News

Oct 09
0

New Micro-Credential Programme Launched to Boost Strategic Leadership in Ireland’s Hospitality Sector

By | Blog, Membership, News | 34 Comments

L-R Ruth Baker, EU Programme Manager, Skillnet Ireland, Nora Duggan, Commercial Lead, Irish Management Institute (IMI), Tina Maree, National Executive Officer, Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI), Shane O’Sullivan, Chief Executive, IMI, Ciara Drohan, President, IHI,  Niamh O’Malley, Network Manager, Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet, Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive, Restaurants Association of Ireland, Alan Smullen, Head of People,The Doyle Collection, Patricia McGovern, Account Manager, IMI and Helen O’Leary, Programme Director, IMI.

Press release, October 9th, Dublin: The Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet, in partnership with the Irish Hospitality Institute, has launched a new Hospitality Leadership ESF+ Micro-Credential (Level 9) designed to equip current and aspiring hospitality leaders with the tools to thrive in a rapidly evolving sector.

Co-funded by the Government of Ireland, the European Union, and network companies, the programme will be delivered in partnership with the Irish Management Institute and accredited by University College Cork.

Niamh O’Malley, Network Manager of the Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet, said:

“The Hospitality Leadership ESF+ Micro-Credential has been co-created with industry input to directly address the real challenges facing hospitality leaders today. By combining strategic business priorities with personal leadership development, this programme will empower participants to lead with confidence, resilience and vision. We are particularly proud that graduates will not only enhance their own careers but also bring tangible benefits back to their teams and businesses.”

The programme is designed to deliver clear benefits to both businesses and employees, including stronger strategic leadership, improved financial accountability, better conflict resolution, and enhanced team engagement. Businesses participating in this programme will also strengthen their leadership pipeline and improve talent retention.

Ciara Drohan, President of Irish Hospitality Institute, added:

“As President of the Irish Hospitality Institute, I am delighted to see the launch of the Hospitality Leadership Programme. At a time when it is vital to invest in our people and continue developing the future leaders of our industry, the collaboration between Skillnet, the RAI, IMI, and UCC has been key. This partnership has enabled the creation of a fully accredited Level 9 micro-credential programme, allowing participants to blend their day-to-day professional roles with academic development seamlessly. Through focused modules on strategic leadership essentials, people management, and finance for non-financial managers, learners will strengthen the core competencies required of today’s hospitality leaders. The Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI) is also delighted to offer graduates of this leadership programme a one-year complimentary IHI membership, supporting them as they continue their professional growth and leadership journey within our dynamic industry.”

This five-month immersive learning experience blends in-person and virtual learning across three core modules:

  1. Strategic Leadership Management
  2. Finance for Non-Financial Managers
  3. Strategic People Management

Participants will benefit from psychometric assessments, reflective journaling and peer-to-peer collaboration, ensuring a practical and holistic leadership development journey.

Shane O’Sullivan, CEO of Irish Management Institute, added:

“By joining forces with RH Skillnet and the Irish Hospitality Institute, we are delivering a programme that reflects the real needs of the hospitality sector. IMI is proud to contribute our expertise in leadership development to help cultivate the next generation of leaders who will strengthen and sustain Ireland’s hospitality industry.”

 

The first cohort will take part in seven days of intensive training over five months, ensuring a balance between learning and real-world application.

A virtual programme briefing webinar will be held on 30th at 10.30am ahead of the programme launching on 16th December at 10.00am. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/wGJmy1j0QQG1Ge1O603mZA

For more information on the programme and to apply, visit www.rhskillnet.ie



Sep 30
0

Successful Graduation of BaxterStorey Management Development Programme

By | Membership | 8 Comments

We are excited to announce that the Restaurant & Hospitality team has successfully assisted in facilitating and part funded the BaxterStorey Management Development Programme and Chef Academy! The graduation ceremony took place on the stunning 17th floor of Cork County Hall, offering breathtaking views of the city and a delightful spread of food prepared by BaxterStorey Chefs. Over the course of 9 months, which began in 2023, we have assisted in delivering a number of modules in Management Development Programme which included  Leading People, Event Planning. Customer Service & Client Management, HR Management and more . Congratulations to all graduates on this significant achievement—it reflects your dedication and hard work!

Looking ahead, we are pleased to announce that the next cohort for the 2024/2025 programme has begun! Kicking off on September 26th at Dublin Zoo, we welcomed 14 new individuals to the course. During this introductory session, we outlined what participants can expect over the next nine months and engaged them in teamwork workshops facilitated by HIYA Events. We’re looking forward to working with the new students and supporting them on their journey!

