Staff development award for Talbot Hotel
TALBOT Hotel Wexford has been recognised for its excellence in human resource management at the Irish Hotels Federation’s (IHF) national Quality Employers Awards 2020.
Having received the coveted Quality Employer Award for ‘Excellence in HR Management & Staff Development’, Area Manager Robert Millar discussed why the Talbot had been honoured by the IHF.
‘ The Talbot Hotel Wexford consistently promotes and rewards continuous development from all of our employees, from employee of the month/year winners, staff suggestions, to our internal promotion,’ Robert said.
‘We encourage all employees daily and with the correct support of effective training and mentoring we help and encourage them to develop their skills further across the entire hotel.
‘ This gives all our employees the motivation, skill and vision that, with commitment and enthusiasm, they can consistently develop their careers in the hospitality industry.’
And for Robert and the rest of the management team, the welfare of their staff is of the utmost importance.
‘ This year the company, from the top down, sent out a very clear directive: our employees are more important than our guests. The company believes strongly that if we can satisfy, motivate and retain our team, the guests and correlating revenue will come.’
Ensuring staff are content in their roles is, according to Robert, one of the main reasons why the Talbot Hotel was recognised at the Quality Employers Awards.
‘Once employees feel appreciated and supported in their roles, the feeling of appreciation and making a difference sets in.
‘We offer employees free Leisure Centre use for their health and wellbeing, manual handling and fire training for their safety, along with competitive rates of pay, staff discounts, promotional prospects and always an open-door policy if they would like to discuss any concerns or wishes they might have.
‘We actively encourage staff to invest in themselves. We would always be of the opinion that we won’t always do the research for them but if they come and note that they want to compete a specific course, more often than not, we would oblige in funding either entirely or partially,’ he said.
Robert also explained how the Talbot had devised a tailor-made customer care programme which it had delivered to its staff in half-day sessions.
Entitled ‘Empower Your Excellence’ the programme ‘not only emphasises the “Talbot Promise” and commitments to our guests but also encourages our team to take pride in their profession, their image and their skills’.
‘We advocate that they are the “best” in the industry and should always “be the best you’’,’ Robert concluded.
Chairman of the independent judging panel, Dr Tony Lenehan paid tribute to the Talbot for its excellent human resource practices and innovative employer initiatives.
‘ The judging committee was of the opinion that the hotel demonstrated continuous improvement and progression in people management and development and provides quality employment practices and opportunities for its employees.
‘ The priority given to innovation, employee benefits and welfare, career progression and development was very evident across all the submissions,’ he concluded.