Personal and Professional Development at Travelodge Hotel

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Personal and Professional
Development
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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................3
Lo1.................................................................................................................................................................3
Self-managed learning in life long development.......................................................................................3
Propose ways in which your lifelong learning in personal and professional context could be encouraged
at Travelodge hotel....................................................................................................................................5
Proposed the ways in lifelong learning in personal and professional.......................................................6
The benefits of self-managed learning for an assistant manager and the company Travelodge...............6
Lo2.................................................................................................................................................................7
Evaluating own skills and competencies against the professional standards for a hotel manager and
against organisational objectives of Travelodge hotel..............................................................................7
Identification of own development needs and the activities required to meet them.................................8
Identification of development opportunities to meet your current and future defined needs...................8
Personal and professional development plan based on identified needs...................................................8
Lo3.................................................................................................................................................................9
Discussion of the processes and activities required to implement the development plan.........................9
Undertake and document development activities as planned..................................................................10
Reflect critically on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the development plan....10
Updating the development plan on the feedback and evaluation............................................................10
Lo4...............................................................................................................................................................11
Select solutions to work-based problems................................................................................................11
Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels.......................................12
Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies.........................................................................14
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................16
References....................................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
In rapidly market changing world of today the personal and professional development of employees is
necessary to improve their skills and knowledge so that they increase their ability to perform different job
tasks. Self-managed learning is essential for the employee to achieve long term learning which would
help them to find out better career opportunities. A hospitality organisation is needed to plan different
professional development programs for their employees. Travelodge is one of the travel and tourism
company in the hospitality sector. And that organisation is providing services to those customers who are
seeking for accommodation in their hotels. It is the second largest hotel sector with headquarter placed in
Thame, UK and measured by both numbers of the bedrooms and hotels (Travelodge introduction, 2019).
In this report the importance of personal and professional development will get analysed and how
learning is essential for professional development. This report will also include the skills and
competencies are required for job roles and how they can be improved to find out new career
opportunities. The importance of interpersonal and transferable skills will also get described in that
report.
Lo1
Self-managed learning in life long development
Self-managed learning is the process of learning in which an individual is responsible to take all the
learning related decision and the aspects of learning are managed by a learner himself (Cunningham,
2017). The Travelodge Company is required to develop self-managed learning programs for their
employees so that they can enhance their skills and competencies through learning at the workplace. In
self-management learning a learner decides himself that what to learn, how to learn, when to learn and
whom to learn.an employee initiates himself to learn something and improve his knowledge, skills and
behaviour with the support of the company (Cunningham, 2017).
Clear goal setting
 First of set a clear goal through outlining your life achievements and select a target goal
 Find out the directions to achieve your goals and identify the importance of your goal
 Conduct a SWOT analysis to know your strength and weak areas in achieving the goal
 Give priority to your goals that will help you to boost your confidence and you can find out other
goals
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 When you have set of goals the next step should be developing them
Approaches to self- managed to learn (Bunderson and Boumgarden, 2010)
Learning through research
An employee can conduct research on his interest and preference areas to learn something this research
can be done through data collection, personal observation or through any personal experience.
Learning from others
An employee at the workplace can learn from the others like superiors, subordinates or other experienced
staffs in the Travelodge organisation. learning from others includes various methods like:
Seminar and conferences
Seminar and conferences help an employee to learn lots of news thing and gain knowledge. These
approaches encourage an employee for public speaking and also develop their presentation and
communication skills.
Mentoring and coaching
When employees learn something under a mentor or coach this helps them to enhance their knowledge
and skills.
Secondment
In this learning approach, the employees are transferred to another organisation on a temporary basis so
that they can learn new things from there.
Use of internet
Internet is a great medium of self-managed learning. Employees can easily find out the necessary
knowledge and can enhance their skills. An employee can also see some interviews of successful people
to get some inspiration from them.
Social networks
There is a range of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many more to learn new things
and knowledge. People share their knowledge through a bulletin board and many newsgroups are also
there. An employee can easily gain knowledge from here.
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All the marketing and other functions are managed through utilizing the internet and other social
networks services in Travelodge hotel. So the best approach of self-managed learning is internet and
social networks for the employees of this hotel
Propose ways in which your lifelong learning in personal and professional context could be
encouraged at Travelodge hotel
Learning styles
Learning styles are the way in which an individual learns from the situations. Different people use
different learning style in the self-managed learning process (Pedler, 2011).
Active learner- active learner loves to experience something they always stay active during the learning
process.
Pragmatists- they do focus on applying the new knowledge in the real world. They put learning into their
practices.
Theorists- they do focus on the concepts of the knowledge. They need facts and evidence which supports
the idea and knowledge
Reflector- they always focus on brief learning and they observe things then consider.
