Professional Identity and Practice: HR Development at Hotel Russell

This report, focusing on the professional identity and practice of an HR manager at Hotel Russell, delves into the significance of ongoing professional development and self-directed learning. It highlights the benefits for stakeholders, including employee retention and career advancement. The report outlines essential skills and competencies for an HR professional, such as personal presentation, personal skills, hard skills, and soft skills. It utilizes the Brunell's skill audit model to evaluate these competencies. Additionally, it explores various learning theories and approaches, like the behaviorist approach and VARK learning styles, to enhance personal and professional development. A detailed development plan is presented to enhance chosen skills and competencies, alongside an analysis of a job interview process and the importance of service industry skills.

Professional Identity and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.M1. The key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders......1
P2. Investigating professional employer expectations of skill and competencies......................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3. Abilities, skills and competences for a specific job role. .....................................................3
D1. Critical evaluation of skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of
professional skills required for employment...............................................................................4
P4. A range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development processes................................................................................................................4
M2. Skills and competences and the most appropriate developmental approach to develop
personal and professional skills..................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies ...........................................6
M3. Detailed development plan that applies underpinning learning and development theory...7
D2. Comprehensive development plan that sets out clear and achievable targets, strategies and
outcomes of learning and training...............................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Job interview for a suitable service industry role.................................................................8
M4. Job interview process and the obstacles and challenges to overcome...............................10
P7. Key strengths and weakness of an applied interview process............................................10
D3. Detailed and coherent critical reflection of an interview process and own abilities during
this process................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
The professional identity of an employee is created by its values, beliefs, motivation,
learning capability etc. which when implemented define individual's current and anticipated
professional life. To develop profession life, the importance of self learning has increased more
because it allows an individual to enhance skills of its own. This report includes Hotel Russell
which is based at Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London. This is a historic five star hotel which
have rich and luxury flavour in touch. As a trainee HR manager of hotel Russell, this report
includes importance of ongoing professional development and self directed learning to enhance
professional identity and career opportunities. Skills, competences and the different learning and
development approaches of a manager at hotel are discussed. Apart from that, a professional
development plan is also discussed in the context of work. In the end, a range of service industry
and transferable skills for a job application are also demonstrated.
TASK 1
P1.M1. The key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders
On going professional development is an art of development of an individual within or
outside the organization (Brownlee, K., Halverson, G. and Chassie, A., 2015). This type of
development can include training provided by organization or learning from the experience. The
stakeholders of Hotel Russell include the employee and the employer. Therefore the benefit of
on-going professional development on the employees and employers are as follows:
Benefits
Employee retention:
In today's modern business environment organizations are moving around to cut the cost
of ongoing training and professional development. Hotel Russell can increase its image with the
help of providing different opportunities of training and development. This will increase
employee retention and they will feel important for the organization. Hence results in the
increase in working efficiency of the employees. This benefits Hotel Russell in increasing its
productivity also.
Making of succession planning easier:
Hotel Russell should not hire employees from outside for the specific post of leaders.
They should prepare their employees for their development towards the organization. The
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employees hired outside the company will take time and cost to understand the scenario. But the
employee who is promoted to that post already in touch with the on-going scene of organization.
This will help not only in the development of employees but also it helps in increasing the faith
of employee and employers.
Importance
Keep knowledge up-to-date:
Continuous professional development helps an employee and employer to keep
themselves up to date with the current knowledge (Bukor, E., 2015). Te current knowledge could
include new trends and technologies which are updating on a continuous basis. This will help the
employee to make it happening with the changes so that it will never face any issue in future
while implementing that technology in Hotel Russell. The employer will found to be easy when
its employees are already aware of knowledge.
Advancement in career:
The ongoing professional development allows an employee to accept the challenges. This
motivates it to handle the tough situations so that it will become used to with it. This allows the
employee to manage, lead, coach and mentor others. All these responsibilities make the career of
employee full of opportunities and thus it will get advanced. The employer will find the
employee who is motivated, experienced and hard-working within the workplace of company.
P2. Investigating professional employer expectations of skill and competencies
The skills and competencies of an HR professional are necessary for the upliftment of an
organization. In case of Hotel Russell, the skills and competencies required by an HR
professional are stated as follows.
Personal Presentation:
It is one of the important skill which should be in the HR professional. This skill required
to the representation of an HR professional in front of the employees, leaders and others
stakeholders (Chang, E., 2015). The presentation of HR should be formal and ethical so that it
can attract the stakeholders. The attraction allows the listeners to listen carefully. In Hotel
Russell, the dress code of HR manager should be well enough. The formal and ethical dress code
of manager display the responsibility and seriousness of manager.
