Professional Identity and Practice Report - Pret a Manger Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of professional identity and practice within the context of Pret a Manger. It begins with an overview of the organization, including its history, culture, and operational structure. The report then explores the skills expected of employees in various roles, such as managers, receptionists, kitchen staff, serving staff, housekeepers, and dishwashers. It emphasizes the benefits and importance of ongoing professional and personal development, highlighting how it fosters self-awareness, goal-setting, and adaptability. Several learning theories and approaches, including Honey & Mumford's learning styles and Kolb's learning theory, are examined to understand how individuals learn and develop. The report critically evaluates the skills and competencies of a finance resource manager, assessing time management, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving abilities. Finally, the report includes a development plan to enhance professional and personal growth, concluding with a summary of key findings and recommendations.

PROFESSIONAL
IDENTITY &
PRACTISE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
1. Overview of the organisation..................................................................................................1
2. Skills expected by employer in different roles........................................................................1
3. Benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional & personal development......2
4. Theories and approaches used for personal and professional development............................3
5. Critical evaluation of skills and competences.........................................................................5
6.Best development approach to enhance professional and personal development....................7
PART B............................................................................................................................................7
Development Plan.......................................................................................................................7
PART C............................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation need different skills and different employees to work in this competitive
world. No organization can work if the employees working in the company are not efficient and
effective. Professional identity can be defined as ones own identity or ones own professional
concept based on beliefs, attributes, concept and much more. Pret an manager is a restaurant in
UK or it can be said that it is a sandwich hub. It was founded in 1983 by Jeffrey Hyman. It has
450 stores in 9 countries. The current CEO is Clive Schlee. There are various topics discussed in
the report like the skills expected by employer for specific roles and importance of undertaking
professional and personal development. There are different learning theory also explained in the
report and the best theory which can be used is also discussed.
PART A
1. Overview of the organisation
Pret a manger is an international restaurant founded in a year 1983 in the London, UK by Jeffrey
Hyman. It is also situated in US, Hong Kong, China, France, Germany, Denmark, Dubai,
Netherlands and Singapore. Pret's culture is a combination of passion, team work, and clear
talking. and It serves limited quantity but good quality and freshly prepared cuisines. Generally,
it is known for its sandwiches and is called as a sandwich shop and snack bar. The main
objective of the restaurant is to create natural, tasty and handmade food without adding any
preservations or the chemicals and serving the best and the healthy quality food to their
customers.
2. Skills expected by employer in different roles
Different types of job skills needed in the snack bar:
Manager:
The manager organise daily performance of the restaurant and schedule time shifts for all the
staff members and oversees budget and the daily income and also helps the shop reach its goal.
And also implement the marketing strategy in the restaurant. Managers also manages the orders
of the required material in the Pret a manger shop(Chan, 2019.).
Receptionist:
They are the first impression of the Pret a manger shop as they manages the front desk.
Receptionist are the one who attend guest and welcome them with the respect and in a
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professional manner. They answer the incoming calls, take orders for the advance bookings and
collect the final amount and maintain all the details about the no. Of people entering and leaving
from the restaurant.
Kitchen staff:
Chefs are the major part of the Pret a manger shop as they manages whole kitchen. They are the
one who creates a menu card for the restaurant. And they also manage the kitchen costs. They
cooks tasty food for the customers, and also maintain proper hygiene at the work place and
choose the best and healthy quality ingredients for cooking as to maintain the health of their
customers.
Serving staff:
Waiters of the restaurant recommend menu cards to the customers, answer all the inquiries
regarding food and share additional information about the food. Waiter fills the glasses of water
for the guests and take food orders from them and finally serve their orders on their respective
tables. And also collect money from them and make change for them(Ellingson, Tews and
Dachner, 2016.)
Housekeeper:
Housekeeping service staff members are there for maintaining cleanliness of the whole restaurant
including reception, main sitting area and the kitchen and gives a clean and comfortable space to
all the customers as well as employees of the restaurant.
Dishwashers:
They are the one in the restaurants who clean all the containers which are used for cooking food
and also cleans the dishes in which food is served and avail them for the reuse.
3. Benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional & personal development
There are various reasons of undertaking ongoing professional and personal development so that
there is development of skills in the employees. Various importance of personal development
are:
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aa It helps you become self aware and you are able to know yourself. It helps you know
your values, beliefs and what are your goals and future perspective. This is the most
important key of personal development. When chasing the goal in life, it is very
important to enjoy the journey as the goal will be always good(Wald, and et.al., 2015.)aa A sense of direction is felt when there is personal development of a person. He gets to
know himself more and personal development also makes the decision-making process
easier. A person gets to focus on those things which will help him achieve his objective.aa Clarity in mind is seen. Personal development clarifies your mind there are always
multiple tasks looking for you. Person is more clearer on the objectives and he know
which tasks will give him the best results to obtain the goal(Jackson, 2016.)aa Person becomes more motivated towards his goal when he knows that his actions are
right and it will lead him to the right direction. Even if task is boring, but if the person
sees a clear goal, the person gets motivated to take the necessary action.aa The person becomes more flexible. He is able to adapt to changes easily and becomes
adjustable in all the conditions. He is more confident and resilience to deal with
everything more better.aa Personal development helps you to know that which relations are worth investing time
and which are not. It helps you to to develop skills that have positive impact on the life.
4. Theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
 Honey& Mumford learning style theory: Peter Honey and Alan Mumford developed
the learning style theory by identifying four style. Theses styles are:
(aa Activists: These are those employees who are very much involved in learning
process, they are ready to take action get involved in various activities and are ready to
fully immense themselves in the learning process. They approach new tasks with
excitement and are very good in high-pressure situations. They are good in teamwork,
and are ready to participate in competition.
(aa Theorists: These are those employees who think carefully and logically about
any situation and they always prefer to work within a given model. They are very good
with their emotions and does not let their feelings ruin their work. The employees who
are theorists does not make immediate decisions and firstly go through research and
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analysis. They are less creative and work with logics and practical terms based on
previous theories and concepts(Song, 2015. )
(aa Reflectors: Employees who follow this learning style are not into jumping
directly into action and they rather prefer to observe a situation. They tend to sit back and
listen, instead of getting involved in discussions and I last take their decisions. They use
questionnaires, feedback and observing activities to learn things.
(aa Pragmatists: The employees prefer to apply knowledge and theories in real life.
These employees learn by experimenting new things in ideas and solving problems. They
does not waste time in thinking about theories instead they bring it into action. They try
to apply all their knowledge in a practical way so that they can learn new things and
become more practical in life(Kim, Karatepe and Chung, 2019.)
 Kolb's Learning Theory: it was developed by David Kolb in 1984. He believed that our
learning style emerge due to our genes, life experiences and the demands of the
environment. There are various styles of Kolb:
(1) The Converger: Employees following this style are very good in conceptualization and
Experimentation. They are highly skilled and are good in applying the idea. They are
good in those situation which offer single best solution or answer(Singh, 2015.)
(2) The Diverger: They are opposite to the converger. The employees following this style
are always focused on seeing the big picture and and small topics are converted into
meaningful information. They are tend to be more emotional and creative and can do
anything to come up with new idea.
(3) The Assimilator: Employees are skilled and they have the knowledge in the areas of
conceptualization and observation. They are good in creating their own models and this is
their greatest strength. They are not interested in practical application of theories. They
involve those work which have planning and research in them.
(4) The Accommodator: Employees with this skill are good in experience and
experimentation. This style is opposite of the assimilator. The aim of these employees is
to perform experiments in the real life. Of all the four learning styles, they are the greatest
risk taker and they tend to change the plan if they feel other plan will benefit
more(Marañón and Pera, 2015.)
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5. Critical evaluation of skills and competences
Finance Resource manager plays a very important role in the organization. He sees that
companies accounts and statements are always clear. There should not be any mistake in the
book. He sees that all the transactions done in the restaurant should be recorded properly. He is
the head of the whole finance department and he is directly answerable to the head of the
company or CEO. Some audit of the skills of the finance manager are:
TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENT
Good in time management complete all duties before time runs out.
Have exact solution for all the problem and always supportive at the time of
emergency.
Try to keep the dates and reminder for all seminars and meetings.
On time in all important meetings and conferences.
Focused on current objectives and always clear in mission and targets to
achieve.
Know the reasons of time waste and avoid them during completion of task
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Try to find solution for problems using different ways.
Try to evaluate all the answers and choosing the best one.
Able to make the one complex task into various small simple task
Able to gather team for solving various problems.
Ability to find the exact return in a particular task.
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ORAL COMMUNICATION
Ability to value and give suggestions in a group meeting, even though I deny it.
Positive to give ideas and opinions in group meetings.
Confident to ask any query after the speech is over.
Good in explaining new topics to different people
Ability to present a new topic.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Able to structure a project in paragraphs and use signs to communicate ideas
more efficiently.
Ability to write the important points from the meeting.
Ability to write good work in own style.
Capable of writing reports with no grammatical and spelling errors.
Ability to use proper method in planning and organising the information that
needs to be written.
Avoiding plagiarism by referencing the work.
Ability to write reports and frame CV according to format and style.
INFORMATION LITERACY: READING
Ability to collect information from various sources including journals and
magazines, Online databases and internet.
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Understand the required article or information to complete a task before
implementing any further step.
Able to convert complicated and vast database into easy and convenient 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
Capable of making statistical and numerical data that is needed to attain goals
and objectives of the company.
