Employability Skills Development: A Report on Travelodge Strategies

This report examines employability skills within the context of Travelodge, a UK-based hotel chain. It covers various aspects such as the development of responsibilities and performance objectives for a HR manager, methods for measuring effectiveness, and recommendations for further improvements. Motivational techniques to enhance performance quality are also discussed, along with solutions to work-based problems like labor shortages and weak communication channels. The report further explores different communication styles at various organizational levels and effective time management strategies. It highlights the role of individuals within a team, team dynamics, and strategies for achieving team objectives. Finally, the report discusses tools and methods for addressing work-related problems and strategies for resolving issues like labor turnover, including their potential impact on the business. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

EMPLOYABILITY
SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Develop set of responsibilities and performance objectives.................................................1
1.2 Measure own effectiveness according to defined objectives................................................2
1.3 Recommendations for further improvements........................................................................3
1.4 Motivational techniques to improve performance quality....................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Solution to work based problems..........................................................................................4
2.2 Different styles of communication at different levels...........................................................5
2.3 Effective time management strategies related with work-based experience ........................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Role of people in a team and their working pattern to achieve goals...................................8
3.2 Identify Team dynamics........................................................................................................9
3.3 Different ways to complete tasks and achieve team objectives & targets............................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Tools and methods for developing solution to work related problems...............................10
4.2 Strategies to resolve problems related with labour turnover...............................................10
4.3 Impact on business due to implementation of strategies.....................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Employability skills are defined as set of behaviours and capabilities which are required
by workers to perform business operations. These skills are also called as foundational skills,
job-readiness skills or soft skills. These employability skills benefits an individual in having
appropriate communication with co-workers, problem-solving, taking required decisions and
attaining organisational goals in timely manner. This assignment is written in context of
Travelodge which is a UK based renowned hotel, headquartered in Thame, England. It is second
largest hotel in UK in terms of budget. This report involves set of own responsibilities along with
performance objectives and recommendations for improvements (Andrews and Russell, 2012).
Beside this, solutions for work based problem and different styles of communication are
discussed. Importance of people in a team and team dynamics is also mentioned. At last,
methods & tools for solving organisation problems are considered and measures to solve
problems like labour turnover are discussed.
TASK 1
1.1 Develop set of responsibilities and performance objectives
Travelodge is a private company operating in hotel industry and it need to employees or
workers to operate and run its business. There are some responsibilities, performance objectives
and motivation or performance skills which are needed in employees to have for doing work
with Travelodge as a HR manger. There are some my own responsibilities and objectives as a
HR manger who working in hotel industry, these responsibilities are as following:
 To ensure and monitor better and good functioning of hiring, recruitment and selection
process.
 To help and assist or provide solution when any conflict raise at workplace or between
team members.
 To organise social and staff benefits programs such as training and development and
others.
 Assist with the policies and procedure of promotion, transfer and staff resignation is
carried on within company policy and also within legal boundaries.
 By working in hospitality industry, it is important to have good communications kills.

 To ensure about operational policies and processes are continually improved (Benson, V.,
Morgan and Filippaios, 2014).
 Implement corporate policies and procedures related to compensation, incentive, bonus
and benefits.
 Provide guidance towards leadership team regarding employee relation, morale and
others.
 Develops and maintains confidential department staff and files, documents, pay scale
details and other important or needed data base.
 Provide reward to employees and staff for their good work and better performance.
 Assist with coordinating or executing employee activities and events, such as monthly
staff meeting, annual picnic, holiday party, farewell party, and others.
 Promote employee communication to get feedback from staff so that issues can be
remove which will be occur in future.
 Maintain a positive relationship with staff and develop motivation among the team
members.
1.2 Measure own effectiveness according to defined objectives
I have explained above my responsibilities and set objectives as a HR manger for the
company which are beneficial for me to express or show my effectiveness towards the desired
objectives. I have good communication skill, problem solving skill, recruitment skill and
organisational skills. But there are lack of some skills such as technical skill, training and
development skill, motivation and leadership so there are need to improve them to achieve
objective of the company. The main important thing is that as a HR manger I involve or
participate and support Travelodge rules, laws, policies and procedures which is set by the
company for its employees. I achieve or complete the objective of recruitment during hiring and
selection process and introducing the policies and rules to new and existing employees so that
they can follow them and do their work according the company's policies or procedures. During
the recruitment time I also use my personal skills such as communication skills, ability and
others so that I can select or hire right candidate for the company which help it in the growth of
its business and achieving its business objectives (Collet, Hine and du Plessis, 2015). For
examined new candidate, organise a god recruitment process which include various process such
as interviews, ability tests, personality tests, aptitude tests and others.

