Internship Progress Reports

Question: Discuss about the Internship Progress Reports. Answer: Identification and analysis of the organizations training programs Mantra on Kent offers a detailed tailor made training programs for all their interns and employees so that they skills and competencies can be enhanced (Posavac, 2015). They have also formulated intensive training period depending on the area of the specialization of their interns and employees along with the opportunity to perform team leading tasks. Moreover, interns are provided with management assignments through which their understanding on the hotels facilities and development programs can be evaluated (Ford, 2014). Existing mentor and coach also guide the new interns so that they can work effectively on various projects in the hotel. In addition to that, there annual leadership programs run also formulated for enhancing their leadership skills for managing other people and organizational culture. Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) depict that Mantra on Kent provides comprehensive training program for their employee in order to formulate service-oriented line level employees, who will successfullyengage with their guest and guide them for providing the best customers services. Moreover, the concerned organization also provide supervisory skill buildersprograms to their employee so that they can enhance their competencies and topics like time management, communication, staffing and leadership are offered so that they can learn the important aspect for attaining the organizational goals in their hotel (Mantra on Kent, 2017). Mantra on Kent also provides more than30,000 hours and 2,300 hours internal and external training in the year 2017 (Mantra on Kent, 2017). In house training for staffs are also provided to the employee for offering sufficient information regarding the risk and occurred in hotel and possible solution for those risks. All these training aspects that are provided to in terns and staffs enhance their personal and professional competencies so that they can guide other team members to prove their leadership skills. Thus, Mantra on Kent Evaluation of the training programs compared to the competitors training programs Meriton Serviced Apartments and Adina Apartment Hotel are their competitors in terms of business and the evaluation of the training programs compared to the training providedin Mantra on Kent are as follows: Less training hours Mantra on Kentoffers 30,245 internal training hours and 2,371 external training hours; whereas, Meriton and Adina provides only 10,000 hours and 15,000 hours approximately on internal and external training respectively (Mantra on Kent, 2017). Regular assessment also taken in Manta so that the employees skills are continuously improving not only in terms of managing people by also in maintaining the organizational culture (Mantra on Kent, 2017). Motivation for employee In rest of the competitors culture, trainees and interns, who are performing well only get appreciation during the programs; while, Mantra on Kent offers job responsibilities if an intern performs well compared to others during the training. This provision of associating with the organization also motivate the interns to work for the benefits the organization and self-advancement in other organization (Lazaroiu, 2015). Identification and analysis of the business objectives The objective of the Mantra on Kent is to generate maximum revenues for the hotel through improving their facilities like food and beverage services, high customer satisfaction, incorporating new technologies and attaining employee retention (Grissemann et al., 2013). All these factors ensure the brand reputation in the community and helps in boosting the customer base. Moreover, motivating, assessing their performance and providing opportunities to the employees are also the objective of the Mantra on Kent. In this way, the employees performance can be assessed easily regarding the term whether they are performing their responsibilities or not (Torres and Kline, 2013). Strategies to meet these business objectives Offering Capacity Bonuses The managing authorities also offer capacity bonuses for their interns and staffs on their quality performance. Taken for instance, in terms of hotels bookings if an employee booked more rooms in a specific time like a week or month, they will receive extra bonus that on the other hand motivates them to serve their best so that they can attain more financial benefits. Use Guest Cards Han and Yoon (2015) stated that guest cards allow hotel managers to evaluate the performance of their employees and interns. These cards are given to the customers before they check out. Torres and Kline (2013) also describes that these cards allow the customer to comments on the facilities and services they get from the hotel and the attendants. The Mantra on Kent offers pay bonusesto the staff, who receive the maximum number of constructive acknowledge from the guests. This extra pay provides motivation for the high performing employee. Achieving customer satisfaction Hsiao et al. (2016) portrays that as hospitality industry are liable to provide quality experience in order to attract them for higher revenue and brand recognition. Mantra on Kent provide accommodation facilities along with experience of 24 hour reception, cascades, child minding, laundry services photocopying and room services, customer may felt problem in the services to they may have suggestions from their side for he further improvement in the quality of the services (Mantra on Kent, 2017). These aspects on handling in priority provide the customers a satisfaction that encourages them to use their services again. Staff Training Moreover, if staffs of the organization are well trained, they can fulfill their desired objectives in order to satisfy the requirement of the guests (Decker and Townes, 2016). Yearly training on fulfilling customers requirements and hospitality etiquettes along with the regular communication with the experts regarding handling the customers complaints is fulfilled by Mantra on Kent. All these factors help the concerned organization to achieve high customer satisfaction rate. Incorporating new technologies Wi-Fi