Training
We firmly believe in creating bespoke packages for our employee training needs at all of our sites. Training is assessed as to the individual needs of both the business and the employees themselves.
Clearly as a ‘truly different’ catering company we have a different, unique and special way of doing things – this too applies to our training. Whilst putting on a new smart uniform and serving different food may have some change on the employee’s persona, we cannot change behavioural characteristics overnight and nor should this be expected.
The people on the ground who actually ‘do the doing’ are always the most important element of a successful café or bar operation. They are the customer-facing representatives of your venue and their friendliness (or lack of!) will play a big part in whether guests enjoy their overall experience.
It is essential therefore that you firstly recruit the right people, secondly that you reward them, thirdly that you include them and lastly that you continually develop them. This is Couture’s four step employment plan:
We would look to recruit from both within the local community and from similar venues in the area. We would also be very flexible in employing people from the local community who are interested in part-time or weekend work.
We are very different to the average contract caterer – we believe that every member of our company should be entitled to a fair living wage and a decent benefits package. This is not restricted to management – every single Couture employee from top to bottom is treated the same.
On top of their basic wage all members of staff will be entitled to take a further 10% of their wage in flexible benefits, for example in pension contributions or in a private healthcare package. This benefit begins after an employee has spent 6 months in continuous employment with Couture. This effectively means that an employee on an hourly rate of £6.00 will actually have a full remuneration package equal to £6.60 per hour.
We believe that a co-operative model of company ownership is desirable and as such we give every Couture employee an opportunity to own a share of the company that they work for. We are flexible in how this can work, operating a ‘share-builder’ service whereby employees can make monthly contributions rather than being forced to pay out a large lump sum.
We strongly believe that this fosters a much stronger bond between employee and employer, resulting in a more dedicated and happier workforce. This is good news for Couture, St John’s Smith Square and the employees themselves. We also link the financial performance of each of our contracts to an employee bonus scheme.
All employees have the opportunity to take advantage of our training schedule. As a standard employees receive all statutory training in Health, Safety, Food Hygiene and COSHH. We also have an innovative induction programme which all employees attend covering customer service, teamwork and company philosophy. At appraisal time we agree a training plan with each employee for the year ahead.
Couture’s Training Course list:
In addition to those listed below we have a further 34 training modules for all our staff showing a clear progression path thorough the organisation all of which are available on our on-line training system.
- Advanced food hygiene
- Appraisal skills
- Assertiveness training
- Basic food hygiene
- Communication skills
- Health and safety
- Intermediate food hygiene
- Leadership skills
- Managing absenteeism
- Manual Handling
- Negotiation skills
- New leadership & management training
- Nutrition
- Performance
- Presenting a report
- Prioritising and planning
- Training and coaching skills