Employability Skills in Travel and Tourism: A Travelodge Case Study

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TRAVEL AND TOURISM EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1..............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2..............................................................................................................................................8
Task 3............................................................................................................................................12
Task 4............................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................19
Reference list................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Employability skill refers to all those skills and knowledge that is essential for ensuring that
the workers and marketers need to have to contribute effectively in an organisation’s
growth. These skills benefit not only the workplace but also the employers by enhancing
their morale. The tourism and travel industry is considered as the fast-growing and largest
civilian industry around the world. The employers and marketers of this industry need to
have some employability skills to build their organisation strong. The study analyses the
importance of employability skills in the travel and tourism sector. This section has four
sections, which analyses the skills and their significance on the industry from different
aspects. The study will be analysing the significance of employability skills on the Travel
agency, Travelodge.
The Travelodge is a travel and tourism sector providing the hotel and hospitality services
throughout the United Kingdom. Lord Forte established the company in Britain in 1980. It is
considered as the third largest hotel chain in the UK based on their number of bedrooms
(Travelodge. 2019).
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Task 1
Introduction
The particular section of the study includes the analysis of the employability skills that are
needed to be efficient in the workplace. The section guides the reader to determine their
responsibilities and performance objectives. This section also includes the significance of
performance appraisal and the techniques that should be used to motivate and develop the
performance quality.
1.1 Develop a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives
The employees are the main base of Travelodge. The performance of employees can bring
success to the company. The own responsibilities and performance objectives play an
important role in an organisation. The own responsibilities and the performance objectives
are discussed below.
Own responsibilities
 Personal responsibility: To help the employees in determining their personal
responsibilities this will help the employers to perform better in the workplace
(Waldram, 2014). The managers need to take the ownership at work and has to play
the role of problem solver. They are accountable for any action taken by them.
 Adaptability: To recruit new employees the flexibility and adaptability are needed.
The manager needs to cope up with the changes. The manager has to be flexible
enough to welcome new ideas, which will help in growing the business and they need
to manage the multiple tasks, the need to communicate and negotiating for solving a
problem. The managers need to be adaptable for quickly responding positively to the
changing circumstances. Making decisions and planning career: To help the employees in developing and
achieving career goals, these matches to the company’s goals. The managers will
have to be able to make decisions quickly that can be beneficial for the company. Laws and legislation: To prepare the company standards for the company the HR
manager has to know about the laws and employment legislation, which may leave a
negative impact on the company’s working process.
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Performance objectives
 Initial assessment: To assess the performance of the employees the Hr managers has
to ensure the level of functionality of the employees.
 Identify strengths and weaknesses: To identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
employees so that the managers can help the employees to convert their weaknesses
into strength.
 Ways to improve performance: To improve the performance of the employees the
managers need to reward the employees and send them the performance appraisals
(Shabaninejad et al., 2014).
1.2 Evaluate own effectiveness against defined objectives
Strength
 Job proficiency is the strength of the
performance objective
 The ethics and integrity of the
employees can be measured by
performance objective
 The performance appraisal helps to
maximize the growth of their
employees
 The performance appraisal helps to
determine the application of certain
practices.
 Performance objective has helped in
employee development
 Promotion of the employees helps in
enhancing their morale. The
performance objective helps the HR
management to recognize and reward
Weakness
 Performance objective does not cover
the calculation of financing. The lack
of financial calculation will result in
extra expenditure.
 The promoting strategy may leave an
impact on other employees who are
not being promoted. Therefore, it may
affect slower their growth.
 The stress level rises for both the
employees and the human resource
managers.
 There may be some errors in
judgement, which may leave a
negative impact on an employee.
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employees.
 Evaluation has helped the HR
manager to plan the training session
as per requirement
Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses of performance objective
(Source: created by the learner)
1.3 Make recommendations for improvement
The recommendation is provided here for addressing the requirements of the employees and
the organisation. The performance appraisal has some benefits as well as some pitfalls. The
human resource manager of Travelodge needs to plan and implement such strategies, which
will help to turn the weaknesses into the strength of the company. The manager should
reward the employees after performing a proper financial calculation. In this way, they will
be able to meet their financial goal and keep a record of this data. They should conduct
proper research on the performance of the employees and make decisions so that the right
employee gets the reward and the management can be bias-free ( Hirsh et al., 2015). They
should monitor that the incentives are not affecting the morale of employees. They may
arrange some activities for the employees so that they can reduce the stress level of
employees.
1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve the quality of
performance
The process that helps to enhance the intensity, direction and effort towards accomplishing
the goal is called motivation. The Maslow’s hierarchy of need is used to prepare the
guidelines for HR manager in this section. Maslow’s hierarchy of need has five parameters
such as self-actualization, esteem, social, safety and psychological. The psychological and
safety needs include the need of the regular salary, a better workplace and pension scheme,
sick-pay respectively. The human resource manager should focus on maintaining the
employee relation that will help them in make the working environment tangible ( Datta,
2014). They should pay attention to employee compensation so that their employees become
motivated. The manager needs to keep the record of employee health and provide them with
different health schemes. The manager needs to encourage the teams that are performing
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very well. They should respect all the employees and listen to their voices. The manager
may organise any celebration for the employees that will confer the prestige to the
employees. In this way, the management will be able to address the needs for social and
self-esteem. The HR manager needs to design and plan training classes for the employees to
help them fulfil their self-actualization.
