Sligo Park Hotel pays tribute to Andrea Burke who won national IHF Employee of the Year award

THE management of the Sligo Park Hotel has paid tribute to Food and Beverage Team Lead Andrea Burke after she was this week named National Employee of the Year at the prestigious Irish Hotels Federation Awards.

Andrea was honoured at the event hosted by the Slieve Russell Hotel, on Monday, February 26. The award is recognition for Andrea’s career development and commitment to providing a first-class service to guests of the Sligo Park Hotel.

Andrea joined the hotel staff as an 18-year-old Food and Beverage Assistant in 2018. The hotel later provided funding for Andrea to enrol in a nine-month Leadership and Management course at MSLETB Training Centre in Sligo, helping to forge a pathway to promotion to Senior Team Lead for the Bar and Restaurant in 2020.

The Sligo native is currently studying for a degree in Bar Management at Griffith College Dublin. Indeed, her participation in the course is testament to her drive, which is further highlighted by the fact that she travels once a week to Dublin where she stays overnight before attending classes the following day.

Following the award Sligo Park Hotel General Manager and Director Gerald Moore paid glowing tribute to Andrea, (whose parents and grandparents were married at the hotel). He said: “The Sligo Park Hotel team congratulates Andrea on her remarkable achievement. To be named National Employee of the Year by the Irish Hotels Federation this year demonstrates her commitment to her professional development and her desire to ensure that every guest of the Sligo Park Hotel, whether it’s regular diners in our restaurant or our short-stay and corporate guests, feel very much at home.

“We pride ourselves on our culture of training and upskilling staff, a culture which has seen Sligo Park certified as an Excellent Employer for 2023 with a Silver Award at the Fáilte Ireland Employer Excellence Award. We were also certified in the globally prestigious Great Places to Work Programme (GPTW) in December 2023S, based on feedback of our own staff.”

Sligo Park HR Manager Mary Halton said: “We are absolutely delighted to share in Andrea’s amazing award for the IHF National Employee of the Year. Andrea has driven her own success by participating in the many opportunities that is offered to all staff here in the Sligo Park Hotel and we are so delighted to have been present to see her receive the rewards of those efforts.”

Senior Team Lead for Food and Beverage Andrea Burke said: “I was delighted and honoured to be awarded the IHF National Employee of the Year. Without the support of the management team of the Sligo Park Hotel I do not believe I would have reached this level so early in my career. I’m looking forward to the future, whatever it might bring.”