Professional Identity and Practice: Topdeck HR Manager Report

This report provides an overview of the travel and tourism industry, specifically focusing on Topdeck, a tour operator. It outlines the essential skills and competencies required of a Human Resource (HR) manager within the organization, including recruitment, communication, teamwork, and employee relations. The report emphasizes the benefits of ongoing professional and personal development, exploring various learning theories such as social learning and constructivism, and how these theories can be applied to enhance HR practices. A self-evaluation model is presented to assess the HR manager's abilities in areas like time management, critical thinking, communication, and information literacy. The document concludes with a reflection on the interview process and the importance of continuous skill enhancement for HR professionals in the dynamic travel and tourism sector.

Professional identity and Practice

Table of Contents
Introduction .........................................................................................................................................3
PART A.................................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the organisation...........................................................................................................4
Skills and competencies required by the Human resource manager in Topdeck............................5
........................................................................................................................................................5
Benefits of ongoing professional development:..............................................................................6
Learning theories used for personal and professional development................................................7
Self evaluation model .....................................................................................................................8
Part B..................................................................................................................................................11
Development approach..................................................................................................................11
Development plan for an HR manager..........................................................................................12
Part C..................................................................................................................................................14
Critical reflection of the interview process:..................................................................................14
Conclusion:.........................................................................................................................................15
Reference............................................................................................................................................16

Introduction
Travel and tourism industry is a service industry. It provided different services like food and
beverages, travel, logging operation, retail store and activities like adventurous events, games etc. It
helps to remove the stress of passenger by offering different facilities.
The report gives an overview about Topdesk company and its working area. It highlights the skills
of an HR manager and their competency area. It explains the skills required by an HR manager in
travel and tourism industry. It also explains the benefits of ongoing professional and personal
development and the ways to improve the skills, knowledge and experience.
It highlights the different learning theories and approaches and the way to implement this theory in
the job role of an HR in travel and tourism industry. It also evaluates the abilities and skills of HR
manager. It explains the strength and weakness of HR manager and the area of improvement to
adopt new things.

PART A
Overview of the organisation
Topdeck is tour operator which provides its services in 65 countries throughout Asia, Egypt,
Europe, North America, Africa and New Zealand. It provides tour for the people aged between 18 to
39. The company was founded in the year 1973 and it was earlier named as Argas Persicus Ltd. in
1980 the company expanded to united states to provide its services.
In 2012 Topdeck got the TNT golden backpack awards, for the favourite big tour operator, in west
Europe and favourite ski/winter operator.
Topdeck provides its services to those who want to travel and explore lonely with the like minded
travellers. They provide quality service, conduct amazing activities for the travellers so they do not
feel bored during the entire trip, they also provide independence and freedom to the traveller so that
they can have enough time to explore on their own(Xiang and et.al, 2015).
Why to choose Topdeck:
 Topdeck provides unique experience to the travellers it provides delicious food prepared by
their own chef.
 They provide a quality service as the Topdeck is in the same industry for the last 40 years
the crew members are expertise in providing the best services
 All the information regarding the travel expenses are explained in detail so that one can
manage other expenses for shopping Etc., accordingly
 They provide free time to the travellers so that they can explore on their own and discover
their inner explorer

Skills and competencies required by the Human resource manager in Topdeck
Recruitment and selection : The HR should ensure to recruit and select a candidate with correct
attitude and behavioural characteristics. The recruitment and selection should be done on the basis
of:
work values
personality
problem solving abilities etc.,
Good communication skills: A person should have good communication skill. As a good
communication skills helps in improving customer service
The friendly behaviour of the employee also helps the travellers to feel comfortable and openly
express their queries and can ask for help.
Team work: The HR should motivate the staff members to maintain a better team culture to
provide a quality service to the travellers. As during the trip a group of people travels with them and
the team has to manage meals, activities and other necessities of travellers so team members should
cooperate with each other to provide better services to their customers. It is responsibility of HR
manager to build a healthy relation between the employees and the management(Bailey and et.al.,
2015).
Employee involvement and employee relation: a HR manager should make sure the involvement
of each and every employee as it will help in enhancing creativity, co-operation, and self control in
the organisation
Training and development skills- The proper training should be provided to the employees to
maintain the quality of the services provided by the company. As the Topdeck has to deal with large
number of travellers every day so the person should be good in managing the travellers, their
problems, providing best services and making their trip comfortable(Tattum and Tattum 2017).
Budgeting skills: All the decision regarding giving benefits to the employee has to be taken by the
HR. The role of HR manager is to limit the expenditures and not overspend in other unnecessary
activities. As the company has to plan various tours so the HR should be efficient in managing

budget regarding meals, travel, expenditure on various activities etc. and provide a great budgetary
trip.

