Staff Development Day

Every year in December we seem to have a quiet week and try to close the hotel for a few days for three reasons: Firstly to get the last minute maintenance done before Christmas, secondly so my mother can decorate the public areas in peace and quite and thirdly to get a few days of staff holiday off the books before the end of the year and have a breather before a hectic Festive dash.

This year we decided to change this and use the opportunity, with all the staff off on the same period and most staying withing sight of Eriska,  to develop our team. The idea came from Robert in the kitchen who wanted to develop and advance his teams link with their suppliers to help broaden their understanding so he took his whole team to the cattle market in Forfar and then onto the butchers shop in Blairgowrie. Over the course of the day they were able to track the beef from the framer, who they met at the market to the market, then the Butcher and back home to Eriska. Having spoken now to most of the team it was a productive day and although the weather conditions were dire and a 3 hour journey took nearly twice as long it will I hope help give them all an insight into the products they work with.

The remainder of the staff were to stay at Eriska and we employed a company and gave them a brief with three key tasks, firstly to offer some staff development, secondly to help build team understanding and thirdly to have a bit of fun. So they started with a customer care course with all involved from front of house, to estate team to back of house then it was a team task to design a challenge for another team then see it carried out and finally they all played a hospitality game which as well as being competitive was aimed at increasing their knowledge of Scotland and the hospitality industry.

Having now debriefed several participants I think overall it was a fascinating exercise and because I was not directly involved in the operation of the day it allowed me the chance to assess how members of the staff worked together and at the end of the day the company who ran the event gave me a completely unbiased view of each of the staff members and their strengths and weaknesses. Often  we become to embroiled in the day to day operation that we can loose sight of the bigger picture and its only when we pause and take stock of the situation that we can move forward. Anyway it is something we will definitely repeat in the future although a different format would keep others guessing but it will be off to the fish market and out on the open seas for the kitchen team!!