Employability Skills for Hotel Managers: A Travelodge Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes employability skills at Travelodge.

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EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1........................................................................................................................4
1.1 OWN SET OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERFORMANCE.........................4
1.2 EVALUATE OWN EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST THE DEFINED
OBJECTIVES..........................................................................................................5
1.3 RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................................................7
1.4 REVIEW HOW MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO
IMPROVE THE SERVICE QUALITY.......................................................................8
TASK 2........................................................................................................................9
2.1 SOLUTIONS TO WORK BASED PROBLEMS..................................................9
2.2 COMMUNICATE IN THE VARIETY OF STYLES............................................10
2.3 EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES.........................................11
TASK 3......................................................................................................................12
3.1 ROLES PEOPLE PLAY IN A TEAM AND HOW CAN THEY WORK
TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE SHARED GOALS.......................................................12
3.2 TEAM DYNAMICS...........................................................................................14
3.3 ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO COMPLETE TASKS AND ACHIEVE TEAM GOALS
...............................................................................................................................17
LO 4.......................................................................................................................... 18
4.1 TOOLS AND METHODS FOR DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS
WITH REFERENCE TO TRAVELODGE HOTEL..................................................18
4.2 DEVELOP AN APPROPRIATE STRATEGY FOR RESOLVING A
PARTICULAR PROBLEM OF LABOUR TURNOVER FOR TRAVELODGE HOTEL
...............................................................................................................................21
4.3 POTENTIAL IMPACT ON THE BUSINESS OF IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY
...............................................................................................................................23
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 24

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INTRODUCTION
The employability skills are the skills that should be possessed by every individual
that will help them to withstand a good position in the company and also land them
promotion. Therefore it is with the help of the employability skill that the employees
are able to produce the quality work, in the organisation which also enhances the
overall performance of the company. In the further part, the focus of the assignment
is on the Travelodge hotel where I am presently working as the hotel manager. The
assignment also concentrates on establishing the responsibility along with the
performance that is required to be performed by the hotel manager. Along with this,
the further focus is on the development of the interpersonal skills of the individual so
that the employees are able to increase his liability in the Travelodge and also to
perform his work in the more efficient manner. In the later parts, understanding the
dynamics of working with others is established along with the problem-solving
strategies (Lowden et al., 2011).

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LO 1
1.1 OWN SET OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERFORMANCE
I am working as the hotel manager in the Travelodge hotel.
Job Responsibility:
As a manager in the Travelodge hotel, the roles and responsibilities are as under:
 I have to oversee the operational functions of the Travelodge which is as per the
organisational chart of the Travelodge.
 I have to hold the regular briefings and meetings with all the department heads in
the Travelodge.
 I am also responsible for handling complaints along with overseeing the
procedure of service recovery of the Travelodge hotel.
 I am responsible for managing the on-going profitability of the Travelodge along
with ensuring the revenue, guest satisfaction (Wickramasinghe and Perera,
2010).
Mutual Responsibility:
 As a manager, I have the mutual responsibility with the human resource
department in recruiting, supervising and training the staff.
 As a Hotel manager, I also share the responsibility with the finance department
by helping in the budget management and also in maintaining the financial
records (Finch et al., 2013)
Self-responsibility:
The self-responsibility of the Travelodge is to handle the team and maintain the good
interpersonal skills with the employees as well as the guest of the Travelodge. Also, I
am responsible to ensure the safety of the employees and to be able to do critical
thinking at the time of decision making or problem-solving (Wang, 2013).
Ensuring safety at the workplace:
In order to ensure health and safety in the workplace, I create a plan in order to
promote the same and also do a regular inspection in the workplace. Also, I
investigate the incidents and maintain the records.

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1.2 EVALUATE OWN EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST THE DEFINED OBJECTIVES
In order to evaluate my own effectiveness against the defined objectives, there are
few activities that are required to implement the development plan which is as
follows:
Communication of the Travelodge objectives to the staff members
It is very important that the objectives and the goals of the Travelodge are been
communicated to the staff in the clear and precise manner so that the staff is able to
relate their individual goal with the Travelodge's goal. Also, the employee will know
the direction in which they have to work together. In order to communicate the
Travelodge objective, I try to provide the employees with the bigger picture and
invest my time and efforts on the employees (Rosenberg et al., 2012).
On the job training is to be provided to the staff members so that they will
work in a proficient manner
A training program allows the employees to strengthen their skills that are needed by
the employees in order to improve their work. Therefore the on the job training is
been provided to the staff members in order to enhance their working in a proficient
manner. Also with the help of the on the job training, the satisfaction level in the
employees are also increased along with their morale. On top of everything, it will
result in the personal and professional development of the employees (Lowden et
al., 2011).
Spirit and team needs are to be ensured in order to make sure that the
objective is achieved in an effective manner
In order to build an effective and efficient team, it is important to know the elements
of the effective team which will also help in maintaining the high performance in the
teams which is throughout the Travelodge.
Productivity at work should be measured so as to know the efficiency and
effectiveness of work
Regular evaluation should be done of the employees so as to know the effectiveness
of the employees in the Travelodge. This will also help in identifying the weak links in

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the team and their weaknesses. In this way, I will be able to help in enhancing their
performance (Wang, 2013).
Customer satisfaction is also a key factor for evaluation
The hotel industry is the customer oriented industry; therefore the best measure of
the effectiveness of the performance of the employees in the Travelodge is customer
satisfaction. Therefore in order to check the quality of the service provided to the
customers take the regular feedbacks as it will provide me with the feedback of my
employees as well (Rosenberg et al., 2012).