Personal Skills:
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These are some basic skills which an HR manager should focus on. These skills include
management, conflict resolution, communication, task orientation etc. All these skills should be
effective so that the followers of manager will take a lesson from its senior in Hotel Russell.
These personal skills also influence the working of an HR manager. If it is not good in any of the
skill it would cost its career progression.
Hard Skills:
These are the skills which are measurable in nature (Hou, H., 2015). These skills include
typing, writing, calculating, reading etc. all these skills are also necessary for the HR so that it
can express itself effectively in Hotel Russell. These skills also allows it to make things done
form its followers easily and effectively. A manager of hotel should focus on the regular
development of these skills.
Soft Skills:
These are the skills which are not measurable in nature, therefore these are little tangible.
These skills include communication, engaging in small tasks, listening etc. All these skills cannot
be measured but have a bunch of advantages in the personal development of a manager. These
skill should be developed by the HR manager of Hotel Russell so that it can listen and speak
effectively with the employees.
TASK 2
P3. Abilities, skills and competences for a specific job role.
The abilities, skills and competencies for an HR professional in a specific job role are
stated as follows:
Team work and collaboration:
Team work and collaboration is the important ability for an HR professional in Hotel
Russell. The tasks which are organized in a team should have been done with collaboration.
Team collaboration defines the successful implementation of work (Hsieh, B., 2015). Therefore
it is the responsibility of manager to make proper collaboration among the team so that effective
work can be done to make the organization successful.
Employee Relations:
The relationship of employees and the manager should be proper enough so that work
will not be hindered due to conflict-ion. A good relationship between the manger and employee
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increases productivity of the employee and the organization. To resolve the conflict-ion it is
necessary for the manager to have good relationship with employees in Hotel Russell.
Human Resource Knowledge:
It is another skill or ability of the HR professional which should be possessed by it. The
management of HR includes management of conflict-ion, relationship, team issues etc. All these
are necessary for the manager and the organization (Kearney-Nunnery, R., 2015). Since Hotel
Russell deals in hospitality industry therefore it is necessary for the organization to have a
manager who have good knowledge of human resource management. This implement successful
running of business.
D1. Critical evaluation of skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of
professional skills required for employment
In this section to critically evaluate the skills and competencies of an HR professional
Brunell's skill audit model is used. In this model there are three types of lights such as orange
which stands for serious improvement in the skill, Yellow stands for the average knowledge of
the skill and in the end green stands for the best in that knowledge. These skills and
competencies are stated as follows:
Skills and Competencies
Team Work and Collaboration ✔
Employee relationship ✔
Human Resource Knowledge ✔
Personal Skills ✔
Conflict Resolution ✔
P4. A range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
processes.
There are different learning theories and approaches which are required for the personal
and professional development of an HR professional.
Behaviourist approach of learning:
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The behaviourist approach of learning focuses on to provide a sequence of events to the
learner so that it can learn by getting used to with it. This approach will help the manager to
adopt the changes in its behaviour. Proper and continuous learning is necessary in this approach
of learning. The live example of behaviourist approach is the management of time. In this
approach a facilitator will train the manager by giving such events so that it will be a good time
manager. The events given to manager are related with time management and the events are
given on a continuous basis. In case of Hotel Russell, time is important when concerned with
customers. Therefore the manager of hotel should try to learn from this theory so that it can
increase the productivity of company.
VARK learning style:
This type of theory gives options to the employee so that it can identify the strength of it
in a specific type of learning (Marañón, A. A. and Pera, M. P. I., 2015). There are four types of
learning values in this theory are Visual Learner, Auditory Learner, Reading/Writing Learner
and Kinesthetic Learner. The Values of this approach are explained below:
Visual Learner: These learners always learns from their views.
Auditory Learner: These type of learners try to learn through audio style of learning.
Reading and Writing Learning: These types of learners are familiar with the writing and reading
skills.
Kinesthetic Learner: These types of learners will always focus on learning through touching and
gaining the movement.
The learner in VARK learning style can learn after identifying that which type of learner
it is. When learning style is identifies it will be easy for the employee to learn accordingly.
M2. Skills and competences and the most appropriate developmental approach to develop
personal and professional skills
There are many approaches which are used to the development of personal and
professional skills are as follows:
Comprehensive Approach:
This is the first development approach in which a combination of experts and trainers are
gathered to train the staff and employees with extensive professional development experience
(Professional development approaches. 2019). This is the most effective approach because of the
continuous training sessions which focuses on the specific objectives and goals. The employees
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are also aware about the gaols and objectives of training and they should realize it to discuss with
each other. An expertise is provided to the employees in presence of the outside trainers with
Hotel Russell.