infrastructure and digital facility overhauls Collins (2015) stated that people in recent times spend more time on their smart devices to accomplish their work. Thus, Mantra on Kent provides facility like Wi-Fi technology and digital conference facilities for office meetings so that people can use internet and access to audio-visual (AV) facilities. In addition to that, Chan and Lam (2013) highlights the fact that in recent times, people are more concerned towards security issues and hotel industries spend more revenue in making the payments modes and data security followed by guest room technology, bandwidth facility and mobile engagement. Image 1: Hospitality sectors priority in 2016 (Source: Chan and Lam, 2013) Mantra on Kent in this context majorly emphasizes on the automation process so that customer do not have to worry about payments, booking their requests and acquiring knowledge on their own. In this way, customers feel that this hotel adopts modern technology and they desire to experience their services. Energy conversation In recent times, problems like global warming and climate change is severe and many organizations hence take initiatives of using energy efficient products within their company (Leung Law, 2013). Nicolau and Santa-Mara (2013) also depicts that according to energy consumption model, heat sources, Auxiliary equipments, heat distribution system, hot water supply, water, water supply and drainage, ventilation and electric power receiving are the energy consumption aspect in an hospitality industry in which much power and energy required to operate the hotel operational functionalities. Image 2: Energy consumption structure of a hotel (Source: Nicolau Santa-Mara, 2013) Mantra on Kent uses products like energy efficient taps, flow controllers, sanitary wares and white goods as per as the water efficiency guidelines regulated by Government of Australia through their Water Efficiency Labeling and Standards (WELS) scheme (Water Rating Water efficiency, 2017). Moreover, all the appliances used in this hotel are energy rated through which the energy and money is saved and environmental adversities can be diminished. Following all these strategies the objectives for Mantra on Kent can be fulfilled along with the high rates employee retention, customer satisfaction and advance technologies. Interrelations between the internal and external stakeholders to obtain objectives Stakeholders are the people, who are affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies and can be categorized as- internal stakeholders and external stakeholders (Mishra et al., 2014). Pinheiro (2015) defines that an internal stakeholders are those entities, who are directly associated with the business; while, an external stakeholder are the people, who are influenced by the action taken by the organization. Employees, managing authorities and boards of directors can be categorized within internal stakeholders, whereas, investors, suppliers, government and consumers are the external stakeholders compared to an organization (Fikru, 2014). In context with the Mantra on Kent, the internal stakeholders are the interns, working personnel, managers, owner and board of directors and the external stakeholders are the customers, suppliers and government. Pinheiro (2015) mentioned that both the internal and external stakeholders are liable for attaining the business objectives through the implementation of their skills and competencies for the betterment of the organization. Internal stakeholders like owner of the company, board of directors and managers provide required resources like- procuring machinery, identifying suitable premise and necessary equipment and raw materials to operate the business functionality efficiently. Moreover the employees serve their best to achieve the companys objectives through their team building effort and good interpersonal skills (Rothaermel, 2015). Beringer et al. (2013) furthermore depicts that in terms of external stakeholders, customers are said to be the supporters of businesses in the economy and these people helps business to identify changing trends that can provide an overview of the business performance. Lastly, other external stakeholders are the governments and they are liable for impleme nting regulations for business activities in order to protect consumers from adversities that can be occurred from the products and services they are getting (Fikru, 2014). Thus, in order to perform the business operation efficiently, satisfying the stakeholders and the interrelationship among the internal and external stakeholder is important. In terms of Mantra on Kent, they take necessary steps to satisfy the needs and demands of the internal stakeholders by fulfilling the guidelines to gratify their external stakeholder (Fikru, 2014). One such inter-relationship can be illustrated through the guest cards and the feedback survey Manta on Kent offers to their guests so that they can rate their services. The rating or the feedback reveals their competencies and allows them to identify their advantages and drawbacks. Weiss (2014) stated that this approach also ensure their future improvement and thus, this interrelation of the internal stakeholder that are owner or staffs of the organization with the external stakeholder that are the customers, help to achieve the organizations objectives of attaining customer satisfaction. Two factors that are identified in the above section were- handling customer complaints and staff training. Handling customers complains provide the organization an overview regarding their disadvantages ; as a result, organization improves their facilities to make the customers (external stakeholder) satisfied (Weiss, 2014). This improvement not only ensures the accomplishment of their objectives for customers satisfaction but also enhance their brand recognition (Rothaermel, 2015). In terms of staff training, the managers (internal stakeholder) take initiatives for providing training to their staffs (internal stakeholder). Thus, it can be seen that, in the former case, there is an interrelationship between the internal and external stakeholder; while, in the latter case, the interrelationship between the two internal stakeholders is