Hospitality Ambassador Program

Hospitality Ambassador Program

Program Background

The process evaluation for the hospitality ambassador program is comprehensive and well structured, providing the reader with all of the relevant information regarding the subject. The structure of the evaluation contains five main parts. These parts complement each other, as every one of them provides the information that the reader will need to understand the next section. The first part of the process evaluation contains a brief anecdote that explains the history of the program’s symbol, the pineapple. The hospitality ambassador program uses the pineapple as its symbol, because the fruit is a universal symbol of welcome. This paves the way for the second part of the process evaluation, where the document explains the purpose and procedure of the program.

The purpose and procedure section starts by explaining the goal of the hospitality ambassador program. By explaining the goal, the evaluation helps the people involved in the program understand what they are trying to achieve in the process and the issues that they should focus on. For clarity, the process evaluation first introduces the goal and explains the issues surrounding it then states it in a single sentence that includes all of the key issues. This ensures that everybody involved in the hospitality ambassador program understands exactly what the whole scheme expects of him or her. By explaining the goal of the program in a clear and succinct manner, the process evaluation helps to increase the efficiency of the people involved, as they understand the scope of their work (Stufflebeam & Shinkfield, 2007).

Another important element of the second section of the process evaluation covers the operating procedure for the program ambassadors. This part of the process evaluation outlines the responsibilities that the ambassador position entails and explains how the administrators will select people for the role. It also explains the way that ambassadors operate and helps them understand the manner in which they will meet the program’s goals. The section covering procedure is particularly helpful for managers because it explains their work systematically. The procedures section explains the days when ambassadors will carry out their work, how they will pay visits to the guests and the things that they will prioritize. The section also explains how the ambassadors should deal with any problems that they come across such as abuse, neglect and customer dissatisfaction.

The process evaluation also mentions clients and staff, albeit in brief. The document refers to both parties within the procedures section. In the section, it explains the role that ambassadors will have and the way that they will work with their administrators. It also mentions clients and the way that ambassadors should treat them. However, these mentions provide limited information on the clients and the staff. There is no part of the process evaluation that clarifies who the clients or provides non-specific descriptions. The situation forces the reader to make his or her own conclusions from items and issues that the process evaluation mentions. One such conclusion is that the clients are in need of special care, implying that they are either aged or chronically ill. Similarly, the only staff position that the process evaluation mentions is that of the administrator. While the evaluation explains the role of the administrator, it does not explain how other support staff will assist or what their work will entail.

The process evaluation has several strengths and weaknesses. Firstly, it clearly outlines the goal of the program thereby ensuring that all ambassadors will understand what they need to do within their roles. This makes it easier for them to carry out their work efficiently. The evaluation also provides details on the way that ambassadors should operate and all the work that they should perform. One weakness of the evaluation is a lack of emphasis on clients and the rest of the staff in the program. This ambiguity makes some issues unclear to the reader such as the nature of the clients and their specific needs. Accordingly, there should be further development of the section that discusses clients. There should also be further development in the part that deals with the rest of the staff. This is because staff cooperation is important for the success of any program (Royse, Thyer & Padgett, 2010). As such, the ambassadors should understand what their colleagues are supposed to do so that they can work better as a team.

Developing Feedback System and Disseminating and Communicating Results

The process evaluation contains a comprehensive feedback system that works in two ways. Firstly, the feedback system can help administrators test the ambassadors and see whether they understand the program, its purpose and other issues concerning it. Secondly, the feedback system collects information on the ambassador’s dignity rounds as a way of evaluating the performance of the program. In the first section, the process evaluation obtains feedback by asking the ambassadors several questions about the program through a simple true or false test. The test is not a critical part of the evaluation and it is not capable of collecting any comprehensive information regarding the ambassador’s understanding. The second section of the evaluation is far more comprehensive. It involves a checklist that collects information on the dignity rounds that ambassadors should carry out as a part of their work. The checklist covers a large number of tests and the ambassadors should confirm whether they have looked into them or not.

While the feedback test is not very helpful for the administrators, the checklist can help them understand whether their program is working. Through the checklist, the administrators can discover whether their program is actually helping the clients be comfortable. The checklist also helps the administrators determine whether the rest of the staff is carrying out its work properly. One fault in the feedback system is that it is fully reliant on the observations of the ambassadors. There should be further development in the feedback system to incorporate the views and opinions of the clients in a comprehensive manner. Additional development should also involve the feedback test, where the number of questions asked should be increased to make the assessment more detailed.

References

Royse, D. D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. (2010). Program Evaluation: An Introduction. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Stufflebeam, D. L., & Shinkfield, A. J. (2007). Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.