Author: Katherine Wyles

David Anderson is an established hospitality leader who has recently been named as Interstate Hotels & Resorts’ new Executive Vice President – International.

Over the last 25 years, David, who is originally from St Andrews in Scotland, has travelled the world with various leadership positions for hotel groups. David has extensive experience in luxury resorts and midscale hotel portfolios throughout Europe, the UK, and the Indian Ocean. He has operated in both branded and independent properties and has managed companies within multiple structures including owned and operated, hotel management agreements and franchises.

His role at Interstate Hotels & Resorts follows his three years as CEO of Sun Resorts, where he was responsible for 3,500 employees on the idyllic island of Mauritius. His previous roles also include Managing Director of Dolce Hotels, Regional Vice President for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Vice President for the Louvre Hotel Group in Paris.

At Hospitality People Group, we have known David for many years, having helped place him in his roles at both Dolce Hotels and at Interstate Hotels & Resorts. We were delighted that he agreed to sit down with us for a short Q & A to share his thoughts on his experience of the hospitality industry.

What inspired you to follow a career in hospitality?
There is so much about hospitality that makes it an attractive and rewarding sector. I’ve always been passionate about people and fundamentally that’s what drove me to build my career in this industry.

As a French/English speaker, hospitality appealed because it offers rich opportunities to travel and I have been so lucky to enjoy many incredible cultural experiences through my work across different hotels globally. Indeed, it’s been a great way for me to see the world and gain extensive experiences from midscale hotel portfolios throughout Europe and the UK, to luxury resorts in the Indian Ocean.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting (or considering) their career in the industry?
I would encourage those considering coming into this industry to build their story from day one. Getting best in class experience working with world-class brands and hotels that enjoy an exceptional reputation will make you a very attractive proposition to a future employer. Being able to continually challenge yourself outside of your usual comfort zone is also important, as is having a willingness to move, both in terms of location and departments. Hospitality offers you the ability to develop your career in many areas including Operations, Sales, Finance, HR, IT or even hotel development.

It’s about building a narrative, getting technically competent and mastering each role you do, and as your career develops, you will develop natural leadership capabilities and you’ll find a wider variety of options opening up to you whether that be as a GM, regional manager, in a corporate function or even as CEO!

I look back on my history now and am grateful for every part of my career story, every experience has helped me to get where I am today.

The hospitality industry is on a huge recruitment drive at the moment and retention of employees has been a major challenge. What do you think are the most important things to do when leading and inspiring a team?
It’s true that, for a variety of reasons, recruitment is one of the biggest challenges our industry faces, that’s why I believe in the value of developing strong relationships with recruitment firms and head hunters. But I always go back to what inspired me to get into hospitality and it was people and that is still the same to this day – we just have to be more resourceful and creative in our approach.

I believe in building a strong culture of collaboration – two-way communication is key as is everyone pulling in the same direction. Investing in our staff so they can develop their careers within Interstate Hotel and Resorts is really important to me, as is making sure we recognise and reward their effort and achievement by celebrating successes across the team.

As part of this though, I want all our team members to feel empowered to make decisions so they can give our guests the most memorable and positive experiences when they visit our hotels. I hope this inspires them to do the very best they can, knowing they are supported and valued.

What are the biggest opportunities in the hospitality industry as it recovers from the pandemic?
Here at Interstate Hotels and Resorts, we are finishing 2021 in a strong position with a larger portfolio than ever before, new hotels opened and plenty more in the pipeline. This is really reassuring as it shows that the hospitality industry is finding its feet and, as a business, that we can quickly adapt to a changing world.

I expect that the need to continually identify change and respond accordingly will remain, and being as agile as possible is vital. It’s clear that the pandemic has put everything into question and allowed us to look at doing things differently which is an opportunity in itself. We all have a responsibility to continually improve processes and procedures, optimise technology and make the guest journey as streamlined as possible. These are key focuses for us in the year ahead.

For me personally, presenting the benefits of third-party management and getting even closer with our owners and our brands is also an area to develop. I want to demonstrate how that human touch and being there for one another and taking a thoughtful and caring approach to what we do is beneficial for all parties.

