BTEC HND Research Project: Talent Management at Travelodge

This research project investigates talent management within the Travelodge hotel chain, focusing on the roles of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-being. The study explores the impact of talent management practices on the service sector, examining key research questions such as the contributions of leaders and line managers to employee well-being and the retention of top talent. The methodology employs a quantitative research design, utilizing surveys to gather primary data from Travelodge employees, specifically line managers. The project outlines ethical considerations and includes a project timeline with a Gantt chart. The literature review provides a rationale for the research, highlighting the importance of leadership in the service industry. The objectives of this research include identifying the key roles of leaders and line managers in enhancing employee well-being, analyzing their contributions to talent retention, and determining the implications of talent management within Travelodge. The project aims to provide valuable insights into effective talent management strategies within the hospitality industry.

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Contents
1Title : Talent Management in the Travelodge...............................................................................3
2Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
3Background/rationale of the research (literature review)..............................................................4
4Research question (aim and objectives).........................................................................................6
5Research design ............................................................................................................................7
6Data collection method..................................................................................................................8
7Sampling strategy ..........................................................................................................................9
8Sample size and type of participants ...........................................................................................10
9Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................11
10Project timeline..........................................................................................................................12
11REFERENCES .........................................................................................................................14

1 Title : Talent Management in the Travelodge
2 Introduction
Talent management introduces to the commitment from organisational side to hire, select,
retain, develop and manage highly experienced and talented employees at workplace. In
addition, it is defined as the strategic process of acquiring the proper talent onboard and
supporting them develop to their optimal capabilities and knowledge towards accomplishment of
organisational objectives (Arnold, 2017). This research is based on service industry that is a part
of business and provides effective services to the clients rather than producing a product.
Travelodge is a selected private company operating within the hotels and hospitality throughout
the UK, Ireland and Spain. It was founded in 1985 by the key people of Keith Hamill and Peter
Gowers and headquartered in Thame, England, United Kingdom.
Main purpose of conducting this research is to analyse the roles of leaders and line mangers
in employee’s development and well-being. Along with this, both leaders and line manger have
important role in improving well-being of staff members and also provides benefits to them in
retention of top talent at workplace that results in higher growth of Travelodge within hospitality
industry (Audenaert, Vanderstraeten and Buyens, 2017). This research is important at academic
and personal level. At personal level this research will support by increasing skills of research
that helps them in completion of full project time and systematically. This research will also
essential at academic level by improving student's knowledge regarding the talent management.
This research proposal is essential for the reader because it will help them in identification
of information regarding the talent management and its significance for hospitality organisation.
There are different activities that will be needed for researcher while completing research project
such as identification of gap, collection of secondary data for literature review, research
methodology, data collection and data analysis, conclusion and recommendation. All these are
main activities that will be required by investigator while completion of full project
systematically.
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3 Background/rationale of the research (literature review)
Literature review refers to the process of gathering secondary data from number of
secondary sources i.e. articles, magazines, books etc. This section helps in identifying
background or rational of the study by addressing research gap. Main gain of current study is the
role played by line mangers and leader in development and well-being of employees within
service industry. In previous studies, there were information regarding the roles of leader and
line manger in context of service industry, but there was lack of data regarding their roles in
well-being and development of employees (Bratton and Watson, 2018). For this research gap,
sub-questions of study will be used by investigator because these will help in fulfilling of gaps
within study and also assist them in achievement of research aim ad objectives easily. These
questions are:
According to the John Reh (2019), line mangers within hospitality industry plays an
essential role in the operations of different business, managing and supervising employees on a
regular basis as well as acting as a liaison between upper management and employees. There are
different roles of line manger in service industry that will be essential for development and well-
being of employees at workplace. These roles are providing cross training to employees this will
help them in ensuring of job rotation and reduce assignment coverage gaps, identifying the
requirement of employees for corrective actions etc. These will be beneficial of employees in
development of its progress within service industry.
On the other hand Choi, Tran and Kang, (2017), one of the main roles of leaders within the
service industry is to encourage and motivate their employees towards accomplishment of long
term goals and objectives of the company. Proper motivation, providence of benefits helps
employees in improving its well-being and development at the workplace.
According to the Ladime (2013), line mangers of Travelodge is a powerful retention tool
that helps hospitality industry in retaining of top talent and highly experienced at workplace.
Line manger is responsible in providing coaching and performance feedback to all employees is
best contribution that will be essential in retaining of top talent at workplace that result in higher
success and growth of Travelodge within hospitality industry.
On the other hand, Collings, Mellahi and Cascio, (2017), it is the obligation of the team
leader to be aware the tough work of the group member and must be favoured for his or her
overall performance. The pinnacle performers of the agency should be prompted with a special