After select or appoint these new candidate, by using my communication skill, I defined
them about the rules, policies and other things about Travelodge so that did not face problems
related to work culture and their duties or responsibilities etc. so that they do their work properly.
As a HR, my responsibility and objective is that I hire and recruit a well skilled candidate for the
organisation who has good communication skill, technical skill and other required skill so that he
can help in the growth of company (Guzman and Choi, 2013). To make better communication or
employee relation I organised weekly meeting so that the employees of the company can intact
with their superior and share their views or problems to them so that issues can be resolve timely.
1.3 Recommendations for further improvements
There are various business activates happening in Travelaodge, some of them are
favourable for me and easily deal with them by using my skills and knowledge. I have different
skills such as communication skill, organisational skill, problem solving skill, recruitment skill
and I use them in the growth of the company. But sometimes I am unable in it because I do not
have some other required skills such as technical skill, training & development skill,
motivational & leadership skill. When people do work in group or any task and when they feel
demote, I do not motivate them cause of motivational skill. But I organise motivational and
leadership sessions so that the employees can gain their motivation and I also can develop this
skill within me. For improving this skill I read motivational books, blogs and watch motivational
movies. I do not have training and development skill so I am not provide training to my
employees, for this company organise various training and development programs. For
improving my this skill, company also supported me by providing extra training & development
classes, online training and coaching.
I have good oral communication skill but I face some problem in written skill related to
grammatical errors and others. To improve them I attained coaching classes and online classes. I
also weak technical skill for improve it I do practice and read books which is the best way to
improve technical skills. I visit and read online tutorials, subscribe to technical magazines and
embrace a variety of software. All these measures contributed in improving my skills which are
need to improve as a HR manger in Travelodge (Deeley, 2014).
1.4 Motivational techniques to improve performance quality
Motivational techniques are required in every organisation to encourage and improve the
performance of the employees. Motivational techniques can help in improve performance, raise

morale and boost productivity of Travelaode. Hospitality industry is a industry where motivation
is very important because the employees of this industry deals with different personality and
mind set customers (Dhiman, 2012). There are several common techniques for motivating
employees, they are as following:
Provide Incentives and reward- Travelodge can motivate its employees by providing
incentives for their good work and achieved targets. The management department of the
company can create individual incentives fro each and every employee of the company and team
incentives to motivate employees as a group. The company can rewarded them for their good
work and the organisation can provide this reward in to form financial and non financial. In
financial term, company can provide cash prizes, gift cards and restaurant gift certificate which
help to motivate employees. In non financial term, Travelogue can include extra vacation days,
parking spots an compressed work weeks or choice office space etc.
Provide professional enrichment- The organisation can use this technique to motivate its
employees. By providing tuition, reimbursement or send them to skill workshops and seminars,
with it they fee free from office work and learn new things which help in their career and they
feel motivate.
Provide continuous feedback- By providing feedback for the work of team work or
group work and individual work, the company can motivating employees. If employees do their
work before given period of time and the work performance is good, the company should give
feedback and compliment for their good work which help in motivate the employees.
Theory X: This theory was proposed by McGregor, as per according to Theory X
managers and leaders oversee their workers and find whether they are motivated or not.
Managers assume that their workers are naturally unmotivated which results in decrease in level
of their performance. In Travelogue their managers and leaders reviewed from past recent days
that, their employees constantly avoiding their responsibilities and are not directed towards their
work. To cope up with this situation, their managers decided to use performance appraisal and
remunerations techniques in order to increase motivation of their employees towards their work.
This will not benefit worker to maximise their performance but also aid Travelogue to increase
their overall productivity and profitability.

