CareerScope Blog

National Kitchen Porter was celebrated this year on the 22nd June, and in true Delaware North style we wanted to, yet again, make this into a week of celebrations to truly appreciate our Kitchen Porters. It was my responsibility and aim to get as many sites involved as possible so we could spread the word of the importance of Kitchen Porters on social media and across the business. From Chefs, to General Managers we got input from the majority of the sites and testimonials on the role Kitchen Porters play within their unit.

The last day of #DNKPWeeks fell on National Kitchen Porter day and I drove a companywide competition for Kitchen Porters. Entries into the competition were timed to see how quickly they could wash, dry and put away 10 plates, the individual with the fastest time would win 2 tickets in the Delaware North box for the England vs Spain game in September. A highly anticipated prize considering at the time of the competition we all thought football was coming home!! The competition was so well received we actually got 2 winners from 2 separate sites! I thoroughly enjoyed driving this initiative to celebrate the unsung heroes of our industry and show their importance to the Delaware North operation. The contribution we received from all sites for content to put out on social media was amazing, and everyone really go on-board with the week.

This came about as a result Springboard’s Waiters Day back in May, here at Delaware North we took it one step further and organised a #DNWaitersWeek to celebrate Front of House staff across our business. Throughout the week, testimonials were shared on social media around some of our teams’ ‘most memorable moments’, as well as each venue throughout the week having a day in which to highlight their work and commitment to their Front of House team. Delaware North also had a team in the infamous Hyde Park race, complete with on brand green and blue aprons.

On the Thursday of the week, we headed to London Stadium where Epping Forrest College were invited to an Industry Insight Day complete with their own Waiters race around the stadium, finished off with a delicious lunch cooked and prepared by our culinary team. To conclude the week off, myself and 3 other Ambassadors headed to a local school to tell year 10 students all about the wonderful world of Industry and the amazing career opportunities it can offer you.

This set us up well for the Head Office Cocktail Competition used to test the Cocktail Making skills of our Head Office staff (I’m proud to sayI won, which may suggest I like a cocktail or 3). After having planned the week’s events and seeing everything come together both across our social media content as well as the events we had on through the week, was amazing! This was truly a rewarding week for me and one that I am really proud to have been involved in and executed.

Back in September, an Ambassador Training session took place at London Stadium, and we proudly saw nine of our team really get involved and learn presentation skills - really working outside their comfort zone.  Aaliyah Bailey, Lily Telfer, Jade McKenzie, Tim Jopling, Michael Pia, Rebeca Stotz Lamata, Mariam Adamu, Joseph Kennedy and Gary Foakes are now part of a total of 27 Ambassadors across our business.  We will be looking to do another training session in early 2018, so if you are interested in getting involved, please let Kerry Richards know.