treatment and the result received will be the identical from them on every occasion. The leaders
must maintain transparency within communication with their workers. The way of
communication must satisfy the workforce, which will create the workers remain loyal towards
the Travelodge (Employee Retention - Role of Leaders, 2020).
Therefore, above mentioned all these are major contributions that will be essential and
important for leader and line mangers for retaining highly experienced and talented workers.
According to the Francis and Baum, (2018), talent management has positive impact on
service sector i.e. Travelodge. There are different benefits gains by hotel by managing and
retaining top talent at workplace. These are connecting and sharing data, strategic hiring process,
improved onboarding experience, retaining top talent, employee development, improved
employee experience, increase employee and manger engagement etc. Along with this, there are
some advantages of talent management which are accomplishment of vision, retaining finest
talent, better decision making, builds up company’s reputation etc.
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4 Research question (aim and objectives)
Research question
What are the roles of line managers and leaders for development and well-being of
employees in the Travelodge?
Sub-questions of research
⮚ What are the major roles played by leaders and line manager in service industry for
enhancing well-being and development of employees at Travelodge?
⮚ What are the contribution of line managers and leaders of Travelodge in retaining top
talent in the working area?⮚ What are the implications of talent management in the service sector i.e. Travelodge?
Research Aim:
Main aim of this research is “To identify the role played by line mangers and leader in
development and well-being of employees within service industry”. A study on Travelodge
Hotels Limited
Research objectives
⮚ To identify main roles played by leaders and line manger within service industry for
improving employee’s well-being and development at workplace.
⮚ To analyse importance of line managers and leaders of Travelodge in retention of top
talent within service industry.
⮚ To determine the Impact or implications of talent management within the service sector
i.e. Travelodge.

5 Research design
This is an essential process that will be used by the researcher for collecting and analysing
data regarding the topic. There are three methods of research design which are qualitative,
quantitative or mixed method. All these are essential but for carrying out present study over the
role of line manager and leader in employee’s well-being and development, quantitative method
has been chosen because it helps in gathering reliable data in minimum time period. Qualitative
or mixed methods are not appropriate according to the existing topic because it require maximum
sources and time in gathering of only qualitative information (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2016).
Quantitative research is chosen research design for current study because it will support
investigator in gaining of valid outcomes within less time duration. Main reason behind choosing
quantitative research design is it helps in gathering of first hand information from the
respondents.
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6 Data collection method
There are lots of methods for collecting primary data which are focus group, interviews,
survey, observation and many others. All these are essential but for performing current
investigation over the theme of talent management, survey will be applied because it facilitate
researcher in gathering of valid and reliable information through questionnaire (Horner, 2017).
Questionnaire is most essential and important method of data collection that will be used within
an investigation for collecting primary information regarding the talent management.
Questionnaire is a part of survey that will be useful and valuable for doing present study over the
role of line managers and leaders for development and well-being of employees in the
Travelodge.