Capable of analysing the information presented in graphs, tables and
charts(Mozos, and et.al., 2017.)
6.Best development approach to enhance professional and personal development
There are various development and learning approaches which can enhance professional and
personal development of an employee. The best development can be done by honey and
Mumford style of learning. There are various benefits of using this analysis as:
 Employee will use his mind in different situations. He will complete all his work on time
rather than depending on others(Sekaran and Bougie, 2016.)
 Employee will take different actions in situations that are complex. They will do work
that need decision making. Employee using this approach become open-minded and are
willing to do any work which excites them while other think a lot before doing any work.
 These style are quiet similar to each other but are not exact similar. They both teach the
same topic that is learning but in their own style. They all are made for learning and their
end target is same.
 The employee will be more professional as he will know how to talk to a person in
formal way and how to react in different situations. The employee will be more flexible
in different situation as he will adapt to changes easily.
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 He will be more confident when he will have knowledge about different topics related to
the business. He can do conversation more easily without thinking very much.
 Employee will be more motivated if he has different knowledge. He can motivate other
employees also to do more work to achieve organisational objective(Portero Poveda,
2015.)
PART B
Development Plan
Area to Improve Ways to Improve Resources Time
1)Communication
Skills
It can be improved by
reading books,
journals, novels, and
newspaper.
Guidance 2 months
2)Time Management Maintain digital diary
so that you check
when the work needs
to be complete. And
also to work according
to priority.
Different work can be
given.
1 month
3)Coordination Skills Hep can be taken from
colleagues and
workers and problem
can be expressed to get
their view and
feedback and other
people should be
viewed that how they
coordinate their work.
Help can be asked.
More communication
should be done
between the workers.
1.5 months
4)Confidence Personal training can
be given and he should
take part in various
Knowledge should be
increased so that
employee can express
3 months
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events to boost the
confidence.
more.
5)Team-Work Different task can be
given in team and
employees should be
more social and they
should encourage the
good work done by the
employees.
More communication
should be there
between the staff and
colleagues.
2 months
6) Self-control All the behaviour that
should be listed by the
employee so that they
can be corrected
afterwards
Good relations should
be maintained with
colleagues and
employees .
4 months
PART C
I went to give the interview in the Pret a Manager as a finance manager. I went to know about
the vacancy from the the agency in which I dropped my CV. The ambience of the restaurant was
very good and I was positive about everything. But then suddenly I was getting nervous as my
chance was coming. I was having a very different feeling. My confidence was gone, but I did not
lose the hopes. I went inside the interview room and I greeted him and then the interview started.
He was polite and in some ways was looking very sharp. He asked my details and various
questions. After seeing my qualification and my experience, he was impressed. He asked me
various question related to my last job and he asked the reason to leave and this time I was quiet
as I did not have proper reason for it. But I tried and I gave the answer. He was impressed and I
was happy. He told me to wait outside for the result and I went out but I was happy as all went
good. The result came and I was selected for the job and the interviewer came to me and he told
me the reason for selecting me. He told that I had confidence but I was nervous in answering the
questions which were actually right. He told me to do work with full interest and do my best in
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the job. I was very much motivated to start the new job. There are various strength and weakness
of interview process and some of them are:
Strength: Confident, knowledge, motivation,formal attitude etc.
weakness: Nervousness, less communication etc.
Challenges I had to face were:
1) I was less confident in speaking. I was not able to answer the question easily.
2) I was not able to communicate my ideas with him.
3) I was not having good knowledge of the company.
CONCLUSION
There are various topics discussed in the report like the skills needed by the employer from
employee to run the organization smoothly. There are different problems also discussed in the
report which say the person face in interview and what he learned from that interview. There are
different skills needed by a manager to run the organization. Each organization need some
specific skills of the manager so that it can get a competitive edge over the other competition.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chan, E., 2019. Best practice in supporting professional identity formation: Use of a professional
reasoning framework. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.
Different type of job skill in restaurant
Ellingson, J.E., Tews, M.J. and Dachner, A.M., 2016. Constituent attachment and voluntary
turnover in low-wage/low-skill service work. Journal of Applied Psychology. 101(1).
p.129.
Jackson, D., 2016. Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-
professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development. 35(5). pp.925-939.
Kim, T.T., Karatepe, O.M. and Chung, U.Y., 2019. Got political skill?.International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.
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.
Mozos, O.M., and et.al., 2017. Stress detection using wearable physiological and sociometric
sensors. International journal of neural systems.27(02). p.1650041.
Portero Poveda, E.P., 2015. Desarrollo de una estrategia didáctica con apoyo de software libre
para el aprendizaje reflexivo de contabilidad comercial a nivel universitario(Master's
thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Sede Ambato).
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