Campus Matters The newsletter for Commercial Services May 2017
Commercial Services staff recognised Two teams from Commercial Services were commended for their “Excellence in Service” at the recent College Staff Recognition Awards. The awards celebrate the significant contributions that colleagues have made to our College community and towards fulfilling personal and university objectives. The awards aim to recognise individuals and teams who have gone above and beyond to support and inspire our students, staff and others who are connected to Royal Holloway.
John Brannan explained that he nominated the Customer Services team, “for pioneering many new initiatives that have led to exceptional student satisfaction levels, co-ordinating a seamless operational plan to fully support the start of session and providing exceptional customer service to our students.” David Ward congratulated his team saying, “I would personally like to thank you all for your ongoing commitment in providing our customers with the very best service possible. This award is for each and every Congratulations to the Gowar and Wedderburn one of you”. Housekeeping team, nominated by HR’s Joy Willshire and John Randell and to the Customer Services Team, nominated by John Brannan, who were both highly commended in the Excellence in Service Team Award.
Represetatives of the Customer Services team
The Gowar and Wedderburn Housekeeping team
Presented by Mark Hyndman, Head of Active Lifestyle and Sport, this award recognises the delivery of excellent service in the University, or wider community in activities from professional management to service delivery, consistently exceeding expectations, delivered by a team.
Commenting on her nomination of the housekeeping team, Joy Willshire said, “Organisational Development regularly interacts with the housekeeping team through staff events that are run in the Gowar and Wedderburn Common Room. The team take pride in their work, always ensuring that the room is clean and tidy before our arrival and that we have everything we need. Janet and her team have a very strong customer service focus; it is a pleasure to work with them.”
Double gold medal scoop for the catering team Several members of the Royal Holloway catering team competed in the finals of the annual TUCO (The University Caterer’s Organisation) Awards at Warwick University in April, winning a total of eleven awards between them. Competing against the most talented people in the university catering sector on the day, the Royal Holloway team was led by Darren Coventry and Rebecca Nurse, assisted by Ravi Kanthiya and Gary Smith. Additionally the work of Carol Vallejo, Sara Gunn, Sharon Chandler, Carli McGrail, Kevin Williams and Bob Reid was entered into the Salon Culinaire competition. As winner of the Service Skills Challenge at the same event two years ago, Terri Sadler was invited to be on the panel of judges.
Key Lime Pie with lime & white chocolate sphere
Head of Conferences and Catering, Mike Hoare commented, “It was marvellous to see so many of our catering team rewarded for all of their hard work, particularly given the extremely high standard of the competition. Special congratulations must go to Gary and Ravi for winning gold”.
Gold Ravi Kanthiya – Restaurant plated dessert (Best in Class) Gary Smith – Novelty decorated cake
Silver Darren Coventry, Gary Smith and Carol Vallejo – Plated vegetarian main course (Best in Class) Carol Vallejo – Bread display
Marvel Novelty cake
Training successes Congratulations to the following members of Commercial Services in their recent training successes: Rebecca Nurse, Catering Outlet Manager for obtaining Level 4 in Managing Food Safety in Catering and Kevin Williams, Chef de Partie (The Hub) and Phil Marron, Assistant Manager in Founder’s Dining Hall, who both achieved Level 3 in Supervising Food Safety in Catering.
Bronze Bob Reid – Tray bake Carli McGrail – Cup cakes
Merit Sara Gunn – Cup cakes Kevin Williams – Tray Bake
Bread display Vegetarian main course
Commercial Services Business Plan In March each year all areas of the College must produce their plans for the coming year, showing what their priorities and projects are likely to be.
This coming year will be a challenging one for the respond. Student recruitment, economic and College and it will be important that all areas look political factors will all have an impact, we just at how they spend money and how best value don’t know yet what that impact will be! can be achieved. Commercial Services has some exciting opportunities. The opening of the Emily Wilding Davidson building gives the opportunity not only to open a fantastic new café “The Square” but to look at how we use all of our facilities and extend our opening hours to meet the needs of the whole community. George Eliot Halls of Residence near completion
Emily Wilding Davison building
I see the fantastic work that is being done across the department and the wider College and know we are in a great position going forward. Remember our opportunities will always outweigh our challenges if we choose to see them that way. Gillian Almond
The opening of the George Eliot Hall will offer a completely different style of hall and expand and diversify our accommodation offer. We are also planning on refurbishing rooms in Runnymede, Gower and Wedderburn as well as addressing some mechanical and electrical issues across all areas to reduce breakdowns. A major piece of accommodation and catering research is planned for the new academic year to get some rich data on how students perceive our services and what direction they want us to take them. This will enable us to develop a truly unique and bespoke Royal Holloway service. Alongside this, we are reviewing our budgets to be able to give much more accurate feedback on how all areas are doing financially to ensure that we are all working to sound financial principles and making sure that every student pound is well spent. The year to come will not be without challenges and we will need to be flexible in how we work to
UK première of Delirium The UK Première of Delirium (Cert PG) which was filmed in its entirety at Royal Holloway will be on Saturday 8th July, 6pm at the Odeon, Panton Street, SW1. The film, starring Timothy West and Clare Grogan, tells the story of an international composer returning to his College with the commission to compose a Requiem for the College’s centennial celebrations. To find out more, view the trailer and book tickets, visit the Ourscreen website.
Restructuring of Professional Services As you may have seen David Ashton, Chief Operating Officer, has been working on the re-structuring of the Professional Services teams alongside a review of student recruitment.
