Travelodge Hotel: Enhancing Employability Skills and Team Performance

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes employability skills and team dynamics at Travelodge.

Employability Skills
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................5
1.1–Develop a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives......................................5
1.3 Make recommendations for improvement.............................................................................7
1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve the quality of
performance.................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Develop solutions to work-based problems. You need to develop solutions to at least two
work-based problems identified during your work experience or in your role as a manager at
Travelodge Hotel.........................................................................................................................9
2.2 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels. You need for
example to write a formal letter to the senior management of the hotel to inform them about
the problem and a memo to all staff..........................................................................................11
2.3 Identify relation to the work-based experience or in your role as a manager at Travelodge.
Present your evidence as a written report to your line manager................................................14
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Explain the roles people play in a team and how they can work together to achieve shared
goals...........................................................................................................................................15
3.2 Analyse team dynamics.......................................................................................................16
3.3 Suggest alternative ways to complete tasks and achieve team goals...................................16
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
4.1 Evaluate tools and methods for developing solutions to problems.....................................17
4.2 Develop an appropriate strategy for resolving the problem of labor turnover in an
organization of your choice.......................................................................................................18
4.3 Evaluate the potential impact on the business of implementing the strategy......................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
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References......................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Employability is an essential part of life for everyone and thus to develop the right employability
skills is another very important aspect. For developing the right skills, understanding the related
concepts is also an essential requirement. According to Collet, et al., (2015), employability can
be defined as an individual’s skills, knowledge and understanding of the key concepts and
theories related to the particular field in order to acquire a job. Also, to increase the scope of
employability of an individual, there are three major factors that needs to be kept in mind
specially which includes knowledge, attitude and skillset. (Lim, et al., 2016) has defined
employability skills as an amalgam of the individual’s skills and knowledge along with their
attributes thus helping in developing the overall characteristics for the individual which is
transferrable and makes them employable.
For travel and tourism industry, some of the important skills that are mostly identified by
important pioneers of the industry while recruiting is problem solving using analytical skills,
great communication skills, flexibility and adaptability to different working environments. As
travel and tourism is a very dynamic industry, employees face a lot of situations where the
employees not only need to be apprehensive about portraying the right skillset but also use their
most persuasive communication skills to convince the guests about services. Through this report
thus there will be an analytical discussion about individual’s set of responsibilities along with
connecting these to the motivational theories in order to develop the individual’s performances.
This report will also be making an effort to highlight the individual strengths and weaknesses as
a performer in a team and also suggest strategies to solve these problems.
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Task 1
1.1–Develop a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives
An individual’s own responsibility means personal responsibilities which is as defined by
Osabiya, (2015) are the set of daily goals and objectives that acts as an instigating reason for the
individual to perform better. In other words, it is the state were the individuals take ownership
for their own tasks and also have analytical capabilities to overcome the hurdles that they face
while working for an organisation. It gives an individual the capability to be accountable for all
the tasks that they are assigned. Through this process, the individuals are also able to inculcate
qualities like planning their career path, more decision-making powers, accountability and
flexibility.
For this assignment, I will be considering my experiences throughout my tenure of working as a
manager at Travelodge, UK. This is a well renowned private company which is operating in the
hospitality industry. The company runs the second largest chain of budget hotels. According to
(Travelodge, (2019), the company has 32,600 bedrooms in total in all its hotels. The following is
a list of all my responsibilities:
Name- Smith Paul
Job Title- Manager
Department Name- Front Office
My responsibilities- As a front office manager, my set of responsibilities included training and
managing the front office staffs, taking care of the details of room availability and coordinating
with the sales department for the same. Also ensuring the discipline and grooming standards of
the front office staffs, along with taking care of the front office employee’s wellbeing by
maintaining a healthy and friendly working environment for them. I was also responsible for
developing the weekly duty roaster for the employees as well along with deciding upon assigning
responsibilities.
