17 Pages
4238 Words
Introduction: Essential Skills and Competencies for Hospitality Success LO1 And LO2
The organization is Clayton Hotel, the most modern and stylish hotel in London with the best interior and services. The hotel is in the heart of London near the Liverpool Street Station. It is the most preferred hotel for stay by tourists because the hotel is very close to the airport and is a 10 min distance from the car. The hotel has 212 rooms with a skyline view from its rooms. The infrastructure is Victorian style and it is a four-star hotel.
Evaluating the benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and personal development
The benefits associated with personal and professional development in career prospects are based on gaining knowledge, skills, and efficiency in working (Zoller and Preston, 2014). It helps one acquire the essential skills needed to attain success in an organization like social well-being, communication, etc. The employee can continuously evaluate himself with the development process daily. The documentation contains work done, reviews and reflections of the employee. By enhancing skills and proficiency in the desired field personnel would become able to carry out all the activities effectually.
Investigating the skills and competencies expected by the employer for specific roles
The skills and competencies expected by the employer, for the job role of hotel supervisor, in Clayton Hotel are first communication. Moreover, working in the hospitality industry requires soft-speaking employees. Non-verbal and verbal communication are both essential in hospitality they show efficiency towards customers. The second is time management to work productively within a given period. The time is limited for everyone working in hospitality so prioritizing the task is important. Third is customer service the most important skill. Customers make repeat purchases from a particular brand if they receive the best customer service. Research shows that 93% make repeat purchases and 86% believe that with good customer service, the client turns towards the brand for a long time (Torrens University Australia, 2023).
Critically evaluating own abilities, skills and competencies for one of the job roles in the organisation.n
My skills and competencies are perfect for the role of a hotel supervisor at Clayton Hotel. The job role of a hotel supervisor is to manage the clients, operations, concierge, reservation services and front desk work. According to the Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model, my abilities revolved around operational, financial, and environmental knowledge. My skills in this area are based on handling the business, finances and operations in hospitality. The skills which I have learned during my course are accounting, operations in finances, revenue management and human resource management. These are the hard skills I have and are perfectly aligned with the hotel supervisor job. These skills will help me in making an effective plan for action, evaluation and management.
According to the Kolb Reflective Cycle Model, the other soft skills which I have are meant for handling customers. The model suggests that one should learn from their own experience. Earlier I was lacking in some soft skills but now I will push myself up. The hotel supervisor's job role is highly dependent on managing the customer effectively. Communication and empathy are the success key in this area. My soft skills consist of writing, problem-solving, soft speaking, patience, flexibility, hard work, product knowledge, and emotional and social intelligence.
Reviewing the range of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
There are five learning theories & approaches in personal and professional development. Those are first, is behaviourism which involves the responses received from others. When one receives positive feedback its working capacity gets enhanced. Second is cognitivism, which helps in understanding the acquisition of knowledge (Janke et al., 2021). One can easily process the information kept in his memory and process his work. Third is constructivism, which helps in constructing the learning. It helps in active engagement which involves problem-solving. Fourth is humanism, which helps in creating a self-actualization environment. Fifth is connectivism, which helps the employee update himself against technology so that they can apply sources for accurate information. It also helps him in knowing the information which is a part of acquiring knowledge.
Considering the best development approaches enhances own professional and personal development
According to me the best approach for my personal and professional development includes making a self-development plan. With this approach, I can continuously evaluate myself and my work. The plan will help me in setting up my vision and making a list of activities which I will pursue during my working hours in my organization. It will also help me in acquiring those required skills which I’m lacking as a hotel supervisor. I lack in setting my priorities with this self-development plan I can set my priorities.
The second-best development approach is goal setting. I will work to set my goals which will help in organizing my tasks promptly. Goals will help me in setting long-term directions, self-motivation and hard work to achieve them. Identification of respective goals is important so that competent efforts can be made to achieve the same shortly (Fitzgerald, 2020). I will recommend that everyone should set SMART goals which will help us in bringing the efforts efficiently.
Evaluating the importance of ongoing professional development and the associated professional skills requirements
In the context of hospitality, the importance of ongoing professional development is associated with the tracking and documentation process which is required in Clayton Hotel for the job of hotel supervisor. The rationale behind this, the hotel supervisor can keep a record of its daily activities in the management. Its importance lies in developing objectives & aims, self-reflection, self-driven, and self-direction and last but not least it helps in interactive learning (Hemmington, et al., 2021). Hence, this is the importance of ongoing professional development in employees working.