One shot deal approach:
It is the second and most used approach in business world. In this approach an expertise
is called to suggests the employee about a particular topic (Pihl-Thingvad, S., 2015). This
provides extensive learning to the employee due to the discussion on a particular topic.
Employees gets benefit from this approach because an expertise is available to a specific field.
TASK 3
P5. Development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies
Following is the development plan to enhance the choose skills fro the HR manager of
Hotel Russell. This plan is a complete set of standards in which proper time scale is given in
which skill be improved. The PDP is shown here below:
Required
Skills &
Competencies
Personal
audit
(rating
scale: 0-
10)
GAP Remedial
action/strategy
Deadlines for
remedial
action
Team Work and
collaboration
5 The team work
and collaboration
skill should have
been developed
because this skill
is essential for the
succession of
team's work
which depends on
the proper
management of an
HR professional.
This skill can be
developed with
the help of proper
understanding of
the employees.
When employees
gets
understanding
between them
than the conflict-
ion will not arise.
This helps to gain
team
3 months
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collaboration.
Human Resource
Knowledge
8 This knowledge is
the most
important
knowledge which
an HR
professional
should have. This
skill help the
manager to
administrate the
resources
properly.
This type of skill
can be improved
with the help of
understanding of
the work and
knowledge. This
knowledge can be
gained with the
help of books and
online tutors.
2 months
Employee
Relationship
7 To effectively
manage the
human resource,
most effective
skill required by
the HR
professional is
employee
relationship.
To develop this
skill an HR
manager has to
organize some
informal meetings
so that each
individual will be
familiar with.
1 month
M3. Detailed development plan that applies underpinning learning and development theory
The underpinning learning and development theory are stated as follows:
Kolb's Experimental learning cycle
David A. Kolb has proposed a learning cycle through an employee will be able to learn.
The steps of Kolb's learning cycle include:
Concrete Experience:
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This is the first phase in which Kolb enforces to learn by doing. Before starting task the
manager of Hotel Russell should do that task. The failure and Succession of task will leads to the
learning process (Sharif, A. and Cho, S., 2015).
Reflective Observation:
In this step, the manager should go back to see what has been done before. The
experience of doing affect the learning ability of manager. The manager of Hotel Russell should
try to learn from its past doings.
Abstract Conceptualization:
At this stage the learner makes comparison between what they have done, reflection and
what they already know. This is the step in which manager of Hotel Russell will integrate all the
information and than conclude it.
Active experimentation:
In this final stage of learning, the learner considers how they are going to implement the
things which have learnt. The manager of Hotel Russell will now implement it's learning.
D2. Comprehensive development plan that sets out clear and achievable targets, strategies and
outcomes of learning and training
The comprehensive development plan is stated as below:
Target:
The target of manager at hotel Russell is to improve the skill of team collaboration within
3 months. This is the target of the manager to improve its skills.
Strategies:
The learning and training strategies should be included to improve the skill of team work
and collaboration (Wald and et. al., 2015). The learning and training strategies can be VARK,
behaviourist approach of learning or Kolb's experimental learning cycle. Through the above
strategies the improvement in skill can be done.
Outcome:
By using the learning styles and approaches the manager of Hotel Russell will be able to
improve its skills. Therefore, it can now effectively manage the its skill to collaborate among the
employees.
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TASK 4
P6. Job interview for a suitable service industry role.
The interview of an employee is done by the HR manager. The details of the curriculum
Vitae is displayed here:
Curriculum vitae
Personal Details:
Name: XYZ
Mobile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Education:
Matriculation: ABC school in 2005 with 70%
Intermediate: ABC school in 2007 with 66%
Graduation: BBA with school of management in 2012 with 66%
Post Graduation: MBA in marketing with school of management in 2013 with 64.%
Experience:
 6 months experience as a sales trainee in professional group of management.
 Experiencer of two years in PQR company as a sales manager.
Professional Skills:
 Marketing Knowledge
 Team collaboration and management
 Customer relationship
Personal Skills:
 Confident
 Honest
 Time punctual
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The conversation between the interviewer and candidates is as follows.
HR: What is your name?
Candidate: My name is XYZ sir.
HR: Tell me something about your experience of working in PQR company?
Candidate: The work was to manage the relationship with the customer so that they will come to
the premise of PQR company.
HR: OK! Good. Are you aware of your personal skills?
Candidate: Yes sir! These are the skills which I will implement in your industry.
HR: Do you think your experience will be countable for our company?
Candidate: Yes sir! I can manage good relationships with customers that will enhance your sale
of service.
HR: OK! I will let you know further for the result of this interview. You may leave.
Candidate: Thank You! Sir.
M4. Job interview process and the obstacles and challenges to overcome.
