INTERNSHIP REPORT

By:
Khalid Khova
BCOM-BA/20/01/003
20010100060

Submitted to the Faculty of Commerce and Management

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of Bachelors of Commerce
(Business Information Systems)

MAGU
Lilongwe campus
9th June 2023

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
COMPANY PROFILE..........................................................................................................................3
Company vision.............................................................................................................................4
Company business.........................................................................................................................4
Mission statement..........................................................................................................................4
Company values.............................................................................................................................4
THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT.........................................................................................................4
The Front Office................................................................................................................................5
Task implementation......................................................................................................................7
Challenges encountered.................................................................................................................8
Solution to the challenges..............................................................................................................8
The Billing Office..............................................................................................................................8
Task implementation......................................................................................................................9
Challenges encountered...............................................................................................................11
Solution........................................................................................................................................11
Debtors’ Office................................................................................................................................11
Task implementation....................................................................................................................12
Challenges encountered...............................................................................................................13
Solution........................................................................................................................................13
The Accounting Office....................................................................................................................14
Task implementation....................................................................................................................14
Challenges encountered...............................................................................................................16
Solution........................................................................................................................................16
THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT....................................................................................16
Task implementation....................................................................................................................18
Challenges encountered...............................................................................................................27
Solution........................................................................................................................................28
RECOMMENDATION.......................................................................................................................28
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................28
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................29

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 INTRODUCTION

This internship report would like to report on the activities undertaken during the internship
program starting from 26th January 2023. I was granted an opportunity to work as an intern at
Taai Construction Limited company under supervision of Mr. Nyirongo. There I spent at
least a month and three weeks in the Human Resource office with Mr Nyirongo the Human
Resource manager, before transferring to crossroad on 20th March 2023. I transferred to
crossroads for the fact that working at crossroads opened up an opportunity for me to fully
access several departments which I had limited access to at Taai Construction Limited due to
their nature of business and conditions of operation. Therefore, this report will focus much on
my internship program at crossroads where I spent and learn much than at Taai Construction
Limited company. When I arrived at Crossroads, I was never assigned a single personal
supervisor. However, instead, as I was to rotate through various departments, where in each
department the head of department would take responsibility of personally teaching and
guiding me on how to do the actual work as well as monitoring and supervising my
performance during the course of working in such particular department.

Therefore, as per requirement for the award of Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Business
Administration at Malawi Assemblies of God University. This report will pay particular
attention to: the tasks given in various departments; and will also highlight the major strength
and weaknesses while offering some explanation for observable changes.

COMPANY PROFILE

Company overview

Crossroads Hotels is a Malawian Hotel company that operates in 2 properties located in

Lilongwe and Blantyre.

Striving to always offer relaxing stays and exciting times, Crossroads is renowned for its
excellence, sophistication, and elegance in hospitality. Guests are Crossroads priority and
Crossroads offer guests a distinguished and memorable stay with fine dining, relaxation,
efficient conferencing, soothing spa treatments, and invigorating gym activities.

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Crossroads Hotels is a family-owned business and as such understands the importance of
community and family which are the core values that Crossroads Hotels were built upon. The
Sacranie family has invested heavily in Malawi, specifically Lilongwe and Blantyre, helping
the economy thrive.

Company history

The first Crossroads Hotel was built in Lilongwe, by Shaanti Constructions Limited in 2004
with 101 rooms and world-class conferencing facilities. Shaanti Constructions Limited was
established in 1983 as a construction company establishing it as the first corporation of many
under ZST Investment Ltd. ZST is a wholly family-owned and run enterprise under Mr.
Haroon Sacranie, the Chairman, and his sons.

With the success of Crossroads Hotel Lilongwe, ZST added an additional Crossroads Hotel in
Blantyre which opened its doors in 2018 with more branches expected to open in the near
future.

Company vision

Crossroads main vision is to be the preferred destination of choice for customers in the
hospitality industry.

Company business

The crossroads hotel is the home away from home for its guests where genuine care and their
comfort is Crossroad’s concern.

Mission statement

The mission of crossroads is to thoroughly understand the needs of its customers and
consistently exceed their expectations though delivering the highest quality of personalised
service to them.

Company values

 Passion
 Innovation
 Integrity
 Commitment
 Team work

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 THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT

Finance is a term broadly describing the study and system of money, investments, and other
financial instruments. Therefore, finance is a term for matters regarding the management,
creation, and study of money and investments. Bird, Graham (2004). It involves the use of
credit and debt, securities, and investment to finance current projects using future income
flows. A company’s finance department serves a fundamental role in making financial
decisions for internal and external affairs.

To begin with, this report will explain the course in relation to tasks performed at work
during my internship period spent in the finance department. Upon my arrival at Crossroads
Hotel, I was introduced to the finance department as the first department to be allocated in.
Among others, I will explain tasks operated in the finance department. The finance office as
department at Crossroads Hotel is further broken down into several subdivisions due to the
nature of business at Crossroads Hotels. This was done for the purpose of diversifying work
in order to attain efficiency and high productivity.

These subdivisions include: the front office including reception; Debtor office, Billing office
and the accounting office. The finance department normally work hand in hand with the
reservations department for smooth operation and proper completion of tasks. The finance
department as the name suggest is the department that deals with issue to do with money. The
following explains how the divisions mentioned above, within the finance department work
complementary to each other and how I participated in work during my work placement and
tasks I was assigned therein.

The Front Office

The front office represents the customer-facing division of a firm. For example, customer
service, sales, and industry experts who provide advisory services are considered part of a
firm's front office operations.

