Evaluation Of HRD And KM Processes In Tillman Group

Current HRD Practice of Tillman Group

1.Critically evaluate the existing HRD&KM processes and practices in your case study organisation with reference to both contemporary HRD theory and practice.

2.Critically evaluate the HRD&KM challenges or problems in your case study organisation with reference to both contemporary HRD theory and practice.

3.On the basis of your analysis, identify the specific training needs in your organisation.

4.Application of the findings or conclusions from the relevant literature review and journal articles to the issues presented in the case study.

The term Human resource development (HRD) can be defined as the framework that is designed for helping out the employees of an organization by developing their personal as well as organizational skills, knowledge and abilities (Scully-Russ et al. 2013). Knowledge Management (KM), on the other hand, is defined as the way by which the management of an organization creates, shares, uses and manages the organization (Sheehan, Garavan and Carbery 2014).  It refers to a multidisciplinary approach that helps an organization to achieve its objectives by making the best use of knowledge. In this report, the Current HRD and KM strategies of the Tillman group will be assessed and evaluated to find out the challenges related to HRD and KM processes of the organization. Along with that, this report will contain identification of the specific training requirements at Tillman. Finally, in this assessment, development of an outline of the Learning and development strategy of the organization will be performed.  

The current HRD practice of the Tillman organization involves providing its employees with a standardised training and development program to ensure appropriate behaviour of the employees across all the areas of activity of the organization. The mentioned training program is kept same in all of the hotels under the organization without modifying the activities keeping accordance with the specific needs of the local consumers (Russ-Eft, Short and Jacobs 2014). As per data, the Human Resource department of the organization has not changed the training program for the last 10 years when the firm underwent a commendable expansion into a number of countries.

Secondly, considering the fact that by acquiring 50 percent stake in Archuleta, the company is entering a totally new field, Tillman has invested on an expensive refurbishment across the hotel and restaurants.  Moreover, in order to assure the employees of Archuleta that the new acquisition will not result in job losses, the company have sent its HRD team to deliver a sleek presentation of the Tillman brand.

Considering the fact that the mentioned firm is trying to expand its business in the Italian market, it has acquired the Archuleta Hotel. However, this acquisition has resulted in several HRD and Knowledge management related issues as listed below:

1. As been stated earlier, the company has not developed its training session for the last 10 years. This can be considered as a major issue since due to rapid change in the hospitality industry as well as in technological advancement, the requirements of the consumers are constantly changing (Shuck and Herd 2012). Thus the standardised training and development program of the mentioned firm needs to be modified in order to cope up with the rapid changes in the requirements of the global consumers.
2. Secondly, it has been found that the company follows a standardised training and development program across all the hotels it possesses in the international market. The Tillman firm has hotels in UK, Netherland, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Europe. Now it can be understood that all of the mentioned nations have a different type of cultural as well as social norms. Hence in order to attract the consumers of these nations the employees of the mentioned organization need to trained keeping accordance with the cultural and social requirements of the specific nation.
3. Another HRD related issue faced by the Tillman Organization is the lack of staffs in the Archuleta hotel chain. The management of Archuleta used to appoint most of the frontline staffs on a casual or temporary basis during the summer months. Thus, for Tillman, it has become a dilemma to meet the specific needs of the consumers, within the necessarily more flexible employment structure (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko 2016).
4. As a result of all of this, the overall revenue of the Tillman Hotel Group has deteriorated to a great extent. The hotels were found to be far less crowded when compared to the previous season and the reputation of the company is found to be deteriorating. Some of the chief negative reviews about the company include patchy consumer service, low-quality service provided at an unreasonably high price and ‘being treated like businessmen rather than holidaymakers’.
5. According to the staffs of the Archuleta hotel, the company is making unrealistic expectation from them. Since the number of staffs is less, the existing staffs are getting highly pressurize due to the intense work pressure. Moreover, the employees of the Archuleta hotels also complained that due to the frequent sudden absence of the employees and ill behaviour towards the consumers, the reputation of the entire brand is getting highly hampered.
6. As a result of the above-mentioned issues, the managers and staff mentors of the Tillman organization are found to spend the majority of their time in managing employee conflicts and consumer complaints. Hence they are unable to address the issues of lack of employee strength and capabilities (Bharwani and Butt 2012). Moreover, the negative review of the local food critics is imposing a further negative impact on the consumer loyalty of the Tillman Hotel Group.