illustrated. Moreover, in terms of accomplishing employee retention, Mantra on Kent motivates their staffs and interns. The staff gets motivated if they are paid for their effort and get additional benefits for their better performance than others (Rothaermel, 2015). Taken for instance, if a staff or intern gets more positive comments from their customers or if they accomplish responsibilities beyond their desired tasks, they are eligible for getting bonus. Thus, in this way, the internal stakeholders (staffs) serve their best by utilizing their knowledge to satisfy their customers (external stakeholders). Moreover, the greater the customer satisfaction is the higher will be the bonus conquered by an employee that is provided by the owner or managing authorities (internal stakeholder) of the organization (Fikru, 2014). Thus, in order to attain employee retention through motivation, there is an interrelation among the internal and external stakeholders. In addition to that, for incorporating new technologies, there is a connection among the customers and the managers of the organization, which is again represents the interrelationship between the internal and external stakeholders (Mishra et al., 2014). The increasing demand of the technology does not only allow the automation of the operations but also provide them competitive advantage compared to other companies in the market. This demand of the customer (external stakeholders) encourages the managers (internal stakeholders) to obtain their business objectives by enhancing their operations by adopting modern technologies. In addition to that, implementation of technology in the workplace allows the employee to attain more knowledge. This knowledge ensures their development of their skills and job potential. Weiss (2014) mentioned that an employee desire to retain in an organization, where the work environment provides them to learn new things that can enhance them both personally and professionally. Moreover, in terms of adopting the energy efficient initiatives, interaction between the government (external stakeholder) and organizations managing authorities (internal stakeholders) is occurred. The regulations for using the energy efficient appliances or products are utilized in order to diminish the environmental adversities of global warming and climate change (Beringer et al., 2013). This approach helps the Mantra on Kent to attract more customers as in recent times; consumers become more concern about the green technology. However, this follow up of the governing regulation in the business operations, makes the customer more satisfied and they will prefer to experience the services of this hotel accommodation facility. Thus, it can be concluded that, in order to perform business operations or to attain business objectives, interrelationship among the internal and external stakeholder are important as performance of one stakeholder (staff) affects the satisfaction of other stakeholder (customer). The higher the number of satisfied customers is attained by Mantra on Kent, the greater will be its brand reputation, customer retention and employee retention. References Beringer, C., Jonas, D., Kock, A. (2013). Behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio management and its impact on success.International Journal of Project Management,31(6), 830-846. Chan, E. S., Lam, D. (2013). Hotel safety and security systems: Bridging the gap between managers and guests.International Journal of Hospitality Management,32, 202-216. Collins, G. (2015). Ubiquitous wi-fi implementations in hotels: Key planning factors.White Paper. Decker, E. N., Townes, J. A. (2016). Going Vertical: Enhancing Staff Training Through Vertically Integrated Instruction.The Experiential Library: Transforming Academic and Research Libraries through the Power of Experiential Learning, 135. Fikru, M. G. (2014). International certification in developing countries: The role of internal and external institutional pressure.Journal of environmental management,144, 286-296. Ford, J. K. (2014).Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press. Grissemann, U., Plank, A., Brunner-Sperdin, A. (2013). Enhancing business performance of hotels: The role of innovation and customer orientation.International Journal of Hospitality Management,33, 347-356. Han, H., Yoon, H. (2015). Customer retention in the eco-friendly hotel sector: examining the diverse processes of post-purchase decision-making.Journal of Sustainable Tourism,23(7), 1095-1113. Hsiao, Y. H., Chen, L. F., Choy, Y. L., Su, C. T. (2016). A novel framework for customer complaint management.The Service Industries Journal, 1-24. Jehanzeb, K., Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study.Training and Development,5(2). Lazaroiu, G. (2015). Employee Motivation and Job Performance.Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, (14), 97-102. Leung, R., Law, R. (2013). Evaluation of hotel information technologies and EDI adoption: The perspective of hotel IT managers in Hong Kong.Cornell Hospitality Quarterly,54(1), 25-37. Mantra on Kent | Sydney Hotel Accommodation NSW | Mantra Hotels. (2017).Mantraonkent.com.au. Retrieved 10 March 2017, from https://www.mantraonkent.com.au/ Mishra, K., Boynton, L., Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications.International Journal of Business Communication,51(2), 183-202. Internship Progress Reports Torres, E., Kline, S. (2013). From customer satisfaction to customer delight: Creating a new standard of service for the hotel industry.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,25(5), 642-659. Nicolau, J. L., Santa-Mara, M. J. (2013). The effect of innovation on hotel market value.International Journal of Hospitality Management,32, 71-79. Pinheiro, R. (2015). The role of internal and external stakeholders. InHigher Education in the BRICS Countries(pp. 43-57). Springer Netherlands. Posavac, E. (2015).Program evaluation: Methods and case studies. Routledge. Rothaermel, F. T. (2015).Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Water Rating Water efficiency. (2017).Waterrating.gov.au. Retrieved 10 March 2017, from https://www.waterrating.gov.au/consumers/water-efficiency Weiss, J. W. (2014).Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.