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Skills requited for the job- For being a front office manager, I was given the responsibility to
make sure of the wellbeing of all the guests as front office is the main point of contact for any
guest with the hotel. The skills required for this role includes being flexible and adoptive to
different work challenges, having great communication skills in order to persuade the guests
regarding their queries and apprehensions about the services provided to them. Also great
grooming standards as this the first point of contact between the guests and the hotel and the
notion for the industry is first impression is the last impression, analytical skills for solving the
critical situations and being able to multitask.
Reporting officer- General Manager, Front Office
Job Duration- 6 months
Effectiveness in job- Being a front office manager, I have been performing all my duties very
effectively right from taking care of the employee’s schedules to their grooming standards, to
solving the guest grievances to managing the morale of the team. Although I have many
achievements working as a front office staff but being a front office manager is a new role for me
and thus, I sometimes find it very overwhelming to accomplish all my goals and objectives. But
my seniors at Travelodge has been very helpful in overcoming these issues in this span of 6
months.
1.2 –Evaluate personal effectiveness against defined goals
The company Travelodge has the following objectives in order to measure the effectiveness of
the employee’s performance:
 Employee must be very quick in resolving the critical situations in within the business
scenario.
 Employee must be a great team player while working cooperatively with everyone.
 Every employee must possess a pleasing personality and great communication skills as
these are the mandatory skills in within the industry.
 Employees must be ethical and dedicated to their work and should work for the benefit of
the organisation.
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 Every employee must carry the aim, mission, vision, goals and objectives of the
organisation during their entire duration within the organisation.
The company uses a 360-degree appraisal process to evaluate the effectiveness of the employee’s
performance against the organisational goals. As an employee, when I self-evaluated myself, I
found myself to be able to achieve all my personal goals and objectives which I had set for
myself. As my goals and objectives are well inclined with the organisational goals and
objectives, I have been meeting directly the organisational goals and objectives directly only thus
helping the company to grow. I also sat with my manager and did a performance appraisal for
myself using self-evaluation, which helped me a lot in improving my productivity. I also did a
paired comparison with my colleagues and the manager to develop a set of management by
objectives (MBO) and developed a participated in training programmes for developing my
analytical skills.
1.3 Make recommendations for improvement
 There is more scope of improvement in the grooming standards of the front office staffs
thus helping in developing a more professional attitude among them. Thus, being a
manager, I would like to develop more training programmes for them to be able to handle
the guests more professionally.
 As a manager, I noticed an area of improvement in the pricing of the rooms and
amenities, which were wrongly done leading to many wrong sales, and issues in the front
office operations. For this, I would like to sit and cross check all prices firstly with the
sales team and them sit with the team to amend the prices accordingly.
 As a manager, I have noticed that the front office employees becoming very apprehensive
about critical situations and guests’ grievances and complaints. Thus, I would like to
develop mock role plays for the employees in the front office to help them learn on how
to handle such situations.
1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve the quality of
performance
Inculcating motivational theories and techniques helps the organisation in the following manner:
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 Increase creativity and innovation among the employees while performing their job roles.
 Developing a healthy and friendly working environment for all team members
 Helps in achieving a greater employee retention capability of the company
 Generates higher productivity as the employees are happy and content while working in
the organisation
 Employee achieves better self-growth and achievement while achieving the
organisational goals and objectives
 Reduces the number of absenteeism of the employees
 Overall growth of the organisation leading to better reputation of the brand in the market
along with better industrial relations
As a manager, I have analysed that Maslow and Herzberg’s are the two theories that needs to be
considered for the motivation of the staff within the organisation. Through the Maslow theory, I
will be analysing and identifying the employee needs and thus arrange these needs in the
hierarchy of priority. This theory identifies the basic needs of the employees like food, shelter,
health, security etc. I will be making sure that the employees are at no point exploited and get all
their basic need covered by the organisation as if time offs, healthy meals, etc. Using the
Herzberg’s theory, I will try to incorporate motivating factors like bonus, appraisals and rewards
etc. to motivate the employees not only perform their tasks but also to perform them
exceptionally well so that they can bring their best potentials out.