TASK 2
2.1 Solution to work based problems
Hospitality industry is the largest industry and there are various workplace problems
occurs. Every member in hotel has his own set of responsibilities and they face various problems
at workplace (Durrani and Tariq, 2012). There are some problems which are faced by hotel and
their solutions are also provided with them such as:
Labour shortage and staff turnover- It is the major issue which is face by Travelodge in
its business. This issues occur within the company cause of not proper timing of work house.
Lack of employee development opportunities also a reason of employee turn over. Salary,
reward and incentive can be also a reason of it. The employees are not satisfied with the existing
working culture of the hotel and they attach with the other better opportunities, this increase the
employee turnover. For solving or reducing employee turn over, firstly the company should
analyse the cause of this problem (Jackson, 2012J). If the reason is related to motivation of the
employees Travelodge should organise training sessions and motivate them by providing training
& development program. The company should rewarded them for their good work performance
and incentive for their extra work or manage their working house. By applying all these solution
Travelodge can reduce employee turn over and remove labour shortage from the company.
Weak communication channels- It is also a big issues with in the company which create
misunderstanding between the employees and they face problem. The reason of this problem is
that the company does not use appropriate and effective channels to transfer information and
make communication with its customer to employees. Fro example, if customer order food for
table no 2 but by misunderstanding or weak communication channels it deliver to another table.
For solve this problem Travelodge can use various new technologies such as software, USB
ports and others. Face to face interaction can help to make improvement in communication
channel. For example, company can provide face to face interaction by providing waiter service.
He go to the customer and take their order and there are no chance to misunderstanding.
2.2 Different styles of communication at different levels
Communication is an important part of hotel industry, because it help the company to
transfer the information about its product and services to its customer. There are two type of
communication, they are as following:

Verbal communication- It include oral and written communication, in oral
communication the organisation transfer its information through face to face interaction, video,
audio, radio, TV, internet and others. In written communication Travelodge transfer information
related to its products and services by SMS, mail, newspaper, memo and others. The company
also use these both channels to share the information with their staff and employees (Jones,
2013).
Non-verbal communication- It refers to the use of symbols other than words to transfer
messages. This method include gestures, body language, tone of voice, facial expropriation and
others (Ju, Zhang and Pacha, 2012).
Travelodge use verbal communication to transfer its message with their customers &
employees. There are some levels of communication such as:
Intra-personal communication- It is an communicator's internal use of language or
thought. It is used by the management department of the company to give feedback to the work
performance of its employees. It is used by customers for the services an products which are
provided by the organisation.
Interpersonal communication- It is a process in which the information transfer through
verbal or non verbal or face to face interaction. Travelodge use this channel to share information
with its employees and staff or aware its customers with its service or products.
Group communication- It is a mode of communication in a company between employers
and employees. This process is occur during the time of team work and meetings.
Public communication- This process is done when company provide information to its
customers related to its products and services. In this process, it use newspaper editorials and
billboard advertisements (Lerman, 2013).
Letter
To,
Senior Manager,
Travelodge Hotel, London
18 January, 2019
Respected Sir,
As a HR manger, I observed and analyse that the company is facing a major problem of staff
turnover and lack skilled employees. The issues are affect the reputation of Travelodge in the

market. To overcome these problems, it is decided that training & development or motivational
session will be provide to the employees so that reducing this problem of staff turnover and
make balance in the company's growth.
Yours sincerely
Adolf Henderson
Memo
To: Travelodge Staff
From: Adolf Henderson
Date: 18 January 2019
Subject: Informing about the issues which are facing by Travelodge
From past some months, the company facing problem staff turn over and lack of skilled
employees and cause of this issue, the organisation do not provide satisfaction by providing
them products or services on time according their needs or demands. These issues create
negative impact on the company image and reputation in the market. For solving this issue, HR
manager has written a latter to senior manager and requested him to provide training &
development or motivational sessions and requested to provide extra financial and non financial
benefits to the employees according their work performance so that they are loyal towards
Travelodge.
Sincerely
Adolf Henderson
2.3 Effective time management strategies related with work-based experience
There are some time management strategies which are used by Travelodge to improve
productivity and accomplish the expected objectives of the hotel (Omar and et. al., 2012). They
are as following:
Set priorities- The company can save time following time management strategies such as
set priorities. The management department do identification of time spent on each task which is
performed by the team or the employee of the company. The management department should
divide the work according their aims and objective and prioritise them according the time period.

