Personal Skill Audit and Professional Development Plan: A Report

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Personal Skill Audit and Professional Development Plan
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
LO3................................................................................................................................................15
LO4................................................................................................................................................17
Reference List................................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
Professional identity is individuals’ experience, skill, values, and attitudes that differentiate them
from others. Professional development combines activities aiming to develop knowledge,
experience, skills, and ability. This development occurs in formal or informal ways by
incorporating the evaluative phase. The study on professional identity and practice will be
carried out by taking the example of Burford House, which is a five-star hotel with excellent
accommodation and food services. The selected role for doing addressing tasks is Hotel General
Manager. The report articulates benefits and importance resulted from on-going professional
development. It identifies learning theories that shall explain the development process.
Producing a development plan will support own abilities as a general manager.
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LO1
Discuss the role of on-going professional development in an organisation and examine its
benefits to the employees and employers
An on-going professional development process improves skills of employees and provides an
employer with skilled personnel, who can assist in the long-term survival of businesses.
Benefits for Burford House
Motivated staff
On-going development ensures employees’ capabilities are aligned with standards set by Burford
House. Employees perform beyond the limit by delivering ultimate professional services to
clients (Zepeda, 2013). The hotel motivates well performers by giving rewards such as surprise
gifts, free holiday packages, and bonus. Employees stay motivated when their recognized skills
help in gaining success.
Improve Revenue
Professionals with enhanced skills perform well and deliver excellent output. In fast moving
hospitality industry, it has become necessary to deliver quick services to customers (Collin et al.,
2012). Therefore, ongoing development converts employees into competent personnel, who use
their excellent selling and customer service techniques to increase number of guests and thereby
increases revenue.
Staff retention
The management may not find weaknesses among employees during hiring. Employees’
performance and effort show how capable and skilful they are to handle operations. On-going
development makes employees skilful for which the hotel retains maximum employees without
firing them (Brajer-Marczak, 2014). This saves recruitment costs of Burford House by avoiding
repetitive selection process.
Benefits for employees
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Build credibility and morale
Skill development programs and training implant loyalty among good employees. When
employees get educational opportunities, their confidence improves and they develop a sense of
pride (Harrison, 2012). They inevitably look for challenging tasks and master in different
activities. This makes the employer trust employees on their capacities.
Self-awareness
Continuous learning is valuable at every stage of a professional career. Employees identify their
inherent qualities during the learning process. By updating existing skills and learning new ones,
they assess strengths and powers, which shall support them in the workplace (Friedman, 2013).
Improve communication skill
Communication is key to work in a hospitality organisation, as employees have to communicate
directly with customers and record their needs. The skill builds confidence and instills unique
capabilities among staff. On-going development teaches employees about necessities of body
language, and different styles and modes of communication (Kulkarni, 2013).
Opportunity for promotion
Lifelong learning creates opportunities for having an enhanced knowledge base. Professionals
become skilled with new strategies and techniques that make them important assets for the hotel.
Up-skilling continuously brings more promotion and employability options for employees.
Develop emotional intelligence
On-going developments and learning help to grow and improve by taking feedback from others,
which subsequently improves emotional intelligence. Individuals with greater emotional
intelligence handle tough situations and feel comfortable in challenging environment without
being stressed (Jurburg et al., 2017).
Personal satisfaction
Personal satisfaction is important to perform better in any workplace settings. This satisfaction
comes from well performance, achievements and appreciation. Continuous developments
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enhance employee skills and feel them valued for accomplishing any challenging tasks. This
gives self-satisfaction to employees, as the hotel recognises and rewards them for better
achievements.
Investigate the employer expectations of professional skills and standards.
The general manager of Burford House has to perform different duties for which the employer
expects following standards and professionals skills from his or her work.
 Communication: Hotel managers are liable for keeping up with industry trends, staying
up-to-date on organisational changes, and resolving problems between guests and
employees. They are regarded as a public facet of the business; so improved
communication skill is mandatory to handle job requirements. The employer wants
general managers to present themselves in a professional, empathetic, and respectful
manner (Suh et al., 2012). If managers cannot convey the hotel’s goal and expectations to
employees, there will be less chance to reach overall goal.