With COP26 having just taken place in Glasgow, in terms of sustainability, what do you think are the biggest opportunities for the Hospitality Industry?
Sustainability is a top priority for the entire world, not just the hospitality industry and one that we are taking very seriously. As a company, we must take ownership and responsibility for the measurement, delivery and communication of carbon targets across our business.

Working across different brands and with a variety of professional bodies gives us a unique perspective that benefits our teams and owners.  We need to continue to learn quickly, adopting changes to procedures and guest messaging to make an impact that aligns with a positive guest experience.

Taking ownership and responsibility and making employees feel proud that together we are tackling some of these issues in an accountable way gives me hope for the future.

The adoption of technology in hospitality has been forced to leap forward in the last two years. Moving forward, how do you think technology can be best utilised in the industry?
The rate of growth in this area over the last few years is incredible and it’s exciting to see what more is to come. We want to optimise technology wherever we can to provide our guests with a seamless experience and customer journey from beginning to end, whilst retaining the purest sense of the word ‘hospitality’.

Whether this is using concierge platforms to communicate with guests during their stay or looking at direct communication options with reception teams and the use of apps to provide more targeted guest communication and offers.

This is also a huge development area within the meetings and events space. Here, we are working with key strategic partners to support meeting planners with smart and effective distribution solutions, offering options to meet virtually where meeting in person isn’t possible, and working with owners to ensure they have the right tech to meet current event planners’ requirements.

Thank you to David for sharing his inspirational views on the hospitality industry. To discuss how we can support your businesses with our full suite of human capital services to help grow your hospitality business, please call HPG Advisory Services on +44 20 8600 1160 or email Dan Akhtar on dan@hpgsearch.com

 

Guy Pasley-Tyler has extensive experience in the international hospitality sector.  In his current role as Director, Portfolio & Fund Management with Archer Hotel Capital B.V., he is responsible for the review and development of market and fund strategy, the oversight of material value enhancement projects across the portfolio and the identification of opportunities to maximise fund-wide returns. Archer Hotel Capital BV enjoy a long-standing relationship with a number of international brands, including Marriott International, as well as developing iconic independent hotels, including The Dilly in London.

Guy was responsible for European Portfolio Strategy & Feasibility with Host Hotels, prior to creation of Archer Hotel Capital B.V which followed the buyout of Host’s position by Dutch pension fund APG and Singapore-based GIC Real Estate.

Before this, Guy worked for six years at AECOM Economics, where he was engaged in feasibility and advisory work on a wide variety of hotel and mixed-use real estate projects across the EMEA region. With diverse hospitality experience, Guy also has eight years’ experience in hotel management across operations and sales & marketing, an MBA from Hult International Business School in Cambridge, MA and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Madison Mayfair continues to have a long-standing relationship with Guy, having placed him in his role as Director – Feasibility & Investment Strategy at Host Hotels.

In conversation with Guy Pasley-Tyler

How did you get into Hospitality?   
My first exposure to hospitality was rather indirect in that during my school holidays I got myself a job working in the post room of the head office of InterContinental Hotels in Mayfair. I really enjoyed the experience but was also fascinated by the business, albeit with limited understanding, and that inspired me later to seek a management trainee role at The Milestone Hotel in Kensington, which helped me to get a better understanding of all aspects of the business. In different ways I have enjoyed every subsequent role I have taken on in the industry.

What are the most important aspects of portfolio management in hospitality and how has the role evolved over the years?    
At Archer, we aspire to be an active asset manager that seeks to improve and maximise every aspect of our investments – from the real estate itself to the concept to any associated contractual relationships (e.g. management agreements and leases). The key point for me is that the overall performance of the portfolio is the over-riding consideration in all our decision making, not necessarily the individual assets. This approach is made easier by having the same two aligned shareholders across all our investments so there is no conflict of interest. For asset managers handling multiple sources of capital across different investments there is a more careful line to tread in this regard.