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1.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
Communication
In the Travelodge, there is a need to improve the communication in the hotel as due
to the communication gap and issues, the performance is getting affected of the
hotel and also the service quality is been deteriorated. In order to improve internal
communication, we can establish the digital employee portal, increase the
transparency in the hotel communication etc. (Alhelalat, 2015)
Compensation package
In order to keep the employees motivated, one of the major drivers of motivation is
the compensation and the reward. I will make sure that there is a proper
compensation package available to the employees so that they are motivated to
work in a proper manner (Lowden et al., 2011).
Training
In order to improve the quality of the services provided to the customers, some
training and development programs should be introduced. This will give two benefits,
first the overall performance of the hotel will be improved and second, there will be
the personal and professional both development for the employee which will help
him in landing the promotion to himself (Spowart, 2011)
Personal development plan
Employees should be motivated to create an action plan for themselves and also
self-directed learning techniques should be provided to them in order to work
towards the personal development plan. This will result in the self-improvement of
the employees along with the enhancement of the overall performance of the
Travelodge (Rosenberg et al., 2012).

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1.4 REVIEW HOW MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE
THE SERVICE QUALITY
Motivation can be defined as the stimulus which is given to the employees in order to
make them do their work in an effective manner. There are many factors that lead to
motivation in the employees. Therefore by applying the motivational techniques in
the Travelodge, service quality can be improved in the following ways:
 Employee participation
In Travelodge, the Maslow's motivation theory is been used to keep the employees
motivated. Therefore the result of the applied motivation theory is employee
participation which also means that the employees give their 100% in their working
which improves the quality of the services which are provided to the customers
(Wang, 2013).
 Flexible working practices
The motivational theory applied in the Travelodge gives the employees the benefit of
the flexibility of the working practices which allows the employees to come up with
the new ideas to improve the working practices in the Travelodge. This results in the
enhancement of the working quality of the employees (Lowden et al., 2011).
 Incentives and rewards and recognition
In the Maslow's need theory, the base is the need pyramid consisting of 5 layers of
needs. Therefore in order to be at the top level of the pyramid, it is compulsory to
pass through every need. Therefore it is important to know the level of the need the
employee is on so as to offer him the reward in accordance with the level he is on.
This will help in keeping the employee satisfy which will improve the quality of his
performance (Wang and Tsai, 2012).

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LO 2
2.1 SOLUTIONS TO WORK BASED PROBLEMS
In Travelodge the problems identified are:
Conflicts and disputes at the workplace
One of the major work based problem in the Travelodge is the conflicts and the
disputes in the workplace which is due to the difference in the working styles or
difference in the views of the employees (Dhiman, 2012).
Solution – in order to solve the problem, embrace the conflict when it arrives instead
of ignoring it. Try and make the employees talk together and listen carefully to both
sides of the story before drawing any conclusion. Try and make the agreement
between the employees and provide with the guidance. Also, try to do the analysis
and evaluation on a regular basis so as to know a little prior that something like this
may occur. In this way, the hotel will be able to take the required precautions
(Rosenberg et al., 2012).
Communication breakdown
Another problem faced by the Travelodge is the breakdown in the communication.
Solution – in order to improve communication in the hotel, try to highlight the issues
and also to focus on the critical areas for action. Apart from that try to establish a
baseline and make smart decisions. Make sure that then need of the employees as
well as a guest is being met and for that try to introduce accountability in the system.
Along with the above tactics, introduce some training and development programmes
for the employees. Induce some of the effective communication styles like grapevine
or nonverbal communication in order to bridge communication in the hotel (Wang,
2013).

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2.2 COMMUNICATE IN THE VARIETY OF STYLES
Aggressive style/ authoritarian style
This communication style is a style in which the employees express themselves and
are tend to advocate for them and for their right in the manner then it hinders the
rights of the other staff members. This communication style is usually avoided by the
organisation as one employee tries to dominate the others or uses the humiliation for
controlling the other staff members (Wang and Tsai, 2012).
Passive style
Passive style of communication is the style in which the individuals develop the
pattern in which they avoid to express their opinions or feelings. Therefore as result,
the passive employee does not give responses in an overt manner in the situations
that are extreme in nature. The passive communicators often fail to assert for
themselves and allow others to trespass on their rights. They often tend to speak in
the soft and the apologetic way. This style of communication in the workplace can
stop a problem from arising but only for the short span of time. This is not the long
term or the permanent solution for the problem (Lowden et al., 2011).
Assertive style
Assertive style of the communication is the style in which the employees are able to
express their point of views in a clear manner and also advocate in a firm manner for
their rights without violating the other employee's rights. This communication style is
adopted by many of the organisations at the global level because all the employees
are it the manager or the other staff member, everyone has the right to express
himself.

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2.3 EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
The effective time management strategies followed in the Travelodge are:
Delegation
By delegating your work the work is being broken down to the smaller units and is
distributed to the employees in accordance with their skills and capabilities. As it is
said one man can't do all of the work himself, therefore the delegation of the work
makes sure that the work is done under the time limit while maintaining the quality
too (Wang, 2013).
Prioritisation
Prioritisation means listing down the events or the works which are to be performed
as their importance level and their urgency. This is because the unimportant task can
take up most of the time and some urgent works are left undone.
Refusal to unplanned activity or unwanted personnel
One thing that affects time management is the procrastinating as it badly affects the
productivity of the employees. Also, try to avoid the unplanned activities and stick
strictly to the list of the work that is been made. This will help in meeting the
deadlines (Rosenberg et al., 2012).