One of Birmingham’s leading academic conferencing venues, Conference Aston, is amongst the first in its industry to introduce the Living Wage across its hospitality team.
From 1st August, service staff within the organisation will receive a minimum of £8.25 per hour, greater than the government’s national minimum wage of £7.20 per hour. The introduction of the Living Wage coincides with the commencement of Conference Aston’s new contract with catering company Wilson Vale, which will be managing catering and hospitality services across the venue.
Samantha Brown, who took the reigns as head of Conference Aston at the start of the year, said that the introduction of the Living Wage was vital to the continued success of the venue.
“In the service sector, we are continually under pressure to deliver an exceptional level of service to our guests. It’s our outstanding employees, those who provide a five-star service every day, who are instrumental to those guest experiences. We need to ensure that they continue to be motivated to provide a high-quality service that will give our guests the best experience possible.
“We’ve taken a huge step, along with our new catering services provider Wilson Vale, to introduce the Living Wage and are amongst the first to do so within hospitality in the Midlands. We have some of the most experienced and capable staff in the region, and believe that an investment in them is critical to the future success of Conference Aston,” she said.
With a 163 bedroom hotel and over 55,000 hotel and conference guests per year, Conference Aston is Birmingham’s largest residential conferencing venue.
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