Evaluating HRD and KM Practices: Tillman Hotel Group Report

This report evaluates the Human Resource Development (HRD) and Knowledge Management (KM) strategies of the Tillman Hotel Group, identifying challenges stemming from a standardized training program and issues related to a recent acquisition. The report assesses the current HRD practices, highlighting problems such as outdated training methods and cultural insensitivity. It identifies specific training needs, including consumer-focused training, language skills, and cultural competence. The report proposes a Learning and Development (L&D) strategy, outlining steps for consultation, cultural competence training, and performance assessment to improve employee skills, reduce conflicts, and enhance the company's reputation and revenue. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adapting HRD and KM practices to meet the evolving needs of the hospitality industry and the specific demands of a globalized market.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Human Resource Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The term Human resource development (HRD) can be defined as the framework that is designed
for helping out the employees of an organization by developing their personal as well as
organizational skills, knowledge and abilities (Scully-Russ et al. 2013). Knowledge Management
(KM), on the other hand, is defined as the way by which the management of an organization
creates, shares, uses and manages the organization (Sheehan, Garavan and Carbery 2014). It
refers to a multidisciplinary approach that helps an organization to achieve its objectives by
making the best use of knowledge. In this report, the Current HRD and KM strategies of the
Tillman group will be assessed and evaluated to find out the challenges related to HRD and KM
processes of the organization. Along with that, this report will contain identification of the
specific training requirements at Tillman. Finally, in this assessment, development of an outline
of the Learning and development strategy of the organization will be performed.
The current HRD & KM processes and practices at Tillman
The current HRD practice of the Tillman organization involves providing its employees
with a standardised training and development program to ensure appropriate behaviour of the
employees across all the areas of activity of the organization. The mentioned training program is
kept same in all of the hotels under the organization without modifying the activities keeping
accordance with the specific needs of the local consumers (Russ-Eft, Short and Jacobs 2014). As
per data, the Human Resource department of the organization has not changed the training
program for the last 10 years when the firm underwent a commendable expansion into a number
of countries.

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Secondly, considering the fact that by acquiring 50 percent stake in Archuleta, the company is
entering a totally new field, Tillman has invested on an expensive refurbishment across the hotel
and restaurants. Moreover, in order to assure the employees of Archuleta that the new
acquisition will not result in job losses, the company have sent its HRD team to deliver a sleek
presentation of the Tillman brand.
Identify the challenges or problems that can be related to HRD&KM
Considering the fact that the mentioned firm is trying to expand its business in the Italian market,
it has acquired the Archuleta Hotel. However, this acquisition has resulted in several HRD and
Knowledge management related issues as listed below:
1. As been stated earlier, the company has not developed its training session for the last 10
years. This can be considered as a major issue since due to rapid change in the hospitality
industry as well as in technological advancement, the requirements of the consumers are
constantly changing (Shuck and Herd 2012). Thus the standardised training and
development program of the mentioned firm needs to be modified in order to cope up
with the rapid changes in the requirements of the global consumers.
2. Secondly, it has been found that the company follows a standardised training and
development program across all the hotels it possesses in the international market. The
Tillman firm has hotels in UK, Netherland, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Europe. Now it
can be understood that all of the mentioned nations have a different type of cultural as
well as social norms. Hence in order to attract the consumers of these nations the
employees of the mentioned organization need to trained keeping accordance with the
cultural and social requirements of the specific nation.

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3. Another HRD related issue faced by the Tillman Organization is the lack of staffs in the
Archuleta hotel chain. The management of Archuleta used to appoint most of the
frontline staffs on a casual or temporary basis during the summer months. Thus, for
Tillman, it has become a dilemma to meet the specific needs of the consumers, within the
necessarily more flexible employment structure (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko
2016).
4. As a result of all of this, the overall revenue of the Tillman Hotel Group has deteriorated
to a great extent. The hotels were found to be far less crowded when compared to the
previous season and the reputation of the company is found to be deteriorating. Some of
the chief negative reviews about the company include patchy consumer service, low-
quality service provided at an unreasonably high price and ‘being treated like
businessmen rather than holidaymakers’.
5. According to the staffs of the Archuleta hotel, the company is making unrealistic
expectation from them. Since the number of staffs is less, the existing staffs are getting
highly pressurize due to the intense work pressure. Moreover, the employees of the
Archuleta hotels also complained that due to the frequent sudden absence of the
employees and ill behaviour towards the consumers, the reputation of the entire brand is
getting highly hampered.
6. As a result of the above-mentioned issues, the managers and staff mentors of the Tillman
organization are found to spend the majority of their time in managing employee
conflicts and consumer complaints. Hence they are unable to address the issues of lack of
employee strength and capabilities (Bharwani and Butt 2012). Moreover, the negative