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Jul 31
0

Successful Completion of Manual Handling Instructor QQI Level 6 ESF+ Courses

By | Membership | 12 Comments

Between June and July, 19 individuals successfully completed the Manual Handling Instructors Course QQI Level 6. This intensive training program, crucial for enhancing workplace safety and efficiency. The network was able to fund this training at 70% through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), making this opportunity accessible to a diverse group of participants.

The five-day course emphasised the practical delivery of manual handling in the workplace, assessing risks related to manual handling activities, and enhancing participants’ training skills. This training is essential for employees responsible for delivering manual handling training. The course was both interactive and practical, requiring significant participation and engagement throughout.

Course content which was covered:

Legislative requirements for manual handling

Anatomy

Ergonomic principles

Manual handling principles and techniques

Planning and design of manual handling training courses

Delivery of manual handling training courses

Training skills and techniques

Resources for delivering training and training aids

The graduates are now fully equipped with the knowledge and skills to instruct others in safe manual handling practices. This achievement not only boosts their professional credentials but also contributes to safer working environments across the restaurant and hospitality sector.

The program’s success underscores the importance of continued investment in workforce development and the significant role of the European Social Fund Plus in supporting such initiatives. Congratulations to all the new Manual Handling Instructors!

 



Oct 26
1

Wellbeing in the workplace

By | Blog | 13 Comments

Wellbeing in the workplace

People can spend up to a third of their waking hours at work, so it stands to reason that the workplace has a big impact on our physical and mental well-being.

The Importance Of Wellbeing in the workplace

Promoting employee wellbeing benefits both the organization and its employees. Stress may be avoided and productive workplaces where people can thrive are created by promoting wellbeing. A key enabler of employee engagement and organizational performance might be good health and wellness.(The importance of mental health in the Workplace)

Employers Support

It is important for employers to show that they genuinely care for the physical and mental well being of their employees and that they hold equal importance. This creates a safe and secure work environment for their employees which may significantly increase their general happiness in their day-today lives and their overall performance in the company. Employers should conduct regular check-in’s with their employees, one-to-one to establish their support.

Training programs should also be available to employees to emphasise that both their physical and mental wellbeing is a priority. “Headspace” is a great App that contains many courses beneficial for your employees overall mental and physical well being in the workplace. (Headspace, Headspace for work demo).(Headspace, Headspace for work demo)

As an employer its important also to monitor your employers to encourage them to open up. You can use numerous screening tools, like surveys and questionnaires, to ensure that your staff are content and healthy. This is a practical technique to make sure that your staff members are content and confident in themselves. (The importance of mental health in the Workplace).

As an employer it is also important to encourage a healthy balance between work, personal life and flexible working hours at work.

It’s crucial to be inclusive at work and to keep a positive business culture if you want to ensure that you are encouraging a happy workplace. Also encourage your employees to connect with their colleagues regularly.

Types of Wellbeing in the workplace

It is important to recognise the types of wellbeing to ensure that they are being maintained throughout the duration of your employment in a company. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Physical wellbeing

is about taking good care of your physical body so that you can function as efficiently as possible in your regular activities. Your mental health is significantly influenced by how physically you are feeling. Being physically healthy involves keeping an eye on your nutrition and exercise routine. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Emotional wellbeing

is about being conscious of our ideas, feelings, and how those things influence how we act. We can better respond to daily difficulties and demands by being conscious of our emotions and how they affect us. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Occupational wellbeing

is about having the opportunity to learn, advance, and grow in a secure, healthy, and supportive work environment, and feeling qualified and capable enough to carry out your day-to-day responsibilities. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Social and cultural wellbeing

Social wellbeing refers to your capacity for social interaction and the development of ties with others around you that help you in your daily life, extremely crucial for preserving good health, wellbeing, and a sense of community, as well as for feeling respected and cared for. Your cultural welfare has an effect on your social wellbeing as well. You experience this when you feel accepted and encouraged to openly express your unique differences. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Financial wellbeing

is understanding your finances and being able to balance, save, and spend money effectively and within your means in order to manage and plan your finances. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Environmental wellbeing

Having a secure and healthy work environment is crucial since your surroundings and interactions with them have an impact on your health and wellbeing. Your welfare depends critically on your ability to reduce risks and hazards and obtain the resources you need to do so. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

  1. Intellectual wellbeing

achieving both personal and professional fulfilment at work while retaining a sense of balance in our lives outside of work. It also entails developing your knowledge and abilities and taking part in imaginative and mentally challenging activities. (Minding your wellbeing programme)

Helpful Podcasts

Below are some helpful podcasts, that you can conveniently listen to whenever, wherever on Spotify and become educated on wellbeing in the workplace.

https://open.spotify.com/show/3zSvXK5KsaDFbP4Qz1WSpz?si=666c6bdcb79a45bf&nd=1

https://open.spotify.com/show/7sXQNRCs8HtFLB8KGHsNyg?si=3d1db2dd508b4741&nd=1

https://open.spotify.com/show/1aJwfrEn7K52KL2gOOzqEY?si=be3f6a1c01c445ec

Training Programmes through RH Skillnet

Here at the Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet, we support workplace well being with onsite and public training courses to suit your needs. Contact us for more information info@rhskillnet.ie.

