The Townhouse Chester are spearheading a drive to recruit people in to the hospitality industry aiming to showcase the huge number of opportunities there are to people who are willing to work hard and who have a passion for delivering amazing customer service.
The drive has already begun with the appointment of a new general manager of The Townhouse Hotel in Chester. Clive Donovan has taken up the position and he joins CEO Steven Hesketh on his mission to show that careers in hospitality can be hugely rewarding and exciting. Clive has had a long and varied career in hospitality working in both the public and private sectors and he will now bring his experience to The Townhouse and The Secret Garden. Clive will work alongside all the existing staff to continue to offer amazing customer service and will lead the team with passion and drive to deliver a memorable experience to guests.
Without doubt the hospitality industry took a hard hit during the pandemic and since re-opening it has been tough to be able to fully staff venues. The Townhouse and Secret Garden are now bringing in initiatives that they hope will attract people to come and work in the industry whilst also helping to retain the great staff they already have. Super Saturday pay rates, mid-month cash tip payments and attendance bonus are just some of the new incentives they have in place to reward dedicated staff for all their hard work.
The Townhouse is also part of the Burnt Chef Project, which is a non-profit social enterprise created to raise awareness for mental health issues within hospitality. The Townhouse believe that in the long term, working long shifts with little rest in between is not good for anyone and are aiming to offer a stabilised working week in a bid to give employees the right work/life balance. Steven Hesketh, CEO, said: ‘I think there has never been a better time to join the Industry, the UK Hospitality scene has never been more exciting for hard working people. I believe in offering excellent training and enabling someone to do a job, one of the most rewarding things for me is giving a person responsibility and watching them flourish. We have always treated our teams with care and respect but we recognise that improvements can always be made. I hope that by offering staff incentives and through initiatives like the Burnt Chef Project we can support our staff mentally as well as financially and continue to help people forge careers in hospitality.”