What do you consider your biggest achievement so far and why?  
The set-up of Archer Hotel Capital over the past 3 years. My colleague Dominic Seyrling and I had a shared vision around Archer and we were lucky to have two trusting and supportive shareholders who have backed us along the way, as well as sharing their own insights and experience to the benefit of Archer. Clearly, the pandemic has been a dominant feature of the last 18 months but we have used the time to focus on long-term value creation across our portfolio which will hopefully stand us in good stead in the years to come.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their career in the industry?   
Firstly, it’s a very varied business with lots of different roles available so don’t be afraid to test yourself in different areas to find out where you can excel. That rounded experience will stand you in good stead as your career develops.
Secondly, we are in a people business and forging strong relationships with mentors, colleagues and counterparties is essential to your development. It’s also important to treat people in the way in the manner you would want to be treated, not least because it’s a small industry and you never know who you might end working with in future!

What are the biggest opportunities in the hospitality industry as it recovers from the pandemic?
We are in the business of creating experiences and I think that is an aspect of people’s lives that they have greatly missed during the pandemic.  In all our concept development and renovation planning we are trying to better differentiate our hotels to make them distinct offerings in their individual markets – just because a hotel is corporate-focused it doesn’t have to be boring.

What would have been your Plan B?
A former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, described himself as a ‘cricket tragic’ and I fear that I may fit a similar description. Given that insufficient talent meant that a playing career was never even a remote possibility, my childhood dream was to be a commentator, ideally the BBC cricket correspondent, in charge of Test Match Special.

For support with your next career move or to enhance your recruitment strategy, please call Madison Mayfair on +44 20 8600 1180 or contact Guy Lean on mm@madisonmayfair.com now.

 

 

With over 30 years of international experience in luxury hospitality financial leadership, Doris Bernard is an industry icon. Doris is now Vice President of Corporate Finance for Kempinski Hotels, a role she has held for the last seven years, placed by FM Recruitment. Responsible for the senior leadership throughout the global Corporate Finance structure of the Kempinski Group, Doris is integral to the brand’s continued success internationally. Kempinski currently manages 79 hotels in 34 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, South-East Asia and the Americas.

A strong communicator and team leader, Doris joined Kempinski from Rocco Forte Hotels, where she held the role of Group Financial Controller, overseeing 13 properties in Europe and the Middle East.

FM Recruitment continues to have a long-standing relationship with Doris, supporting her career trajectory, having placed her in several financial leadership roles with Rocco Forte Hotels, the Ascot Group, the Cliveden Group and the Conrad London. The collaboration with FM Recruitment equally extends to recruiting senior members of her team.

In conversation with Doris Bernard

How did you get into hospitality finance? 
First and foremost, there was hospitality – and ‘Grappa-Parfait’ – of which I made a lot when I started my hotel apprenticeship in 1986, with the first department to be covered being the kitchen (the hotel apologised and said, ‘Well, someone has to start in the kitchen…’). However, I loved it and did not want my time there to end. After the third extension, the ultimatum was given: Either I change the apprenticeship to become a chef or move on to the next department. I moved, and with my good instinct for numbers, logic, organisation and analysis, it was not a great surprise to fall for finance before long. And the rest, as they say, is history.

What are the most important aspects of financial roles in hospitality and how has the role evolved over the years?
The evolution is that there is definitely a much more prominent space for and faster pace of analysis. Today’s availability of data inevitably leads to more options of analysis, which in turn lead to more demands, from internal and external stakeholders. The trick is to investigate and understand what the real question is that we are trying to answer. Based on this, finance should be able to offer the most efficient and repeatable/robust solution. This integrated understanding of the business, paired with the understanding of the capabilities of finance systems, is one of the most important aspects of today’s finance roles. In short: Any financial analysis has to have a purpose and not be analysis for analysis’ sake.

What do you consider your biggest achievement so far and why?
Being still here, in finance, in hospitality. Temptations to move out of the industry existed, but the most compelling factor to stay has always been the amazing teams I have worked with. Leading a group of people who have a can-do attitude, a strong sense of commitment and a passion for hospitality and are fun to be with is one of the most rewarding and invigorating things in my career and, in fact, my daily work life. I hope that I am right in thinking that I have continuously contributed to making such teamwork happen.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their career in the industry?
Enjoy and commit to getting stuck in, roll up your sleeves, be curious and stay humble. Never stop learning throughout and engage with the very diverse workforce that you are likely to encounter. It will lead to a strong network of industry professionals and friends, which, if cultivated with sincerity and authenticity, carries you throughout your career. It is one of the best schools of life.