Front office staffers typically have the most direct contact with clients. For most businesses,
the front office is the reception and sales area of the business. However, in the financial
services industry, front-office employees are typically those experts that generate revenue for
the company by providing direct client services, such as wealth management. Depending on

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the industry, the front office personnel of a company may be some of the lowest-paid
employees, including receptionists.

The front office at Crossroads hotel, is composed of the reception and the billing office.
Since, crossroad is in the hospitality industries it receives various visitor most of whom are
customers looking for a room booking or to make a reservation for function they are would
like to hold. This makes it inevitable that the company should have the reservation office and
the front office. The reception office therefore, is there to help the customers make the
bookings and help different visitors with first-hand information as necessary.

The receptionists and reservations officers use Apex management system to create bookings
and open accounts for customers or make a reservation. Apex management system is a
system that is generally used to by the company (crossroads hotel) to do various activities in
course of running business operations and dealing with customers. Among other functions, at
Crossroads Apex management system is used to do the following:

 Make a booking for customers

 Make reservations for customers
 Create an account for a customer
 Access customer’s accounts
 Allocate rooms for customers
 Create customer’s invoices
 Locate customer details
 Make customer’s payment follow up

Above are some of the things that are done by the company using Apex management system.
However, not every employee at Crossroads hotel have access to Apex management system.
This is due to sensitivity of the information in the system. Therefore, only eligible personnel
have access to Apex through accounts created for each employee. These employees are given
personal credential for accessing system for security reasons.

Upon my arrival at the finance department, I was oriented through the Apex management
system and for several days I was given thorough lessons on how to use and navigate through
the apex system. The provision of this orientation and lessons was personally done by the
chief supervisor of the front office Mr Msumba. Mr Msumba used his personal account and

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credentials to provide me with access into the system. He had taught me the functions of all
the features in the Apex system. Among others Mr Msumba personally taught me the
following:

 Make a booking for customers

 Check room availability
 Create an account for a customer
 Access customer’s accounts
 Allocate rooms for customers
 Create customer’s invoices
 Locate customer details
 Make customer’s payment follow up

After my lessons on Apex management system, I was able using my knowledge from the
above-mentioned lessons and more to do the jobs that could be done by the receptionist even
though I never operated as a receptionist.

Task implementation

Therefore, after completing learning Apex management system, for a couple of days I
operated with Mr Msumba in the section of front office supervisor. Several tasks were given
and I undertook them under his supervision. The following are tasks I undertook under the
supervision of Mr Msumba:

 To make a new booking a customer who is not yes in the system’s accounts
 To make a booking for a customer who is already in the system’s accounts
 To make enquiries with customers on the outstanding bills

Execution

To begin with, I spent some time familiarising myself with Apex management system and
navigating through icons in the system while carefully reading guidelines and instructions
given under each feature. And then following the steps as I was taught by Mr Msumba, I
started by creating a nonguaranteed booking for myself for practice and training purpose.
Then I went on making a booking for an account that was already created on the system. At
the beginning I was way too slow to finish one booing but as I consistently engaged myself in
doing it, I became familiar with it and I was able to make a booking within seconds. For the

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purpose of contacting customer, I reached out to the customer’s account details in the system
and extract customer’s contact details such as emails, phone number etc. Then using the same
system, I could check the payment made by the customer and the balances pending therein
and make a contact requesting the balance via calls, emails etc.

Challenges encountered

Despite my effort in trying to learn as much as could in the area. I was still challenged by the
fact that I was unable to do more practice in the system due to the fact that I did not have my
own Apex account and credentials that would allow me to access the system on my own.
Therefore, the only time I could use the system was when my supervisor could get me into
the system using his credentials which was seldomly happening. This resulted in slowing my
learning and understanding as well as familiarisation with the system.

Solution to the challenges

To deal with this challenge I made an arrangement with my supervisor so that I could be
coming earlier at work and since my supervisor also used to come as early that way, I was
able to find time to get him to provide me access into the system before the day gets busy.
During the day I also made sure to stick around close to him so that I can get exposure to
what he used to do in the system and learn as much as I can that way.

The Billing Office

Billing is an act or instance of preparing or sending out a bill or invoice. the total amount of
the cost of goods or services billed to a customer, usually covering purchases made or
services rendered within a specified period of time (Ishu Kumar 2021).

In simple terms, billing refers to the process of raising and sending invoices to customers and
requesting them to settle the dues. Invoices are documents that serve as a source of record-
keeping for businesses and as a means of requesting payment from customers (Ishu Kumar
2021).

After working for a significant period of time with Mr. Msumba at the front office section, I
went on to work at the billing section with Mr Kamponda and Ms Khatija as both my section
supervisors as well as work mates. Just like Mr Msumba, Mr Kamponda and Ms Khatija got
me oriented through the billing system and further taught me thoroughly how to run bills

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starting from the beginning up to the end where the bills are finally closed. Mr Kamponda
further taught me how to properly do the filing of the invoices for the closed bills.

The billing system

Crossroads as Hotel mainly deals in provision of services despite that it also provides services
involving tangible product such as restaurant where foods and drinks form part the main
services. Therefore, with such being the case, when the clients have consumed services at
Crossroads Hotel, at the end of the day a bill is supposed to be prepared for the clients to
make the payment. The billing process therefore, involves the following main tasks:

 Gathering details for consumed services

 Adding the required additional information (tourism levy, tax deduction)
 Adding necessary documents (LPOs, Withholding Tax exemption certificate)
 Running MRA
 Producing invoices

Task implementation

Billing process

The billing process at Crossroads Hotel involving getting the activities explained in the
paragraph above done properly. A thorough explanation of the billing process and the
activities involved therein goes as follows:

The process goes in two ways; the first one being when the client has arrived in person,
whereby, he/she is supposed to make the payments before leaving the hotel after service
consumption and the second way being when the clients has come under a company name
which has an account with crossroads whereby the payment is made later by the company
after the client has already left the hotel.