 Detail Oriented: In order to provide unforgettable memory and experience to guests,
hotel managers remain vigilant about details such as safety concerns, a wonderful
greeting, cleanliness, and others (Weber et al., 2013). They remain to account for
delegating tasks and communicating individual responsibilities. The employer wants
managers to verify constantly whether objectives are met or not.
 Interpersonal skills: Interpersonal skill is an important aspect of a good communicator.
A general manager’s responsibility is to keep employees and guests happy. This can be
possible through maintaining patience, integrity, and professionalism. The employer
expects managers to be mastered in interpersonal skill, as they have to communicate with
a diverse group of individuals across the globe. A pleasant personality and effective
conversation can even drag consumers from different parts of the world. Therefore, it is
essential to earn proficiency in interpersonal skills.
 Leadership: Hotel managers need to be strong leaders, who have the ability to resolve
issues decisively, boost employee morale, assign responsibilities equally, and pay
attention to employee problems without losing temper (Sisson and Adams, 2013).
Without strong leadership, it is impossible to attain effectiveness in the hotel business.
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Therefore, the employer wants hotel general managers to be equipped with all sorts of
leadership skill and abilities.
 Operational Knowledge: Hotel managers should have minimum ideas of hotel
operational activities. Most of the managers gain this knowledge through an educational
degree or entry-level employment. The employer expects managers to understand basic
concepts such as cost control, human resource management and accounting; otherwise,
they will stay behind or remain incapable of suggesting better ideas during the decision-
making process.
 Financial Management: They require understanding fundamentals of finance, read and
comprehend financial reports, and analyse financial data. This may not be the major
responsibility, but managers may be responsible for accounts payable, revenue
management, cash outs, and bank deposits (Sisson and Adams, 2013). They may have to
focus on financial ramifications while sorting out customer complaints.
 Team building: As hotel staffs require interacting with guests constantly, they need to
work in a team. Hotel managers need to build a team to avoid negative influence on
customer service. Building an open and cooperative team will improve guest experience
and employee productivity (Weber et al., 2013). Therefore, the employer expects
managers to encourage staff for working cohesively and acquire effectiveness.
 Flexibility: The hotel comes across many unexpected and unforeseen problems at
importunate times. Adaptability and flexibility are two major skills that hotel managers
require to make well-informed and decisive decisions. Guests may experience horrible
services if managers do not change their approach of working during a crisis.
As per standard concerns, hotel managers need to perform in an outstanding manner. They need
to update with the latest demand and trends in tourism and hospitality sector so that they can
deliver quality service. They should value digital marketing, which is the key to success of the
hotel. Overseeing consumer search, review, and booking websites are some hospitality marketing
strategies that hotel managers should adopt to attain the optimum standard.
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LO2
Assess your skills, abilities, and competencies using appropriate methods and techniques
The following SWOT template shows my ability, knowledge, and skills.
Strengths Weakness
 I have the great creative skill, which
allows me to impress guests with
excellent ideas and help teammates in a
challenging environment.
 I have acquired a great verbal and
written communication style, which
helped me to interact with others and
develop business reports.
 I am committed to my organisation’s
success and growth.
 My leadership trait enables me to lead
teammates and prepare them for
challenging goals.
 I carry a good relationship with my
teammates and senior officers for
which they help me in case I face
complex situations.
 I have a good negotiating ability that
enables me to persuade clients to take
great deals. My peers and seniors praise
me for outstanding negotiation skill.
 I often feel stressed when I require
dealing with multiple responsibilities
and this makes me do mistakes.
 My peers say that I am not at managing
time. I tend to miss some deadlines and
this is my greatest weakness.
 I am not competent in handling
software and hardware. I take much
time to learn about workingon a newly
installed technology.
 I am weak at handling conflicts, as I
cannot find out root causes of conflict
occurred among different teams.
 My seniors say I do not do well in a
team, as I cannot take multiple opinions
and advice.
Opportunities Threats
 Growth and advancement in hospitality
sector can give me more opportunities
to work in international hotel chains.
 New trends in tourism and hotel
industry cause threats to introducing
new services and technologies.
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 Training on leadership and
management development is another
chance for personal skill improvement.
 Several opportunities to attain
workshops and seminars on hospital
management shall be helpful for me.
 Newly recruited employees are more
skilful to solve problems and handle
conflicts.