What are the biggest opportunities in the hospitality industry as it recovers from the pandemic?
The opportunity for a fresh approach, in a free spirit, to what hospitality is about. Offers that are interest-led versus the traditional guest segmentation (I very much like the Kempinski ‘Travel Your Way’ initiative). Basic human needs for belonging and community could be answered by hospitality through integrating local culture. A stronger desire for quality time with family and friends might come to the fore against a background of threats like the pandemic or climate change. We may see, for example, conference rooms used as co-working spaces to enable business travellers to combine remote working and extended family time. The inventiveness and flexibility that we have seen in many hotels when the pandemic hit are inspiring. I equally hope that the heightened appreciation for travel after the confinement creates a new buzz all-round.

What would have been your Plan B?
When I started out, there was no Plan B; I did not apply for anything other than a hotel apprenticeship. Since then, I have sometimes joked that I would become a park ranger in a national park, taking care of footpath signage maintenance. I love walking and being out in the countryside and am fascinated by long-distance hiking paths (well signposted, of course).

For support with your next career move or to improve your recruitment strategy, please contact FM Recruitment now using any of the below details:

Office +44 20 8600 1160 I Email fm@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Chris Denison Smith +44 7775 711923 I Email chrisdenisonsmith@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Andrea Shaw +44 7714 236469 I Email andreashaw@fmrecruitment.co.uk

The Company Linchpin 

With the global economy currently undergoing a significant transformation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of financial leaders in navigating businesses through these unprecedented times has been propelled into the spotlight.

The impact of the pandemic has been felt globally and by most industries, but perhaps none so severely as the travel and hospitality sector. Financial leaders are now in a position where they must not only address major setbacks but provide long-term confidence and strengthen recovery and growth prospects.

Financial chiefs have experienced downturns in the past, following the fallout of the 2008 global financial crash, the war in Iraq and the September 11th terrorist attacks, however, nothing compares to the wide-reaching impact of the pandemic. Hospitality Financial Directors had to move quickly to protect their businesses as much as possible; negotiate with partners to limit exposure, campaign for the government to support the industry through this crisis and make tough decisions regarding furlough and redundancy to ensure that the business survived. These financial crisis management strategies were activated quickly, to help support the recovery which is now underway.

Speed of response and flawless execution is critical in any crisis to reduce its impact and provide confidence to all stakeholders. Through effective financial planning, Chief Financial Officers have driven the timely execution of improvement initiatives to reduce costs, overhaul procurement, revisit pricing strategies, as well as spearheading process improvements and innovations that add value to the company.

“Working smarter, recognising and minimising risks and exploiting opportunities will mean having to be constantly creative”. Howard Field, founder of FM Recruitment commented as he shared his views on strategies for finance as the industry recovers from the pandemic

Maintaining Confidence in the Company

Financial Directors are required to instil confidence in all internal and external stakeholders.

Internally - With so many employees on furlough or made redundant during the pandemic, transparency and honesty were crucial to build trust in the long-term prospects of the company and to maintain integrity. Financial Directors who were able to highlight the challenges ahead with strategies to overcome them were able to help companies communicate and maintain engagement with employees, who could otherwise have chosen to move on. Many hospitality companies have been able to focus on retraining and cross-training employees, using the opportunity to develop employees to adapt to the challenges after re-opening. Businesses that have managed to retain key talent over the period of closure will be best placed to grow the business as we move forward.

Externally – For many customers, how businesses acted during the pandemic will live long in their memories. Financial leaders, under pressure to maximise revenues and reduce costs, needed to weigh up the short-term gains against the long-term prospects and introduce more flexibility. For the most part, customers were hugely understanding and opted for flexible vouchers rather than full refunds and now finance leaders have responded by offering more relaxed cancellation terms to remove barriers, offer flexibility and build confidence to encourage future bookings.