7 Sampling strategy
Sampling is the process by which researcher can easily select number of sampling. There are
two types of sampling methods which are probability and non-probability. Simple random
sampling is an effective strategy of probability sampling while connivance sampling is a strategy
of non-probability sampling. For selecting sample size for current investigation, convenience
sampling under non-probability type will be chosen because it facilitates in selection of sample
within limited time as compare to probability sampling (Huang and et. al., 2016).
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8 Sample size and type of participants 15 employees of Travelodge will be
chosen by researcher with the use of non-probabilistic sampling.
Convenience sampling will be used and in this researcher provide
questionnaire to respondents to fill and provide their answer about the
topic. These respondents or sample are Line mangers of Travelodge
(Mihail and Kloutsiniotis, 2016). Main reason for selecting Line mangers
for this research because they have accurate knowledge and
understanding about the business operations, stakeholders, process etc.

9 Ethical considerations
Ethics are important and useful for researcher within an investigation because it supports
them in completion of each task and activity of study ethically. There are some principles of
research ethics that will be taken into consideration while doing current research over talent
management. These principles includes obtain informed consent from potential participants,
avoiding use of deceptive practice, protecting anonymity and confidentiality of participants and
many more. These are main principles of research ethics that must be use by researcher because
it results in achieving of research aim and objectives ethically (Taylor, 2018).
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10 Project timeline
Gantt chart is important part of project timeline that will be essential for researcher in
identification of starting and ending time of each activity (Thunnissen and Buttiens, 2017). Gantt
chart according to the current study will be presented as below:

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11 REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arnold, K. A., (2017). Transformational leadership and employee psychological well-being: A
review and directions for future research. Journal of Occupational Health
Psychology. 22(3). p.381.
Audenaert, M., Vanderstraeten, A. and Buyens, D., (2017). When affective well-being is
empowered: The joint role of leader-member exchange and the employment
relationship. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 28(15).
pp.2208-2227.
Bratton, J. and Watson, S., (2018). Talent management, emotional labour and the role of line
managers in the Scottish hospitality industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes.
Choi, S. B., Tran, T. B. H. and Kang, S. W., (2017). Inclusive leadership and employee well-
being: The mediating role of person-job fit. Journal of Happiness Studies. 18(6).
pp.1877-1901.
Collings, D. G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W. F. eds., (2017). The Oxford handbook of talent
management. Oxford University Press.
Erkutlu, H. and Chafra, J., (2016). Benevolent leadership and psychological well-
being. Leadership & organization development journal.
Francis, H., Baum, T., (2018), HR transformation within the hotel industry: building capacity for
change., Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 10, No. 1. pp. 86-100
Horner, S. ed., (2017). Talent management in Hospitality and Tourism. Oxford: Goodfellow
Publishers Limited.
Huang, L. C. and et. al., (2016). High performance work systems, employee well-being, and job
involvement: An empirical study. Personnel Review.
Mihail, D. M. and Kloutsiniotis, P. V., (2016). The effects of high-performance work systems on
hospital employees' work-related well-being: Evidence from Greece. European
Management Journal. 34(4). pp.424-438.
Taylor, S., (2018). Resourcing and talent management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Thunnissen, M. and Buttiens, D., (2017). Talent management in public sector organizations: A
study on the impact of contextual factors on the TM approach in Flemish and Dutch
public sector organizations. Public Personnel Management. 46(4). pp.391-418.
Turner, P., (2017). Talent Management in Healthcare: Exploring How the World’s Health
Service Organisations Attract, Manage and Develop Talent. Springer.
Online articles
A. John Reh (2019). Responsibilities of Line Managers. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.thebalancecareers.com/role-and-challenges-of-a-line-manager-
2275752>
Ladime. K., (2013). Why Line Managers are Your Most Powerful Retention Tool. [Online].
Available Through: <https://www.recruiter.com/i/why-line-managers-are-your-most-
powerful-retention-tool/ >
Employee Retention - Role of Leaders. (2020)., [Online]. Available Through: <
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/employee_retention/employee_retention_role_of_lead
ers.htm>