Member Article

Gateshead partnership brings hotel jobs joy to six

A recruitment partnership between a hotel in Swalwell and Ingeus, which delivers the government’s Work Programme throughout the North East, has led to job successes for six long-term unemployed people in Gateshead.

The new recruits will deliver a range of services at the Holiday Inn Express Newcastle-Metro Centre, including welcoming and assisting guests at reception, and serving breakfasts at the 134-roomed hotel.

“When we made the decision to create six new full and part-time roles, it was imperative that we found the right people to deliver great customer service and we wanted to do it quickly.” said the hotel’s general manager, Michelle Tindall. “Ingeus was on-hand to help - they took a lot of the time-consuming hard work out of finding the right candidates for us to interview and so we have been able to fill our vacancies very swiftly.”

Ingeus adopted an innovative approach to the recruitment challenge, which included spending considerable time with Michelle and her team to find out the specific needs of the hotel, and then carefully matching the skills and experiences of jobseekers on the Work Programme with her requirements. Candidates were then invited to take part in a variety of classroom and on-site sessions to learn more about working in a busy hotel environment.

Three of those who were successful are Darren Knaggs, 32, from Killingworth, 45-year-old Cindy Nelson from Dunston and Nick Leonard, who’s 52 and from Bensham.

Darren has spent the past five years applying for hundreds of vacancies, but began to think he would never work again. “I was at rock bottom and, having been continually rejected, I lost all confidence in myself,” he said. “I had never considered working in a hotel but Ingeus assured me I had the right mix of skills. Now, as a guest services assistant, I help people check in, work in the bar and serve breakfasts. It’s a varied job and it keeps me busy, and that’s what I’m enjoying most about it.”

Like Darren, Cindy had amassed a broad range of experiences from her previous job in retailing, but she struggled to find an employer willing to give her the opportunity she craved. “I was determined to find another job,” she said. “I signed up for every course I could, including learning about hospitality and computer skills. Then everything clicked – I was certain this was the job for me. In less than a week I was interviewed, told I had been successful and started working. It’s more than I could have hoped for.”

After being made redundant from a 24-year career in the civil service, Nick found it very difficult to come to terms with being out of work. Facing health issues, his confidence plummeted and, whilst he desperately wanted a job he knew that without professional support and understanding he was unlikely to succeed. “With Ingeus, I got both,” he said. “My advisors and I worked closely together and they suggested Holiday Inn Express would be a perfect employer for me. I took part in the Ingeus hospitality course and soon found out they were right. My confidence rocketed. Through working I’ve got my self-respect back again.”

Susana Williams from Ingeus has enjoyed watching the transition in the hotel’s new recruits as they’ve settled back into working life. “From planning our pre-employment course around the needs of the hotel to seeing people thrive through having a job is all extremely rewarding,” she said. “The demands of the hospitality industry are often very tough and call on many skills, such as being able to deliver great customer service and attention to detail. We were confident our clients had all this and more and we knew they would be great matches for the needs of the hotel.”

Ingeus is one of the UK’s leading welfare-to-work providers, delivering employability services to support unemployed people into lasting work. The company offers a free recruitment service to employers which ranges from CV-sifting to hosting full recruitment days and continues to support new employees for up to two years once they start work, helping employers to increase staff retention.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ingeus .