All of this activity is underpinned by increased investor scrutiny to cut costs, grow revenue, and ensure control, which means financial leaders have had to become adept at managing multiple stakeholder requirements to inspire confidence and lead the way with the recovery of the industry.

The Future of Finance – Nurturing the Pipeline of Emerging Talent

According to several UK universities offering courses relating to hospitality and related financial studies, the number of overall undergraduates in hospitality studies has dropped in the last year. With the true impact of Brexit also yet to be clear, it seems likely that hospitality will face some real challenges in recruiting and retaining top talent in the near future.

Undergraduates are reconsidering their options, often tempted into continuing their studies or shifting towards other industries with seemingly more secure prospects. Never has it been more important to guide and nurture those who are showing interest in the hospitality industry.

In a Forbes article from 2020, Robert Parsons, Chief Financial Officer of Exclusive Resorts made an important observation noting “Today’s finance undergraduates absolutely have the necessary hard skills and drive to be successful in the workforce of today and tomorrow. Besides, their ambitions are not curtailed by outdated notions of career trajectories. All they need is an opportunity and then some mentorship. My approach to recruiting and cultivating top talent is to look for the right attitude and core problem-solving skills over just the finance hard skills, and then create opportunities for career advancement.”

As active members of HOSPA, Chris and Andrea at FM Recruitment dedicate themselves to mentoring young talent as they progress through their careers. Our guiding hand can help businesses and candidates to optimise skills, showcase the opportunities to progress and help the hospitality industry recover and grow in the post-pandemic world.

For support with your next career move or to improve your recruitment strategy, please contact FM Recruitment now using any of the below details:

Office +44 20 8600 1160 I Email fm@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Chris Denison Smith +44 7775 711923 I Email chrisdenisonsmith@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Andrea Shaw +44 7714 236469 I Email andreashaw@fmrecruitment.co.uk

 

By definition, flexible working offers employees increased freedom –working from where they choose, flexible work schedules and fitting work around other responsibilities. Whilst flexible working has been increasingly adopted by companies over the years, it’s been accelerated since the start of the pandemic.

Research on the UK Government website shows that 9 out of 10 job seekers want increased flexibility, be it remote working (60%), flexitime (54%) or reduced hours (26%).

In March 2021, the Minister for Women and Equalities, called for flexible working to be “normalised” as part of the UK economy’s Covid-19 recovery, to capitalise on the shift in mindset triggered by the pandemic. Ministers are now preparing to make flexible working a permanent feature of British life post-pandemic, with plans to strengthen employees’ rights to work from home or ask for different hours.

Benefits of Flexible Working

Increase in Job Applications – UK Government-backed Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and jobs website Indeed, shows offering flexible working explicitly in job adverts increases applications by up to 30%. The research, which analysed nearly 20 million applications and is the largest of its kind ever conducted in the UK, shows greater transparency in job adverts would create at least 174,000 flexible jobs to the UK economy per year.

Best of Both Worlds – Flexible working offers the freedom of working from home but access to the community of the office to drive increased collaboration. According to a recent survey of 2000 UK workers by Currys PC World and Canon, 37% identified a better work-life balance as one of the main benefits of remote working, with 54% citing not having to commute as their favourite part.

Increased Opportunities for Equality – According to the minister for women and equalities, “flexible working could help boost job opportunities for women (who are more likely to have to disrupt their careers as a result of caregiving duties) and reduce geographical inequality.”

Spreading the commuter coin – Whilst city-based businesses are reliant on the influx of commuters to city centres across the world, there has been a re-balancing of revenues, with more local businesses benefiting from the shift of working patterns. Over time, with a return to a combination of part office, part home working, it’s encouraging to see this wealth being spread across businesses both in city locations and in local communities.

Is flexible working here to stay?

It depends on many factors – there are many predictions that flexible working is here to stay but on the flip-side, the Centre for Cities think tank predicts the five-day office week will become the norm again within two years as featured in a BBC News article in June 2021.

Ultimately, it will be driven by individual businesses and employee’s wishes, and won’t be a one size fits all approach.