Conclusion
The section of the study concludes that the performance objective holds an important role in
the human resource functions of an organisation. The Maslow’s hierarchy model is also
discussed in order to identify the needs of the employees. Therefore The recommendation
guidelines are provided which will help the human resource manager to identify the area of
development.
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Task 2
2.1 Develop solutions to work-based problems. You need to develop solutions to at least
two work-based problems identified during your work experience or in your role as a
manager at the Travelodge Hotel.
Introduction
Work-based problems are common in an organisation. The manager of that organisation
needs to develop such strategies for the organisation. In this section, the guidelines are
discussed to help the manager of the Travelodge hotel to resolve the work-based problems.
Work-based problems can be occurred due to the stress of the employees of the organisation.
The manager should develop such strategies, which will help to solve such problems. The
two types of Work-based problems are discussed below.
Internal conflicts: Hotel management deals with customer satisfaction. The employees need
to work in a team so that they can provide their customers with good quality of service.
There are some chances of arising conflicts in a team, which will affect the service quality
of the hotel (Gilbert, 2014). The manager needs to monitor the employee behaviour and set
the behavioural limitations for them. The manager should collect information about
employees and check the chances of conflicts. They need to listen to employees and
encourage them for teamwork.
Misuse of roles: There may be some roles, which are more powerful than the other roles.
The power can influence the behaviour of a person both positively and negatively. Power
can manifest the bullying behaviour and another negative attitude towards others. The
manager of the hotel is considered as the most powerful person in that workplace ( Giurge,
2017). The manager needs to use power for encouraging and influencing people positively.
The manager should look after that biasing is not being occurred. The manager needs to
forbid the kind of behaviour that produces toxicity in the workplace. The manager needs to
treat his employees respectfully and fairly.
Conclusion
The section concludes that the work-based problems are common in an organisation. The
manager should take the initiative in solving the work-based problems and provide a strong
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support system to their employees. Implementation of these guidelines will help the
manager to make the workplace better for their employees.
2.2 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels. You
need for example to write a formal letter to the senior management of the hotel to
inform them about the problem and a memo to all staff
Business letter
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To the senior manager
Travelodge
London, UK
Respected senior manger sir,
I, the hotel manager of Travelodge, would like to notify you that some work-
based problem has arisen recently in our workplace. The internal conflict is
affecting the quality of the service, which is leaving an impact on the customer
base of this hotel.
The misuse of job roles is also occurring, which is leading the employees
towards stress. The corporate image of the hotel is being stained so it may
affect the business policy of Travelodge. The hierarchy between the employees
are considered the reasons behind the conflicts. There are some other reasons
such as the lack of communication, negative attitude and others.
I hereby request you to take action against those employees who are violating
the rules of the hotels and supporting the conflicts so that the quality of service
and reputation of the hotel can be developed as before.
Sincerely
The hotel manager
Travelodge, UK
Wales, UK
[phone]
MEMO
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To: all employees
From: The hotel manager
Date: February 29th, 2019
Subject: Inappropriate behaviour causing conflicts
Objective: To resolve the conflicts among employees
Summary: A conflict has been arisen among the employees of the hotel
recently. It has possibilities of ruining the service quality of Travelodge. The
employees are misusing their rules to bully other staffs. Some of the employees
are becoming the victims of the harassment and bullying, which is negatively
influencing their performance.
Action: The management has decided to conduct an interaction session and
listen to the problems of the employees on 03.02.2019. The employees will be
going to have a team leader who will be chosen by the management. The
members need to work according to the decisions of the team members.
Conclusion: The Travelodge is reputed for their high quality customer service,
which is now being detoriated so the team members are requested to provide
the workplace with the same excellence they have given before. This
memorandum is just a reminder for the staffs to be careful with their attitude in
the workplace.
Thank you,
The manager
The employees who are having any query related to this can contact to this
number
[phone]
[e-mail]
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2.3 Identify effective time-management strategies about the work-based experience or
your role as a manager at Travelodge. Present your evidence as a written report to
your line manager.
Introduction
The section of the study analyses the time management strategies, which are related to the
work-based experience of the role of manager. The time management strategy plays an
important role in organising the priorities in the available time. It is considered the most
valuable resource in the tour and travel sector.
The manager needs to focus on managing the time. The manager has to follow such steps
which are described here.
 Set the goals and assess- to manage the time efficiently the manager needs to set the
goals and the working strategies for the goals. It is important to determine how the
time is being used so that the area of changes can be understood (Zander, 2018). Organise- to determine the working time for every process, the list of goals and
working methods should be organised. Prioritise and schedule- to prioritise the goals, which should be completed at first.
There may not be enough time for accomplishing all the goals, so the manager has to
decide which is prior to them. Scheduling will help to perform according to the time
management strategy.
Conclusion
The section concludes that time management plays an important role in the travel industry.
The managers and employees need to be time efficient to provide the high-quality service to
the customers that will help to acquire the business goals in the longer run.
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