Professional Identity and Practice Report for HND Hospitality Students

This report analyzes the concept of professional identity within the hospitality industry, specifically referencing Holiday Inn. It examines the benefits of ongoing professional development for both employers and employees, highlighting the importance of skills and competencies for human resource managers. The report includes a self-assessment using SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the author's skills as an HR manager. It also reviews various learning theories and approaches, such as behaviorism and cognitivism, and the VARK learning style, used for personal and professional development. The report constructs a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific work context and concludes by reviewing an applied interview process. Finally, it reviews key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................4
Examine the key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders
within a specific organisation.................................................................................................4
Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a specific
organisational context ............................................................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
Assess own skills, competencies and the different learning and development approaches...6
Review a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development processes...........................................................................................................8
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific
work context ..........................................................................................................................9
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................11
Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role.............................................11
Review key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process..............................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is a complex term which is sometimes referred as personal identity,
professional identity or professionalism which describes the way practitioners perceives
themselves as the member of selected profession in which they demonstrate their skills,
knowledge, expertise and abilities. Each and every profession is associated with a set of beliefs,
values, attitude and understanding than an individual posses which give them a unique identity.
Therefore, Professional identity is the way one communicates and interacts with others, way of
thinking, relationship they build and maintain with others and the way they perceive themselves
within an occupational context and what impact their occupational activities have over society
(Avalos-Rivera, 2020). In the context of Hospitality industry there are common set of beliefs and
attitudes which an employer and employees posses, that is being warm and welcome to their
guests. Holiday Inn is a subsidiary brand of Intercontinental group, founded in 1952,
headquartered at Denham, United Kingdom. Below mentioned report covers the importance of
professional development, assessment of skills and competencies, development of professional
plans and transferable skills for a job application.

LO 1
Examine the key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders within
a specific organisation
Overall prosperity and growth of an organisation and an individual completely depends
on the on going professional development of the employee working in an organisation which
aims at enhancing the skills and competencies essential to survive in a competitive environment.
On going professional development is also known as CPD (continuing professional
development ) which is designed and formulated by the companies so as to strengthen the skills
and expertise of their workforce to work effectively and efficiently (Skinner, Leavey and Rothi,
2021). Holiday Inn is a subsidiary brand of Intercontinental group, which develops interactive,
independent or participation based learning programmes which aims to develop a technical and
non-technical skills so as to provide knowledge and expertise to their work force in developing a
positive attitude resulting in formation of professional identity.
On the other hand, Self-directed learning is a method or process where an individual took
a charge of his learning process and is accountable for the learning outcomes. With the help of
self-assessment an individual conducts a detailed analysis of need for learning a skill, identify
the objective of learning such as what role does it play at work, finding and selecting out the
strategies for learning, and methods of evaluating the overall performance and learning
outcomes. With the help of these two programmes employers and employees of Holiday Inn gets
significant advantage in several ways :
Employers (Holiday Inn) Employees
It is imperative for Hospitality industry to
retain skilled and talented workforce because
giant hotels like Holiday Inn spends a lot on
employee training and development
programmes designed with the purpose of
making them more productive and
competitive (Meldgaard Hansen and Kamp,
2018). Therefore CPD helps employers in
retaining talented workforce.
With the help of on going professional
development and self directed learning
programmes employees of Holiday Inn
enhance their capabilities to a certain extent
that help them in matching the set standards
of hospitality industry. With the help of
enhanced skills and competencies employees
are capable of delivering professional and
quality services to clients, customer and

community.
On going training programmes helps the
concerned authority of Holiday Inn in
identifying the weak areas of the employees
and provide them relevant skills and
knowledge essential to execute their job role.
These training programmes increases
employee engagement which result to be
foundation base for building strong
relationship with the workforce.
Holiday Inn encourage their work force to
actively participate in the continuous
development programmes which make
employees feel valuable, appreciated and more
satisfied (Weinberg, 2019). Employees with
required set of skills and expertise display
positive attitude towards work and enhance
the productivity of workforce.
Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a specific
organisational context
Human resource manager plays a signifiant role in Holiday Inn as the role and scope of
Human resource management is broad and penetrated. Human resource manager of Holiday Inn
executes various functions such as recruitment, selection, compensation and benefits, designing
training and development programmes, employment appraisal programmes (Cruz-González,
Rodriguez and Segovia, 2021). In order to execute roles and responsibility of HR manager
efficiently and effectively, It is imperative to have a set of desired skills, knowledge and
expertise that help Holiday Inn in enhancing its business performance and profitability.
Skills required by HR manager Discretion and ethics : One of the essential key skills that an HR manager of Holiday
Inn must posses is strong ethics and discretion. HR manager interacts with each and
employee and deals with many issue related with absenteeism, discipline, complaints,
developments and lay-offs which should be with complete discretion and honesty.
Handling information with sensitivity and complete discretion help in building trust
among team members (Alharbi, Kuhn and Morphet, 2020).
 Empathy and compassion : This skills helps an HR manager in dealing with the issue in
a more productive way as employer put himself in the situation of employees and suggest