Sector Specific – A flexible working environment naturally suits some sectors more than others. For hospitality, the pandemic was a catalyst to introducing more flexible working practices which improved work-life balance. As the business of hospitality re-opens, naturally many roles are guest-facing so require employees to be present in their place of work

Hospitality, like many sectors, are aware of the importance of their employees’ wellbeing and its impact on performance and productivity, so have been adjusting their return to work policies to introduce a variety of measures to create a better work-life balance for their teams. Hybrid working for those working in non-customer facing roles and a four day week have been some of those policies being trialled currently.

Re-imagining of the Office – With changing working patterns evolving and a move to increased hybrid working, the office space will need to be used differently. More collaborative space, places where people can come together and create and innovate and a revised layout of desks are all some of the practical changes that businesses are adopting as they look to navigate the road back to the office.

At FM Recruitment, we work with clients across all areas of hospitality and associated industries to navigate flexible working. We work alongside our clients to showcase their company’s approach to work-life balance and its employee wellbeing focus to find the best candidate for the role.

We are specialists in financial recruitment at all levels in the UK and internationally. We belong to the Hospitality People Group who offer a wide variety of roles from c-suite level and everything in between.  For support with your next career move or to improve your recruitment strategy, please contact FM Recruitment now using any of the below details:

Office +44 20 8600 1160 I Email fm@fmrecruitment.co.uk

Chris Denison Smith +44 7775 711923 I Email chrisdenisonsmith@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Andrea Shaw +44 7714 236469 I Email andreashaw@fmrecruitment.co.uk 

Start now with your re-opening plan
by hospitality expert, Howard Field

An epidemic such as that we are now experiencing, requires that plans for re-opening build in assumptions that can be reviewed as the situation becomes clearer.

Unlike having set target dates for opening a new hotel, based on construction and fitting programmes that can be scheduled and tightly controlled, there are many external factors will govern the timing and outcomes of the re-opening plan

Whether the hotel is owner operated, or is subject to the involvement of external stakeholders, will also affect the complexity of re-opening planning and budgeting.

Decisions by Government and other external authorities will influence when various elements of any plan for re-opening can be activated.

Transport availability will determine when guests, suppliers and employees can gain access the property.

Whether all the businesses providing goods and services to the hotel remain able to supply as required will determine whether alternative sources must be found. Suppliers will be concerned with their own solvency and may demand pre-payment or fast settlement to ensure continuity.

Organising bringing back staff who were laid off or furloughed, and recruiting and inducting new staff will be major tasks. When government schemes to support the retention of employees expire, the total costs of their pay will fall on the operator. This could result in the enforced layoff of staff not required while business levels recover.

In addition, special care will need to be taken over the physical and mental health of returning staff. They may need considerably more personal support while they re-adapt to the working environment.

Ensuring all the assets are secure and in good order, and setting up the property, equipment and M&E systems to be ready for operation, are essential before operations can re-commence.

The many IT, communication, safety and security systems, have to be recommissioned . This requires also checking that externally provided software and support services remain available.

Sales, marketing and public relations activities are all essential parts of planning for re-opening. Re-connecting with all sources of business and re-establishing contacts with agents and clients, including checking whether past contacts are still in place, will be of prime importance.

Setting up reservation and revenue management systems, and populating them with pre-existing data to enable preliminary forecasts to be made. Reinstating point of sale, front and back office and all financial accounting and control systems needs to be planned, allowing for staged practice and full operation.

Planning and practising to re-start all operational activities need to be phased depending on the availability of safe access and readiness of the property and systems.

Careful financial planning will be necessary to ensure that adequate working capital is available to support gearing up operations. Determining and costing staffing levels and planning purchasing of supplies and services for the period before revenues are generated and cash is received, are vital to ensure funds are available when required.

Reviewing all policies regarding deposits and prepayments during the initial period will be important. Credit checking and history will no longer be reliable. This includes payment terms with corporate clients, third parties, agents and others.

Equally, vendors to the hotel will also be concerned with their own solvency and may demand pre-payment or fast settlement to ensure continuity of supply.