Kolb’s learning style theory (Schmeck, 2013)
This learning theory includes 4 stages of learning
Concrete experience (where learner experiences an activity)
Reflection (when learner reviewing or reflected back on the experience)
Abstract conceptualisation (when learner conceptualizes a model of what is observed)
Active experimentation (in this step learner is trying to plan how to test a model for forthcoming
experience)
For an effective learning personal assessment of skills is necessary. This can be done through planning
self-assessment model and then organized it after that the evaluation will be required to know the
effectiveness of the learning outcomes (Dochy,et.al, 2012)
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Proposed the ways in lifelong learning in personal and professional
Learning every day is the most effective method of improving knowledge and self-development. The
employees of the Travelodge Company are required to learn from their day to day activity whether it is
personal or professional. Participation in a group activity is also helpful in continuous learning. Sharing of
the knowledge with the around them will also increase their knowledge and skills. Self-directed learning
is also beneficial in lifelong learning because an employee will more focus on the learning situation
(Bourner, 2011). Continuous professional development is necessary and for that purpose, a manager of
Travelodge is required to develop some professional development plans. Learning from various training
programs like apprenticeships, transfer schemes, and other educational programs has great importance in
lifelong learning
The benefits of self-managed learning for an assistant manager and the company
Travelodge
For an assistant manager
 He can improve his knowledge and skills to perform different job roles at the workplace
 He can improve his team-leading ability through collaboration and communication
 He can prepare himself to find out a new career opportunity
 He can learn new knowledge and can apply this in his work practice.
 This will help him adopt the changes in the work process and organisation
For Travelodge company
 This company can get skilled employees with improved knowledge.
 Self-managed learning helps in enhancing the performance of the employee. So the performance
of the overall organisation will get an increase.
 Continuous development and learning at the workplace will help an organisation to adopt the
market challenges
 Growth and success of an organisation can be achieved through self-managed learning of
employees
 Management of an organisation can feel free themselves because all the learning-related decisions
are taken by the employees.
Assessment of learning outcomes can be done through when an employee receives feedback from his
manager. And the evaluation can also be done at the time of applying the learning knowledge. Learning
achievements and improved skills are also the outcomes of the learning process.
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Lo2
Evaluating own skills and competencies against the professional standards for a hotel
manager and against organisational objectives of Travelodge hotel.
Skills and competencies against the professional standards of a hotel manager
I have good team leading skills and motivational skills to inspire and lead the team in an effective
manner. I have enough capacity to increase the profit and revenue for the company. I have good
communication and collaboration skills to maintain the relationship with the clients and customers (Job
roles of a manager, 2019).
Skills and competencies against the organisational objective of Travelodge hotel
The aim of the company is to satisfy its customer so that they will visit in the hotel again and again. I
have good customer handling ability and convincing power which will help in to influence the customers
so they will more likely to buy the hotel services.
Identification of own development needs and the activities required to meet them
Development needs Activities required
Leadership skills Communication and collaboration with the
employee, time to time meeting with them
Target achieving skills Completion of task on time
Customer handling skills Use of good interpersonal communication and
influencing power
Identification of development opportunities to meet your current and future defined needs
Development opportunities Current and future needs
Opportunity to get training from the manager To perform the management functions
Career opportunities To perform future job roles
Opportunity to learn new knowledge To adopt the changes at the workplace
Opportunity to increase the performance level To increase the sales for the company
The opportunity for personal development For personal growth and development
Personal and professional development plan based on identified needs
Skills needed How to develop these skills Time of development
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Managerial skills Training by a senior manager At the time of joining the
company
Learning skills Learning through experience and
active participation
Learning at the time of working
Selling skills Good communication skills and
observing how other people are
doing sales
At the time of working
Growth and development skills Acquiring new knowledge,
improving skills and
competencies (Ellinger and
Ellinger, 2014)
Lifelong process whether it is
personal or professional
Skills required to develop career
opportunities
Increased performance level,
strong commitment and
dedication towards work
The continuous process
throughout the working life
Lo3
Discussion of the processes and activities required to implement the development plan
Training
Training programs should be developed by the senior manager of Travelodge to fulfil the training needs
of an employee so that he can understand the basic function and job roles of a manager (Zepeda, 2013).
Learning at the workplace
Learning at the workplace is important to improve the learning skills of an employee. The more an
employee will learn the more his knowledge will get improve(Zepeda, 2013).
Interpersonal communication and observation
Good communication helps in influencing the customers in a more effective way and this will result in
better sales of the product. Observing experienced people at the workplace will also help in to gain
knowledge of sales (Zepeda, 2013).
Participation in all the business activities
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An employee’s participation in all the activities will improve his knowledge and skills and that will result
in his personal growth and development(Zepeda, 2013).
Job involvement and commitment
Job involvement encourages an employee to perform in a better way so that he can improve his
performance level. The increased performance level and knowledge will be beneficial for him to find out
new career paths (Zepeda, 2013).
