psd’s Managing Director Lesley Reynolds was joined by a strong panel of experts at the 2019 Hotel Operations Conference, to discuss HR post Brexit in the Hotels sector. The one day conference was held at the Montcalm Hotel. 

The session was titled ‘Moving beyond Brexit with HR’ and panellists included:

Julia Ingall, Chief People Officer, Hoxton/Ennismore

Nikki Kelly, Marketing Director, Springboard

Joanne Monk, People & Development Director, LGH Hotels Management

Stefan Wissenbach, Founder, Engagement Multiplier

Ennismore’s Julia Ingall and LGH Hotel Management’s Jo Monk represented the hotel operator/brands and Springboard’s Nikki Kelly and Engagement Mutliplier’s Stefan Wissenbach gave insight from the other side of the fence partnering with hotel businesses.

Julia Ingall and Jo Monk revealed that attrition is slowing as their companies focus heavily on retention strategies, which have included building capability as well as trialling different employee benefits.

Both shared just how hard they are working to attract not only graduates and school leavers, but also homeless shelter apprentices, with a view to becoming a more open-minded and inclusive employer.

Learning and development programmes have been transformed to focus much more on employees and their Whole Self, as well as life skills including digital capability and emotional awareness.

Nikki Kelly highlighted the availability of young people through football foundations and the successful partnerships which have been formed from this community. Nikki was previously the Director of Programmes for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and gave first-hand insight into how effective this channel is in promoting opportunities in the hospitality sector – which she does to great effect now with Springboard.

Stefan Wissenbach shared with the audience a number of his employee engagement tools, which include routine and regular assessments of General Manager performance by employees – every 9 weeks!  Although it seems some GM’s are bolder than others buying into this concept.

The over-riding message was the need for the industry to continue to raise employee experience initiatives to ensure successful recruitment, retention and overall employee well-being in the Hospitality sector.