How to treat your staff

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary, T&G union "Anybody in business knows that the standing of your reputation can mean either business success or failure. The role of the workforce in reputation-building is critical.

The recent Gate Gourmet debacle has highlighted to all that bad management and ill-conceived decision-making can put any business on the critical list. The initial standpoint taken by Gate Gourmet went against every grain of business sense taught on MBA programmes and practised by any decent businessman or woman.

Outsourcing and the client/contractor relationship are hot topics in most industries, including hospitality. It's clear clients can no longer make impossible demands on contractors, putting financial pressure on them to deliver cost savings that become impossible without stringent cuts in labour costs, threatening quality.

Any business must consider the effects of decision-making on the workforce. Every business needs a well-motivated and productive workforce, but this is not always the reality. All workers need to have respect from their employer through a degree of autonomy at work and decent terms and conditions, including pension entitlement. That is my message to client and contractor alike.

The hospitality industry could also increase productivity by continuing to build on areas of staff development. For example, reputable contractors deliver decent training for high-end staff such as head chefs, but don't always deliver the same for the rest of the workforce.

Quality training needs to be accessible to all workers to boost motivation and retention.

The Caterer Group's Best Places to Work Awards offer the chance for forward-thinking businesses to enhance their reputation. If it's true that the companies that succeed get the best out of their staff, then it follows that good employment practices will be increasingly important to good reputation."

Philippe Rossiter, chief executive, HCIMA "According to a recent report published by the Royal Bank of Scotland, only 27% of graduates working in hospitality are satisfied with their employment conditions, lying at the bottom of the rankings of all graduate professions. This compares with an overall satisfaction rating of 54% across all sectors. While pay and hours of work are the main contributors to this low level of satisfaction among graduates, fewer than one in five (18%) are satisfied with their training and development.

Although the worst-paid graduates are to be found in administration, and those working in the military or law enforcement sectors have the least time off, it's the scale of dissatisfaction registered by the graduates employed in hospitality that is worrying.

At a time of increased skills and labour shortages, we cannot afford to be complacent. The most telling statistic relates to training and development. If a climate of nurturing and guidance is not in place at this sensitive time when young men and women enter the world of work, can we be surprised if they register their unhappiness by moving to other sectors?

One way of improving this situation is to ensure young men and women are better prepared before entering the industry. A report based on the CBI's 2005 Employment Trends Survey states: "Work experience plays a key role in ensuring the future employability of young people… it is also highly valued by young people who feel that it provides them with important skills."

However, the report also comments that work experience hasn't yet reached its full potential. In the same context, industry placements form an important element of most hospitality graduate programmes. Yet all too often these are poorly managed and supervised, with many organisations devoting little time and intellectual effort towards making this experience meaningful and stimulating.

At this crucial stage of their education, those undertaking such placements are vulnerable to adverse influences, and it's unfortunate there is so much anecdotal evidence of undergraduates being put off by a poor placement.

Of course, there is much good practice throughout the industry. As the industry's professional management association, the HCIMA has a clear role to play in this area by providing opportunities for graduates to develop their competence and knowledge. Its versatile and easily accessed Continuing Professional Development (CPD) facility is a useful tool to encourage managers to track and record their acquisition of skills and knowledge. Against the background of a new range of industry-specific and user-friendly qualifications currently under development by the association, the CPD framework now in place will support managers throughout their careers.

Yet the HCIMA cannot act in a vacuum, and the industry has to share the responsibility of creating a culture where access to lifelong learning, sympathetic mentoring and the creation of real development opportunities is the norm."

Gareth Osborne, managing director, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation "Attracting, recruiting and retaining skilled staff is a persistent challenge for all businesses. The launch of the Caterer and Hotelkeeper Best Places to Work awards will bring much-needed attention to this crucial area, and highlight shining examples from which the hospitality industry and beyond can learn.

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the catering sector, with celebrity chefs making it a cool career choice. But this has had its downsides, with some high-profile examples of bullying chefs.

The reality is that for every loud-mouthed or short-tempered manager, there are hundreds of good chefs, bar owners and hotel bosses who inspire their staff and help them to develop personally and professionally.

In a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey into sickness absence, the average worker in the food and drink industry took 11.2 days off, costing employers an average of 588 per employee. Making staff want to come to work is the first battle; the next is keeping them there. Worryingly, the average UK employee now moves jobs every two years.

Finding the right people to work for your company is vital to its long-term success and there is no better way of attracting the top candidates than being recognised as an excellent employer. A common mistake employers make is focusing on recruiting new staff and taking their attention from retaining existing employees.

Independent of geographical location, organisations need to be a preferred employer in the marketplace to attract and retain the best talent. This can be achieved by promoting a flexible, balanced and rewarding business culture.

Employee surveys show that a lack of career development opportunities is one of the main reasons for staff turnover. So if you don't have a structured training programme, you need to set one up.

But it's no good dictating it from on high. Ask staff what training they would value and tailor it to suit them. Training doesn't have to be expensive external courses. It could be workshops run by senior colleagues, friends and contacts from different sectors to give a different perspective.

An employer should stay in touch with employees through formal and informal channels of communication. The key is to make it regular, be it staff surveys, discussion groups, team outings or establishing a reviews programme. Appraisal also plays an important part in the employee/manager relationship, as well as enhancing teamwork and morale. Everyone needs to know how well they're doing.

The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For gets thousands of nominations from UK employees and is a key benchmark against which companies can judge their performance. I'm sure the Caterer Group's Best Places to Work in Hospitality will become a similar benchmark for good employers in this sector."

What do the judges look for?

The judges will be looking for evidence of enthusiam and fun as well as benefits. Entrants should demonstrate the commitment of their business to staff development, particularly highlighting examples of creativity. What range of skills is developed? How integrated is the learning? What is the balance between internal and external training?

The judges will also look at the extent to which being a good place to work feeds back into adding more value to the business, ie, through better service, quality, and customer understanding.

Who are the judges?

• Bob Cotton, chief executive, British Hospitality Association
• Philippe Rossiter, chief executive, Hotel & Catering International Management Association
• Anne Pierce, chairwoman, Springboard
• James Kidd, associate of employment lawyers Eversheds
• Gareth Osbourne, managing director, Recruitment and Employment Federation
• Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary, T&G union
• Brian Wisdom, chief executive officer, People 1st
• Rob Willock, editor, Personnel Today

How to enter

Do you run a successful business and treat your staff well? Why not get greater recognition for your achievements? Enter the Caterer Group's Best Places to Work in Hospitality Awards 2006. Click here for an application form.