It’s Stephen Hunt, Managing Director of Hunt Hospitality International. So today I’m going to talk to you about training, and the real importance of making sure that you have the appropriate systems set up to train your team. I’ve had many, many discussions with people in many industries, saying, What’s the point in training people, if you’re training someone, they’re just gonna take that knowledge, and they got to leave. But I’ve always looked at it if you don’t train them, and they stay, it’s going to be more damaging for your business.
So training for me personally, I work very, very closely with my General Managers. And I’ve been very, very fortunate enough to have over 10 of my team or 200 teams who’ve been with me for over 10 years. So I’m quite proud of that achievement. And I believe a lot of that comes down to the fact that we offer ongoing training with our team members. So what do I do with my General Managers? So my general managers were extremely focused on every component of the business. So for instance, in the pub, you’ve got a bar, you’ve got gaming, you’ve got food, you’ve got bottle shop, and you’ve got accommodation, you also have functions.
So how do we keep on top of that? And how do we ensure the appropriate training is given. So what we do is, we have a weekly report that we do, and it analyzes year on year figures with the same time last year. Now our licensees get these reports. And then they break it down. And they look through and see positives and negatives from the reports, and why they might be variances from the year before. And so it’s a great tool for them to keep up to date. We do this weekly, so our week finishes on a Sunday, and they have this report on Tuesday. And they can make changes straightaway. So there’s no time lag.
So I spend a lot of my time with my team working on these reports. And then the next level and many a business person has them. But it’s the 90-day revolving plan. So for instance, in March, we’re already planning for Mother’s Day in May. So we like to be well and truly many steps ahead. A reason why we do this is it just makes it easier for all of our marketing departments to get everything organized and ready well in advance. So this all comes down to the training that we give to each of our team members, and especially the General Managers. So then they filter this down to the chefs.
I had a great story once many years ago about a chef who was a fantastic member of our team. And she was a very nurturing chef, and she used to look after all of her apprentices. And each week I would sit down and this is when I only had one, one pub at the time. We go through the weekly reports looking at the sales, cost of goods, and then looking at the bottom line. And she left to go and work for a charity. Now I was super proud to see her several years after she left the charity and she came in to say me and have a chat. And she was thankful for the opportunity to be shown the major components and expenses and things to look for in a business. Now I feel proud because she actually learned from me and then she was taking that knowledge and imparting it with a charity. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s so crucial to train your team and the flow and benefits from that are outstanding.
Thanks very much, guys. As always, my contact details are given. I look forward to hearing from you.