Therefore, when the client has arrived in person, and made the booking by the receptionists
and the client has signed the booking charge details of the booking are kept by the
receptionists. If the client goes on consuming other services that are not attached to the
booking charges receipts/dockets are also produced for such and payments are made
immediately.

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However, the case is a little bit different with second type of clients that actually come under
company names. This is because with these clients, the accounts are created for the
companies in system using the Apex management system, hence the amount charged for the
services consumed is charged to the company’s account. In this case, clients are only
supposed to sign the guest information folio and for the bill to be prepared for them and sent
to the company in request for the payments. These are the accounts that the billing section
normally get to work on often times.

The billing process therefore, starts with billing officer gathering the all the necessary
information required for a bill to be closed. This information includes; the details for the
consumed services which is found in the guest information folio together with its attached
dockets. This information contains the charges for the services rendered by the company to
the client and the products consumed by the clients. This information is taken from the
reception since the receptionists are the ones responsible for preparing these documents and
getting the guests sign them.

Once these documents are collected, then other additional document such as local purchase
orders are also collected from the reservation’s office, in cases where these are available and
necessary. After gathering all these information, then the billing officer prepares the invoice’s
addition necessary information which includes charges such as tourism levy charges and the
tax charges after running MRA. Once the MRA has been run and the invoice has been printed
then the withholding tax exemption certificate is attached to the invoices for issuing to the
client’s organisation and a copy is made for filing.

During my time working and learning at the billing section with Mr Kamponda and Ms
Khatija I was taught how to do these tasks properly and I familiarised with tasks involved in
the billing process by practically doing the tasks as assigned by my supervisors in this
section. However, the billing does not only end at producing the invoices. With the help of
my supervisors, I was also taught how to do statement reconciliation.

The filing system

Among other thing that I was taught at the billing section is how to do the filing of
documents. This is because, the billing section involves a lot of filing, which include filing
the LPOs, Invoices, Account Statements among other. At the finance department of
Crossroads Hotel, we used two types of filing systems. The first one being the

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manual/physical filing. This is the type of filing where we used shelves to keep the file boxes
named according to the contents and dates. This made it easier to access the filed documents
which is the primary purpose of filing.

The second types of filing we used was the electronic filing. With this type of filing, we used
the electronic folders created in the computers to file the document. The folders were labelled
accordingly to insure easy access. According to my observation electronic filing proved to be
the most efficient and effective way to file the document. This is because, it is easier and
faster than physical filing, it is also smarter as the files are not hanging all-over the office,
and more importantly is safer since the folders can be encrypted and the files can be uploaded
to the cloud for backup recovery in case of loss of data in the computer. Computer filing also
provides faster access to the file through the searching system where you only have to type
the name of the file you are looking for and before you finish typing the file pops up
immediately.

Execution

I was thoroughly taught how to do both physical and electronic filing and I spent much time
doing these tasks to the extent that I became very good at it and everyone in the finance office
trusted me with it. I used the photocopier machine to reproduce the invoices so that two
copies are produced, one to be filed physically and the other to be sent to the client for
payments. But before physically filing our copies, I made sure that I scanned them for our
own electronic filing and saved them properly in their belonging folders according to their
months of due.

Challenges encountered

The billing section is one of the crucial sections available at Crossroads since it is the section
that finalises all documentation for bill payment to be made. This being the case, this section
depends on reliable complete, updated and accurate information from the front office section.
However, it happens sometimes that an error happened in the front office which makes thing
complicated for the billing officers to finalise the closure of the bills hence causing
redundances.

Solution

When such cases arises where an error has occurred from the reception or at the reservation
or where incomplete information has been provided from such areas. Follow up was done

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immediately with such offices to make sure that proper information is recovered or an
explanation has been given. This then helped us to decide whether to continue with closing of
such invoice or not.

Debtors’ Office

Debtors’ office is another section within the finance department which I also had to go
through and learn more about the tasks involved therein. At the debtors’ section I worked
under the supervision of Mr Golden who happens also to be the debtor’s manager. Like every
other section mentioned earlier, I learnt through practice and observation how to operate as a
debtor’s managers.

I first got oriented through the system used in debtor management and was thoroughly taught
how to use the system. Mr Golden uses the same Apex management system along with other
systems like mail, Microsoft excel etc, for debtor management. I therefore, learned how I can
practically use these systems to do debtor management myself just like my supervisor does.

The whole concept about debtor management is to make sure that money owed to us by our
clients is paid effectively, which is on time to make sure that company have enough liquidity
to pay its suppliers, employees and other bills etc. Therefore, according to my observation I
found this area to be the pivotal point for the sustenance of the whole company’s operations.

When a client has consumed a service at Crossroads hotel under a certain company name, a
credit is charged to that company’s account and a debt is created in the Crossroad’s accounts
system. This now becomes the responsibility of the debtor’s manager to make a follow up
and ensure that the payments for these debts have been made accordingly.