Contact us

  • Email: info@rhskillnet.ie
  • Phone: 01 6779901

 



Jun 22
0

3 Steps to Successfully Lead Remote Teams

By | Blog | 13 Comments

By Cariona Neary

Things fall apart the centre cannot hold. Commentators frequently invoke Yeats’ lines when describing a chaotic situation. Most of us have  emerged from those early chaotic days of converting our hospitality teams to 100% virtual. And we’re managing. Or are we? This new working world demands a different standard of leadership from us all. As we prepare to re-open for business, how can we help everyone feel part of a great team again?

The pressures on teams are considerable. As leaders, we need to create stability, managing both for well-being and results. Our hospitality organisations are seeking to build agility to survive and even thrive in a global economy that is struggling to function. Our team members are facing their own challenges, with home schooling, uncertainty about future employment and maybe even health issues. People in the hospitality business thrive on the buzz of interacting with colleagues and guests. For many, both leaders and staff,  the lack of personal interaction is truly challenging.  If you can show strong leadership in this situation, you can be assured that you will thrive in any situation!

 

Leading Remote Teams Successfully
The Challenge

People working remotely can become ‘detached’ from the team. How can we build that strong team spirit as we get ready to re-open our businesses?

 The Solution

Spend time building up your virtual team goals. Be clear about roles and responsibilities. Keep everything short-term and focused. Look after both well-being and results.

 Takeaway Actions

Use your new short term goals to stabilise your team. Communicate until it hurts! Build trust with lots of feedback. Communicate confidence in your team but also acknowledge the stress people are experiencing.

  1. Plan for Short Term Goals

Your plan will be built on some key pillars, regardless of whether you run a restaurant, hotel or bar: Staff needs, Customer needs, Cost control, New Revenue Streams, Redesigning requirements. You can plan around these pillars by taking a short term focus, for example, three-week sprints, assigning specific roles and responsibilities for team members to contribute during the sprint. Since the pandemic, research on remote teams has shown that roles and responsibilities are too unclear for many and this is leading to low morale. The ‘sprint’ approach can help you overcome this challenge.

  1. Communicate until it Hurts!

Remember that great phrase, you’re checking in, not checking up! Use daily Check Ins to help set people’s focus for the day. Listen for new ideas. Just because you’re the leader does not mean you have to have all the answers! A weekly call in from your most senior manager can help keep the team motivated. Each meeting format should be contributing to your Planning Pillars. Focus on providing lots of positive feedback to keep up people’s morale. After each sprint, celebrate, review, learn, reset.

  1. Show Confidence and Support in your Team

Supportive leadership will require a two-pronged approach. While you need to focus on short term results, you also need to acknowledge the real stress and anxiety that your people may be experiencing. Show your confidence in your team with phrases such as “Let’s look at our strengths here and see how we can build on those”, “What do our customers really love about coming here. How can we provide that feeling in this new environment?” “I know this is tough but we’re going to handle this together”…. By asking your team for their help and ideas you show confidence in your collective ability to work through this challenging time.

And to finish with Yeats, “All has changed, changed utterly”. Strong leadership can be a reassuring constant in these challenging times.

Cariona Neary is a trainer and consultant to the Hospitality sector working with Fáilte Ireland for over fifteen years as well as Ireland’s leading organisations in the hotel and restaurant sector. She has just completed a series of webinars, co-hosted with leadership expert, Karl O’Connor,  on Leading Change, Managing Remote Teams and Leading Service that Sells with the RHS Skillnet. The above article is based on her workshops on leading remote teams. For further information on any of Cariona’s webinars, contact Niamh O’Malley. All training  bookings can be made via: https://www.rhskillnet.ie/training-programmes/.

For further information on Cariona Neary visit www.nearymarketing.com or contact her at cariona@nearymarketing.com.

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May 08
0

How to Lead Your Hospitality Business Successfully Through Change

By | Blog | 13 Comments

 

By Cariona Neary

Never has it been more challenging for leaders in the hospitality business. Yes, owners and managers of restaurants and hotels are used to leading through crisis, it happens every other night when we’re running a busy kitchen or you unexpectedly get a very late but valuable booking. But this time of uncertainty is a very different beast and the industry is looking for ways to cope and to manage the situation with some clarity.

