About two years ago H&C News, fed up with publishing what seemed like a never ending amount of content related to our industry’s people and skills shortages, set out to try and better understand the issue.
The issue was it seemed at the time, one that was frustrating growth in our industry, but to group the issue as one facing all within it has proved erroneous.
Earlier this year our interviews editor, Emma Eversham spoke with Danny Pecorelli and post interview nudged me that she thought I would be particularly interested in what he had to say, I was.
Here’s part of the interview:
“If you want to retain staff it boils down to three things: Does an employer genuinely want to be a good employer, does everyone in the business live and breathe it, and have the right amount of people and resource been allocated to focus on it? If those three key things aren’t lined up, then it won’t work. Everyone talks about the pipeline and availability of people, but you don’t need new ones if you retain your existing ones. There will always be turnover but also if you are investing heavily in them and training them and looking after them then they can do better for your customers.”
The full interview can be read here
I met with Danny Pecorelli recently at Pennyhill Park, not about people and skills, and my experience visiting Pennyhill Park resonated with much of what he discussed with Emma.
Rather than wax lyrical about any one aspect of the visit, suffice to say that everyone I encountered seemed to know how to do their job and did it exceptionally well.
A pattern emerges, beacons of hospitality
Only a few miles down the road another beacon of hospitality can be found, Coworth Park. We held our Christmas dinner there in 2016, from that experience it is now an annual occasion, here’s last year’s verdict. Everyone of the team you encounter at Coworth Park know exactly how to do their job, and like their neighbours do it well.
A few years ago I met restaurateur Paulo de Tarso at his Covent Garden restaurant Margot. Paulo spent some time with me explaining his vision for Margot and his absolute passion for service. I had lunch that day at the restaurant, the food was excellent and the service better. I remember the day for the overall experience, Paulo’s passion for service had clearly been instilled across the Margot team.
The H&C News team have worked with CH&CO Group for a number of years, every interaction is professional and courteous making the company a pleasure to deal with. The CH&CO experience doesn’t change, it is consistent across every department, every person and every touchpoint.
The common denominator here is people, well trained people who know precisely how to do their jobs.
If we now re read Danny Pecorelli’s quote above again, it isn’t rocket science, but it is lived out, and that has to be the difference.
We all know we would be healthier if we exercised more regularly, doing the exercise is what’s needed to be healthier.
A few weeks ago, I read an article in LinkedIn – Let’s Do Something About Hospitality’s Staffing Crisis – by Jill Whittaker, MD at Hit Training. It inspired me to write this.
Jill’s article got me thinking and set an example for me to follow: hopefully the examples I have cited from Danny Pecorelli – Jonathan Ellson at Coworth Park – Paulo de Tarso – Tim Jones and team at CH&CO will also set an example for others in our industry to follow.
For any hospitality operator experiencing people and skills shortage difficulties, a visit to any of the venues mentioned above will demonstrate many people and skills lessons that can be learned and adopted.
If you would like to comment on my views, please head over to Facebook and let’s try and develop the discussion.