Employability Skills: A Report on Travelodge Hotel

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

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 DEVELOP A SET OF OWN RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES...................4
1.2 EVALUATE OWN EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST DEFINED OBJECTIVES.......................................6
1.3 MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT...............................................................7
1.4 REVIEW HOW MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF
PERFORMANCE..........................................................................................................................8
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 DEVELOP SOLUTIONS TO WORK-BASED PROBLEMS DURING YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE OR
IN YOUR ROLE AS A MANAGER AT TRAVELODGE HOTEL.........................................................10
2.2 COMMUNICATE IN A VARIETY OF STYLES AND APPROPRIATE MANNER AT VARIOUS
LEVELS...................................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 IDENTIFY EFFECTIVE TIME-MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN RELATION TO THE WORK-
BASED EXPERIENCE OR IN YOUR ROLE AS A MANAGER AT TRAVELODGE...............................12
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................... 13
3.1 EXPLAIN THE ROLES PEOPLE PLAY IN A TEAM AND HOW THEY CAN WORK TOGETHER TO
ACHIEVE SHARED GOALS......................................................................................................... 13
3.2 ANALYSE TEAM DYNAMICS................................................................................................14
3.3 SUGGEST ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO COMPLETE TASKS AND ACHIEVE TEAM GOALS...........15
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 EVALUATE TOOLS AND METHODS FOR DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS WITH
REFERENCE TO TRAVELODGE HOTEL.......................................................................................16
4.2 DEVELOP AN APPROPRIATE STRATEGY FOR RESOLVING THE PROBLEM OF LABOUR
TURNOVER............................................................................................................................... 17
1

4.3 EVALUATE THE POTENTIAL IMPACT ON THE BUSINESS OF IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGY.
YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BOTH FINANCIAL AND NON-FINANCIAL IMPACTS ON THE BUSINESS
................................................................................................................................................. 18
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 19
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................20
2

INTRODUCTION
Employability skills are the competencies which are necessary for professionals to perform
better at the workplace and understand their roles and responsibilities. This report analysed the
work responsibilities of an Assistant Manager at Travelodge hotel. Travelodge hotel is a
renowned hospitality sector organisation and the customers expect a certain standard to be
maintained in the services offered. An assistant manager needs to assess his own skills and
measure them against the set industry standards. This report discussed motivational techniques
which can be used to boost the morale of the team members and make them goal oriented.
The report also discussed the process of teamwork and the importance of having a good team
dynamics. Some work based problems and their solution are also discussed in the report.
3

TASK 1
Travelodge hotel is the second largest hotel group in the UK. At present Travelodge owns
around 550 hotels in the UK. Travelodge hotel has establishes its brand as a low-cost operator
providing standard services. Hotel rooms at Travelodge are available to both business and
leisure class customers at affordable prices (Travelodge, 2019). This report will discuss a variety
of skills required by the Assistant manager at Travelodge hotel and steps which need to be
taken to develop both personally and professionally.
1.1 DEVELOP A SET OF OWN RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERFORMANCE
OBJECTIVES
An assistant manager at Travelodge hotel has to interact with the customers and manage,
coach and develop different staff working under his supervision. I have prepared a list of my
own responsibilities while carrying my duties as an assistant manager at Travelodge hotel:
 My primary responsibility as an assistant manager at Travelodge hotel is to provide an
outstanding customer experience by constantly delivering high-quality services.
 I also need to manage a team of housekeeping staff, reception, bar or café teams, keep
them motivated and help them improve their performance
 I also need to handle customer complaints, review the customer feedbacks and make
well-planned action plans to address all the concerns of the customers.
 An assistant manager may also need to act as a recruiter of new staff. Such staff should
be selected which is highly motivated and trained in providing specialised services to the
customers (Travelodge, 2019).
 The work responsibilities also include working as a team and finding the solution for
different work-related problems with the help of active cooperation of the team
members.
 The assistant managers also need to form policies to increase the sales of the company.
He may have to employ a range of marketing and selling techniques to upscale the sales
of food and beverage items.
4

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
Performance objectives are the milestones which need to be established in order to improve
performance over the time. The performance objectives can be achieved effectively by
following the ‘SMART’ goal achieving methodology which is explained below:
S – Specific: The goals should necessarily be specific, for example, a goal statement, ‘we need
to improve our performance by next year’ cannot be termed as a specific goal. The statement
should be written as ‘we need to improve the company’s performance by 40% by the end of
2019’.
M – Measurable: The goals should be measurable so that the work progress can be tracked
easily. By setting different milestones the goals can be made measurable and attaining these
milestones keeps an individual motivated throughout his journey (Lawlor, 2012).
A – Attainable: the goals should also be realistic and attainable. When a goal looks within the
reach it keeps an individual motivated and he can use different resources to come closer to
the goal.
R – Relevant: The relevance of the goal can be measured by asking some questions like- is this
the right time to pursue the goal? Do I have enough resources to reach the goal? Is this goal
relevant according to the current socio-economic situations?
T – Time-bound: every goal should have a target date for completion, deadlines help
individuals stay focused on achieving their goals and avoid procrastination (MacLeod, 2012).
5