The Restaurant and Hospitality Skillnet has been hosting a series of webinars on Leading through Change that have been so heavily attended that Niamh O’Malley ran five repeat webinars to deal with the demand from the industry. We want to bring you the most important ideas from this webinar series to help you to find direction at a time of intense and rapid change. We also want to share some of the great ideas leaders from the industry shared with each other during the webinars.

You’re not the only one feeling overwhelmed!

As we kicked off each webinar, we asked participants how they were feeling. The answers were remarkably consistent across the five workshops. Owners and managers were feeling worried, overwhelmed and scared. We shared an article from the Harvard Business Review on the impact of change on our emotions. Based on the feelings of grief, as we realise we are losing something we   value, in this case our business, people can feel anger and despair. These emotions are typical reactions to what we now know is the ‘Change Curve’, a phenomenon we also experience as a type of ‘grief’. In the webinar we explored how we evolve our thinking as we travel through the Change Curve, eventually reaching an acceptance of our new situation.

As leaders, we need to find our way through the Change Curve and find ways to manage our own emotions and, most importantly, be strong and supportive leaders to our colleagues and family because they are also facing their own emotional challenges.

How to Lead through the Change Curve

The goal of managers must be to help themselves and their key team members to focus on what they can do rather than being overwhelmed with thoughts about things they can’t control. Getting through this time of uncertainty is about ‘Change in 100 small steps’. One participant, Shane Treacy, MD of the Mercantile Group, a leading Irish hospitality group of nine bars and restaurants, including Café en Seine, Whelan’s and The George, suggested that the industry can use this time to plan. In his business, he is working with his team to brainstorm a whole range of scenarios. He is scenario planning for different levels of business and working with his management team to understand how to run a business at different levels of activity, from 30% to 50%, and eventually get back to full capacity.

Another participant, Anke Hartman, runs a wine bar, restaurant and Guest House in Clifden. Seeing her business disappear after a successful opening last year left her feeling lost. When she learned about the Change Curve and talked to other hospitality business owners going through the same experience in the Zoom Breakout Sessions, she commented, “I suddenly saw where I was on the Change Curve and felt motivated to move from being stagnant to having a ‘doing’ mindset. I’ve done so much since the workshop, I’ve got the website going, I’m going to run wine tasting sessions on Zoom…”

Control the Controllables

Karl O’Connor, joined Cariona Neary on the Leading through Change webinars, bringing his wide experience of managing performance through the Change Curve to the discussion. Having worked with a range of organisations through the last financial crisis, he has deep expertise in leading through change. His big advice was for businesses to focus energy and attention on what they can control rather than allowing our emotions to become overwhelmed by worrying about things outside our control such as the economy. He also advises “Put on your oxygen mask first”. By that he means that leaders must mind themselves and look after their own mental and physical health before they can look after their team.

Top Tips for Leading Change Webinars

DO

  • Understand the leadership challenge you face. Use the Change Curve to help you know where your mental attitude is and also to help you understand where your team is on the Curve.
  • The Change Curve can feel like a game of Snakes and Ladders. Some days you are coping well and other days you slip back and feel less purposeful. People transition through the curve at different rates so we need to show empathy and listen.
  • You don’t have all the answers. Be authentic, it’s better to ‘Tell people what you know. Tell people what you don’t know. Let’s work together to build explore different scenarios.’
  • Communicate early and often.

DON’T

  • Trade in speculation. Be honest and truthful about the facts.
  • Sugarcoat the situation.

It’s a start with people beginning once again to control what they can, set short-term goals and lead through change.

At the end of each webinar, we asked people how they were feeling, now that they had shared their stories with their colleagues in the hospitality sector and also learned about how to lead through change. The language had changed from ‘worried’, ‘scared’ to ‘supported’, ‘committed’, ‘confident’.

Overall, the feedback has been very positive. Fiona Barry, Senior Sales Manager at the Kinsley Hotel in Cork said: Thanks so much, this is the best workshop I’ve done since all this started. I’ll recommend my colleagues to sign up.

 

Cariona Neary is a trainer and consultant to the Hospitality sector working with Failte Ireland for over fifteen years as well as Ireland’s leading organisations in the hotel and restaurant sector. The final Leading Through Change workshop takes place on 12th May. Cariona will facilitate a workshop on Leading Remote Teams on 13th May and Leading Service that Sells on Tuesday 19th May. Contact Niamh O’Malley, All bookings can be made via: https://www.rhskillnet.ie/training-programmes/

 

THANK YOU – A special thank you to Cariona for writing this great article for the Skillnet

 



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