Task implementation

Debtors Management Process

The process of managing debtors normally starts where the billing ends. The debtor’s
manager starts by following up on all the closed invoices in the electronic files. Then a data
reconciliation follows to ensure a match between the information and the figures charged on
the invoices with those in the client’s account in the Apex system. Then a statement is
produced showing all the amounts due to be paid by the client. The charges on the statement
include all previous unpaid bills and all current dues.

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The statement is then sent to the responsible client through email or physically a hard copy is
delivered where necessary with all the invoices attached. The purpose of the statement of
accounts in this case is to give a summery overview of all the invoices, and the invoices are
there to back up the statement in case of any doubts or reference need.

After these documents are sent to the clients and some clients are still taking time to pay
without reason to the company’s knowledge, it now becomes the responsibility of the
debtor’s manager to keep doing timely follow ups with those clients requesting the payments
to be made. These inquiries are made as often as necessary depending on the client’s
response. Such follow-ups were made either through phone call, Email/WhatsApp or
personal visits.

I was taught by Mr Golden how to do all these tasks and during our time together I had been
doing them whenever My Supervisor assigned me to do any. Above all I spent quiet some
good time doing the follow-ups on the accounts to be paid. Doing this has helped me build
personal confidence in dealing with customers and it allowed me to put my communication
skills to work and to even improve and develop more communication skills.

Execution

To accomplish the task of making the follow-up on the payments, I personally developed a
list of customers owing us the payments using excel sheet and the outline given to me by My
Supervisor. The sheet included the name of the company, contact details which were
extracted from each company’s account in the Apex management system and the amount
each company is owing to Crossroads. Then I had to make a call to each company on the list
and make a record of the response each company gave. Then I would deliver the responses to
My supervisor for decision making.

Challenges encountered

As always, a couple of challenges were faced during our work moments in the debtors’ office
especially upon dealing with customers. It turned out that the same way that most of us feel
intense and uncomfortable and sometimes even angry upon receiving bills although we had
enjoyed the services all the way, some of our customer also had the same feeling when
Crossroads invoices land on their desks. Thus, we face challenges inquiring the for payments
such that some of our clients when called for payment follow ups, they would respond with a
bad tone, some would ignore our calls, while some would make promises of paying at a

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certain date and not do so. Some client would make what I would call “negligent requests”
just to deliberately delay the payment. Such requests like asking for hardcopy of an invoice
that they already have a softcopy of. Despite all, the main challenge we face was however,
the delay of payment by most of our clients which in the long run affected our budget.

Solution

These several challenges mentioned above were dealt with differently. For instance, with
clients who responded with bad tone, as a company that values its customers, we would just
assume that maybe our client is having a rough day or is just in a bad mood for a while.
Therefore, we would politely end the conversation for that moment and contact them later.
For those who ignored our calls we would arrange a visit to check on them at the working
place and deliver the invoice and the financial statement copies by hand. For those who made
the negligent request we would only fulfil their request as soon as possible so that they can
also make the payment quickly. As with those who usually delayed the payment, we kept on
making regular follow up with them to make sure they pay.

The Accounting Office

The last section went through in the financial department is the accounting section. This is
where the general accounting for the whole Crossroads Hotel is done. My supervisor in the
accounting section was Mr Gangile who is also the accounting officer. Unlike the
aforementioned supervisors in finance department Mr Gangile has nothing much to do with
the Apex management system. Instead, as an accountant Mr Gangile uses the accounting
system known as SAGE.

Task implementation

The accounting section performs several tasks that help to acquaint decision makers within
and outside the company with proper financial information that helps them make right
decisions for the company. The account information generated by the accountant is used by
several individual for various reasons. For instance, internally, the information is used by the
administration and managers to decide how much fund allocate to each department and other
day to day decisions; it also informs how much supplies do a company need and what is the
current stock level; it also tells the company on how much it owes its supplier; and most
significantly it contains information on financial position of a company which acts as tool for
raising fund from investors in times of need. (Everett, et al 1996).

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Externally the information generated the accountant is used by the individuals like the
supplies who would like to know if the company is financially liquid to pay its supplier; the
auditor also uses the information to audit the company; the Malawi Revenue Authority
(MRA) uses the information to calculate the tax charged a company is supposed to pay to the
government. The accounting information is also used for several other purpose not mention in
this report. (Everett, et al 1996).

My accounting supervisor took me through the process of generating the accounting

formation throughout our time together. I was taught how to do different accounting tasks
including the following:

Calculating payments

When making payments for supplies, services etc. we deduct the withholding tax by doing
the following:

 First, we removed the Value Added Tax amount from the net charge and therefore, we
cut the withholding tax percentage from the remaining amount. After making these
deductions we then paid the remaining amount to our suppliers and service providers.
 Next, we paid the withholding tax amount to the Malawi Revenue Authority. These
were paid in arrears, therefore we paid it at the 25 th of the next months at the
necessary rate.
 Withholding tax was charged at the following rates at the time:
 For the Supplies: 3%
 For the services: 20%

Note: companies that are good tax payers and are trusted by the Tax authority are exempted
from the withholding tax payment. Crossroads is one of the companies that are exempted
from withholding tax payment. Such companies are given withholding tax exemption
certificate. Therefore, no withholding tax deductions are made on such company’s payment
for supplies or services they provide.

Stock valuation and stock management:

As accountants another task we used to do was the stock valuation. Crossroad Hotel operates
a bar and restaurant where food and beverages are served. These operations call for a need to

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have inventory of supplies to keep these operations running. Stock management is therefore
significant to ensure that the company does not run out of stock and to avoid having too much
product in stock.

