Findings
- The working environment, the type of operation, opening hours, shift patterns etc the person being interviewed is contracted to work
Working environment: Ramada-Jarvis Hotel and Resort in Maidstone is set in 20 acres of parkland in the heart of Kent adjacent to Leeds Castle, the reasonably modern hotel offers easy access to Maidstone and Kent, ‘The Garden of England’. Ricks Restaurant the section in which he works can get particularly busy between 8 and 10 in the morning, this provides a noisy and busy working environment.
Type of operation: Restaurant sub-section of Hotel and Resort
Opening hours: Sunday- Saturday: 7:00am – 10:00pm
Shift pattern: Shift pattern varies due to the fact that he only works part-time during school, but full-time in school holidays. During school when he works part time his shifts tend to be Saturday and Sunday from 7am – 12pm. During school holidays he works 5 days a week from 6am – 12pm. He has to look on a shift board in case of any changes.
- The duties and responsibilities
His duties and responsibilities change every shift. Sometimes he will be responsible for the clearing and laying of tables and serving of tea, coffee and toast, but sometimes he will be responsible for the restocking during breakfast and clearing after breakfast of the breakfast buffet. He will also be given one designated job at the end of his shift. This can be setting up for lunch, cleaning glasses, plates and glasses, or cleaning floors and the fridge.
- The technical and professional skills needed to be effective
Technical skills needed are very basic in terms of service at Breakfast due to the style of service being a self-service buffet. The clearing of tables and relaying was probably the only skills you could loosely call technical considering that has to have those skills to do the job, although these are trained in after employees start.
Professional skills refer to the way in which standards are achieved and the slick performance of duties, clearly one can only become professional at something if you have been doing it consistantly for a period of time without fault.
- The personal and social skills needed to be effective
Personal and social skills are by far the most important in this type of role. Personally he has to approach the job with the correct positive, friendly attitude in order to be accepted by the team and be able to approach the guests. Socially he has to be a good communicator, listener and team player in order to be able to do the job.
- What motivates the individual
The obvious incentive of money would be the main motivation, although his pay is not that high at £3.85 per hour. He also finds that working as a part of a team motivates him, as he gets on well with all his colleagues.
He is expecting to leave this job and do a degree in Hotel Management in order to become a manager in a hotel. However he will be using his job as invaluable experience.
Conclusion
The individual has all the necessary skills required to carry out all his duties and responsibilities inherent within the job, his performance is therefore satisfactory.
As he is only working part-time to aid his personal finances, his motives to be an effective employee in the organisation are not very strong. This is where some shortfalls may lie. Apart from the risk of being sacked from his job, he has no other reason to perform his job to the best of his ability. He may not use other skills exceeding his job requirements that could make him shine above fellow employees.
Some of the skills required need training, such as the laying of tables and using the till. If this is carried out then the employee will feel more comfortable in their position and be able to perform their job more effectively, which will in turn lead to more customer satisfaction.
The shift patterns of the individual are likely to have an effect on their performance. For example, if they are working unsociable hours or very long shifts, then their standards are likely to drop without a pay rise. Another shortfall that I found was that the hours that were given to the individual did not always suit him.
Recommendations
- Motives of the employee are a key factor in how well they perform their job. As money is the main motive of this individual, rewards could be given to motivate the employees further. For example, bonuses could be given for a consistantly high standard of work.
- If there was more discussion between the employee and the management, more appropriate hours could be given to the employee.
- It is important that the hotel make working for them as enjoyable as possible. As if the employees have job satisfaction they will do a better job.
- The hotel could offer such rewards as discount breaks to other hotels in the chain in order to encourage the employee to acquire a loyalty to the company.
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