Evaluation of Staff Training and Development at Travelodge: Proposal

This research proposal examines staff training and development within the Travelodge hotel chain. The study begins by establishing the importance of staff training in enhancing employee skills, retaining talent, and improving organizational performance. The proposal outlines the aims and objectives, research questions, and rationale for the study, emphasizing the need to evaluate training methods and identify improvement strategies. A literature review explores key themes, including the benefits of training and development in the hotel industry, various training methods (on-the-job and off-the-job), challenges faced by organizations, and the impact of training on employee performance. The research methodology chapter is expected to detail the approach and methods used to collect and analyze data. The research aims to provide valuable insights for Travelodge and contribute to the understanding of effective staff training practices within the hotel industry. The proposal highlights the significance of training in a competitive market, emphasizing its role in increasing staff efficiency and achieving organizational goals.

Research Proposal

Table of Contents
CHAPTER - 1..................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER - 2..................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER – 3.................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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CHAPTER - 1
Title - Evaluation of staff training and development in Travelodge
Background of the study
Staff training and development is one of the most important to be focused on especially in
Hotel Industry as it helps the organization to enhance their staff members skills and retain them
within an organization for the long run. Training and development is one of the main key factor
behind success of an organization (Larsen, 2017). Effective training and development program
within an organization helps them in retaining skilled and best talent within an organization.
Training and development not only help the staff members or employees to learn or skill their
job responsibilities but it also helps in developing new skills, abilities and knowledge under them
which helps them in increasing efficiency of their employees in many ways.
This study is based on Travelodge. It is a private limited company that operates in Hotel
and Hospitality industry throughout UK. It is the second largest budgeted hotel sector
organization both in terms of number of hotels and number of rooms. According to a survey
conducted in 2016 it has almost 40, 900 rooms. Its main headquarter branch is present in Thame,
England, UK. It has more than 500 hotels in UK, Almost 11 hotels in Ireland and at least 5 hotels
in Spain. They have more than 11,000 employees working under them both full time and part
time. Original branch of Travelodge was from United States but now it is under separate
Ownership.
This research study will focus on evaluation of staff training and development in
Travelodge. Proper staff training and development can help an organization to increase their staff
skills, abilities and knowledge such that they can accomplish their roles and responsibilities in a
better and efficient manner and also helps the business to accomplish their pre-determined
organizational goals and increase overall productivity. Further, this research will also identify
some strategies through which improvement within training and development of staff members
can be brought so that overall efficiency and effectivity of their employees can be increased. It
will also show steps involved in research methodologies which plays an important role in
research proposal. Data collection and analysis of all those information’s also plays a vital role in
completing research successful.
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AIM - To evaluate staff training and development in a Hotel. A case study of Travelodge.
Objective
 To identify the main concept training and development
 To identify impact of training and development on overall performance of employees.
 To evaluate challenges faced by organizations in training and development of staff
members
 To analyse various training and development methods that can be used by Travelodge
Hotel.
 To recommend ways or strategies through which effectivity of training and development
can be increased.
Research Questions
 What is the main concept of training and development?
 What are the major impacts of training and development on overall performance of
employees?
 What are the major challenges faced by organizations in training and development of
staff members?
 What are different types of training and development methods that can be used by
Travelodge Hotel?
 Recommend few ways or strategies through which effectivity of training and
development can be increased?
Rationale
Hotel industry is all about satisfying their customers and employees. Staff training and
development is one of the main factors that can help Hotel industry organizations to increase
their staff efficiency and accomplish desired goals. The main reason of selecting this topic is to
understand and evaluate various methods or strategies that can be used by Travelodge hotel for
their staff training and development. It is important to focus on training and development
because it helps in increasing efficiency of an organization’s employees. Study of this topic will
also help the students to enhance their knowledge about importance and requirement of training
and development within Hotel Industry. This research study will also be helpful for the hotel
industry organizations as it will help them to understand every important detail related to training
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and development so that they can increase efficiency of their staff members in order to survive in
this competitive market.
Research problem
While conducting research there are several type of problems that can be faced by researcher
such as shortage of time and lack of sources of finance. Many other external factors like climate
and weather changes can also create problem for the researcher in collection of primary data.
Another problem that can be faced by the researcher is in choosing people for getting
information’s related to the topic.
CHAPTER - 2
Literature Review
Theme 1 Importance and benefits of Training and development in Hotel industry
According to the view of Sundstrom and et.al., (2016) In every industry employee are one
of the most important part of an organization that helps them to run their business successfully
and achieve desired goals and objectives. But in this rapidly changing industry and increasing
global competition it has become quite important for organizations to focus on their employees
training and development program. Knowledge, information’s and skills these are the three
important factors that should be continuously updates of the employees in order to gain
competitive advantage. Nowadays due to increasing competition new methods, technologies or
techniques are being introduced in hotel industry because of which importance of staff training
and development increases. So, because of this it becomes one of the most important part of HR
department to focus on improving their staff members performance, effectivity use their skills in
a better manner such that they specialize in their work and fulfil their roles and responsibilities in
a better manner.