Another is the importance of professional skills which are required in working in Clayton. Concerned hotel unit needs professionalism in their employees. Professionalism is the most important skill which helps in assisting the other staff and to keep customers happy (Glucina, et al., 2020). In hospitality professional skills make an employee stand out of any unethical means. It also helps in understanding one’s professional endeavours and helps in working functionality to produce quality work and proficiency.
Evaluation of own skills and competencies and the most appropriate developmental approach to develop P&P skills
The evaluation of my skills and competencies is related to how proficient I am in working at the hotel. It also includes my speaking skills, core identification skills, and customer satisfaction. My job involves all these skills and abilities which I have evaluated. I have to meet the requirements which my organization needs from me (Armitage-Chan, 2020). For doing this I have to adopt different methods and approaches. The methods are managing my portfolio, my customer ratings, and tests. For continuous evaluation, I have to ask for feedback from my clients and my upper management to improve myself.
One approach which I think is quite essential when working as a hotel supervisor at Clayton is the objective and self-reflection approach (Goodolf and Godfrey, 2021). In my opinion, one should identify one role and other roles which sometimes get influenced by each other. One should prepare oneself by considering these few things such as self-assessment and taking feedback from colleagues and upper management or even the executives. Another is identifying the key performance areas and strengths and weaknesses assisted with the work.
Critically evaluation of own skills and competencies to meet the employer's expectation of professional skills required for employment
According to my evaluation, the employer needs professional skills in their employees. Working as a hotel supervisor my employer expects me to have a good educational background. With education, I can understand the situation very well. I can keep myself calm concerning stress and anxiety at work. The other thing which my employer expects from me is good speaking. Not only in English can speak in all those languages which are approved by the UN council so that I can handle all those foreign customers (Richter, et al., 2021). Working as a supervisor I be able to speak different languages.
Developing Essential Skills for Hotel Supervisors at Clayton Hotel LO3
Professional Development Plan: 10, 11, 12
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Current Skills and Competencies
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Goals Personal / Professional Development Plan Activity
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Success criteria
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Effectiveness of my personal development plan
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Communication skills
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To develop good communication skills I will join training, seminars, and workshops for public speaking. I will also join some communication courses and I will try to maintain regular speaking with my colleagues.
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Good communication can boost my morale, engagement, and my productivity. It will lead to better understanding between me and my co-workers at Clayton. It will also help me in building good relations with others through collective and collaborative communication.
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Communication is effective in the workplace. It helps me in expressing myself in front of others. Good communication will help me in exchanging information with empathy, politely, and clearly.
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Management skills
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To develop good management skills I will observe my seniors and learn from them. I will observe their way of handling the management. Another thing is I will do planning and time management activities so that I will improve my management skills.
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Management skills will help me in creating good teamwork. It will make me and my team strong so that we all can handle work at any point in time.
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The effectiveness of developing these management skills in my professional development plan is important for my company. The importance arises in achieving the aims and objectives. With proper management, Clayton can achieve its business goals and I can achieve growth and prosperity.
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Problem-solving skills
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With regular interactions with my seniors, I can learn from their problem-solving skills. I will also focus on taking customer feedback to resolve their problem. I will make sure that I will handle my team prominently. Moreover, team handling is a way of improving problem-solving skills. I will also do some problem-solving assessment tasks such as attending case study sessions.
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Problem-solving skills will promote success building in my team and my management. It will propose better ideas, thinking, understanding, and handling customer’s money. To
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o evaluate my effectiveness of problem-solving skills I will track and collect all data related to problem-solving in a team. Another thing is I will take surveys from clients, observe, and take regular feedback from them.
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Leadership skills
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To develop leadership skills I will take on all types of responsibilities within my team. I will also take some leadership courses to improve my leadership skills.
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The success behind developing leadership skills lies in the success of the whole team. With good leadership skills, the team can perform well under my guidance. It will boost my productivity, honesty and commitment to my team.
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The effectiveness lies in achieving team goals in the organisation. I can evaluate myself by judging my decision-making skills, adaptability, flexibility, and critical thinking.
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Project management
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Activities like goal setting and management changes are needed to develop project management skills. Other activities which I can engage in such as by attending regular meetings with the company’s stakeholders. I will learn budget setting in project management.
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The success lies in work distribution among team members which comes from project management skills. It will help me in achieving my milestone, and project deadline.
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The effectiveness lies in handling people towards work management (Global Careers, 2023). Other things from which the effectiveness can be measured by looking at suppliers, consumers, and upper management.
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Key Insights into the Hotel Supervisor Interview Process Lo4
Job interview for a hotel supervisor
A job interview for a hotel supervisor emphasizes developing experiences, challenges, and achievements. With a job interview, one can show the skills and abilities which one has developed from past experiences in this role.