New directorates will be created: Marketing and Communications, Governance and Legal Services and Academic Services. The creation of the Marketing and Communications directorate was the result of a recommendation made following the review of student recruitment.
This review identified that our average tariff score has declined and we have therefore accepted students with lower grades. The student recruitment market is changing and competition for higher calibre students is growing rapidly. In the review, recommendations were made as to how we can respond to the current challenges within the student market. These included establishing a recruitment committee to monitor the ongoing progression and performance of the recruitment strategy; considering set programme fees for programmes lasting more than a year; focusing on fewer core countries when recruiting students David Ashton, Chief Operating Officer from the international market and revising our regional engagement plan to focus on new The re-structuring means that the existing 14 primary target regions. directorates within Professional Services will be reduced to 10 with new directorates created The direct impact on Commercial Services as a within this. The aim of the re-structure is to result of the re-structuring and review is minimal, provide a more collaborative approach and the although our participation in open days and optimal running of the group as a whole. David applicant visit days is vital in creating a positive has stressed that the focus is not to save money, impact on potential students and our subsequent although the Professional Services division does recruitment of them. As part of this review the have ambitions to save £2 million on expenditure dates and formats of these days will be changing - further details will follow in due course. A wider year-on-year. knowledge of these events is always valuable Key changes include the merging of Communicaregardless of your role within the University. For tions and External Relations and Student Recruitfurther information, links to the full documents ment and Partnerships as well as the end of can be found on the intranet. Academic Registry and Student Life in their current forms.
Share your favourite recipe Some of the home cooked recipes we have received from students and staff are now available in the catering outlets across campus. Why not send us yours for thousands of students and staff to enjoy in next term’s menus? Just email catering@royalholloway.ac.uk your most treasured home cooked starter, main course, dessert or drink to be in with a chance of having it cooked in one of our outlets. We’ll even add £10 to your College Card by way of thank you.
Bianca’s creamy pasta sauce
Climbing Kilimanjaro Michelle Anderson, Environmental Health Supervisor, decided to give herself the challenge of climbing Kilimanjaro to celebrate her recent 50th birthday.
providing food, clothes and care to those living on the streets of London and Slough. If anyone would like to make a donation to either of these charities, you can do so by following the links in ‘’Having booked it in a rash moment I then spent the charity names. 5 months not thinking about it or telling any- Commenting on her experience, Michelle said, one. Then in the last few weeks when I had to get “Despite the cold, I loved every minute of the it, the “STUFF” together (including a sleeping bag from the frost on the tent in the morning to the that would keep me warm in -12C temperatures!), mesmerising views. I’d love to do it again I told several people where I was actually going.’’ perhaps to the Himalayas next time!” Situated on the border of Tanzania and Kenya, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, with a summit of 5895m. After a rigorous training programme that included walking to work and cycling, Michelle set off on the climb as part of a group of 10 people, accompanied by 5 guides and 39 members of support crew. After a total of 10 days climbing, she reached the summit! I decided to fundraise for two charities; a local one and the other based in the country I was visiting, said Michelle. Michelle’s chosen charities are: The Amboseli School in Kenya via the Grand Circle Foundation. The charity’s mission is to fund projects in schools and villages that will eventually become self-sustaining with the support of the local community and The London and Slough Run who are responsible for running a night shelter in Slough for the homeless, as well as
Busy Easter & summer seasons for the conference team The conference and events team completed a busy Easter season delivering a diverse range of events. The team welcomed just under 2000 visitors to Royal Holloway during the four week student vacation, the majority of whom were residential guests in our Halls of Residence. As well as hosting several residential conferences, day meetings and language schools, the team was also involved with birthday parties, weddings and functions. Founder’s Building, the chapel and the quads also provided the set for a Bollywood film!
Bollywood filming in the North quad
The Easter season may be over, but the team is gearing up for an even busier summer season, starting with a training day for 400 people at the beginning of June. The team will then be welcoming just under 2000 language school students, 1300 residential visitors, 2000 residential conference delegates and an expected 7,500 guests at graduation!
Superbowl in Crosslands Students and staff were given a second chance to watch the exciting clash between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl final earlier in the year. With the final playing all day in Crosslands, the team laid on an American themed menu kicking off the day with breakfast including bagels, waffles and American pancakes.
fillets, BBQ ribs, loaded jackets and pulled pork American style croquettes, as well as an array of home-made American desserts, all washed down with a hardshake, root beer or cream soda.
Food Production Manager, Darren Coventry added “It was a great team effort. Well done to everyone involved for all of your hard work in making the event such a success”.
Lunch followed, with choices of Catering Outlets Manager, hotdogs, southern fried chicken Rebecca Nurse said “There was a real buzz all day in Crosslands, with customers really enjoying the different choices of food being served. The fact that the delicious aroma of the food was wafting down Founder’s East corridors also encouraged customers to come in and find out what was on offer”.
Welcome to…. ….. Elizabeth Horton who has joined us as Senior Assistant Catering Manager, responsible for managing the catering operation at the Hub and Coffee & Cake. Prior to joining Royal Holloway, Elizabeth worked for a Contract Caterer as an Operational Support Manager, covering 27 Secondary schools and colleges.
…. Jessica Beavan who has been appointed to provide administrative and business management support to Gillian Almond. Before joining us, Jessica worked as an Executive Assistant in the CEO’s office at Townends Estate Agents having been a Special Constable in the Metropolitan Police Service at the tender age of 19!