solution to a problem. Employees don't hesitate in sharing their problem and issues with
the employer which in turn helps in managing conflicts and employee retention.
Competencies required by HR manager Analytical and critical thinking : These skills helps the HR manager of Holiday Inn in
better analysing the situation and provide solid and valuable judgement to a specific
issues, considering the consequences of each decisions made by a HR manager. These
skills helps an HR manager in taking appropriate decisions at a significant decision-
making process in Holiday Inn from a critical perspective (Bochatay, 2018).
 Leadership : Another core competencies that an HR manager of Holiday Inn posses is
strong leadership qualities which help in directing the efforts of a workforce as per the
predefined goals and strategies of a company for the attainment of common objectives.
It is been concluded that strong leadership qualities along with strong work ethics, the
HR manager of Holiday Inn can effectively manage the workforce that contribute directly
towards enhancing the profitability of a company.
LO 2
Assess own skills, competencies and the different learning and development approaches
Self-assessment or reflection is the practice of conducting a detailed analysis of one's
performance on the basis of the ability to perform specific skill or competency essential to
execute a business operation (Hunter and Cook, 2018). Being an HR manager of Holiday Inn, it
is my responsibility to conduct a skill assessment where I evaluate my actual performance with
the desired standard and to analyse whether the actual performance meets or exceeds the set or
desired standards. The SWOT analysis help me in finding strengths and weakness that affect my
overall performance at Holiday Inn.
SWOT analysis
Strengths Human resource information system : One of the significant skills where I feel myself
dominant in the job role of HR manager at Holiday Inn to effectively operate and manage
the HRIS system which helps me in keeping track records of compensation, employee
benefits, attendance, maintaining adequate number of employees etc. which empowers

me to work efficiently and effectively in Human resource planning (Karousiou,
Hajisoteriou and Angelides, 2019). Communication skills : One of the significant skills in determining success of HR
managerial function is good and effective communication skills. With these skills I have
been enabled to better explain roles and responsibility of each and every employee in
clear and concise way which avoids any confusion and misunderstanding.
Weakness Not anticipating and responding to the challenges and difficulties : While conducting a
reflection report, I have analysed that I am incapable of predicting the things and advance
and take necessary measures to avoid them (Bertin and Pantalone, 2019). I believe to
build strong analytical skills which will help in respond quickly to the difficulties and
challenges. Financial statements : One of the major drawback in that I am not acquainted with the
financial terms which results in increase of high budgets for the recruitment, selection
and training programmes. Distribution of remuneration, benefits, expenses on learning
and development programmes are made in collaboration with finance department.
Opportunities Leaning and development : With my well designed and effective training and
development programmes I have got the opportunity to evaluate the performance of an
employee and build strong and healthy relation with the employees (Berger and Lê Van,
2019) (Bowen, 2018). Adaptability skills : It is imperative for HR managers to keep a pace with the changes in
market environment so as to keep company update and competitive. With my flexibility
and ability to adapt to the changes have provided me an opportunity to come up with a
new and innovative ideas so as to make Holiday Inn relevant and effective.
Threats
 Critical thinking : One of the significant attribute of HR manager is critical thinking,
and I am not good at analysing the situation or any matter to provide a best solution to
the problem. There is need to develop these skills which will help me identify the source
of problem and give a solution critically.
SKILL AUDIT:

Skills and competencies Score to self Score by others
Adaptability skills 9 9
Learning and development 7 8
Communication skills 9 8
Financial statements 6 6
Critical Thinking 5 3
The above mentioned table of skills audit clearly reveals that I need to work hard on my
critical skills so that I can better analyse, understand and provide the solution to each problem as
per the critical approach.
Review a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development processes
On going learning or Continuous Professional development programmes are supported by
the distinct theories and approaches which helps an individual in learning new skills and
expertise that assist them in executing the job role efficiently and effectively (Ioakimidis and
Trimikliniotis, 2020). These theories and approaches help an individual in acquiring new skills
as per the abilities and capabilities and help in overall professional and personal development of
an individual.
Learning theories Behaviorism theory : Behaviorism theory is developed by an Ivan Pavlov in the year
1927 with a dog experiment. The theory suggests that the a particular behaviour can be
taught with a repetition of task with combine feedback from facilitator. With the help of
this theory Holiday Inn teach their employees appropriate behaviour with the constant
repetition of task and work with the belief that learners respond to the external stimuli.
 Cognitivism theory : Cognitivism theory is based on the process which taken into
account learning of an individual rather than a observed behaviour as per the
Behaviorism theory . Cognitivist focus on the internal process and connection of an
individual which takes place at the time of learning, it put emphasis over thinking style of
an individual where an individual is seen as a information processor (Scander, Neuman
and Tellström, 2019).