The job description of a hotel supervisor includes activities such as managing operations in the hotel and the departments (Mak, et al., 2022). A hotel supervisor has to perform operations and management about customer services, teamwork, laundry, food management and cleaning. A hotel supervisor also has to indulge in doing the front desk work in the hotel which includes phone calls, check-in & and check-out of clients and room inventory.
The educational qualifications needed for working as a hotel supervisor are a bachelor's degree in management or other subjects like operations, finance and supply chain (Béres and Fook, 2020). With these degrees, one can able to develop budgeting, strategy and communication skills.
The major responsibilities of a hotel supervisor include sponsoring, educating, managing, coaching, counselling and managing clients (Kirton, 2012). The other responsibilities are related to checking the safety and food security given to the clients. A hotel supervisor has to ensure that the hotel runs smoothly. In any case of mismanagement, the hotel supervisor has to be present all the time. He has to hire new members of his team, schedule tasks and manage any complaints regarding the services of the hotel. He also has to do some work related to finance and supply chain inventory of the hotel.
The essential skills needed for working as a hotel supervisor are communication skills, empathy and deliberation in doing the work (Tomlinson and Jackson, 2021). The candidate should be great at time management and managing multiple tasks at the same time. Candidate should be responsible, practical and logical and should apply critical thinking skills. Further, one should know problem-solving skills and be friendly, patient and polite to everyone. The candidate should be technologically updated he should know current software and artificial intelligence in doing some sort of finances and accounts for the hotel.
No prior experience is required for the job role. If the candidate has then this would be an advantage for him. Negotiation regarding salary is open and can be decided on the candidate’s interview passing score and tests taken.
Key strengths and weaknesses of the interview process
Strengths
- Knowledge-based skills: These are those that can be learned via training and expertise (for example, knowing how to use a computer, a foreign language, an undergraduate or graduate degree, or technological proficiency.
- Transferable skills: Talents, such as communication and social skills, conceptual capacity for problem-solving and organizational abilities, are known as transferrable skills.
- Personal characteristics: The information about special attributes, such as dependability, adaptability, friendliness, diligent effort, expressiveness, formality, punctuality, and teamwork.
- Positive attitude: The candidate should possess a positive attitude towards his colleagues and the working environment (Aliakbari and Sadeghi, 2022). With a positive attitude, one can deal with problems positively and can bring an impact on the whole team.
- Problem-solving: The interview process for a hotel supervisor should focus on his problem-solving skills to identify whether he is perfect for the role or not.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses associated with the interview process are first, being overly judgmental of oneself second, aiming to win over every person and third, remaining uninformed about contemporary technology (Walder, et al., 2022). The other weaknesses are self-criticism and fear of speaking in public. With self-criticism, one cannot grow and can feel demotivated. Criticism is good in bringing something good in someone but it can lead down the self-confidence in a person. Public speaking is an important part of the role of a hotel supervisor. A hotel supervisor has to address the clients and their quarries from time to time so it is essential for him to be able to speak in front of others. If somehow he is not then it will create a problem for both the management and the clients.
The evaluation of the job interview process
The challenges associated with the job interview process are:
- Lack of training for taking the interview: Interviewers sometimes lack interviewing skills while taking any interview. Hence they need to improve in asking questions to the candidates.
- Organizational skills: There is a lack of organizational skills which the interviewers face (Cottrell, 2015). The interviewers should follow a specific framework and not just the questionnaire list.
- Rapport-building: For taking a good interview for the role of a hotel supervisor, the interviewers have to adopt and ask only job-related questions and start to develop a fruitful conversation. It will improve the learning of both the interviewers and the interviewee.
- Focus: The interview should be focused and follow the major steps during the interview.
- No biases: The interviewer should not follow any sort of biases while taking the interview, otherwise it will lead to some issues and require grievances. The interviewer should perform the interview with no biases and treat every candidate equally.
- Unskilled interviews: Due to some unskilled interviews an interviewer has to face because of this some deserving candidates also get rejected. An interviewer should not judge every candidate the same and should be calm while conducting the interview.
The solution to overcome the challenges
A few things can be done to overcome the above-mentioned challenges those are first, any sort of instruction that is available should be given to interviewers. Assign them a format for the interview process that they will adhere to (Philippa et al., 2021). Make certain that they have looked over the applicant's Resume or CV. Provide those conducting the interviews with a few typical inquiries to begin a dialogue with the applicant. Second, be aware that the majority of applicants are anxious. The interviewer should best make the individual applying to feel comfortable. Whether an individual feels at ease during the meeting, the person conducting the assessment will learn more about them. Third, paying more attention to the candidate’s skills rather than doing some other things. Listening to their responses, comments and way of answering will give a light to the interviewer. The interviewer has to keep the conversation to the point and should avoid diverting to the other topics of conversation.
