Travelodge Hotel: A Self-Managed Learning and Development Project

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This project focuses on personal and professional development at Travelodge.

Personal and Professional Development
1

Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1..............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning. Which approach can be more suitable
for you or your staff at Travelodge Hotel?..............................................................................4
1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could
be encouraged at Travelodge. In this question you should say how you as a manager can
encourage lifelong learning at Travelodge Hotel....................................................................6
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to you as an assistant manager and the
Travel Lodge. Your judgement has to be supported by relevant evidence or examples.....7
Task 2..............................................................................................................................................9
2.1 Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional standards for
a hotel manager and against organisational objectives of Travelodge Hotel.......................9
2.2 Identify your own development needs and the activities required to meet them.........11
2.3 Identify development opportunities to meet your current and future defined needs.
Which opportunities are available for you inside or outside of the hotel to improve your
skill development needs?.........................................................................................................12
2.4 Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs........13
Task 3............................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan that
you prepared for yourself in task 2.4.....................................................................................15
3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned. In this task you should
implement the development plan you prepared for yourself and then write down how
you implemented your plan.....................................................................................................16
3.3. Reflect critically on your own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan. Did you really learn new skills at the level you aim for them?............17
3.4 Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluation.................................18
Task 4............................................................................................................................................19
4.1 and 4.2 You will start by selecting solutions to work-based problems regarding
employee turnover and customer care at Travelodge Hotel (4.1), and to communicate in a
variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels (4.2). What solutions do you
recommend to retain current staff at the hotel and improve customer care? Your
manager has asked to prepare a poster and a reflective report to be presented to senior
management of the hotel and employee representatives......................................................19
4.3 Finally, you should evaluate and use effective time-management strategies to reduce
employee turnover and improve customer care at Travelodge Hotel.................................21
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................23
2

References.....................................................................................................................................24
Introduction
If an individual wants to consistently grow in his personal and professional life, it is essential
that the individual keeps learning about his professional skills and also strengthen the ways in
which he spends his personal time. An organised approach towards learning should always be on
and individual cannot relay completely on his academic qualifications for his entire life. Even
after having a successful professional career, one has to keep growing to achieve his goals.
I am working as an assistant manager at Travel Lodge, London and as a manager it is my
responsibility to work not only for my own development but also for the personal and
professional development of the employees that work at Travel lodge. The current report would
analyse the various self-managed learning styles and approaches that could benefit in the
personal and professional growth of individuals working at Travel Lodge including me.
3

Task 1
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning. Which approach can be more
suitable for you or your staff at Travelodge Hotel?
Self-managed learning could be defined as a process in which an individual initiates the learning
process on his own and identifies the methods that he could use for the learning including setting
up the goals and objectives of the learning (Abbott and Dahmus, 2017).
In order to develop a self-managed learning plan, individual first needs to identify his learning
styles. Different learning styles that an individual could adopt are described here:
Honey and Mumford Learning Styles
Activist Style
People who follow this style believe in learning by doing. Employees at Travel Lodge always
accept the work assigned to them even if they are not proficient in that work. But as they start
working on it, they use problem solving skills and brainstorming to complete that task.
Reflector Style
Observation is the key attribute of the individuals who follow reflector learning style. I have
always asked new employees at Travel Lodge to watch and observe the experienced employees
handling a task and then follow them. I myself have observed the working of my manager and
learned a lot from him.
Pragmatist Style
Experimenting with theories and ideas is the key attribute of the individuals who follow this style
(Arlin and Whitley, 2014). As a manager, I always look for standard solutions to the problems I
face and then relate them with the actual problem in hand and apply accordingly.
4