Sundstrom and et.al., (2016) further explains that the main benefit of training and
development program is that the employees get to improve their skills, knowledge and build
positive attitude towards their work. Training and development program help an organization in
many ways. It helps in increasing their employee’s morale and confidence. It also helps in
decreasing the overall cost of production by increasing the efficiency of staff members such that
they use equipment’s and materials economically and focus on reducing overall waste
production. Proper training and development methods also helps an organization to reduce their
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overall employee turnover. It is one of the main benefits for Hotel industry organization as in
most of the organizations employee turnover is quite high. Another benefit of training and
development is that it helps in increasing availability of quality staff.
Theme 2 Various training and development methods
As per the view of Fletcher, Alfes and Robinson, (2018) there are various methods through
which training can be provided to the employees for growth of their employees. There are mainly
two types of training and development methods first is on the job training and second is off the
job training. In on the job training method, training is provided to the employees while they
continue to do their regular work simultaneously whereas in off the job training method
employees are taken away from their regular work and are made to focus only on training. On
the job methods include methods such as coaching, job transfers, mentoring or transfers etc. off
the job methods include role playing, conferences etc. Fletcher, Alfes and Robinson, (2018)
explains that methods that are used in on the job training are only effective if such training are
provided by an experienced trainer or person.
Other than this type of training method to be chosen by the organization depends upon
various factors such as organization’s goals, strategies, resources available, availability of time
and number of employees to be trained. Out of all of these methods one of the most commonly
used method is mentoring or coaching. In this method highly experienced employees focus on
training their juniors or less experienced staff members. It not only helps the staff members to
improve their skills and knowledge but it also helps them in learning new things from their
mentor’s experience, responsibility development and also helps in building relationship. This
type of training method is mostly used for training new staff members. Conferences is another
development and training method which is used by organizations which is used as a development
method for large number of staff members or employees.
Theme 3 Challenges faced by organizations in training and development of their employees
As illustrated by Adekiya and Ibrahim, (2016) Not every organization can adopt all types
of training methods. there are various challenges that are faced by organizations in terms of
training and development and organizations need to focus on such challenges in order to deal
with their workers and provide them required training. Whenever an organization focuses on
developing these training programs for their staff members they need to focus and resolve on
these challenges in order to increase the effectivity of their training and development program.
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Few most commonly faced challenges by the organizations are: First challenge is to identify all
kinds of required training that are to be provided to the employees. Not all kinds of training can
be provided to all the employees and staff members. In hotel industry various kinds of employees
work for them and each type of employee has their own roles and responsibilities.
So, it is important for organizations to develop a training program in which types of
training that are required to be provided to the staff members should be segregated. Adekiya and
Ibrahim, (2016) explains many other challenges that are faced by organizations such as,
standardization of training i.e. it is important for organizations to standardize the training
program especially if outsider trainer has been hired for training their employees. For this
organization need to develop a curriculum so that standard of the training can be maintained and
priority training program is identified. One of the main challenges which is faced by
organizations especially in on the job training method is hectic schedule of employees as they
need to give proper time and attention to the training program, their daily job responsibilities
because of which it becomes difficult for them to personal time for themselves.
Theme 4 Effect of training and development on overall performance of the employees
According to the view of Torraco, (2016) as today competition is continuously growing and
market expanding due to which importance of training and development program on employees
increases for overall growth and development of an organization. Training provided to staff
members of employees plays a vital and important role in increasing their overall performance
and productivity. This increase in employee’s performance helps the organizations to achieve a
better position in the market. In hotel industry overall performance of employees plays an
important role as they directly deal with the customers and provide them services. There is a
huge difference within organizations that focus on training their employees and organizations
that do not. Torraco, (2016) further explains that efficiency of employees or enhancement within
their performance depends upon the type and quality of training which is provided to the staff
members.
Effective training program has the capability of hanging their employees competencies
which not only helps in increasing their overall performance but also helps in enhancing their
skills, knowledge and attitude that they have towards other staff members which is further
required to skill their job roles and responsibilities such that they can contribute to their
organizations overall performance. Training and development programs are designed in such a
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manner that it enhances their staff members performance and provide other relevant benefits to
the organization as well. It also helps in identifying skills that are lacking among the staff
members or defected skills or performance gap. Identification of these factors helps in enhancing
overall performance of the employees so that all the required skills and abilities can be
developed and employees can mould themselves as per the needs and requirement of the
organization.
