Orchid pub group launches staff training and incentive schemes

Pub group Orchid has launched a range of training and incentive schemes designed to motivate its managers, nurture future talent and help retain staff.

Schemes range from £20 vouchers for the best team players to quarterly incentive schemes for high-performing managers and training programmes for deputy managers and chefs.

Orchid chief executive Rufus Hall (pictured, right) said: "Investing in people increases loyalty and improves motivation levels. We make sure training needs are met, talents are nurtured, key strengths are developed and, most importantly, individuals’ career goals achieved.”

The main training initiatives run by Orchid are an internal staff promotion programme called Steps to Excellence which gives deputy managers the skills and experience to become pub managers and a Chef Academy which gives chefs the chance to complete external training courses. The academy also allows chefs to be part of a bonus scheme and attend a chef’s dinner.

Incentive schemes include Orchid Idol which allows staff members in each pub to vote for the best team player each month and awards the winner with a £20 voucher, and a quarterly rewards scheme for managers with trips abroad offered to them and their partners if sales are high. 

Top performing managers also have the chance to become Platinum Partners which gives them entitlement to free private healthcare for them and their families, £1k of company shares, a percentage of their pub`s profits and 50 per cent off food in their pub for them and their staff.

Orchid also runs the Government`s New Deal scheme which aims to get people who have been out of work for six months or more, back into it and has signed up to a skills pledge, a public commitment to help all employees to develop their basic skills and enable them to work towards relevant, valuable qualifications.

Hall said: “When times are tough, many companies make the mistake of viewing staff training and incentives as non-essential and start looking at ways to trim their overheads. This in itself is a false economy. We believe by recruiting, training and motivating our staff we will reduce staff turnover, improve moral and motivation and increase productivity - ultimately leading to increased profits. This is a people business, nothing more and nothing less.”

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