Theorists Style
Conducting background research on a problem and studying the theories and models on relevant
subject is the key attribute of these individuals. I always believe in having good theoretical
knowledge about a subject before taking up a project on the same.
Kolb’s Learning Style
Assimilating
Searching for theoretical concepts and observing others as they implement those falls in this
learning style. I have always asked my employees to watch and learn from experienced
employees.
Diverging
Imagining a situation with different perspectives and using the observation and feelings to
identify the solution is the key attribute of the people with this learning style.
Converging
Excellent decision making abilities are developed in people who focus on practical use of their
learning. People with this learning style often prefer technical problems over management
related issues (Bard and Moore, 2016). People in the Marketing research department at Travel
Lodge should adopt this style.
Accommodating
Trial and error are the attributes that are found in these learners. These individuals keep
practicing and learn from their mistakes. I have always asked my employees to use this method
while doing a pilot project before the actual project starts so that they become efficient and do
not repeat the mistakes they did in pilot project.
5

1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts
could be encouraged at Travelodge. In this question you should say how you as a
manager can encourage lifelong learning at Travelodge Hotel.
Lifelong learning could be defined as – “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of
knowledge for either personal or professional reasons”
Different approaches to lifelong learning suitable to Travel Lodge are provided below:
1. Learning through Research
Employees at Travel Lodge often encounter a problem that they have never faced before
or they do not have the academic level to understand the problem. In this case, I have
encouraged the employees to conduct research on the problem and collect the information
available on the problem. I myself conduct online research on the topics which are new to
them. For example, I recently researched a lot on different time management strategies.
2. Mentoring
Whenever a new employee joins my team at Travel Lodge, I assign an experienced
employee in my team as a mentor to that employee. A mentor observes the new
employee, remind him about his mistakes, teaches him to correct the mistakes and helps
in the overall professional growth of the employee (Bunderson and Boumgarden, 2018).
This is an effective learning approach for the housekeeping and reception employees at
Travel Lodge.
3. Coaching
In order to learn a new skill or strengthening an existing skill, a professional coaching
institute could be very helpful especially in technical skills. I have myself joined a
coaching institute to learn about the project management tools.
Travel Lodge reimburse the coaching expenses for its employees if the learning from
coaching is relevant to their work at Travel Lodge.
4. Seminars and Conferences
Travel Lodge organises seminars and conferences where subject matter experts share
their learning and experiences with others. It has helped me a lot as I listened to the
hospitality industry experts in these seminars and conferences. However, this method is
not very suitable for the lower level employees.
6

5. E-learning
Travel Lodge has developed its own E-learning portal on which a structured learning
content is available that consists of images, video, audio and animation for elaborate
learning of the employees (Cunningham, 2017). The content is designed for the
employees at every level and they can access the content on Travel Lodge intranet.
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to you as an assistant manager
and the Travel Lodge. Your judgement has to be supported by relevant evidence or
examples.
An individual could be benefitted in many ways by self-managed. It allows an individual to
establish the goals and objectives as per his capabilities and his desire to success. In my case, I
joined Travel Lodge just after my Graduation and I did not have any prior work experience of
working in a big hotel. But during my work as a trainee, I observed the working of others at
Travel Lodge, followed the instructions of my mentor and also read a lot. As I aspired to become
a manager, I started researching online about the leadership skills and also observed the
behaviour and methodologies of the managers at Travel Lodge. Because of all this hard work and
self-managed, my designation soon changed from trainee to Assistant Manager at Travel Lodge.
Since I learned a lot on my own and stepped up to the position of Assistant Manager using self-
managed learning, I also earned the respect of the employees. In this manner, self-managed has
helped me a lot in establishing myself as a leader in the role of assistant manager at Travel Lodge
(Guglielmino and Guglielmino, 2016).
Travel Lodge also got many benefits from self-managed learning. An inexperienced Graduate
who joined Travel Lodge as a trainee became Assistant Manager because of self-managed
learning. My hard work and self-managed learning resulted in Travel Lodge having a skilled and
experienced Assistant Manager who knew inner working and best practices of Travel Lodge. As
my productivity and quality of work improved, it also benefitted Travel Lodge.
If Travel Lodge had to hire a new Assistant Manager from market, it would have to organise
entire recruitment and selection process and then organise training and development program for
7

the new manager. But my elevation as Assistant Manager saved lots of resources for Travel
Lodge.
8

