrive at the common solution,
manager should conduct activities such as employee engagement, simulation, interaction
activities, eye-breaking session etc. to enhance motivation level of an employee to reach to the
valid results.
Hence, manager of the Travelodge hotel needs to take some strategic actions along with
future decision making at different critical situation in the Travelodge hotel (O’Connor, H. and
Bodicoat, M., 2017). For overcoming any cultural issues, manager needs to conduct training &
development for creating common interest and motivation among the workforce of the
Travelodge Hotel.
P2.2 Communication in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels
In order to communicate about the work-based problem and solution at various levels, the hotel
manager at Travelodge would utilize different styles. For instance, the hotel manager would
communicate the problem and solutions to the senior manager through a memo and all the staffs
through a leaflet.
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Memo to the Senior Manager
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Date: 27th June 2019
To,
Mr. John Danes,
The Senior Manager,
Bromley Central Travelodge
London, UK
Subject: Work-based problem and solution
- We have recently identified that our organization is facing issues related to high turnover
- Internal analysis of the organizational environment revealed that it is no longer healthy for
employees, not even managers
- We are unable to stop high turnover rate due to biased and unfair activities
- Another issue contributing to the problem is that a range of people are having unequal thinking and
behavioural patterns, which are influenced by political activities within the hotel
- For controlling the situation, a thorough research needs to be done, in search of change
- Some key strategic actions could be undertaken at this situation, which includes “employee
engagement, simulation, interaction activities, eye-breaking session
Immediate response is expected in this regards.
From
Hotel Manager

Work-based problems and solutions at Travelodge, UK
Problems
Organization is facing high turnover rate since years
The issue is rooted in the organizational culture
Biasness and unfair treatment with employees are
making environment unhealthy for both employees
and managers
Unequal thinking and behaviour of employees are
affecting organizational environment
It is further influenced by organizational politics
Solutions
The initial step to deal with the issue is to undertake
research on the issue and find the right solution
Key solutions for employees:
Employee engagement
Simulation
Interaction activities
Eye-breaking session
Training and develop would also be offered to promote
shared goals among staffs at Travelodge
Leaflet to the Staffs
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P2.3 Identifying effective time-management strategies
Time management is the process of effective planning and exercising conscious control
of time spent on the specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency along with
productivity. Time management is mandatory in the workplace to make defined goals or target
achieved into the minimum point of time and also with agenda to save maximum cost and
money. As a manager, this skill is important to enhance my confidence and motivation along
with increasing my reliability towards accomplishment of an organised goals and targets. It is
considered as one major employability and professional skills both. In context with Travelodge
Hotel, time management is required to perform various activities and task on the basis of time
mentioned in the curriculum of any activities. For being as manager, it is necessary to formulate
various strategies to manage the time in an effective manner is as follow:
Setting the objectives:
This is type of time management strategy in which manager of Travelodge should focus
on setting up the objectives (Simatele, M., 2015). The objectives are set on the basis of
distribution of time. The work which can be done early and is urgent should be given priority so
that effective management of timer can be done.
Prioritising Workload:
It is a type of time management strategy in which task is divided on the basis of priority
given to the tasks. The project which is urgent is given priority so that it can be done at the
earliest. This type of strategy helps a manager of Travelodge to adjust the timing of projects
which are urgent so that work can be managed effectively and smoothly.
Work steadily rather than erratically:
In this time management strategy, the employee should focus on to work steadily rather
than using any hurdles. Hurdles always allows mistakes to come on the way of succession.
Therefore, manager at Travelodge should focus on work with steadiness and calmness.
Time quadrant is the tool, which is helpful in explaining the how particular person could
keep their engagement of time effective and efficient both. The explanation of this is as follow:
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