Undertake and document development activities as planned
For implementing this development plan the employee should join the Travelodge Company and after the
joining, the senior manager is required to organize a training program. So that he can train himself to
perform management functions. Learning will also take place in all the situation an employee will learn
from seniors, staffs and other members working in the company. Active participation during the learning
process will also improve his knowledge of the selling process and how targets are achieved. Job
involvement and strong commitment will help in to improve his performance and this will result in taking
promotion advantages. Participation in the all day to day personal and professional activity will help an
employee to improve his knowledge and skills which will result in personal and professional development
(McNiff, 2010).
Reflect critically on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan
Managerial skills are developed by the senior manager in the organisation but an employee cannot learn
through theoretical training it requires a practical approach to train an employee at the workplace.
Learning skills got improved through personal experience with the seniors and staffs. Selling skills got
improved through observing the other people while selling the services and good communication with the
customers also helped in to influence them towards the services. Self-directed learning and continuous
professional development helped in increasing the performance but there is a long way to go to take the
promotion opportunities. Personal growth and development got increased through taking participation in
day to day activities but that is a continuous development process which requires a long time for
improvement (Bauer, 2010).
Updating the development plan on the feedback and evaluation
Skills needed How to develop these skills Time of development
Managerial skills Training by a senior manager
with the practical approach
At the time of joining the
company
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Learning skills Learning through experience and
active participation (focus on
self-directed and self-managed
learning)
Learning by doing things at the
workplace
Selling skills Good communication skills and
observing how other people are
doing sales
At the time of working
Growth and development skills Acquiring new knowledge,
improving skills and
competencies on a continuous
basis
Lifelong process whether it is
personal or professional
Skills required to develop career
opportunities
Job involvement strong
commitment and dedication
towards work and stability of an
employee
The long process throughout the
working life
Lo4
Select solutions to work-based problems
Reducing the workload
Employee satisfaction is necessary to perform the business function ineffective way. Don't stress or
pressurize an employee with excessive workload. Try to reduce the workload as much as possible.
Create high morale of employees
Rewards, salary with good incentive plans and good working conditions will help in to create high morale
of the employees
Motivation
A manager should always ready to motivate and inspire the employees with the use of examples and
stories that will motivate them to work more efficiently.
Job satisfaction
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It is the responsibility of the Travelodge organisation to provide rewards, incentives, promotion
opportunities and job security to their employees which will lead to job satisfaction
Reduce mental health and health issues
Provide them with a good and pleasant working environment and don't stress the employees to do their
work. Try to create a healthy environment of work so that employees can perform their work efficiently.
Effective communication skills
Use of good words at the time of interaction with the employees will make them happy and they will feel
them as a part of the organisation. Good interpersonal skills are essential to coordinate with the
employees because it's your words speak by your mouth which impacts on the others in an effective
manner.
Healthy competition and realistic target
There should be healthy competition in the Travelodge Company which should not create any disputes
among the employees and the targets should be set at the level which could be easily achieved by
everyone.
Hence, the management of the Travelodge is required to take all this steps to retain their employees and
maintain their stability in the company. All this action will improve their performance as well and the
organisation will be able to achieve great success.
Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels
Personal effectiveness
To communicate in an effective manner personal effectiveness is necessary. An employee must be able to
communicate with the entire department at all the level in an appropriate manner. An employee is needed
to maintain self-discipline at the workplace. A creative problem solver employee would be able to
communicate more effectively. The reliability and problem-solving skills of an employee increase his
personal effectiveness (Myers and Sadaghiani, 2010).
Verbal and nonverbal communication
Effective listening helps in to communicate in an appropriate manner. Respect of other's opinion should
be kept in the mind while interacting with someone. Good negotiation and persuasion skills are essential
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to maintain a good relationship with others. Good presentation skills and effective use of information and
computer technology can enhance the effectiveness of communication (Keyton,et.al, 2013).
An employee should be flexible during the interpersonal communication to adopt the changes. And he
must have social skills to interact with a group and society in an effective manner.
Communication styles
There are 4 types of communication styles used during the communication process (Hartman and
McCambridge, 2011).
Assertive
This style includes high self-esteem. People who use this style are confident enough to communicate with
others with manipulating their words.
Behavioural characteristic - economically and socially expressive
Non- verbal behaviour – medium speech, pitch and volume
The aggressive style
This style is used by those people who feel that their needs are more important and they have given a big
contribution to work. They feel superior to others. This style is about winning often at someone else's
expense. It is an ineffective communication style
Behavioural characteristics-Own to ‘win’, demanding
Nonverbal behaviour – volume is loud, posture- ‘bigger than others’
The passive aggressive style
Passive-aggressive communication style users seem passive on the surface, however inside he or she
could feel overwhelmed or stuck. Most passive-aggressive communicators can mutter to themselves
instead of confronting someone or issue. Those people who prefer this style usually feel powerless and
resentful.
Behavioural characteristics – sarcastic, unreliable, devious
Nonverbal behaviour – voice- speaks with a sugary sweet voice, gesture- can be jerky, quick
The submissive style
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