Stock valuation:

One of the duties we timely executed as accountants in the accounting section was valuation
of the inventories in stock. This was done in order to ascertain the value in terms of cash to
the stocks that the company is having a particular time. Therefore, we did track the amount
stock items the company have in stock for a particular month both newly procured and those
that are transferred from the previous month to present month accordingly. Then we
calculated the numbers of the items multiplies by their cost per item to determine the value of
each kind. Then we summed up all the figure to determine the value of all kinds of items the
company has in stock. Keeping track of stock value also helps in times of emergencies such
as accidents or natural disasters to easily assess the damage level for insurance compensation.

Stock control:

Due to the nature of business at Crossroads the types of stock that is stored is mostly food
kind much of which is easily perishable. Hence, we used the First in First Out stock control
system. First in first out is also presented simply by the acronym FIFO, in theory, this means
the oldest inventory gets shipped out to customers before newer inventory. We used this
system at Crossroads for make sure that foods products in stock do not get damaged as a
result of overstaying in stock.

Challenges encountered

The challenge that I mostly faced in the accounting office was that I limited access to
information that I could learn due to the hierarchical arrangement of the system. This is
because I was working with Mr, Edward Gangile who was reporting to his senior Mr, Adil.
Therefore, my access to accounting information was limited to the information that was
handled by my supervisor Mr. Edward Gangile.

Solution

A definite solution to this problem was never devised, however, my supervisor had requested
from his senior on my behalf to allow me to have access to as much information as possible

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that goes through his office to the office of the senior accountant. This was agreed and I was
given the exposure to information as requested.

THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT

After spending quiet a reasonable period working and learning in the finance department, I
moved to the Human Resource department. In the human resource department, I worked and
studied under the supervision of Mr. Masanda who is also the Human Resource Manager. In
this department I learn a lot of things required to be done by the Human resource personnel.

Office Orientation

During my first days in the human resource office, my supervisor got me oriented through the
tasks that are done in the human resource department. First and foremost, Mr Masanda
introduced me to the filing system. Although I had already gained quite some experience in
the area of filing during my period of work in the finance department, I was still exposed to
some new style of filing which I did not use when I was at the finance department.

I noticed that there was a little difference in the filing system that was used in human
resource department with that which we used in the finance department. These differences in
filing style arisen due to difference in the types of information that we used to file. For
instance, the information we normally filed at the finance department was mostly business
related such as invoices which required that we file them according to date.

Whereas in the human resource department we used to file information that was mostly
personal such as employee’s personal files. Unlike the invoices which were filed in shelves,
personal files were filed in the cupboard in drawers labelled according to the departments of
the employees. Therefore, most of the information in the files in human resource was
internal e.g., employee file etc. while most of information in finance department files was
external e.g., customer invoices etc.

Another new thing that I learned in the human resource department was the system of
disposing files. There are several reasons why files need to disposed such as when the files
have exceeded maximum shelf life, when files can no longer be used by anyone etc. in such
case the files need to be cleared off the shelve/drawers, however this is not just done
unnecessarily. It follows a well-defined exposal procedure. For example, in the human

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department we used a system where we used to have two drawer sets whereby one could be
used to store active files for instance, files of the employees that are still working at the
company. The others were for keeping files for those employees that have left the company.

Therefore, when an employee has left the company, his file is immediately removed from
among the active files to the inactive file drawer set. The drawers for inactive files were
define by the length of period through which the files have stayed. Such that, when the need
arises for the clearing of the drawers to create space for newer inactive file, the oldest files
would be take out for disposal. Disposed files where therefore burned to secure sensitive
information from landing into wrong hand.

During the orientation my supervisor also showed me every other specific file and form are
kept and how they are kept. Then my supervisor went further introducing me into the
computer system used for several purposes in the office. However, in systems nothing was
particularly strange as I was also familiar with the system used which was mostly Microsoft
Word, Microsoft excel and the Outlook which was used for send and receiving emails.

Task learning

After the orientation was done as explained above. My supervisor got into me into thorough
learning of the tasks, processes and procedures that are done and followed by the human
resource personnel during the course of working. This was done practically through
observation and practice. During my period in the human resource department, I learned and
did several tasks including the following:

 Labour law
 Employee recruitment
 Attendance record
 Employee assessment
 Contract termination
 Facilitating promotions
 Preparation of monthly and salary advances
 Handling disciplinary matters
 Handling employee personal affair
 Processing employee’s annual leave

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Task implementation

Labour laws

Labour laws are a set of regulations that govern how employees are treated in the workplace.
Labour is an organization's most valuable asset, and labour laws should be strictly enforced to
ensure that their rights are protected and not exploited. It governs businesses, workers, and
trade unions. Non-compliance with the law may expose the organization to fines, penalties,
lawsuits, credibility, loss of contract, and possibly even business closure. Over the years,
there have been multiple lawsuits based on discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful
termination, breach of contract, wage law violation, violation of a person's civil rights which
could be either unintentional(negligence) or intentional, etc. For instance, not commenting on
the merits of the case, Infosys faced a lawsuit in 2018 by a former employee for failure to pay
overtime. In 2020, many companies like Amazon, Disney, Google, etc., also faced lawsuits
by their former employees. (Aguinis, 2021).

Labour law compliances are not limited to filing returns; these records serve as evidence for
law compliance and must be provided to authorities in the event of any discrepancies. Some
laws are only applicable in specific work contexts, while others apply to all organizations.
The role of HR in industries like manufacturing where the issues like minimum wages,
occupational safety, and working conditions are of prime importance while services
industries like IT, the primary focus is on employee satisfaction, equal opportunity, non-
discriminatory work environment, and future career prospects.