Approaches of learning
 VARK style : There are different learning styles that in education, organisation and
psychology that focus on the best way through which an individual can learn and retain
knowledge. Holiday Inn implements the VARK model of style in providing learning to
their employees which is based on four aspects such as:
 Visual learning : There are few people who can relate the things more precisely with
pictures, displays, visuals.
 Auditory learning : This cover the learning style from music, discussion and lectures as
per the interest level of an individual (Makovec, 2018).
 Reading and writing : There are employees who can better recall the information when
learned from taking notes and reading loudly.
 Kinesthetic learning : Movements, experiments and hand-on activities also helps an
individual in recalling and retaining information.
 Kolb's learning style : Kolb's learning style constitute of two parts, where first one is
concerned with the four stages through which an individual develops a knowledge based
on the practical knowledge or by experiencing. Whereas, the second part of Kolb's
learning style is focused on the mental process of an individual taken place while
acquiring the knowledge.
As per the above information, It is recommended that Holiday Inn must opt for a Cognitivism
and Kolb's model in their continuous professional development programmes as these styles of
learning works closely with the cognitive abilities of an employees (Avalos-Rivera, 2020).
LO 3
Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific work
context
Skills Current
proficien
cy
Target
proficienc
y
Development
opportunities
Resources Time
frame
Understanding
Financial
Statement
6 10 Financial statements
help HR managers
in aligning the
One of the
significant resource
for developing a
1-3
months

activities as per the
set budgets and
plans. Working
closely with the
finance department
will help in reducing
the cost and efficient
utilisation of
financial resources
(Skinner, Leavey
and Rothi, 2021).
strong
understanding of
financial statement
is to go through
prepared financial
statement and apply
in to a real world.
Critical
Thinking
5 9 Critical thinking
helps in analysing
and understanding
the situation in a
better way and form
a sound judgements
based on the critical
thinking. Critical
thinking will help
me providing a
adequate solutions
to the distinct
challenges faced by
a company
(Meldgaard Hansen
and Kamp, 2018).
These skills also
helps in critically
evaluating the
implication of each
In order to develop
critical thinking
skills, it is essential
to actively
participate in
significant decision-
making process
made at top level of
management.
Additionally, with
the active
participation in
training and
development
programmes
designed by a
Holiday Inn will
also help me in
building strong
critical thinking
2-3
months

decision along with
the consequences of
each.
abilities.
LO 4
Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role
Interview script
Interview
Interviewee: “Good after noon, Sir.”
Interviewer: “Good after noon, settle down please!”
Interviewee: “Thank You, Sir!”
Interviewer: “Are you prepared for the interview?”
Interviewee: “Of-Course, Sir!”
Interviewer: “OK done. So, what skills and competencies a Human resource manager must
posses so as to effectively perform within well recognised hospitality firm like us ?
Interviewee: “Thank you for the question. As per my experience, it is evident that
communication skills plays significant role in managing workforce as with the help of this
employees get clear instructions to execute their job role and responsibilities in a desired
manner (Weinberg, 2019). Additionally, strong leadership qualities also help the work force to
work in a goal oriented direction. ”
Interviewer: “How would you avoid negative behaviour and absenteeism of an employee?”
Interviewee: “I believe one of the significant approach in dealing with the indiscipline
behaviour of an employees is to build a strong and healthy relationship with the employees.
Better relations encourage employees to share their problem and difficulties with the employer
through employee engagement programme which helps to address issue on time and result in
positive work culture.”
Interviewer: “How would you manage a data related with human resource management?”
Interviewee: “Being an Human resource manager it is my top priority to manage data related
with working force such as adequate number of workers, compensation and benefits plans,
attendance reports and employment contract. With the help of these I will be able to plan and
manage sufficient number of employees for smooth functioning of business operations (Cruz-
González, Rodriguez and Segovia, 2021). ”

Interviewer: “Alright, Thank you so much for you time, you may leave now, we will inform
you whatever the case may be.”
Interviewee: “Thank you for the opportunity. Hoping to hear back from you!”