1.2 EVALUATE OWN EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST DEFINED OBJECTIVES
DEFINED OBJECTIVES FOR AN ASSISTANT
MANAGER AT TRAVELODGE HOTEL
MY COMPETENCIES AGAINST THESE
STANDARDS
An assistant manager should be able to manage
his time effectively
I have shown decent time management skills at
the workplace but I have not been able to manage
my time effectively at home.
He should have skills to communicate with the
employees and customers
I can quite effectively communicate orally and my
body language also good, but I lack in written
communication skills
An assistant manager needs to have problem-
solving skills
I am able to find an effective solution for most of
the work based problems
He should be able to negotiate with different
stakeholders.
I am quite effective in negotiating with different
business people.
6

1.3 MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Based on the analysis done regarding my own roles and responsibilities as an assistant
manager, understanding different performance objectives and learning the expected qualities
form an assistant manager I have provided some recommendations which will help me remove
my weaknesses and improve my managerial skills.
 As I have discussed in the above performance evaluation chart that my written
communication is not that effective, therefore, I will try to learn these skills by
practising writing on a regular basis. I will also join some course to improve my writing
skills.
 I released that sometimes I am not able to keep myself disciplined at home which
makes also makes an impact on my health and fitness. I need to manage time for
exercise and physical activities so that I can maintain positive energy throughout the
day. I will also try to manage my time better while at home.
 I also need to improve my knowledge, by reading books from different management
experts. These books will help me learn new skills to lead a team effectively and take
the right steps in difficult situations.
7

1.4 REVIEW HOW MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE
QUALITY OF PERFORMANCE
An assistant manager at Travelodge hotel is leading a team of employees and the right
motivation results in higher levels of output. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is a motivational
theory which is used to understand the factors which motivate individuals to improve their
performance.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Abraham Maslow explained in his motivational theory that different employees working in an
organisation are at different stages or levels of need and by understand at which level the
employees is at present, the leaders can design better reward, recognition and training
programs to keep the employees motivated (Dobre, 2013).
 Physiological needs related to food clothing and shelter
 Need for safety and security
 Social needs
 Belonging needs
 Self-actualisation needs relate to the desire for accomplishment
Maslow explained that the basic level of needs are the physiological needs and include food,
water and shelter. When an employee is able to achieve these needs, he is motivated to
achieve some higher level needs such as the need for safety and security. The third level of
need is the social needs where an employee needs to be connected with his friends and family
members (Maslow, 2013). The organisation should provide adequate leaves and holidays to
such employees. Next are the belonging needs where the employee wishes to be recognised
and respected for his experience and skills. The final stage of needs is self-actualisation, at this
level the employee wants to improve his knowledge and gain new experiences.
8

FIGURE 1: MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
SOURCE: AIA, 2018
9

TASK 2
2.1 DEVELOP SOLUTIONS TO WORK-BASED PROBLEMS DURING YOUR WORK
EXPERIENCE OR IN YOUR ROLE AS A MANAGER AT TRAVELODGE HOTEL
Work-based problems are the challenges which managers have to face while working in the
hospitality sector (Boud and Feletti, 2013). Below mentioned are two situations which I faced
during my work experience as an assistant manager at Travelodge hotel. The first work based
problem that I faced was the problem of heavy wastage of food items.I observed that a lot of
food was going waste and the employees were throwing that food out. To solve this problem I
issued a notice requesting guests to not to leave anything in their plates. In addition, I managed
the inventory operations so that no extra raw materials like fish, vegetable and fruits are
brought.
Another problem I faced as an assistant manager was the high turnover rate in the employees.
To address this problem, I analysed the pattern of employees turnover, I realised that the part-
time staff switch various jobs regularly and that was not a matter of concern, the problem I
noticed was that much permanent staff were also leaving their job. I started an employee
motivation program where positive contributions of the staff were recognised and rewarded.
Other employee benefit programs were started and slowly the staff turnover rate was
minimised.
10

2.2 COMMUNICATE IN A VARIETY OF STYLES AND APPROPRIATE MANNER AT
VARIOUS LEVELS
During my work experiences as an Assistant Manager at Travelodge hotel I realised that the
ability to communicate effectively is the key to manage different processes in an effective
manner. The communication also needs to be done in different styles according to the person
with which we are communicating. The tone of voice and use of different salutations plays an
important role in making the conversation appropriate according to the audience. As an
assistant manager, I need to communicate with the customers, employees and senior
managers. While communicating with the employees, the tone of the voice should be friendly
and the use of non-verbal gestures should be done carefully. An inappropriate gesture can alter
the meaning of the message and offend the listener (Keyton et al., 2013).
While having communication with the subordinates the communication should be done in a
manner which shows care and a feeling to share the knowledge. Feedbacks provided by the
staff is helpful in creating the services more user-oriented as the front desk and serving staff
interacts directly with the customers and are well are of their expectations (Turner et al., 2010).
Regular communication with the staff also improves the employee engagement and the
problem of high staff turnover can also be addressed by the help of effective communication by
the manager. The communication with the senior members should display respect. The written
communication may also be required during the work, during such communication the use of
grammar and punctuation marks should be done correctly.
11