Driving my Personal Development within Whitbread

To mark the Anniversary of my fifth year working for Whitbread, I decided that I would like to do something that would not only help me drive my personal development, but to push myself out of my comfort zone and help pave the way towards the next five years of my career within Whitbread. 

Since starting my career within hospitality over ten years ago. I started as a Bar team member and quickly progressed to a Team Leader, however that Beefeater site was sold so I sought other employment and moved into retail sales for a short period of time. Along my career path I have also ventured into other avenues in the form of Digital Media Marketing and proudly assisted my father to create a successful award winning business. 

In 2015 I returned to Whitbread as an Assistant Manager, joining the team at The Acorn Beefeater in Burgess Hill. I quickly started my next steps of progression by being nominated by my General Manager and Regional Operations Manager for The Progressing Into General Manager (PIGM) course, now know as LEAP ( Leap into Management).

In 2017, whilst I was in the last couple of months of completing PIGM, I had my first opportunity to ‘hold’ the Crossbush Beefeater. This was successful and I soon become General Manager of The Crossbush Beefeater in Arundel. 

After two and half years of successfully building the business and improving Key Performance Indicators. I was offered promotion to become GM at The Acorn Beefeater. I embraced the challenge of rebuilding the team and moved there in October 2019, and this remains my current position.

Friday 5th June 2020 I reached my 5th anniversary of working within Whitbread. During this time I have always strived to push my personal development to take me to the next step of my career. I haven’t done this alone and have had some incredible mentors along the way, who have helped me shape my management style and build my knowledge to get me to where I am today. I have met so many amazing people on my journey so far, and I hope I will meet many more in the future. One thing that has always particularly impressed me is that during the introductions at the beginning of any meeting - people will proudly state the the number of years service they hold. As you pass from one person to the next, you regularly hear the likes of 8, 12 and 15 years of service which is a reflection on how well staff are cared for and considered at Whitbread. Without a doubt this is a fantastic company to work for - the proof is there when you hear these lengths of service and I believe our guests see this too. The people that work at Whitbread and our guests are always at the heart beat of everything we do and any decision that is made. 

When Covid-19 struck our industry in March 2020, as a business we where lucky enough to be a little ahead with information from the Government announcements. We had already planned to close our doors on 20th March, only two days before the biggest Sunday in the hospitality industries calendar; Mother’s Day! Although a fast faced pandemic had hit, we were ahead of many of our competitors and our business was able to plan, ensuring our teams knew what was happening and how to react to this unheard of action. Each site made plans to minimise their fresh stock losses, and any surplus were donated to local charities through the Salvation Army. 

One of the things I was keen to do during this period of closure was take some time to self reflect on my own personal development and see if I could identify some key areas of focus. To do this I wanted to review my PDP (Personal Development Plan). This has allowed me to decide that the area of development that I would like to progress is my Networking Skills. Despite being a sociable and approachable individual, that is happy to host in the restaurant and inspire the team and build rapport with guests, I find networking really quite challenging! It is valuable skill to have and would help further my relationships with colleagues and higher management and also help drive my own business within my local area. What better time to start thinking about driving sales and improving my businesses name in the community, to give us the best start after this pandemic. I am already looking to start up a networking lunch group event at The Acorn Beefeater in Burgess Hill inviting local businesses for a lunch time coffee or tea, with no cost associated to those coming along once a month. This is still in the planning stages as focus remains on re-opening of the restaurant foremost.

When the self nominations opened for Whitbread’s Our Voice Forum on Friday 5th June, I thought it was a no brainier that I nominate myself and kick off my ways of networking and working towards that one specific area on my PDP. 

This has lead me to writing this today. I needed to come up with a Personal Statement to go hand in hand with my nomination in readiness to be Elected as a Whitbread Our Voice Forum Representative for the South London region and East division of Whitbread Restaurants. 

What better way to do this than to additionally write a small blog to go on LinkedIn to also help towards my personal career based networking. 

Why do I want to be elected to represent my Colleagues and their Teams, as part of the Whitbread Our Voice Forum? I want to help towards building further two way conversations within our business, to shape further business plans and influence decisions to make our company an even better place to work. I want us to be able to work harder towards being the most loved hotel business in the World. 

By Voting to elect me to become your Representative, I am committed to encouraging you to voice your views and feedback to me, frankly and freely, so I can then ensure that common topics within the business are discussed and your ideas are spoken about. I will look to strengthen the managements understanding of the work place issues, to work towards decisions being made to make change that will improve our business. 

I am very approachable and will ensure I am available to speak and communicate with everyone to invite a diverse view. I will embrace thoughts and opinions that are different to mine and will enjoy listening to new and original ideas.

My personal aim is to continue to build our company’s relationship with and from our Team members, all the way up to our leadership teams and Directors. So everyone’s voice is heard and we continue to work towards building fantastic businesses, where guests loves to visit and our teams love to work. 

I look forward seeing what the next five years of working at Whitbread will bring.