Job description of HR Manager

Review key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process
Above mentioned face to face interaction will help Holiday Inn in selecting an
appropriate HR manager for effectively managing the workforce. Interview process helps an
management in getting the appropriate information with regards to the education and family
background, skills, competencies, knowledge, experience in a relevant field along with the
attitude, beliefs, and working ethics of a proposed candidate (Alharbi, Kuhn and Morphet, 2020).
It is essential to conduct a detailed evaluation of the interview process so as to check whether the
resulted performance was below or above from the expected one.
Advantages of Interview process conducted by Holiday Inn Detailed and accurate screening : One of the most significant advantage of Interview
process is that an employee can get a authentic and accurate information from a
proposed candidate. With the help of face to face interaction, an employer can identify
whether the candidate is revealing false or right information. Additionally it also helps
in check confidence, body language, facial expression of an individual that represent
his overall personality (Bochatay, 2018).
 Selection of right candidate : Another advantage of face to face interview is that
Holiday Inn can select the appropriate candidate with desired set of skills and
knowledge matching to the job profile and this could only be done with collecting a
relevant information.
Disadvantages of Interview process Cost and time: Conducting a face to face interview result in a huge amount of cost and
time of an employer.
 Inefficiency of an interviewer :Selecting a right and appropriate candidate completely
depends on the knowledge and efficiency of a Individual (Hunter and Cook, 2018). Here
good decision making plays a crucial role in selecting a right candidate with desired set
of skills and expertise.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report is it evident that there are set of skills, knowledge and
expertise that define overall professional or personal identity of an individual working in a
relevant stream. Professional identities are those values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions and
understanding an individual possess which clearly express their personality as per the profession.

It is the process which describes the way an individual perceived himself within the
occupational context, the way person behave and interacts with the clients, customers, suppliers
and a community as whole.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alharbi, M., Kuhn, L. and Morphet, J., 2020. Undergraduate nursing students' adoption of the
professional identity of nursing through social media use: A qualitative descriptive
study. Nurse Education Today. 92. p.104488.
Avalos-Rivera, A.D., 2020. The Role of Students in the Professional Identity Negotiations of a
Mexican EFL Teacher. Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 19(5). pp.312-326.
Berger, J.L. and Lê Van, K., 2019. Teacher professional identity as multidimensional: mapping
its components and examining their associations with general pedagogical
beliefs. Educational Studies. 45(2). pp.163-181.
Bertin, G. and Pantalone, M., 2019. Professional identity in community care: The case of
specialist physicians in outpatient services in Italy. Social Science & Medicine. 226.
pp.21-28.
Bochatay, N., 2018. Individual and collective strategies in nurses’ struggle for professional
identity. Health Sociology Review. 27(3). pp.263-278.
Bowen, T., 2018. Becoming professional: examining how WIL students learn to construct and
perform their professional identities. Studies in Higher Education. 43(7). pp.1148-1159.
Cruz-González, C., Rodriguez, C.L. and Segovia, J.D., 2021. A systematic review of principals’
leadership identity from 1993 to 2019. Educational Management Administration &
Leadership. 49(1). pp.31-53.
Hunter, K. and Cook, C., 2018. Role‐modelling and the hidden curriculum: New graduate
nurses’ professional socialisation. Journal of clinical nursing. 27(15-16). pp.3157-3170.
Ioakimidis, V. and Trimikliniotis, N., 2020. Making sense of social work’s troubled past:
Professional identity, collective memory and the quest for historical justice. The British
Journal of Social Work. 50(6). pp.1890-1908.
Karousiou, C., Hajisoteriou, C. and Angelides, P., 2019. Teachers’ professional identity in super-
diverse school settings: Teachers as agents of intercultural education. Teachers and
teaching. 25(2). pp.240-258.
Makovec, D., 2018. The teacher’s role and professional development. International Journal of
Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education. 6(2). p.33.
Meldgaard Hansen, A. and Kamp, A., 2018. From carers to trainers: professional identity and
body work in rehabilitative eldercare. Gender, Work & Organization. 25(1). pp.63-76.
Scander, H., Neuman, N. and Tellström, R., 2019. Sommeliers' Food and Beverage
Combinations: Social Conventions and Professional Identity. Journal of Gastronomy
and Tourism. 4(1). pp.29-39.
Skinner, B., Leavey, G. and Rothi, D., 2021. Managerialism and teacher professional identity:
Impact on well-being among teachers in the UK. Educational Review. 73(1). pp.1-16.
Weinberg, F.J., 2019. How and when is role modeling effective? The influence of mentee
professional identity on mentoring dynamics and personal learning outcomes. Group &
Organization Management. 44(2). pp.425-477.