Task 2
2.1 Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional
standards for a hotel manager and against organisational objectives of Travelodge
Hotel.
Rating Scale for skill evaluation
1 - Started but need more practice
2 - Able to do this with some help
3 - Competent without help
4 – Excellent
5 – Excellent and able to help other employees in Team
Skills Current
Level
Evidence to justify the skill level
Academic Skills 4 Completed Graduation but could not enrol in Masters
Communication
Skills
3 I have good verbal communication skills as I have always
been able to properly interact with my Manager and
Subordinates. But I need to work on my professional
communication skills like writing professional emails.
Flexibility 4 Always flexible in nature of work and shift timing
Managerial skills 3 I need to polish my managerial skills to get promoted to
Manager
9

Problem Solving
Ability
4 I have faced many challenging problems while working
at Travel Lodge and resolved them effectively
Effective Time
Management
2 I sometime struggle in managing different tasks
simultaneously.
Data Analysis 2 Need to improve my data analysis skills
Working in Team 4 I am a good team worker and I have always contributed
while working in a team.
Leadership Skills 3 Currently I am leading a team of 4 employees at Travel
Lodge as Assistant manager. But I need to improve my
skills to lead a team of 15 people in future when
promoted to Manager
Presentation Skills 2 I am not very good in developing good Power Point
Presentations.
10

2.2 Identify your own development needs and the activities required to meet them.
My development needs with current skill level, target skill level and activities required to meet
then is provided in below table
Development Needs Current
Skill
Level
Target
Skill
Level
Activity Required
Data Analysis 2 4 As a manager I should be able to analyse the
market data. There are many tools such as
MS Excel that could be used for this
purpose. I need to conduct research and
learn about these tools. Online class could
also help me
Communication skills 3 5 I need to research online on formats that
suits formal email communication
Time Management Skills 2 5 For better time management, I need to work
on my organisation skills. Develop a habit
of planning my tasks. Create a to do list for
all the tasks and assign them priorities (Hill,
2015)
Presentation skills 2 4 There are many tutorials available online
about MS Power Point use in developing
effective presentation. I need to learn
creating charts and graphs from statistical
data using MS Excel and PPT. To improve
my communication skills, I need to improve
my vocabulary and practice to deliver
presentations in front of big audience
Managerial skills (Future 3 5 My Personal and Professional Development
11

Needs) course at UKCBC would help me in
improving my Managerial Skills as it would
develop my overall personality
2.3 Identify development opportunities to meet your current and future defined
needs. Which opportunities are available for you inside or outside of the hotel to
improve your skill development needs?
I joined Travel Lodge just after my graduation and I dint have any prior work experience or any
internship experience. But, at Travel Lodge, I got very skills, experienced and patient mentors
who helped me in my growth and learning and got me to the designation of Assistant Manager.
However, in order to get promoted to Manager at Travel Lodge, I need to improve my academic
level. PPD course and UKCBC provides me the opportunity to get the desired academic level for
the position of Manager at Travel Lodge. UKCBC also offers other professional courses that
could further help me in polishing my managerial skills.
Self-managed learning has always helped me in improving my skills and strengthening my
weaknesses. Professional communication needs a very delicate addressing of the recipient and
appropriate format to explain a business problem (Lizzio and Wilson, 2017). These formats
could be found online and I need to research these formats and learn when to use which format.
For time management skill improvement also, I need to use lifelong learning approach and work
consistently towards organising my time. I could use the guidance of my Manager at Travel
Lodge and learn from him. My manager has always asked to me prioritise my tasks to manage
time effectively.
Travel Lodge organises classroom training for its employees to train them in different skills.
Data Analysis is also a part of the classroom training program where I could enrol and learn
about various data analysis tools.
12