CHAPTER – 3
Research approach and methodologies
Research methodologies plays a vital role in making the research successful. It includes
several elements such as research types, designs, research approach, research philosophies and
data collection. By following each step of research methodology, a research can complete its
proposal for further research. The selection of research type, approaches and philosophy plays an
important role and a critical part of research. Some elements of research methodologies are
described as follows:
Research types
It is called the first and an important t part of research. Selecting the type of research make
the research successful. There are mainly 2 types of research such as qualitative and quantitative.
Quantitative types is about quantities and gather information’s in numbers or numerical data.
Countable data are called quantitative data (Walliman, 2017). The main aim of selecting this type
of data is to discover the main facts about social phenomena. It is also being analysed via
numerical statistical interferences. Many research select the type of research according to the
research topic with the main aim of proving the broad general points of research.
On the other hand, qualitative type of research collects information’s that can describe
the main topic more than analyse and measure it. It is mainly concerned with understanding
human attitudes and behaviours from the informant’s perspective. By understanding human
behaviours, research collects this type of data. Some sources of collecting this type of data is
observations and interviews. For this research, researcher will make an effective use of variety of
qualitative research to develop and getting deep understanding of the topic.
Research approaches
Research approach refers a procedure that consists of several steps of broad assumption of
detailed method of data collection, their analysis and interpretation as well. Inductive and
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deductive are 2 approaches of research. Selection of the best approach between 2 depends upon
the type of research whether it is qualitative and quantitative. For qualitative type of research,
researcher use inductive approach and for quantitative research type, scholar use deductive
approach. Deductive is tested theory in which hypothesis is being developed to identify the
impacts and analysis of the topic. On the other hand, inductive research approach is development
of brand new theory which is not based on hypothesis data. This type of approach mainly focuses
on finding the answers of how.
Research philosophies
Research philosophies is all about developing the knowledge and skills of researcher about
the topic. A research philosophy is belief about the ways in which data about a phenomenon
should be collected, analysed and used (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). There are mainly 3
philosophies if research such as positivism, realism and interpritivism. The selection between
interpritivism and positivism is all depend on the type of research. For quantitative type of
research, scholar prefer positivism research philosophy which includes social survey,
questionnaire etc. On the other hand, interpritivists uses and select qualitative type of research. It
is derived from social action theory. For this research proposal, research will use interpritivism
research philosophy.
Research designs
Research design is an outline and an overall strategy that is being used by researcher to
integrate different components of the whole study in a logical manner. Research design have
mainly 4 types such as descriptive, experimental, semi-experimental and co relational. The main
aim and function of research design is that to ensure that the evidence which is being obtained
makes a researcher able to effectively address all research problems. In a type of descriptive and
theory based research design, researcher mainly focus on describing the main situation and the
problem under research (Skinner, 2015). On the other hand, experimental is being used to
establish a strong relationship between the effects and its cause of situation. Correlational is also
called non-experimental research design in which research connect a relationship between 2
closely connected variables.
Data collection
Data collection is also called the main part of research. Without collecting appropriate
information’s regarding the topic it is not possible to conduct research. There are 2 ways and
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types of data collection such as primary and secondary. Primary means new data which are not
being used before by anyone. On the other hand, secondary means second hand data which are
being used before by researcher and any one. Both type of data collecting plays an important
role. Some examples of primary data sources are: Observations and focus group. Whereas,
newspaper, internet, articles are some sources of secondary data. Primary data is original as well
as factual and secondary data is just the interpretation of primary ata. For this research, scholar
will make use of both primary and secondary data for making this research more successful and
authenticate.
Sampling
Sample can be defined as a group of people that are being taken from a large population.
The main aim of sampling in research is to get information’s from selected people. It is not
possible for researcher to collect data from the whole population, so he/she take sample and
target few people among them. There are several types of sampling such as probability and non-
probability. In the type of probability sampling, each population element has a known chance for
being chosen. Non-probability type of sampling has a non-zero chance of being chosen. Non-
probability has voluntary and convenience sample. For this research proposal, researcher will
select probability type of sampling. In this type random sampling method is being chosen. The
main aim of selecting this type is to give equal and voluntarily chance to all participants. There is
no chances of bias, all participants were given equal opportunity to give their answers. In order
to collect primary data in this study 30 employees working in Travelodge Hotel will be
participating.
Data analysis
After collecting data it is also important for researcher to modify them for making them
accurate and authenticate. Researcher will use both primary and secondary data so it is important
for them to analyse that information’s (Gabriel, 2015). Sometimes participants or sample do not
give proper and accurate data, so making the research successful, researcher fin it important to
analyse that data. There are two type of data analyses such as qualitative and quantitative.
Selection of data analysis is also depends upon the type of data. For this research, scholar will
use qualitative research type, so there is a requirement to choose qualitative tool for data
analysis. Qualitative data analysis is concerned with the analysis of information’s that can not be
quantified. Observations and questionnaires’ is being used for this.
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Gantt Chart
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M1 Project
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M2 Literature
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M3 Methodolog
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M4 Data
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M5 Discussion
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