Human resources (HR) professionals are in charge of strategically managing employees of

the organization while adhering to regulations that govern employee rights and employer
obligations. An HR manager needs to know the labour laws of the country in which they
work because the majority of core HR functions are linked to and governed by the labour
laws of the concerned country.

Any employee grievance is handled first by HR. They try to address the grievances as per the
law and the company's policies. The grievance is then routed through various departments
and channels to ensure that the aggrieved employees receive adequate relief. There may be
numerous issues between management and employees. HR managers should address them as
soon as possible. If the issue is not resolved on time, it may lead to litigations that are time-
consuming and costly and may also impact the company's brand image. When an HR

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manager is well-versed in labour laws, he/she/they can resolve conflicts timely in accordance
with the law and save cost.

execution

To ensure that I am rightfully groomed in the field of human resource management gave me a
task to read the employment act. He also assigned me to read the crossroads hotel human
resource policy manual. This was done to ensure that I am acquainted with proper rules
governing labour relation. To ensure my understanding of the act, when a case is presented
which required considering the law for the decisions to be made there in, Mr Masanda would
ask me to provide an opinion on how the matter should be handled legally. To which he
would guide me when I happen to provide a wrong answer or miss a point somewhere.

Employee Recruitments:

Employee Recruitment alludes to the overall process of drawing in, shortlisting, choosing and
delegating appropriate possibility for employments (either lasting or transitory) inside an
association. Recruitment can likewise allude to processes associated with picking people for
unpaid jobs. Managers, human resource generalists and recruitment masters might be
entrusted with completing recruitment, however now and again open segment business
offices, business recruitment offices, or pro inquiry consultancies are utilized to attempt
portions of the process. Internet-based advancements which bolster all parts of recruitment
strategies have gotten across the board.

Sourcing is the utilization of at least one employee recruitment method to draw in or

distinguish the possibility to fill work opening. It might include inside and additionally, outer
recruitment promoting, utilizing fitting media, for example, work gateways, nearby or
national papers, online life, business media, expert employee recruitment media, proficient
productions, window ads, work focuses, or in an assortment of ways by means of the internet.

Then again, managers may utilize employee recruitment consultancies or organizations to

discover in any case rare applicants—who, as a rule, might be content in the present positions
and are not effectively hoping to move. This underlying exploration for up-and-comers—
likewise called name age—produces contact data for potential competitors, whom the
enrolment specialist can then attentively contact and screen

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At Crossroads hotel the recruitment process starts where the vacancy arises due to the loss of
an employee holding a particular position for any other reasons or where there is a need to
add more employee due increase in work capacity. Thereafter, the job is advertised within the
company for internal recruitment where necessary. Otherwise, we considered the applications
letters already sent by external applicants since Crossroads do not conduct external job
advert. Therefore, a short listing is done from the application and the applicant are invited for
the interviews. The successful applicant from the first round of interviews is then invited for
the second round of interviews from which the right applicant doomed successful during
these interviews is hired. Upon hiring the employee is place on a three-month probation
period where he/she is accessed to see if he/she is actually capable of doing the job.

execution

During the recruitment process I was assigned various task including taking employee’s
personal detail which was done by getting the employee to fill in his/her details in the
employment application form. Another task was producing the employment contract form for
the newly recruited employees. I did this by filling in the employee’s particulars in the
needed to be put in the employee’s contract and in the template designed for the company.
This contract document is then given to the new employee to be thoroughly read and sign if
they agree with it. I also with given opportunities to attend the interview for new employee as
an independent member of the panel and I was allowed to asked some question to the
interviewees.

The attendance records:

Another duty that is done by the human resource manager at crossroads is handling the
attendance register. It is a requirement according to the company policy that every employee
should fill in the register upon reporting for duty and also when exiting during knockoff time.
When these registered are signed our duty as human resources officers were to feed the
information into the system for internal budget analysis and other uses. I personally recording
of this information into the system upon my supervisors’ requests.

Employee assessment:

Employee assessments are a process by which an employer evaluates an employee's skills,

abilities, and performance. The purpose of the assessment is to identify any areas in which

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the employee may need additional training or development in order to be successful in their
current or future role.

Employee assessments offer a variety of benefits for both employers and employees. For
employers, assessments can help to improve employee productivity, identify training needs,
and assess employee fit for specific roles. They can also help to reduce turnover rates and
improve communication within the organization. For employees, assessments can provide
feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, identify opportunities for growth, and help to
match them with roles that are a good fit for their skills. In addition, assessments can help
employees to develop a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, which
can be helpful in making career choices.

Employee assessments are used by a variety of people in the workforce. Supervisors use them
to evaluate employee performance and to identify areas in which employees may need
additional training. Employees use them to get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses and
to identify goals for personal growth. Managers use them to identify employees who may be
candidates for promotion. Recruiters use them to identify candidates for specific jobs. And
HR professionals use them to develop a profile of the ideal employee for a particular position.

execution

As human resource officers we were also involved in conducting employee assessment in

cooperation with the departmental supervisor. Employee assessments at Crossroads are
normally done for the purpose of job evaluation, employee promotion, and sometimes the
assessments were done to assess the capability of the employees on probationally period to
see if they are fit for the job they are hired for. In this case after the assessment
recommendations are made for employees to be fully hired as a permanent employee or not.
Therefore, the human resource officer takes the assessment report to the general manager for
approval.