 Impractical deadlines in work are major
threats that hamper quality and
efficiency.
Table 1: Assessment skills and competencies
(Source: Created by the learner)
Review a range of learning theories or models and approaches used to explain personal and
professional development process.
In order to learn through professional development process, learners can use following learning
approaches.
VAK
It consists of following learning styles that help learners to learn during a continuous
development process.
 Visual: Learners do not see facial expression and body language of teachers to
understand contents completely. They learn from visual displays such as flipcharts,
videos, overhead transparencies, illustrated textbooks, and diagrams (Leopold, 2012).
During a classroom discussion, such learners note down important points to grab
information. They may prefer using presentations and recorders to learn after class.
Another key characteristic of visual learners is that they structure complex scenarios in
mind through imaginative power. They enjoy aesthetics, art and written word, which
makes the learning process easier for them. Revision is done through mind maps,
flashcards, and colour coordination. The challenging aspect of visual learners is that they
may have to struggle with verbal instructions.
 Auditory: They learn through listening others rather than focusing on visual aids. They
absorb information better, when discussions and verbal lessons are carried out in the
classroom. They underpin meanings by focusing on speed and tone of voice. They learn
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quickly by reading in a loud voice and using a recorder. Auditory learners recite
information, a study in groups, and discuss ideas (Leopold, 2012). They are excellent
oral presentation and panel discussions. They are diverted through auditory stimuli such
as background noise, any conversation or music.
Figure 1: Learning Styles
(Source: Hatami, 2012)
 Kinesthetic: Learners learn through doing, moving and touching (Leopold, 2012). They
prefer using hands-on approaches and learn by feeling physical world. They become
distracted with need for performing an activity. Such learners work at standing positions,
and take frequent breaks. They believe listening to music during learning improves
memory power. They enjoy expressing physically and love to perform dance or arts.
They use drawing and doodling sheets as learning tools. They feel restless during
classroom learning process without any activities.
VAK theory gives evidence of effective learning styles that promote input and output of
information in multiple settings. It looks into many tools for teaching, learning, and studying that
others have not thought before. Multimodal learners have greater flexibility to use any tools to
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adapt themselves in different learning environments. However, it is difficult to teach learners
with a single learning style in a multimodal environment.
Honey and Mumford’s Learning approach
Mumford and Honey have determined four learning preferences including reflector, theorist,
activist, and pragmatist (Rolfe and Cheek, 2012). They believe that learners need to identify own
learning preference and find out opportunities for applying that preferred style.
Figure 2: Learning preferences by Honey and Mumford
(Source: Rolfe and Cheek, 2012)
 Activists: Learners use open-minded approaches for learning things easily. They involve
in activities until they get an in-depth understanding of a thing instead of being biased in
new experiences. Learning activities used by activists include role-play, puzzles,
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competition, brainstorming, group discussion, and problem solving (Rolfe and Cheek,
2012).
 Reflectors: These learners learn through observation and deep thinking. They think what
they have taught during the development process and absorb information. Such learners
prefer to stay back and experience things from different perspectives. They gather views
from different aspects and take time to make a decision or reach conclusion. Activities
carried by reflectors include interviews, coaching, observing activities, self-analysis
questionnaire, personality questionnaire, paired discussion and others (Rolfe and Cheek,
2012).
 Theorists: These learners learn by understanding concepts or theories behind every
action. They require facts, models, and frameworks to involve in learning and
development process. They draw new information in a logical and systematic manner.
Theorists carry out activities such as application of theories, stories, models, quotes,
statistics, background information and facts (Sarabdeen, 2013).
 Pragmatists: These learners aim to use learning into practice for a long-term learning
process. They seek for ideas to put into practice so that they can absorb more. Such
learners take time to apply to learn in reality. They used to apply case studies and
involve in discussion to support the learning process.
Honey and Mumford model probes behaviour and attitude that defines styles and preferences
concerning learning. It is considered as a checklist about how individuals learn. It increases level
of awareness among learners by opening up ways to improvement and self-scrutiny. It gives
gateway for every skill that an individual aims to improve. As all labels of learning style pose
strong preferences, it is challenging to distinguish one style from others.
Kolb’s Learning Theory
It is an experiential learning theory that includes four stages in which learners completes all
bases of learning.
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