Critical reflection of an interview process
My view on the interview process is quite good and flexible. According to the Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model, I have evaluated that my interview process for the job role as a hotel supervisor was smooth and flexible (Kellar, et al., 2021). I was asked about my skills and abilities which I own for the job role. My conversation with the interviewer at Clayton Hotel was good and healthy. I was able to answer every question related to the job role of the interviewer. The conversation was focused and motivated both for me and the interviewer. The skills I have for the role both hard and soft skills were perfectly aligned to the job to which I have applied (communication skills, writing skills, assessment skills, and some software skills like accounting, etc.). Though my interview process was on point but then too there were some discrepancies associated with it. In some questions, the interviewer was rigid and was not satisfied with my answer. I will make sure to improve my skills in this particular part according to the Gibbs action plan. These were my thoughts and feelings about my interview.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be stated that self-learning is important to work in any organization not just hotels. With self-learning and self-evaluation, a person can assist himself in improving and overcoming any challenges. In my opinion, one has to be readily prepared for the interview process and has to show all his/her strengths and hide weaknesses. With personal and professional development, one can improve his/her behaviour in terms of both personal and professional aspects. According to me, one should develop a professional development plan to add new skills which he/she is lacking.
References
Books and Journals
Aliakbari, M. and Sadeghi, S., 2022. The professional identity of the Iranian teachers: A case of professional practices. Teacher Development, 26(3), pp.411-431.
Armitage-Chan, E., 2020. Best practice in supporting professional identity formation: Use of a professional reasoning framework. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 47(2), pp.125- 136.
Béres, B. and Fook, J. (2020). Learning Critical Reflection Experiences of the Transformative Learning Process. Routledge
Cottrell, S. (2015) Skills for Success: Personal Development and Employability. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Fitzgerald, A., 2020, July. Professional identity: A concept analysis. In Nursing forum (Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 447-472).
Glucina, T.T., Krägeloh, C.U., Farvid, P. and Holt, K., 2020. Moving towards a contemporary chiropractic professional identity. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 39, p.101105.
Goodolf, D.M. and Godfrey, N., 2021. A think tank in action: Building new knowledge about professional identity in nursing. Journal of Professional Nursing, 37(2), pp.493-499.
Hemmington, J., Graham, M., Marshall, A., Brammer, A., Stone, K. and Vicary, S., 2021. Approved Mental Health Professionals, Best Interests Assessors and People with Lived Experience-An Exploration of Professional Identities and Practice. Approved Mental Health Professionals, Best Interests Assessors and People with Lived Experience-An Exploration of Professional Identities and Practice.
Janke, K.K., Bloom, T.J., Boyce, E.G., Johnson, J.L., Kopacek, K., O’Sullivan, T.A., Petrelli, H.M., Steeb, D.R. and Ross, L.J., 2021. A pathway to professional identity formation: report of the 2020-2021 AACP Student Affairs Standing Committee. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 85(10).
Kellar, J., Singh, L., Bradley-Ridout, G., Martimianakis, M.A., van der Vleuten, C.P., Oude Egbrink, M.G. and Austin, Z., 2021. How pharmacists perceive their professional identity: a scoping review and discursive analysis. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 29(4), pp.299-307.
Kirton, B. (2012) Brilliant Workplace Skills for Students & Graduates. Harlow:
Mak, S., Hunt, M., Boruff, J., Zaccagnini, M. and Thomas, A., 2022. Exploring professional identity in rehabilitation professions: a scoping review. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 27(3), pp.793-815.
Philippa, R., Ann, H., Jacqueline, M. and Nicola, A., 2021. Professional identity in nursing: A mixed method research study. Nurse education in practice, 52, p.103039.
Prentice Hall.
Richter, E., Brunner, M. and Richter, D., 2021. Teacher educators’ task perception and its relationship to professional identity and teaching practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, p.103303.
Tomlinson, M. and Jackson, D., 2021. Professional identity formation in contemporary higher education students. Studies in Higher Education, 46(4), pp.885-900.
Walder, K., Bissett, M., Molineux, M. and Whiteford, G., 2022. Understanding professional identity in occupational therapy: A scoping review. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 29(3), pp.175-197.
Zoller, K. and Preston, K. (2014) Enhancing your executive edge: How to develop the skills to lead and succeed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education.
Online
Essential Skills in Hospitality. 2023 Online Available through: < https://www.torrens.edu.au/blog/top-10-essential-skills-that-hospitality-employees-need >
Global Careers. 2023 Online Available through: < https://career-advice.jobs.ac.uk/career-development/global-careers/>