Contract termination:

A contract is a legally binding document that ties two or more parties to an agreed set of
terms and conditions. They are the groundwork for a business relationship, establishing each
parties’ obligations. However, the involved parties must have an exit clause if their
circumstances change and they cannot meet their agreed terms and conditions.

22
Therefore, contract termination is legally ending the contract before one or more of the
parties have met their agreed obligations. Only the parties that have signed the contract can
terminate the contract. In other words, it is when one party to a contract wishes to end the
contract before the other party can fulfil the agreement. A simple example would be when a
client terminates the services contract with a law firm in line with the termination agreement
in the terms and conditions.

Execution

Termination of contract of employment is something that seldomly occurs in organisations.

However, I was privileged to witness one incident where a contract was terminated during
my course the human resource office. This contract was terminated by the employer which is
the Crossroads hotel through the human resources office. The contract was terminated during
the employee’s probationally period as a result of the employee deemed unfit for the position
employed for. The report came from the department supervisor informing the human
resources office that the employee has proven unfit for the position hired for after the
assessment. Therefore, his services are no longer required at the department. After presenting
the report to the human resource manager the for approval of the decision which the manager
actually approved to go through.

Thereafter, the human resource manager started the processing documentations for contract
termination. A two weeks warning was given to the employee as he was on probationally. If
the employee was on permanent contract, one month warning would have been issued.
Therefore, his due payments and all his benefit were given to the employee accordingly
together with documentation for the employee to sign as an agreement. The task I was
assigned during this termination process was to prepare contract termination warning letter
which I did under my supervisor’s guidance and directions.

Facilitating promotion:

Employee Promotion means the ascension of an employee to higher ranks. It involves an

increase in salary, position, responsibilities, status, and benefits. This aspect of the job drives
employees the most. The ultimate reward for dedication and loyalty towards an organization
Aguinis, H. (2013). In theory, a promotion requires more work and effort in a job. Based on
organizational policies, these promotion-based decisions are taken on different aspects. These
can be the length of service, experience, seniority, performance, etc.

23
Execution

Through my stay in the human resources office, I have witnessed the several promotions
some of which I was involved by helping with some tasks that as I was assigned by my
supervisor. The employee to be promoted was first assessed to the his/her departmental
supervisors who afterwards issue a recommendation letter to the office of human resource for
the promotion the employee. The human resource officer then takes the latter to the general
manager for approval of such. If the Manager approves the then a promotion letter was
compiled to be signed by the human resources manager and the general manager and then
issued to the employee being promoted. My actual task in this process was the compilation of
the promotions letter as assigned by my supervisor.

Preparation of monthly payments and salary advances:

A salary is the regular payment by an employer to an employee for employment that is

expressed either monthly or annually. In other word, it means fixed compensation paid
regularly for services. Salaries vary between employees based on the perceived value of the
job that each employee is hire for. Therefore, jobs are ranked after job valuation, whereby
higher valued job are paid more and lower valued are also paid lower.

According to Shirley Daniels, (1997) there are various strategies used by different companies
to make such compensations including: the Going Rate Model. where analysis of the going
rate for a particular job at a particular time is considered when creating the compensation
package; Management Fit Model, in which each manager makes a decision about who should
be paid what when that person is hired.

While the above mentioned are considered the common some employers also consider the
following:

Skill-based pay. With a skill-based pay system, salary levels are based on an employee’s
skills, as opposed to job title. This method is implemented similarly to the pay grade model,
but rather than job title, a set of skills is assigned a particular pay grade.

Competency-based pay. Rather than looking at specific skills, the competency-based

approach looks at the employee’s traits or characteristics as opposed to specific skill-set. This

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model focuses more on what the employee can become as opposed to the skills he or she
already has.

Broad-banding. Broad-banding is similar to a pay grade system, except all jobs in a particular
category are assigned a specific pay category. For example, everyone working in customer
service, or all administrative assistants (regardless of department), are paid within the same
general band. McDonald’s uses this compensation philosophy in their corporate offices,
stating that it allows for flexibility in terms of pay, movement, and growth of employees
(McDonald’s Corporation, 2011).

Variable pay system. This type of system provides employees with a pay basis but then links
the attainment of certain goals or achievements directly to their pay. For example, a
salesperson may receive a certain base pay but earn more if he or she meets the sales quota.

Payment system at Crossroads Hotel:

At Crossroads we use the Management Fit Model. In this model, each manager makes a
decision about who should be paid what when that person is hired. Therefore, when hiring
employees negotiated the pay with employee where we used to offer the employee the
amount we deemed fit for their post. However, in my observation I have noticed that there
may be downsides to this model which may be potential discrimination, halo effects, and
resentment within the organization. As a result, these factors can create morale issues, which
is the exact thing we want to avoid when compensating employees.

Execution

Our role as Human Resource Officers was preparation of the monthly payroll-updates for the
employees to be paid at the end of every month. After making the payroll-update, the next
thing was to present it to accountant office for the processing of the payment. The updates
were made for the purpose of including the employees that have newly joined and removing
those that have left the company. However, on the same issue of payments, we were also the
in-charges of controlling the mid-month salary advance recovery.

Salary advance:

A salary advance is a short-term credit benefit or loan an organization may offer employees.
With the Mid Monthly Advance of Salary, you can receive up to half of your salary as an

25
advance, which will be paid at the mid-point of each month. The amount is then recovered
from your salary at the end of that month.

