About The Red Carnation Hotel collection

Every hotel General Manager is issued with the questions that accompany the company’s Message of the Month which is taken from the Top 12 Service Values. The question can be asked every day at the morning meeting which historically a meeting is held in every hotel at around 10am each morning. It is attended by a representative from each department. The representative can then ask the question at the shift start or shift handover. This ensures that on a daily basis the values are truly lived as examples are given and shared of how to work by the principles of the company. On top of this, each employee is given the opportunity to take part in a quiz around the Top 12 too where prizes can be won. At each GM tea party, employees are rewarded for giving examples of their own work performance that shows they are living the values of the organisation and they are also publicly rewarded with a "Catch a Star" for any really good examples that are shared. This ensures the key messages are repeated by less experienced team members. Our GMs know that this repetitive but example-led approach works well and the commitment to do it is prevalent throughout.

A high percentage of the company’s managers are home grown and the company therefore ensure they have the opportunity to receive training prior to promotion, to enable them to take on new responsibilities and tasks. The company have two training courses that are aimed at supervisors and assistant managers specifically, Ambassadors in Management (AIM) 1 & 2. They cover subjects such as, workplace communication, motivating a team to perform, induction and coaching, dealing with change, time management, problem solving skills, influencing and negotiating amongst others. Once managers, there is a range of foundation management courses they must attend, such as Health & Safety for Managers, Appraisal skills, Recruitment & Selection, and how to manage people and their performance. We call this AIM 3. For Heads of Department, senior managers and general managers there is a course called “Championing our Elite” which covers project management, managing a budget, leadership and management skills. The company has mentors for junior managers and for our graduate programme participants which helps support, nurture and challenge the managers of the future. All those on the graduate management programme have quarterly meetings with our Managing Director which is both a great development opportunity and support for individuals as they progress through their programme.

After a member of staff was mugged, the company decided to run some personal safety training to help with this. The training was free of charge to all employees, on company time and included a free alarm for all attendees to take away with them. During this training, all concerns are aired and many helpful tips are shared. Feedback from the staff has been positive throughout. In some areas of the hotel (eg. Kitchen and Maintenance) where there tends to be a more male workforce, a lot of encouragement and persuasion has had to happen to get people along to attend the sessions – particularly as statistically more attacks happen to men than to women. The second initiative is around drink and drugs and a programme that the company has introduced to ensure they are educating everyone on the pitfalls of each. The company decided to run a company-wide programme of Drink and Drug Awareness through Hospitality Action, the training wing of the Ark Foundation (which is a charity that helps people who have fallen on hard times in the industry). Again, the company rolled this out, free of charge to all, on company time, not the employees’, and managed to get almost a full attendance throughout. Eventually the Managing Director was invited to join the charity board as a Trustee and was awarded as a great example to the industry for taking action on a critical and at times tragic subject.