There will be challenges handling all of these elements, and as well unique opportunities for management teams to re-think and implement creative and productive improvements.

Hotels will need to demonstrate to guests and staff even more than in the past that they provide physical comfort, security, clean and healthy environments, and they tick all of the sustainability boxes in their styles of operation. These will be far more important success factors in the future.

Re-Opening Plan Checklist

Key Questions to Answer:

• Under whose control is the decision when to start re-opening ?

• Who will authorise the programme and the key action steps ?

• Who will have responsibility to coordinate and report on progress ?

• How often will the plan be reviewed and updated?

• Who will budget and control the costs ?

• How will the re-opening budget be funded ?

Task List Content

• Set a best outcome target date for the re-opening phases and base the planning on this, subject to a regular update

• Establish policies that will apply during the re-opening period, including credit terms, purchasing and payment term, employee pay and benefits

• Plan property preparation; re-commissioning of all building management systems; restart contracts; reinstate security and CCTV systems; carry out health and vermin checks

• Check all physical assets; FF&E placement for re-starting operations

• Programme systems re-start for all property management, HR, guest and POS, hotel accounting, marketing and reporting systems

• Plan re-opening staffing; re-commence recruitment; organise on-boarding of furloughed and new employees

• Schedule restarting of F&B purchasing and supply network

• Programme all consumable supplies, utilities etc

• Staged plan for operational re-opening for each department and outlet

• Programme Marketing and P&R throughout and including the re-launch

• Ensure external authorities advised as necessary; check licences, permits

• Prepare a cash forecast for the period and a plan for provision of the required working capital

Against each of the above, allocate responsibilities, and the minimum timing required. There are many tools to aid project planning, most of which are based on the Gantt model.

The manner in which a person makes a presentation is important both in face-to-face meetings and video conference meetings. Listed on this page are some guidelines and presentation tips that will be helpful for your next video conference.

What to Wear

Solid shades of blue or grey are usually best. These colours (depending on the background) bring out healthy skin tones and do not create a visual distraction. On a television monitor, black and white clothing colours can also enhance the skin tones; however, if they contrast sharply with your skin tone, it is usually best to wear a less contrasting colour. Similarly, try not to dress in colours that match your skin and hair tones. These will tend to wash out your natural coloration. Avoid wearing red, green and orange, especially in bright or bold shades. These colours can cause an unfriendly hue that is distracting to the viewer.

Sounds and Movements

Noises that you may not notice in a personal meeting can become distracting in a video conference. Avoid tapping on a desk, whispering to others or shuffling papers. Modern high quality microphones are designed pick up even the softest voice and so while whispering may seem harmless, the parties on the other end of your video conference may hear every word you speak.

Avoid unnecessary movements such as rocking in a chair or moving side to side. Video systems are sensitive to motion and movements you make that may seem slight can be magnified depending on the framing of your position in the video window. Allow the viewer to concentrate on what you have to say and not on the movements that you make. If you do move substantially, do so when trying to emphasize a statement or key phrase as you speak. In this way, you can use the cameras to your advantage by allowing a key word or phrase to create a picture as well as a statement.

Speaking and Eye Contact

Eye to eye contact is important and video conferencing systems are quite good at transmitting facial expressions including the line of your eyes. When speaking, look towards the monitors and gesture as you would if the other parties were sitting right in front of you. The camera is usually located above the monitor and this makes it unnecessary to look directly at the camera in order to look natural as you speak. Instead, look at the monitors that will be showing you the images of the other meeting participants. If you are using Skype you will need to look at the web camera and not at the computer screen or it will seem as though you are looking down.

Managing Motion and Sound Delay

Meeting through a video conference is very similar to a face-to-face meeting except some participants may be half-way around the world. This can cause some important differences in the way we interact. Most people tend to interrupt one another in meetings and we do this without even thinking about it. Video conference meetings highlight interruptions especially when there is a slight delay between speakers due to the network connection. This usually happens when network connections are of slow speed and over long distances. Do your best to be patient while waiting to speak. Wait until a speaker is finished talking before you begin to speak.