By Angela Green, Content Executive, H&C News: Parogon restaurant group sees sector leading levels of retention.
The Paragon TEAM
Amidst widespread people and skills shortages in restaurants, I caught up with Parogon restaurant group founder and MD Richard Colclough to find out how their group’s focus on team training led to achieving sector leading levels of retention. How had they achieved this, and how was it benefiting business across the group, and at all nine restaurants.
AG: Why is team training important to Parogon and to individual team members?
Parogon restaurant group founder and MD Richard ColcloughRC: Every aspect of our operation is labour intensive and requires skilled team members to contribute to the delivery of our service. Training enables them to execute their roles to the highest standards in accordance with our values and therefore contribute to the success of the business. For individuals, they have an opportunity to develop, learn new skills and progress within a forward-thinking organisation. We are a people development business and training is integral to our ethos.
AG: What is your company’s training policy?
RC: Learning and teaching creates a supportive and thriving environment for individuals to fulfil their potential and subsequently fulfil our mission statement: To bring joy to our customers through fantastic food & drink, excellent service, and passionate people.
AG: You’ve appointed Chris Morgan as Learning and Development Manager. Explain the impact of his appointment so far and what his plans are for team training.
RC: Chris brings the theory of our operation to life. He’s an engaging character with excellent presentation skills, motivating our teams to absorb information and learn skills, but more importantly to then put that knowledge into practice every day in our restaurants. Net promoter scores are a huge driver and a key metric that we use to measure guest feedback and we’re seeing an improvement from already high levels with the intensified training.
AG: What sort of training do you provide? Is it tailored to individual departments or team members? Do you also provide more general industry training?
RC: In addition to generic compliance and industry-based training, we have a bespoke suite of courses to fit each section of Parogon. There is a Chef Academy for ambitious back of house team members who want to progress their careers and a General Manager fast track programme to accelerate the learning of junior managers who display both aptitude and enthusiasm.
AG: How is the training delivered, how often, and do all team members receive it? For example, e-learning, external college courses, qualifications, in-house training, webinars, etc.
RC: We use a multi-faceted approach to training as people learn in different ways and it allows us to use specialists for certain areas of our training. For instance, we have a partnership with an external provider for leadership training which is offered to all managers and is tailored specifically for our needs. These are workshop based for groups of up to ten people.
RC: Chris is supported by both front and back of house skills trainers who provide on the job support, tuition, and practical skills in the workplace. We have recently launched an overhauled version of our e-learning app in conjunction with Mapal One which allows users to access training at a time to suit them. From here they can easily see the career development journey available to them and what training is required to progress to the next level within in our business.
Within the management team of each venue, we have a designated Personal Development Partner who is responsible for ensuring that each team member has a plan to achieve their goals and develop their skills.
Head Office employees are included in the opportunity to learn, and they are offered relevant, externally provided courses which could augment their knowledge and enhance their command of their department. This can range from simple online training courses of interest to professionally recognised qualifications like the CIMA accountancy course for our Finance function.
AG: What positive feedback have you had from your team about their training? How has it benefited them?
RC: Individuals have been vocal with their support of our learning programmes and really appreciate the investment Parogon makes in them. Apart from the chance to advance their career, increase their earning potential and improve their skillset, there is often a commensurate increase in their soft skills, particularly communication with colleagues and guests alike as their confidence grows from completing training courses.
AG: What are some of the positive outcomes your business has seen by investing in team training? And how has it improved team performance and the service your customers receive?
RC: I can speak for the entire senior leadership team in that we all derive great pleasure from seeing individuals develop in their roles and the business. Parogon has sector leading levels of retention, due in no small part to the training investment we make in our teams. This in turn lowers recruitment costs and frees up funding for further improvement. Consistency is a word I use frequently in management meetings and is something we both covert and strive to achieve in all areas of the business. Training allows us to achieve this consistent, high standard which means that guests receive the same experience on each visit across multiple venues.
AG: Are there any drawbacks when investing in team training?
RC: There are times when despite our growth and internal opportunity creation, team members who have developed and are ready for a new challenge can’t always be accommodated in those roles. However, this is a small price to pay, and it is commonplace for people who move to other companies to return to Parogon when the chance arises.
AG: To what extent do you think investing in individuals/teams allows them to have a wider understanding of the business?
RC: Our training touch points often bring team members at all levels into contact with our Head Office team and other sites which they might otherwise not get. This helps break down barriers and forge relationships. In addition, by the sharing of best practice in training forums, the teams learn from each other and gain an insight into how other departments and offers within Parogon operate.
AG: Explain your in-house social media system. How does it work, why have you introduced it, what is your team’s reaction to it and what systems do you have in place when using it?
RC: Since introducing Yapster in 2019, it has become an integral element of our internal communication. As Parogon venues became geographically more dispersed and the number of employees was approaching 500, it became evident that keeping in touch would be a challenge and continually more difficult as we expanded. Yapster has allowed us to engage with everyone in the business and share news instantly and in a creative way that strikes a chord with the people in Parogon. The teams adopted it quickly and wholeheartedly as you might expect from the tech savvy demographic that we largely employ.
Personally, it has been a revelation in allowing me to keep in touch with teams and individuals alike. The ability to announce a companywide piece of information instantly, using a video for instance, is invaluable. During the pandemic it allowed us to keep in touch remotely and maintain the culture we’d worked so hard to create. I can send employees direct messages when I hear of praiseworthy events, which even visiting sites physically on a regular basis is difficult to coincide with people’s shifts.
AG: Thank you Richard. The retention rates are unsurprising as the people culture at Parogon carried through every word of our conversation.
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