Campus Matters December 2017

Campus Matters The newsletter for Commercial Services December 2017

Commercial Services up-date from Gillian So much has happened in the last 6 months it is difficult to know where to start. The most significant changes are obviously the opening of the Emily Wilding Davidson Building and George Eliot Hall but there have been so many other developments alongside these.

The Café on the Square and the relaunch of the Boilerhouse have enabled a far more diverse and interesting catering offer on campus along with a review of menus and character of all outlets. There has also been a highly successful programme of refurbishment and repair in the Halls of Residence which will not only improve the appearance of these halls but also deal with a number of maintenance issues to reduce equipment failures.

also ranked 28th overall, in the Times Good University Guide up 6 places from last year.

Unfortunately, we also saw a drop in our world ranking in Times Higher Education World University Rankings from 173 to 197, but this still keeps us a Global Top 200 University. Whilst league tables are not perfect measures of university performance they are key to many students when deciding which university to consider and these great results will help us ensure we can continue to attract high quality students.

We have also had our own successes being shortlisted for three TUCO awards in the Innovation, TUCO Member of the year and Rising Star categories and we were very proud when Internal Hospitality and Wedding Coordinator, Terri SadThe summer saw the usual incredibly busy ler, very deservedly won the Rising Star award. programme with graduations, open days and We have been shortlisted for a further five conferences bringing in a fantastic £3.35 million, awards (more on page 5). which was £417K over budget, helping us pay for all the refurbishment works.

The structuring of the arrivals weekend over 2 days resulted in an incredibly smooth arrivals process and the most positive first impression for all our students.

I know that none of these changes and achievements came about by accident and their success was due to the hard work and dedication of all of you. Thank you!

The hard work of everybody in the University does not go unnoticed. This year Royal Holloway had a number of success in the League tables rising five places to 40th in The Guardian University league table and three places to 34th in The Complete University Guide. Royal Holloway was

Terri wins TUCO Rising Star award

Commercial Services up-date (continued from overleaf)

The other significant change in the last year was the departure of Mike Hoare, who had been our Catering stalwart for many years. Whilst Mike will be missed by all, we were delighted to be joined by Manish Shah who has joined us from The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. The Inn is a professional body that provides legal training, selection, and regulation for Barristers and Judges so he comes with a wealth of experience in delivering catering at a high level.

The more challenging news is that we currently

Café on the Square With the opening of the Davison Building in September came the opening of our brand new Café on the Square, in place of the old Bedford Café, in the Bedford library.

With seating for 90, the café is open until 4am, 5 days a week, ensuring our students can snack while they study well into the night! The café sells a selection of savoury snacks including breakfasts, baguettes, paninis, snack pots, sushi and salads as well as smoothies, juices and Starbucks coffee and is proving very popular with the students.

have a high number of voids in halls, giving a considerable budget shortfall. We will need to ensure we are reviewing costs, reducing waste and bringing in new business. We will be looking at where we can work smarter and share resources as well as how we can use our facilities differently to improve our final budget position. As Commercial Services, we have an opportunity that most areas of the University do not have, i.e. to sell what we make and to tailor that production to our customer base. It will be a challenge but a challenge I have every confidence that we will all will rise to!

Grab & Go You may have noticed that Coffee & Cake, located in The Hub, underwent a transformation during the summer.

The outlet was fully refurbished and rebranded as “Grab & Go”, the place to find quick, tasty, value food on campus.

Cafés Shift Leader Zuzana Brezinova commented, “It was very exciting helping to set up a brand new café in this wonderful building. The café is always very busy - we are serving well over 150 people per hour during peak times!”

The café serves a great variety of meal deals including salads, sushi, sandwiches and hot savouries as well as a range of savoury and sweet snacks, cold drinks and Fairtrade tea and coffee.

Catering Team Leader Ali Burn commented, “If you want to avoid the queues in some of our other outlets on campus and buy a quick, tasty lunch for as little as £3.50, Grab & Go is definitely the place to come!”

George Eliot Hall open Located on Harvest Road on the north side of the A30, our brand new George Eliot Hall was completed in time for Start of Session.

The hall consists of 56, 3 and 4 storey townhouses, each housing between 9 and 12 students, offering a total of over 600 extra bedrooms.

George Eliot offers more space for relaxing and socialising than other Halls, including a large lounge area and kitchen and with two bathrooms per landing, students will only share their bathroom with one other student.

was built in the 1890s for the Pocock family, each family member had one brick specially engraved with his/her initials. The bricks were carefully removed from the original buildings to ensure this piece of local history was preserved and have been incorporated into the George Eliot Centre building.

Commenting on the halls, Head of Residential Services, Jonathan Main said “We are delighted with the new town houses which respond to the needs of today’s student, offering far larger spaces for spending time with friends”.

The development has been arranged among mature trees, creating pleasant green spaces and sheltered paths connecting residences to the main campus.

At the front of the George Eliot Centre Building are six bricks of particular significance. These came from The Beeches, a Victorian house that previously stood on the site. When The Beeches

Hall refurbishment projects Over the summer, half of Runnymede 1 Hall was refurbished, which included new white, high gloss kitchens, new dining furniture, new shower units and doors and new mirrored, back lit bathroom cabinets. Phase 2 of the project, to refurbish the remaining 50% is planned for next summer.

Additionally Gowar and Wedderburn underwent their first major refurbishment since the accommodation was built, which included new kitchens, new stairwell carpets and a complete redecoration to all communal areas.