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review of the local food critics is imposing a further negative impact on the consumer
loyalty of the Tillman Hotel Group.
Identification of the specific training requirements of the company
In order to cope up with the above-mentioned issues, the company Tillman company should
incorporate the following training and development programs:
 The company should assess the specific requirements of its consumers and on the basis of
this requirement, they should modify their training and development program. With the help of
the knowledge acquired by the consumers, the company must implement modern age training
strategies to enhance the loyalty of the consumers. With the emergence of technology, the
requirements of the consumers of the hospitality industry are constantly changing. Unlike the
era without internet, in this era, people are keener towards travelling and dining out. Hence,
hotel staffs nowadays need to handle a huge lot of employees. For instance, Chinese tourists
have rapidly become the largest travel demographic in the world, and by 2025 over 220 million
a year will be travelling overseas, spending USD$450 billion on hotels, shopping, F&B and
experiences. Hence employees need to be trained in different types of languages so that they can
welcome both local as well as international consumers (Chen and Shen 2012).
 The company should come out of the concept of the ‘standardized training program” and
should modify their training program keeping accordance with the needs of the local consumers.
For instance, a different type of training should be provided to a chefs keeping in mind the local
food trends and customs. Moreover, considering the fact that the most crucial part of the
hospitality industry is the behaviour of the staffs towards the consumers, staffs serving specific

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areas should be educated and trained according to the norms an behaviors preferred by the
locals.
 In order to deal with the shortage of employees in the Archuleta Hotels, the company
must recruit more skilled employees. Recruitment of employees will not only enhance the
productivity of the Tillman Hotel Groups but will also reduce the conflicts among the
employees. As a result of this, the managers of the company will be able to deal with other areas
of concern and thus the company will be able to regain its reputation in the global market (Suh,
West and Shin 2012).
 Considering the fact that the mentioned hotel group has branches in different parts of the
world, the company must provide cultural training to the employees in order to avoid conflicts
associated with cultural diversity. Employees should be educated about the benefits and
cruciality of cultural diversity within an organization. Moreover, conflict management training
should be provided to the managers, mentors and team leaders of the Tillman Hotel groups so
that they can deal with employee conflict more efficiently.
 In order to enhance the consumer service of the company, training for enhancing their
behaviour and politeness towards the consumers should be provided. Employees should be
trained to demonstrate and explain the facilities like mobile hotel room keys, room service and
concierge desk to the consumers. Technologies should be adopted where employees will be able
to use their mobile phones for opening and locking their hotel rooms. Moreover, they can use
their concierge desks to make dinner reservation without going downstairs. Moreover,
consumers should be provided with the facility to get room service and delivery right at their
doorstep within the stipulated time. These facilities will result in consumer satisfaction.

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Moreover, in order to regain the consumer loyalty, the company should reduce the price of its
products and services (Chen and Shen 2012).
Development of an outline of the L&D strategy
The Tillman Hotel Group should develop a learning and development strategy in order to
enhance bonding among the employees, reduce organizational conflicts and enhance the skills
and productivity of the employees that in turn will help the company to enhance their overall
revenue. In the paragraph, bellow an outline of the L&D strategy of the mentioned company has
been provided.
1st step: The first step of the learning and development process should include consultation with
the managers as well as all the staffs associated with the organization. Since the mentioned hotel
group has several numbers of hotels located at different parts of the world, face to face
discussion with all the employees at the same time is not possible (Bharwani and Butt 2012). For
this, the company should conduct virtual meetings with the help of technologically advanced
communication methods that includes video calling. This meeting will help the managers to
access the specific loopholes in the current learning and development process and develop new
learning and development strategies.
2nd step: In order educate the employee about the importance of cultural competence in the
hospitality industry, a learning course should be offered to the employees. In the mentioned
course, several activities will be performed by the organization staffs that will enhance the
bonding and cultural competence of the employees. Moreover, in the mentioned L&D course,
employees will be able to develop multicultural verbal skills that will help them to deal with the

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consumers more effectively and satisfy them. For this process, Virtual Reality tools can be used
(Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko 2016).
3rd step: Finally, the management of the organization should keep the track of the performance
of the employees in order to understand the effectiveness of the L&D session. The performance
assessment should be conducted every 6 months to prevent further deterioration of the
performance of the employees.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the acquisition of the Archuleta
Hotel Chains by the Tillman Hotel Group has resulted in several issues associated with the HR
and KM practices of the company. This issue has imposed highly negative impact o the
reputation as well as the yearly revenue of the company. Several training sessions and
development strategies have been suggested to the organization in order to deal with the issues.
Finally, it can be said that with the help of the suggested training and development plans, the
company will be able to regain its reputation a well as its revenue in the near future.

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Reference List
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perspective. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(2), pp.150-162.
Chalofsky, N.F., 2014. Handbook of human resource development. John Wiley & Sons.
Chen, T.L. and Shen, C.C., 2012. Today's intern, tomorrow's practitioner?—The influence of
internship programmes on students' career development in the Hospitality Industry. Journal of
Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 11(1), pp.29-40.
Russ-Eft, D., Short, D. and Jacobs, R.L., 2014. Perspectives in HRD-The Academy of Human
Resource Development: Its history and current activities. New Horizons in Adult Education &
Human Resource Development, 26(1), p.64.
Scully-Russ, E., Lehner, R. and Shuck, B., 2013. A scholar-practitioner case approach:
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Developing Human Resources, 15(3), pp.243-251.
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(HRD). European Journal of Training and Development, 38(1/2), pp.2-14.
Shuck, B. and Herd, A.M., 2012. Employee engagement and leadership: Exploring the
convergence of two frameworks and implications for leadership development in HRD. Human
resource development review, 11(2), pp.156-181.
Suh, E., West, J.J. and Shin, J., 2012. Important competency requirements for managers in the
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112.

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Zaitseva, N.A., Goncharova, I.V. and Androsenko, M.E., 2016. Necessity of changes in the
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