In the interview process the manager of hotel Russell faced many challenges and
obstacles which are stated as follows:
Hiring fast:
It is the biggest challenge and obstacle that the HR manager faced (Wald, H. S., 2015).
To overcome this challenge the manager should focus on asking the questions within the
specified time period. The questions asked in the interview should be short and concise enough
that it will not take too much time.
Building a strong employer brand:
This is another challenge the HR manager faced. In this challenge, the manager is not ask
the questions which can build the image of it. The questions were too generic. To overcome this
challenge, manager should ask relevant questions which are necessary for the post.
P7. Key strengths and weakness of an applied interview process
The key strengths and weakness for the interview process are stated as follows:
Strength
Body language:
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The body language of HR professional looks confident. It looks that it is quite good at the
time of asking questions from the candidate. This strength will help it in presenting itself in front
of someone.
Behaviour:
The behaviour of HR manager was good at the time of interview process. It behaves
ethically to the candidate which provide confidence in the candidate also. The behaviour of HR
professional is attractive that is why it looks confident in nature.
Knowledge based questions:
The questions asked by the interviewer are knowledge based. It also focuses on to check
the confidence of candidate (Watermeyer, R., 2015). At no time the interviewer deflect from the
questions which are necessary fro the candidates. It has asked knowledge based questions from
the candidates at all time.
Weakness
Time management:
The time management is the biggest weakness of interviewer. It takes a lot of time to take
the interview of candidate. The expected time to conduct the interview is 15 minutes but the
interviewer takes 30 minutes to complete the interview. Therefore it can be said that it is the
weakness of interviewer.
D3. Detailed and coherent critical reflection of an interview process and own abilities during this
process.
Once I was conducting the interview being as a HR manager. The interview was good
and the abilities which were necessary for the conduction of interview were present in me. The
ability such as learn about the candidate, be conversational, be flexible and acting like natural are
some of the factors which are necessary for the conduction of interview process. These abilities
are explained here as under:
Conversational:
It is the necessary ability of an HR manager. This ability was present in me at that time. I
ought to be talkative at the time of interview. The talks were relevant to the specifications
required about the job.
Acting like natural:
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This is the natural act in which I have behaved naturally rather than be extraordinary.
This feature allows comfortless at the time of interview.
CONCLUSION
In this report, it can be concluded that ongoing professional development is the necessary
act for the development of an individual and the manager also. This allows the employee to make
its career in a right way. Different learning and development approaches helps the manager of
Hotel Russell to improve its skills and competencies. A professional development plans allows
the manager to improve the average skills which requires improvement. The time and how the
skill will be improved also discussed with it. In the end, the conduction of job interview also
allows the manager to conduct its all task which are necessary to be a human resource manager.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Brownlee, K., Halverson, G. and Chassie, A., 2015. Multiple relationships: Maintaining
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reconnecting personal and professional selves. Teachers and Teaching. 21(3). pp.305-
327.
Chang, E., 2015. Transitions in nursing: Preparing for professional practice. Elsevier Health
Sciences.
Hou, H., 2015. What makes an online community of practice work? A situated study of Chinese
student teachers’ perceptions of online professional learning. Teaching and Teacher
Education. 46. pp.6-16.
Hsieh, B., 2015. The importance of orientation: Implications of professional identity on
classroom practice and for professional learning. Teachers and Teaching. 21(2). pp.178-
190.
Kearney-Nunnery, R., 2015. Advancing Your Career Concepts in Professional Nursing. FA
Davis.
Marañón, A. A. and Pera, M. P. I., 2015. Theory and practice in the construction of professional
identity in nursing students: a qualitative study. Nurse Education Today. 35(7). pp.859-
863.
Pihl-Thingvad, S., 2015. Professional ideals and daily practice in journalism. Journalism. 16(3).
pp.392-411.
Sharif, A. and Cho, S., 2015. 21 st-Century Instructional Designers: Bridging the Perceptual
Gaps between Identity, Practice, Impact and Professional Development. International
Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 12(3). pp.72-85.
Wald and et. al., 2015. Professional identity formation in medical education for humanistic,
resilient physicians: pedagogic strategies for bridging theory to practice. Academic
Medicine. 90(6). pp.753-760.
Wald, H. S., 2015. Professional identity (trans) formation in medical education: reflection,
relationship, resilience. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.701-706.
Watermeyer, R., 2015. Lost in the ‘third space’: the impact of public engagement in higher
education on academic identity, research practice and career progression. European
Journal of Higher Education. 5(3). pp.331-347.
Online
Professional development approaches. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://thejournal.com/Articles/1995/05/01/Five-Approaches-to-Professional-
Development-Compared.aspx?Page=3>.
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