Congratulations to the S.H.A.P.E. Class of 2019!

Starboard Hotels’ innovative S.H.A.P.E. programme has celebrated its latest graduates in a special awards ceremony in Blackpool.

The graduation, held at the Best Western Carlton Hotel, saw the cohort, all Starboard Hotel employees, receive their certificates and congratulations after completing this innovative, year-long Starboard Hotels Accelerator Programme for Employees.

The course, now in its second year, is aimed at developing the future leadership skills and careers of team members from Starboard Hotels, owners of the Best Western Carlton and 20 other hotels across the country.

S.H.A.P.E. provides ambitious and talented team members from across the company’s multi-branded portfolio of hotels, which includes world-leading brands IHG, Ibis, Days Inn, Best Western and independent properties The Windermere Manor, The Cliffden in Devon, and the Epping Forest Hotel, with the opportunity to enhance their leadership qualities and maximise their growth potential.

The “students” included colleagues from Starboard’s revenue office in Chorley, as well as their hotels in Gatwick, Tamworth, Derby, the Lake District, Crewe and Birmingham. They all completed an intense twelve months of training, making their final presentations to the Starboard Managing Director Keith Griffiths, and Operations Director Kerian Barnes, at the Best Western Carlton last week.

Through a series of set modules, workshops and different training tasks, the S.H.A.P.E. course, delivered by well-known trainer Sarah Fountain, covered every aspect of what it takes to run a hotel and be part of a thriving hospitality business; including valuable insights into the supply chain, hotel revenue management, housekeeping, food and beverage, marketing and other vital operational functions.

This year’s S.H.A.P.E. team also learned first-hand how to handle the media, through a training module delivered by Flex Media, with some of the team experiencing what it is like to be interviewed live on air during a visit to the BBC Lancashire studios.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Keith told the S.H.A.P.E. graduates: “We put leadership right at the heart of our business. We can’t be successful without great people and great leadership happens in our hotels every day. It is amazing to see how much you have all achieved on this programme and how well it works. All of those on S.H.A.P.E. have shown amazing commitment and have learnt a great deal about themselves as well as the business. Congratulations to everyone.”

As Kerian explained: “This is the second tranche of our hotel teams who have participated in the S.H.A.P.E. course and it has been another full-on year for them. Working in partnership with many of our suppliers has been really insightful as they too have a vested interest, sharing their knowledge, driving best practice, building relationships and sharing in our quest to keep great people within our business.

“Encouraging people to work in the hospitality industry and to see it as a long-term career has never been more important. We want to be the employer of choice and have had to look to enhance the training available through the brands, which is excellent but is very specific. S.H.A.P.E. is designed to broaden our teams’ horizons and is a blend of leadership, personal development and high-level management training.

“There are 4.5 million workers employed across hospitality and tourism as a whole, and it is the fourth largest industry in the UK contributing 10 per cent of GDP. Training and developing our people is vital.”