3.Identification of the specific training requirements of the company

In order to cope up with the above-mentioned issues, the company Tillman company should incorporate the following training and development programs:

• The company should assess the specific requirements of its consumers and on the basis of this requirement, they should modify their training and development program. With the help of the knowledge acquired by the consumers, the company must implement modern age training strategies to enhance the loyalty of the consumers. With the emergence of technology, the requirements of the consumers of the hospitality industry are constantly changing. Unlike the era without internet, in this era, people are keener towards travelling and dining out. Hence, hotel staffs nowadays need to handle a huge lot of employees. For instance, Chinese tourists have rapidly become the largest travel demographic in the world, and by 2025 over 220 million a year will be travelling overseas, spending USD$450 billion on hotels, shopping, F&B and experiences. Hence employees need to be trained in different types of languages so that they can welcome both local as well as international consumers (Chen and Shen 2012).
• The company should come out of the concept of the ‘standardized training program” and should modify their training program keeping accordance with the needs of the local consumers. For instance, a different type of training should be provided to a chefs keeping in mind the local food trends and customs. Moreover, considering the fact that the most crucial part of the hospitality industry is the behaviour of the staffs towards the consumers, staffs serving specific areas should be educated and trained according to the norms an behaviors preferred by the locals.
• In order to deal with the shortage of employees in the Archuleta Hotels, the company must recruit more skilled employees. Recruitment of employees will not only enhance the productivity of the Tillman Hotel Groups but will also reduce the conflicts among the employees. As a result of this, the managers of the company will be able to deal with other areas of concern and thus the company will be able to regain its reputation in the global market (Suh, West and Shin 2012).
• Considering the fact that the mentioned hotel group has branches in different parts of the world, the company must provide cultural training to the employees in order to avoid conflicts associated with cultural diversity. Employees should be educated about the benefits and cruciality of cultural diversity within an organization. Moreover, conflict management training should be provided to the managers, mentors and team leaders of the Tillman Hotel groups so that they can deal with employee conflict more efficiently.
• In order to enhance the consumer service of the company, training for enhancing their behaviour and politeness towards the consumers should be provided. Employees should be trained to demonstrate and explain the facilities like mobile hotel room keys, room service and concierge desk to the consumers. Technologies should be adopted where employees will be able to use their mobile phones for opening and locking their hotel rooms. Moreover, they can use their concierge desks to make dinner reservation without going downstairs. Moreover, consumers should be provided with the facility to get room service and delivery right at their doorstep within the stipulated time. These facilities will result in consumer satisfaction. Moreover, in order to regain the consumer loyalty, the company should reduce the price of its products and services (Chen and Shen 2012).

The Tillman Hotel Group should develop a learning and development strategy in order to enhance bonding among the employees, reduce organizational conflicts and enhance the skills and productivity of the employees that in turn will help the company to enhance their overall revenue. In the paragraph, bellow an outline of the L&D strategy of the mentioned company has been provided.

1^st step: The first step of the learning and development process should include consultation with the managers as well as all the staffs associated with the organization. Since the mentioned hotel group has several numbers of hotels located at different parts of the world, face to face discussion with all the employees at the same time is not possible (Bharwani and Butt 2012). For this, the company should conduct virtual meetings with the help of technologically advanced communication methods that includes video calling. This meeting will help the managers to access the specific loopholes in the current learning and development process and develop new learning and development strategies.

2^nd step: In order educate the employee about the importance of cultural competence in the hospitality industry, a learning course should be offered to the employees. In the mentioned course, several activities will be performed by the organization staffs that will enhance the bonding and cultural competence of the employees. Moreover, in the mentioned L&D course, employees will be able to develop multicultural verbal skills that will help them to deal with the consumers more effectively and satisfy them. For this process, Virtual Reality tools can be used (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko 2016).

3^rd step: Finally, the management of the organization should keep the track of the performance of the employees in order to understand the effectiveness of the L&D session. The performance assessment should be conducted every 6 months to prevent further deterioration of the performance of the employees.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the acquisition of the Archuleta Hotel Chains by the Tillman Hotel Group has resulted in several issues associated with the HR and KM practices of the company. This issue has imposed highly negative impact o the reputation as well as the yearly revenue of the company. Several training sessions and development strategies have been suggested to the organization in order to deal with the issues. Finally, it can be said that with the help of the suggested training and development plans, the company will be able to regain its reputation a well as its revenue in the near future.

Reference List

Bharwani, S. and Butt, N., 2012. Challenges for the global hospitality industry: an HR perspective. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(2), pp.150-162.

Chalofsky, N.F., 2014. Handbook of human resource development. John Wiley & Sons.

Chen, T.L. and Shen, C.C., 2012. Today's intern, tomorrow's practitioner?—The influence of internship programmes on students' career development in the Hospitality Industry. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 11(1), pp.29-40.

Russ-Eft, D., Short, D. and Jacobs, R.L., 2014. Perspectives in HRD-The Academy of Human Resource Development: Its history and current activities. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 26(1), p.64.

Scully-Russ, E., Lehner, R. and Shuck, B., 2013. A scholar-practitioner case approach: Implications for advancing theory and research through informed practice. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 15(3), pp.243-251.

Sheehan, M., Garavan, T.N. and Carbery, R., 2014. Innovation and human resource development (HRD). European Journal of Training and Development, 38(1/2), pp.2-14.

Shuck, B. and Herd, A.M., 2012. Employee engagement and leadership: Exploring the convergence of two frameworks and implications for leadership development in HRD. Human resource development review, 11(2), pp.156-181.

Suh, E., West, J.J. and Shin, J., 2012. Important competency requirements for managers in the hospitality industry. Journal of hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism education, 11(2), pp.101-112.

Zaitseva, N.A., Goncharova, I.V. and Androsenko, M.E., 2016. Necessity of changes in the system of hospitality industry and tourism training in terms of import substitution. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 6(1).