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Task 2
2.1 Develop solutions to work-based problems. You need to develop solutions to at least two
work-based problems identified during yourwork experienceor in your role as a manager
at Travelodge Hotel
Solutions provided to the problems at the workplace
The work-based issues are bound to occur in any organization or workplace. The different
problems or conflicts which arise in the organizations and workplaces need to be addressed, and
the management needs to take proper and specific steps to solve those problems(Currie et
al.,2017).The solutions provided to the questions also involve different steps or measures to be
adopted by the management. The solving of the various issues in the organizations are different
from each other and have to be dealt with by the control of the selected organization which is
Travelodge hotel in the UK. The problems involve different methods of solution and also
consists of the following suitable measures to provide an answer (Cunningham, 2017). The
authority that heads the organization attempts to identify the different responses to the problems.
In retailing, the concerned body has to explain the style of solving different categories of issues
within the organization. The various topics related to the Travelodge hotel is as follows:
Miscommunication or misinformation, which causes problems
At certain moments, communication problems arise in the organization between the employees
who cause enormous problems for the management and it can damage the image of the
Travelodge hotel. The different business operations, which are executed within the organization,
are often not adequately communicated to all the employees (Quirke, 2017). The missing links
within the communication process going on within the organization causes obstacles or problems
within the management of the organization, and the employees tend to lose confidence and the
necessary morale to work for the growth of the organization.
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Problems involved in the training methods and selection
There are various problems, which are associated with the training methods and the process of
recruitment and selection, which are adopted by the Travelodge hotel. The various methods
related to the training programs and procedures of the differences have various loopholes, which
affect the business performance of the organization (Hammer, 2015).The methods of recruitment
and selection procedures being adopted by the Travelodge hotel is not up to the mark, and the
workforce often has numerous conflicts within it. This affects the performance of the employees,
and thus the growth of the organization is hampered.The HR functional unit within the
Travelodge hotel thus changed, and the different training programs and procedures were adopted
by the organization (WisCombe, 2016). This helped in executing the business operations
smoothly within the organization.
The different categories of problems can be solved by following the steps:
Step 1: Finding out the problem.
Step 2: Finding out the incident, which caused a problem.
Step 3: Establishing the different objectives, which help in providing the solution to the
problems by applying the different approaches or models.
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2.2 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels. You need
for example to write a formal letter to the senior management of the hotel to inform them
about the problem and a memo to all staff
Communication happening in the workplace
The connection is an important aspect related to the workplace. Specific skills of communication
have to be followed within the workplace which will help the employees to communicate and
interact with freedom and the comfort required (Ting-Toomey and Dorjee 2018).The authority
heading the organization will frame specific platforms and create different media through which
the feedback and the viewpoints of the employees shall be received. Misinformation or the
miscommunication associated with the sharing of opinions between employees damages the
reputation of the organization. The various patterns or styles of communication are as follows:
Meetings of the different teams
The different leaders of the management help in conducting meetings of the different units,
which helps the organization to execute their business performance correctly. The leaders can
hold conferences and suggest the employee interact with each other and involves expressing their
opinions in a free and healthy work environment. The team meetings will help the employees to
assist the team members in smoothly executing the business activities.
Communication through e-mails
The communication processes and methods with the help of e-mails help in sharing the different
categories of information within a short period. The feedback from the numerous employees can
be received through e-mails, and the organization can communicate any information through the
mails.
One on one interaction
Communication in a direct manner, which can also be mentioned as one to one interaction, helps
the management to interact with the employees of the organization properly (Holmes and Stubbe
2015). The administration can conduct workshops and training sessions, which will help the
employees to ask about their questions to the management and get responses from them which
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will help them to judge and reflect upon their performance and assess their business performance
within the organization.
Letter to the manager to address the problem
Formal letter to Assistant HR Manager
Date- 23-03-20
The HR Manager,
Mr. John Smith,
Travelodge hotel,
London, UK
This is to make you know that I (John Wood) an employee working for your organization am
having problems in communicating my ideas with the colleagues and the fellow employees. This is
hampering my confidence, and I am slowly losing interest and the desire to work for the
organization.
I would be highly obliged if you address this problem to the higher authorities and suggest them
steps and measures to solve the issues which will prove to be beneficial for the organization.
Yours Sincerely,
John Wood
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