Gowar kitchen

Post room move Over the summer, Founder’s post room closed and relocated to the George Eliot Centre Building. The phone number remains the same 01784 443066 but the email address has changed from Founderspostroom@rhul.ac.uk to postalservices@royalholloway.ac.uk. The service hours also remain the same, Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:00.

parking and charging space for our electric post van. As we share this new space with Customer Services, communication between our two departments is now much easier and we also have access to better facilities such as a colour printer and scanner”.

Additionally, Amazon lockers were installed in The Hub, Highfield common room and Founder’s The George Eliot post room receives the majority West, which will enable students and staff to have of the University’s post delivered via royal mail. It their Amazon parcel delivered directly to a locker, is then sorted there and distributed across campus rather than the Postroom. To make use of this throughout the day. service, students just need to click on the locker option when asked for the delivery address and insert the relevant locker name, which is Trigwell for The Hub, Wisdom in Founder’s West or Thorne in Highfields.

Commenting on the new post room, Post Room Operative Mark Dean said, “The new George Eliot post room is a much larger space than our previous location in Founder’s. There is also more space for a courier to park and we now have a dedicated

Welcome to….

Manish Shah

…. Manish Shah, Head of Conferences and Catering who joins us from The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Previous key roles include General Manager at Searcy’s in Knightsbridge, General Manager at the London Transport Museum and Hospitality Manager for international law firm, Allen & Overy. Commenting on his role, Manish said “My key area of focus over the coming months is to offer a catering experience at

Royal Holloway that is second to none. The focal point of the offering will be to celebrate British produce, using a wide variety of seasonal, freshly prepared and locally sourced food and drink, as well as creating amazing bespoke catering outlets to take university catering services to a different level”.

Welcome also to Ali Burn, who has taken on the role of Catering Shift Leader, supervising the day-to-day running of The Hub and Grab & Go. A recent Royal Holloway graduate, Ali was a shift leader at Kingswood while studying for his degree.

Ali Burn

Commercial Services is shortlisted for five awards Our department has been recognised as a finalist for three Academic Venue Awards and two Student Accommodation Awards.

The three Academic Venue Awards are in the Best Catering Service, Best Accommodation and Best Wedding Venue categories for commercial guests.

The two Student Accommodation Awards for which we have been shortlisted are the University Halls of Residence of the Year and the Unsung Hero Award.

The Best Catering Service Award rewards the hard efforts of an academic venue that’s catering service has produced a first in class offering, from menu versatility and customer service, to operational management and financial success.

The University Halls of Residence Award has recognised Founder’s as a Hall of Residence that offers a modern student environment, encompassing best-in-class learning, design and communal facilities, while offering different accommodation options to give choice and value for money. The hall delivers an exceptional student experience, provides a strong student support network and pastoral care and receives consistently high satisfaction ratings by students.

The Best Accommodation Award will be awarded to the academic venue whose facilities are a cut above the rest, with a sublime space for delegates to unwind or work, excellent amenities and a customer first attitude.

The winner of the Best Wedding Venue Award will have demonstrated a proactive relationship with organisers on a plethora of successful weddings, have invested in their wedding offering and chalked up significant financial and business growth.

David Ward, Residential Manager, Customer Services, has received the accolade of finalist in the Unsung Hero category. This award is for an outstanding individual on the frontline of delivery, whose voice may not be often heard, but whose presence makes their halls special places. It is for an exceptional colleague who goes the extra mile to make student halls a better place.

Director of Commercial Services, Gillian Almond commented “It is a fantastic achievement for the department to be shortlisted for five awards. It is testament to the high standards, hard work and dedication of the teams and I am delighted that their efforts David Ward have been recognised”.

Commercial Services targets Commercial Services has a number of targets that it needs to meet, in terms of finance, customer service, staff satisfaction and legal compliance.

We are developing business dashboards so that we can ensure we are all aware of how our business is developing against these objectives. Just as a car’s dashboard gives high level information of performance, eg speed, available petrol, revs etc, a business dashboard will give information of finances, customers and sales.

Below is the Conference and Catering dashboard for October 2017 and the one for Residential Services can be seen overleaf. Dashboards will be produced for each future edition of Campus Matters to show different aspects of how our business is performing.

Conference and Catering Dashboard

Monthly Budget

Month Actual

Month Actual (Last Year)

Total Yearly Budget

(357,210)

(411,115)

(414,178)

(766,940)

Outlet

Score

Comments

Founders

37%

50% deducted as remedial actions required

Crosslands

37%

50% deducted as remedial actions required

Kingswood

73%

8Bar9

71%

Boiler House

66%

Hub

84%

Grab & Go

41%

Food GP Target

Food GP Actual

Drink GP Target

Drink GP Actual

Year

66.7%

74.8%

48.6%

63.6%

2017/18

63.8

50.1

2016/17

62.9

49.8

2015/16

Residential Services dashboard

Income 2017 - 18

Rooms Occupancy 1%

£20,951,674.

00

12%

£20,437,650.

84

87% £18,610,859.

44 100% OCCUPANCY

99% OCCUPANCY BUDGET

Under contract awaiting arrival Void rooms

88% OCCUPANCY AS AT 02/11/2017

Footprints Customer Service Calls Aug - Oct 17

Occupied rooms

Halls Maintenance Calls Sept 6% Oct 17

TOTAL CALLS

2,695

OPEN CALLS

78

ACTIVE CALLS

94%

108

CLOSED CALLS

2,509

Calls resolved Calls not resolved

Income per available Bed - 2017/18 £5,893.58

£5,748.99

£5,235.12

TOTAL REVENUE 100%

BUDETED REVENUE 99%

ACT REVENUE 88%

Contract Cleaning Costs per Bed October 2017 £38.23 £37.63

Cost per bed budget Cost per bed actual

Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year!