Benefits of ongoing professional development:
Ongoing professional development: continuous professional development is a process for tracking
and documenting skills, experience and knowledge that a person gain formally and informally from
the work done, and not by the initial training(Noe and et.al., 2017.). It is a record of what a person
experience, what is learned from the experience and how it is applied or used.
Benefits and importance of CPD :
 CPD helps a person to know their capabilities and keep a pace with the current standards in
the same field
 It ensures that a person maintain and increase the knowledge and skills which a person
needed to deliver to its customer, clients and community
 Experience is a great teacher but that does not mean that a person will face the same
problems or do the same thing as have been done earlier. CPD helps a person to stay
interested and interesting
 It helps an individual to improve the quality of life, property and economy.
Hence, a person should continuously develop the skills and knowledge so that they can deliver high
quality services to the customers and as per requirement of their profession.
Personal Development :
It is the process of establishing aims and objectives and assessing current realities. It helps an
individual to identify need for skill, knowledge and competencies and to select the appropriate
activities to meet the perceived needs.
Benefits and importance of personal development :
 Self awareness- It helps the person to know about the values, beliefs and the purpose they
wish to pursue. It is the first step in the personal development process. If a person want to
achieve success they must have their own goals and objectives when a person chase their
own goals.
 Improve focus and effectiveness: Personal development provides clarity. As with the
personal development the priorities become much easier. A person become clear about his
goals and objectives and make the best use of available resources(Schewe and et.al., 2017).

Learning theories used for personal and professional development
Learning theories are a set of principles which explains how an individual acquire, retain and recall
knowledge.
Social theory: Social learning theory was given by Albert Bandura. The theory says that people
learn from one another via observation, modelling and imitation. Social learning theory is a
interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences. Theory correlates the
behaviourist theory of learning and cognitive theory of learning because have attention, motivation
and memory. According to social learning theory:
 Learning is not purely behavioural it is a cognitive process
 Learning occurs through observation
 Extracting information from this observation and making decision about the performance of
the behaviour.
Constructivism : according to this theory the learner does not acquire knowledge is constructed
based on prior knowledge. The prior experience is used. The thoughts of each person is different
and their experience as well. Hence, every person use its experience and construct their knowledge.
The theory assumes that a person construct knowledge from the previous knowledge and not from
the what one has been taught. This theory is focused on preparing an individual to solve the
problems. Therefore, a person to be successful should have a wide range of knowledge to interpret
ideas (Bada, and Olusegun 2015.).
Application of Constructivism approach :
I) case study
ii) research projects
iii)simulations
iv) brainstorming

Self evaluation model
Need to work on it. Not totally sure Confident
TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENT
Able to manage time and complete all the task before time.
Know to get the solution and support for difficulties during the performance.
Keep a reminder for important meetings, seminar and deadline to reminding the
dates.
Punctual for attending the appointments and meetings.
Focus on the current objective to achieve the set mission and targets for the
career growth path.
Prepare proper plan to do the activity and avoid to wasting time in unnecessary
activities.
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
To get solution of the problem using different techniques and method and
consider others options and views (Couto and et.al 2018).
Able to evaluate the alternatives and implement the best from the available
solution.
Able to solve the complex problem by dividing them in small units.
Able to solve the problem by conducting a productive team.
Able to find out the expected result from the completed task.
ORAL COMMUNICATION

Able to value and understand the thinking and suggestions by the other members
in a Group Discussion, even though I am not satisfied with there answers.
Confident and able to present the ideas and opinion in group discussion.
Able to cross question the other participants after their speech completion
Confident in explaining the new ideas and concept in front of the other people.
Confident in giving the presentation on any topic.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Ability to communicate ideas more effectively by using various signs.
Able to convert notes from the key points in the presentation.
Able to use the appropriate style in completing the work.
Confident in writing assignment with zero grammatical and spelling error.
Able to plan and organise the information that has to be in written form by using
the effective method.
Ability to referencing a work and avoiding the plagiarism.
Able to make the argument more convincing and being considered to give the
proper information about the topic by optimal utilisation of sources.
Able to write the reports, letters and frame the CV according to the format and
style of the articles.
INFORMATION LITERACY: READING
Able to use various sources like journals and magazines, Online databases and
internet to get the information.
Understand the requirement of the information regarding the task before
applying any further step or method.
Able to convert the vast and complicated data in simpler and easy notes while

completing a particular project.
Ability to identify the points that convey author's main arguments and
distinguish them from supporting examples and references.
NUMERACY
Able to attain the objective and goal by using different statistical and numerical
data.
Able to analyse the graphs, tables and charts and the information presented in
them (Meldgaard Hansen, A. and Kamp, A., 2018).
As an HR manager I evaluate my strength and weakness as follows:
SWOT analysis
Strength
 I am highly dedicated and committed
toward the work.
 I have diversity of experience.
Weakness
 I am not able to identify the expected
outcomes of my work.
 I am not able to identify the particular
problems from the argument
Opportunities
 I have the technological skills.
 I have the experience of work in
different departments.
Threats
 High level of competition for new
roles.
 Privatization may increase the
competition in market.

Part B
Development approach
Social learning theory refers to learn things from others by observation, imitation and modeling. It
helps an HR manager to learn the coordination skills from others by observing them in the
organisation and implement in their own life. Social learning theory helps to learn the etiquettes and
behaviour by observing others. HR manager can learn these etiquettes and improve the relation with
others. It helps HR manager in personal development and to learn new ways to solve the problems.
It helps to learn the social code of conduct by observing others in the surrounding
environment(Desroches and et.al 2016, June). It helps to gain the knowledge by observing the
behaviour of others that how they behave in different situation.
HR can improve communication by observation and by following the model. A model can be a
mentor, coach, parents or a teacher. By observing the behaviour of model, HR can learn different
ways of diversifying the complex problem. By dividing the complex problem in simpler units,
manager can get the effective solution. It explains the human behaviour by continues reciprocal
interaction between behavioural, environment and cognitive influences. A person can identify