Elior UK is a Management Company with a number of Operating Companies in the UK. Each covers a different type of catering in either the contract, or concession fields. Sectors include Business & Industry, Heritage, Venues, Education, Stadia, Leisure Centres, Healthcare, Retail, Defence, and Travel.
The Operating Companies are: Avenance, digby trout Restaurants, Azure, and Eliance Restaurants.
Opportunities within the group, therefore, are many and various; by the end of 2005, they will be catering to over 1,000 locations in the UK, including Ireland. In addition to these significant operational openings the Company has a number of support departments, including Marketing, Sales, Design, Purchasing, HR, and Vending. Career paths can therefore follow diagonal, as well as vertical routes.
Elior UK believes that employees need to be nourished with information from the day they join the Company. All new employees undertake an induction at two levels, one is the ‘on site’ induction to their place of work, key people, facilities, and so forth; the other is the Company induction, where they will learn more about the group as a whole, both in the UK, and across Europe.
With the recruitment process, there is a clear Company policy that all vacancies are advertised internally. These will appear on the Company’s intranet site, which can be accessed at every restaurant, or office; copies are also placed on notice boards.
HR Pathways, and the Communications Policy, are two key Company documents, which cover every aspect of an employees’ career, in the former, and how they are kept informed with the latter. Recognising that communication is a two way process, there is upward, as well as downward, guidance. Indeed, recognising the important role that every member of staff plays, there is a National, and International, initiative – ID’Elior – which allows all employees to submit their ideas, to make the Company better, or to enhance the Customers’ experience.
There are regular performance reviews, where performance is evaluated, and training agreed; these will be either undertaken by in-house trainers, or by external companies, depending on the need, or area of expertise. These training opportunities are available to all members of staff: Elior UK recognises the advantage of retaining staff by motivating, and training them. Something that many might claim, but as demonstration there are examples of many employees that have been nurtured and progressed within the Company; to give but three examples of individuals who joined Avenance as chefs; one is now a Regional Managing Director, one the Director of Catering Services for Marks & Spencer, and the other the Director of Communications.
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