At Crossroads hotel each employee willing to obtain mid-month salary advance is given a
form by the human resource office to fill in form of applying for advance recovery. My duty
was to provide the employees with those forms and helped them sign wherever my help was
needed. These forms were signed before mid-month and when the mid-month arrives the
advances were prepared and given to the employees by My supervisor. Employee are
required to sign another form proving they have actually received the money.

Thereafter, at the end of the month when the payroll has finally been prepared another task
that was done by the HR was preparation of the payslips. I was assigned in-charge of
preparing the payslips by my supervisor. I even made a significant contribution in the area by
designing an Excel Payslip template which was proved to be simple, fast and easy to use.
When I presented it to my supervisor, he loved it and suggested we use it instead of the one
that was used before which was in Word design and was not as efficient as the Excel one that
I designed.

Handling disciplinary matter:

Among others, one of the issues we used to deal with in Human Resource Office were
matters concerning discipline. As a requirement every employee or employer is liable to
abide by the company’s code of conduct and all company policies, failing which necessary
enforcement shall be undertaken and where necessary consequences shall follow. Therefore,
at Crossroads like many other companies we had a disciplinary committee responsible for
resolving issues concerning discipline and enforcing company laws.

The committee was made of several departmental representatives including the Human
Resource Officer who also acted as the committee secretary and employee union member
representatives. I was lucky to have attended two disciplinary matters where I was able to
observe and learn how matters concerning discipline are supposed to be handled. I was also
able to related this to my knowledge on such matters from my studies in business law,
corporate law and also conflict management.

Execution

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When an issue requiring disciplinary hearing is presented to the HR’s Office. The HR first
evaluate the matter to see if it really needs to presented to the disciplinary committee or can
be handle within the HR’s Office. If the issue is deemed worth being handled by the
disciplinary committee. The HR Officer requests the complainant to present the complaint in
a written form. When complainant completes this task, then the issue is presented to
defendant who is also asked to present his/her written response on the matter.

Upon receiving written documents from both the defendant and the complainant, the Human
Resource Officer as a secretory in agreement with chief of the disciplinary committee writes
disciplinary hearing letters inviting all members of the disciplinary committee including the
complainant and the defendant to a disciplinary hearing meeting that is scheduled to be held
on specified date, at specified time and place.

During the meeting, firstly the chairperson addresses the audience and introduces the case to
the committee. There after the claimant is asked to orally present his claim. When the
claimant finishes, the defendant is also asked to defend himself/herself. Then upon hearing
from both side members are asked to ask some questions to the two parties or ask for
clarification if required. After that the defendant and the claimant are asked to leave for a
while from the meeting for the committee member to discuss the decision on the matter.
When the defendant is found guilty according to the company law and code of conduct, the
decision is then made on the consequences of the offence committed according to the laws
and policies.

Challenges encountered

A lot of challenges are faced by human resource managers that need to carefully dealt with.
As a human resource manager sometimes, people fill intimidated having you around.
Employees sometimes feel unsafe around you because they fear that you might end up
terminating their job someday.

As a result, the employees feel like you are siding with administration/employer and against
them. This fear also applies in the administration/management. On the other hand, since as a
human resource manager you have the power to criticise or condemn actions of the
management/employer when they go against the law. Sometimes you are seen as a barrier to
some strategies that seem to be profitable to the organisation but unethical in nature.

27
Due to this, human resource managers are most likely to be manipulated by either the
employees or the employees to side with them in order to get away with some bad actions.
This might be done through bribery, sexual manipulation, threats and other forms of
corruption.

Solution

To deal with such issue, my supervisor advised that it is very significant that we stick to our
ethical moral and to always follow the law. It is important that human resource officer remain
neutral to both the employees and the employer. Human resource managers should be people
with integrity and willing to serve justice at all cost. Therefore, where ever the employer is
wrong they should criticise and provide guidance and where the employee is wrong, they
should also serve justice according to the law.

RECOMMENDATION

After understanding the areas and expertise in the human resource office and other
department, I have noticed the underuse of technology in the several areas of work. For
instance, the Human Resource being such a vital office that deal with not only every
department within the organisation but also other important outside organisations that help
smoothen and successful running of the organisation, more use of technology would help
ease some tasks. For instant, job application letters could be sent electronically and be filed
the same way, an automated system for preparing payslips could be developed, a well-
structured communication network between departments could be developed so that
documents should be moved electronically through various offices, an employee personal
portal account could be developed where memorandums, forms like leave forms, sick leave,
advance recovery form and other could be attached ready for use.

CONCLUSION

During my internship experience I have been able acquire many skills, experience and
knowledge as elaborated in the report above, thanks to Crossroads Hotel and its management
team. I have gained high level practical expertise in my field of expertise as well as other
diversified areas of expertise. I have been able to apply and prove the practical usefulness of
the knowledge I have acquired during my 3 years studies at the university. I am now

28
confident that I am fully capable of handling office work in my area of expertise and I am
ready to work with any organisation.

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 REFERENCES

Bird, Graham (2004), International Finance and the Developing Economies, Palgrave

Macmillan.

Everett, R.E., Lows, R.L., and Johnson, D.R. (1996). Financial and Managerial Accounting
for School Administrators. Reston, VA: Association of School Business Officials
International.

Shirley Daniels, (1997) "Back to Basics with Productivity Techniques", Work Study, Vol. 46
Iss: 2, pp.52 – 57.

Aguinis, H. (2013). Performance Management (3rd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Ishu Kumar (2021), The Implementation of Improved Billing System

https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fijsrcseit.com%2F

McDonald’s Corporation, (2011). Annual Report.

"Front office." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 31 May 2023.

<https://www.definitions.net/definition/front+office>.

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