The Caterer interview
“It’s not just about the skill level, it’s also about the confidence”
programmes, sales programmes and reve- nue management programmes. They offer leadership and strategic management skills, especially for newly promoted supervisors. The programmes are generally 12 to 18 months long and a number are accredited. For example, the revenue management pro- gramme is accredited by a university, so there is a qualification at the end. We also have something called the Elevate programme, which is an accredited programme for people who typically have not received a third level of education. We also have Dalata Online, which has more
than 170 e-learning courses. When Covid hit we opened it to every employee, ranging from waiter to general manager. We have courses such as fire safety and others such as deliver- ing a good job chat, tips on how to interview, people management or even using Excel. During Covid, more than 120,000 courses
were taken and even in 2022, people took 113,000 courses, so you can see the level of engagement. We also have external courses, such as project management.
How do you retain staff? It’s about creating an employer brand that is people-first. It’s making sure people know who we are and that’s probably one of our challenges in the UK, because we’re relatively new to the market. There’s always going to be people who are
going to transition through the hotels, such as students who join us for a certain period of time and don’t want to necessarily stay within hospitality, but there are also people looking for a good career in our industry, and it’s about continually giving them the excitement and making sure their personal and career growth is supported at every single opportunity. We have to ensure our managers are well-trained in people management so they can support that journey, because it’s not just about the skill level, it’s also about confidence.
What other measures have you introduced to take care of your staff? We’ve put a huge investment in the past 18 months into our staff facilities and our staff meals, because when we were looking at what challenges people are facing, we know we can assist with the cost of living. We haven’t got staff houses, but in Ireland we had to look
26 | The Caterer | 26 January 2024 Clayton Hotel Glasgow
to India and Bangladesh for a number of our chefs and we sponsored their visas and brought them over. For a period of time we gave them housing within our hotels so they could get to know the area and where to rent, so although accommodation is not something we offer as a standard, it’s certainly something we can help with.
You mentioned hiring from overseas. Have you been affected by the rise in skilled worker visa fees? The increase in fees is another layer, another challenge and another cost. In the beginning, we found hiring from skilled worker visas wasn’t the easiest process to navigate and we engaged a solicitor to help us. We’ve since brought on 19 or 20 people through the skilled worker process. The main challenge is it’s not for every role. We need entry-level people but they don’t qualify for the visas, so that’s prob- ably where we’ve found it more difficult.
Where are staff shortages most acute? In the UK, we hire a lot of our housekeepers through a partnership with an agency, but chefs are difficult to source and obviously very skilled. There are lots of really great chefs all around the world, but we can’t always use visas for every position.
Have you noticed different demographics entering the workplace due to the staff shortages? We haven’t seen a huge shift from the older generation, but we also did a bit of a cam-
Clayton Hotel Bristol City
www.thecaterer.com
▲
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
