Reflective statement †IRS Essay

After finishing my research project and finally submitting my report, it is necessary that I write a reflective statement on what I have gained from my study. My tutor helped me to change the topic of my research which was â€Å"The link between employee satisfaction and service quality in the hotel industry† to â€Å"How to increase employee retention at the Blue tree hotels†. This helped me be more specific, to focus on a situation on ground, rather than being too general. The broadness of my topic would not help me narrow down to a specific case. This would not help me to draw clear lessons from the project. Being more specific in the project topic statement helped me come up with concise hypothesis for the research. It ultimately made me learn a lot from the project. My methodology was to carry out a filed survey, and sample some of the industries to get information from them. On the advice from my tutor, I changed it to comparative method, which I performed, selecting international hotel chains, such as Marriott, and also using different kinds of case studies in the hospitality industry in order to analyze, compare and opt for the best system and attitude used by them. I got these findings with the intention of implementing them at the Blue Tree Hotels and as a consequence meet the company’s goal. On presenting my idea my tutor, the feedback was negative, but it was helpful as I need pressure to work better. Her guidance led me to the above-discussed process which finally gave me success. At this point I was able to carryout my research with ease and also became considerably successful. The whole process has imparted in me skills and knowledge that are necessary for working on projects, and managing employees for a successful organization or a company. Since the choice of this research project made me to research on employee retention and job satisfaction, it made focus on specific parts of Human Resource management. The ‘employee’ is a very important aspect in an organization, company or institution (Henriques and Sadorsky 199). There are several principles about job satisfaction and retention that I have learned from this project. Furthermore, I have also gained skills in project management, especially in terms of research in order to meet a certain objective. On project management, I was able to sharpen my skills on research. The first thing was the ability to plan my research project (Kumar, 2005). From the topic that my tutor recommended I was able to come up with a research problem. The formulated problem was that the high turn over of employees in various companies has become very expensive. This is fundamentally because the organization or the company loses knowledge and resource they have invested in equipping these people in favor of their competitors (Ramlall, 2003). I was also able to design a model that fit my research project well. I chose on secondary research, which would led me to visit various websites to collect information about how various hotels and hospitality industries had succeeded in maintaining their employees. Secondly, I studied how these companies had achieved their overall goals, based on the principle of employee retention and satisfaction. I chose the highly trusted online data base sites such us Emerald and Ebsco. This formed a good basis of data collection. After identifying this method, I chose the samples to study. These were the best performing companies in this industry. They are Marriot, and Four Seasons. This ultimately led to my writing of the proposal that was accepted by my tutor after following her guidance. In the second step, conducting the study, I was successful in collecting the data from various websites, and studied the data in comparison (Kumar, 2005). I also used books to learn how these companies had applied specific principles in managing this vital resource in the companies. This was in the process of data processing to make them clear during presentation. After successful processing of data, I wrote the report that would easily help in the implementation phase of the project. The report had a very clear explanation on facts about employee retention, loyalty and satisfaction. The aspect I gained through this project is the way to conduct a research and not only stop at the research level but write a report that has conclusions that have clarity and teams can use them to conduct the implementation stage of the project. As I mentioned earlier, I have also come to appreciate the importance of taking care of employees in an organization. Retaining them goes along with how satisfied they are. This becomes a good basis of quality efficient service for the company, institution or organization. In order to maintain competitive advantage, companies have to do all their best to retain the employees they have (Ans and Meganck, 2009). This is because if an organization loses an employee, the quality of the service delivered will be greatly affected, decrease on the efficiency of the service delivery and as a consequence lose guests in addition to profits (Ramlall, 2003). Again, It is clear that in hospitality business, success comes from the loyal employees, since they are committed and trustworthy. This will increase organization’s profitability alongside customer loyalty (Villares and Coelho, 2003). Finally, I learned that increased job satisfaction leads to decreased turnover rates (Smith and Rupp, 2002). From the study I found out that competitive schemes of paying employees, diverse programs of employee motivation, training and reward plans would be very effective in retaining the employees in an organization. Emphatically, such things as opportunities that the companies give in terms of professional growth of the employees also matter. Mutual and hierarchical recognition also are very important in the organization. Lastly the social fabric must be constructed in to encourage teamwork and so cordial relationships among all the workers. This project has made me set for my future career as a manager; for I definitely know that the whole picture of an organization is seen in its employees. Four Seasons rightly confess that, â€Å"Our greatest asset, and the key to our success, is our people† (Four Seasons, 2010). In addition to this I have gained knowledge and skills in research, which will greatly help in project management. This has also sharpened my critic ability, and I will be able to analyze situations keenly, consequently coming up with well judged conclusions.