Going the Extra Mile…

Employee Appreciation

A Plumber, Lawyer and a Chef and their partners were having dinner one night, friends brought together from having children at the same school. The layers husband who is a Navigator in the air force was running late but the food, wine and conversation was good….

After the usual how are the kids getting on and where are you going on holiday this year, the conversation moved onto work, anecdotes, positives and negatives, who was perceived to have the best job….

The Lawyer said as a child she remembered being with her father in a lawyers office.
Her father told her on the way home that it must be great to be a lawyer as he had just paid someone a lot of money just to sign their name on a document. She said that always stuck in her mind and eventually she found herself being a lawyer.

The conversation turned to the Plumber, he said he was always going to be a plumber as he used to help his father on the tools during the holidays, father to son was the way back then but he didn’t want any of his children to be a plumber as there are better opportunities nowadays.

Onto the Chef, very much a typical story, he used to help his Mum cook at home and his Dad on the family allotment and when work experience came up in school, a hotel offered a two week placement and so began another hospitality career.

What was interesting was what kept them in their chosen career, was it the financial renumeration, the freedom of working for your self or the creativity and creating memories

This turned into a game where all were trying to sell what was the worse and the best of their jobs

The Plumber and Lawyer knew that hospitality meant unsociable hours and couldn’t understand why anyone would work so many evenings and weekends.

The plumber either got paid a day rate or a set price for a job and if he finished earlier then he was “quids in” if he took longer then it was on him but that very rarely happens. He also said due to being self employed he pretty much worked to his schedule so some days meant two jobs but it could be feast or famine.

The lawyer’s chambers fees depended on the case work required but basically if she came to see you you would pay for her time and that included her journey time to and from seeing you and not just the time spent with you. If she sent you a letter you would pay for that, if she took a call from you every minute was billed.

The Chef said, if a function ran late, or a table turned up last minute in the restaurant he would stay to deliver what was expected. Its not unknown in hospitality if there was staff shortages due to sickness or vacancies you would cover shifts even if it meant double shifts.

Plumber and Lawyer both said ‘you must of been paid for the extra hours though’

Chef replied ‘no I got time off in lieu’ and didn’t always get that, its written off.

‘What !!, why would anyone put up with that’ said the lawyer loudly, that may of been down to the wine, this caused the plumber to laugh so much he knocked some wine over.

All of us have a contract of employment, rate of pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement etc etc So here is the conundrum, why do hospitality employee’s seem to willingly go beyond the contract of employment, what would make you go the extra mile for your employer or your colleagues…..

In hospitality you are rewarded with instant gratification, feeling what you have just done or made has value, let me explain….

When you deliver great service, or fantastic food for customers and they express their thanks it is very rewarding, you go the extra mile.

It’s not the same in other industries. Nobody ever says ‘wow, whoever built that television did an amazing job’ or those letters are delivered just how I like them.

What are the major difference between hopsitality and other retail sales organisations?

To Serve Is To Sell

• You don't buy coal; you buy heat

• You don't buy circus tickets; you buy thrills

• You don't buy the paper; you buy the news

• You don't buy glasses; you buy vision

• You don't buy dinner; you buy sales and service.

In hospitality, we manufacture and sell our product under the same roof. Not many companies do that on the high street.

In hospitality you know guests are here to buy, not browse , no one comes in to try soup of the day etc.) our guests could return as many as seven days a week. Although this is rare, some guests may be regulars, week after week. 

Remember, No one buys the same shoes, every time, they buy something different We nurture that experience by suggesting the daily specials or new menu items.
Retail stores, like clothes shops, supermarkets provide a service, Restaurants, hotels, provide hospitality: a feeling of warmth and welcome from feeding both the body, soul and mind

There are times when things will go wrong but most people who work in hospitality are can do people, problem solvers, they can multi -task in a fast paced environment, that is why if you are great at hospitality you have very cross transferable desirable skills for other industries as well as your own.

No overhead lights, no problem

Companies that support their employees with good working conditions and a supportive learning and importantly an earning environment will be the go to employers that attract the best talent.

You have swanky hotels with the most uninspired, bland depressing staff rooms to sit and have something to eat before being expected to go onto deliver great service front of house. If you add a transient workforce, underpaid and undervalued no wonder hospitality is viewed as a stop gap job or not a real career. It needs to be better.

You have companies that offer monthly awards for staff who go the extra mile with £25 of vouchers which is a start or a foundation on which to build staff engagement upon but does everybody want that,?, does one size really fit all?

Maybe that person would prefer a suite of other rewards to chose from or prefer other learning opportunities, recognition is so important but it needs to feel bespoke rather than an off the shelf tick box exercise. It needs to feel personal to them rather than here is £25 worth of vouchers which would of been allocated to a quarterly budget and the thought that this will look good in the client report.

The chef said that only two places in his career actually made an real effort and none of it was financial as in we put some extra money in your pay packet or here have some gift vouchers. Both were restaurants, each day before service the whole team stopped both front of house and back of house and sat together as a family. Everyone took turns to cook the meal and it built the teams cohesiveness.

Any new member of staff was expected to dine in the restaurant with a partner at no cost on acceptance of the position. After your trial period some people who were recognised for their performance or going the extra mile had their efforts rewarded and tailored to that person, some wanted to go to the on a riverboat cruise up the Thames, some wanted cookbooks, at another place they enabled the waiter to go deer stalking with his son everybody’s need was different and recognised as such.

The new staff were always amazed that the team sat together before each service and that awards were personnel to them but the management had seen the value in the exercise. Nowadays you would use the term wellbeing but because it was personalised it meant more, maybe there is more value in that than heres £25, thanks!.

As the meal progressed the Lawyer and plumber came to the conclusion that the chef had the most rewarding job much to the chefs surprise, although they agreed conditions could be better.

Whilst drinking some not so great coffee the Navigator returned home, late again according to his wife, he was dressed in his green flying suit , looking very much the part, looking very much Top Gun after having spent a day flying over to Norway to a airbase, then flying up and down the Norwegian fiords at some ridiculous speed on an military training exercise. before flying back.

His wife said we have been talking about each others jobs and their jobs sound so much more interesting than yours.

‘Really he said, but baby I fly jets’

Game over !

The navigator won.