For example, if the company set objective that it will achieve 1000 rooms booking in a week.
Then it should give priority this objective rather than another aim which is covered within one
month.
Avoid multi tasking- The employee and worker of the company should not do multi
tasking and they should do one work at one time. For example, if a employee of Travelodge do
work as a trainer and his duty is provide training, he should not do work of HR and technical
supporter (Padmini, 2012). In one time, he should do one work if he will do many work at a
time, he will not complete his own duties and works and the chance of wrong work will be high.
It consume more time which create difficulties for the company.
Manage external time wasters- Travelodge should mange external time waster such as
by avoiding return call and doing or organising unnecessary action. The employees can help in
managing external time wasters like long talks on call, constant messaging, avoiding unexpected
visitors, avoiding unnecessary meetings (Poon, 2012).
TASK 3
3.1 Role of people in a team and their working pattern to achieve goals
Team or group is a important factor of the company and play and important role in the
success of the company. There are some role which played by the employees of Travelodge to
increase the growth and enhance productivity of the company.
Sharper- In Travelodge, this type of people are those who take challenges work to
improve team. They are those people or employees that always ready to do every work while it is
risky, challenges or normal task.
Implementer- Theses people are those who get things done. They use team's ideas and
concepts into practical actions or plans. In Travelodge, these people are conservative and
disciplined who work systematically and efficiently or very well organised the work which is
provide by them through organisation.
Completer finisher- In Travelodge, this type of people are totally focus on their work or
task which is give to them by the company. They pay attention only on their work till it must be
completed and push the team to make sure the job is completed on time.

Coordinator- They are the ones who play a role as leader when they are working in a
team. In Travelodge, they guide the team to what they should do achieve their objectives in given
period of time.
Team worker-In Travelodge, these people are those who provide support and help the
team to complete their work on time. These people play the role of negotiators and they are
flexible, diplomatic and perceptive and they help the team by proving them their support.
Resource Investigator- This type of people are innovative and curious (Rao, 2014). They
play a important role when they are working in team by providing needed resources for the team
work . They are enthusiastic team members who provide external resources and ideas to help
their team to achieve its objectives.
Plant- In Travelodge, these people are creative and innovator who provide new ideas and
approaches. They help their team members by giving them new ideas for the teamwork toi
complete it properly in given period of time (Rasul and et. al., 2012).
Monitor Evaluator- This type of people are critical thinkers and strategic. They set an
object for their team work and do or organised their work according that objective and help their
team through their critical thinking and motivation.
Specialist- In Travelodge, these people are those who have specialised knowledge which
is needed in their job or their work. They play role as a specialist in their group or provide
solution for those problems which occurs during team work.
3.2 Identify Team dynamics
Team dynamics is an invisible force that operate between various people and group in
team. This will effectively improve performance of team and can aid in extracting best out of
every individual in a team. There are some steps which includes within team dynamics, they are
as following:
Forming- this is the first stage, in Travelodge it help bring together of a group of
individuals to form a team. This is basically done because they can interact with each other and
make employee relation when they are working for a common goal in a team.
Storming- It is the second step, in it there are chance of raising conflicts and the manager
observe the team so that find out the problems and provide solution to them so that the team can
work properly and achieve its target.

Norming- This is the third stage and team are near to its goal and the members of the
team learn more and get experience by their team work. In this step, the manger is play role as a
mentor and and analyse increased productivity or developing a sense of team pride.
Performing- this is the last stage and team achieve its common goal and the team
members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision making process
without supervision. In Travelodge they provide better outcome for the company's growth.
All these stages will help Travelogue to improve their team effectiveness and create a
boost team dynamics in their team culture. This will aid company to evaluate issues and find
formative solutions of that problem subsequently. By developing team effectiveness among
every individual working in a team Travelogue can easily resolve tensed conflicts in their
organisational culture. In addition to this, members working team in a team with the help of
team effectiveness can increase their overall performance level and expand more opportunities in
their career.
3.3 Different ways to complete tasks and achieve team objectives & targets
The company can complete its tasks and achieve its common goals and objectives by
identifying the treats and weakness of the company and providing solution for them. There are
some alternative ways that can be helpful for Travelodge to complete tasks and achieve team
objective & tagetes (Riebe and Jackson, 2014). They are as following:
Setting standards: It is the basic responsibility of company HR manager to set
performance standards as per according to business concern. This will help employees to
evaluate their actual and roles and responsibilities in effective manner. In Travelogue their HR
managers set company standards by ensuring all necessary factors. In this, they also authorise
roles and responsibilities of every individual as to remove any kind of confusion that may
happen in future. This will not only benefit to easily examine their actual goals and objectives
but also aid Travelogue to expand their area of productivity.
Feedback- For achieving company's goals and target, the management department of the
company can take feedback from staff so that they can share their problem and issuces which
they face during their work. The organisation can take their views related to decision mak9ing so
that they can share their own knowledge and ideas that can be helpful for the company
(Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote, 2012S).