CAMPUS MATTERS
October 2016 The newsletter for Campus Services
An up-date from Sue Lloyd The new academic year is already well underway. Our teams greeted nearly 3,000 students as they moved into their new halls of residence a few weeks ago and this year’s start of session was “the best ever”, according to Head of Premises, Jonathan Main. Congratulations to everyone involved for all your hard work.
on our achievement in 2015. You’ll find further information on our new Hospitality Assured Champions on page 5.
If you’ve read the latest Principal’s ezine, you will be aware that the College is running its second staff engagement survey. Lessons have been learned from the 2014 survey and a number of improvements have Last week saw the opening of the been made this year, e.g. there newly renovated Boilerhouse are fewer questions and an Café, following the closure of improved data set. Café Jules in July. You can read The survey will open on 31st about the opening in more detail October and I’d encourage you all on page 4 but I would like to take to complete it as you will have the this opportunity to encourage opportunity to give your views you to go and grab a coffee with and at the same time, we can colleagues in this fantastic new provide a good response rate space. from all Campus Services teams. This term also sees a return visit from our Hospitality Assured assessors who will be conducting interviews with individuals across the department on 2nd and 3rd November. Our target this year is to be rewarded with a score of 77%, which is an increase of 1.1%
In this issue…. 1* award in Food Made Good Sustainability Rating
A day in the life of a Housekeeper Take a look behind the scenes with the housekeeping team in our interview with Janet Parkes.
1* award in Food Made Good Sustainability Rating Royal Holloway has been awarded one star in the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s (SRA) Food Made Good Sustainability Rating, with a very commendable score. The SRA is an organisation whose membership represents a broad spectrum of the hospitality industry, all united in their commitment to sustainability. The Food Made Good Sustainability Rating provides members with recognition for their sustainability as well as a tool to engage staff, suppliers and inform customers.
To achieve the rating, Royal Holloway was assessed against 14 key sustainability criteria and the SRA commended Royal Holloway on its sustainability initiatives and commitment to ethical best practices across all three pillars of sourcing, society and environment. Royal Holloway was particularly commended in the following areas:
commitment to sourcing fair trade products (72%);
promotion of healthy eating and offering a wide proportion of dishes suitable for vegetarians (82%);
supporting charities and hosting school visits (68%);
treating its people fairly through comprehensive employee induction and training processes (63%);
waste management and recycling (92%);
energy efficiency and water saving (70%).
Commenting on the rating, Catering Outlets Manager, Rebecca Nurse said “This is a fantastic achievement for a first rating. Well done to all those involved. We will be looking closely at the feedback we received from the SRA to see where we can make improvements in order to gain a two star rating next year”.
Christmas Party Saturday 10th December, 7pm-midnight in Founder’s Building Do you need something to look forward to now that summer is well and truly over? If you’re looking for an excuse for an end of year get-together with friends, family or colleagues, then why not book a table at our Christmas party? Our team of chefs will create just the kind of Christmas celebration you want with gorgeous food, great wines and seamless service. Beginning with a welcome drink at 7pm, our Christmas party will continue with a three course banquet at 8pm finishing with coffee and mince pies and a disco until midnight. Tickets are just £45 (including VAT) per person. Places are limited, so please download our booking form to reserve your place. Alternatively, call a member of the team on 01784 276677 or send an email.
A day in the life of a Royal Holloway Housekeeper In the last issue of Campus Matters, we showcased a working day of one of our chefs. In this issue, we caught up with Janet Parkes, Housekeeper for Gowar and Wedderburn, who gave us some inside information on her role in the Housekeeping team. “What exactly are your responsibilities?” “I oversee the overall cleaning and maintenance of Gowar and Wedderburn halls, which are the largest halls of residence with 567 rooms. My office also acts as a reception for students with queries or who sometimes just want a chat or a word of advice.” “How long have you worked here?” “I’ve been at Royal Holloway for 30 years! But my role has changed a lot over the years. I started life here with a part time job cleaning Founder’s library and from there moved to cleaning the bedrooms in Founder’s. I remember we Bar skills - silver used to have to collect a pot of polish every week from the Housekeeper so that we could polish all of the Victorian wood furniture that was still in the student bedrooms up until a few years ago.”
“What’s the best part of your job here?” “The best part has to be meeting so many diverse people, whether they are students or conference guests. I enjoy acting as a second family for the students who are away from home for the first time and giving them the best experience that I possibly can while they are staying with us.” “And the most challenging part?” “Our greatest challenge comes at the end of the academic year every June, when all of the 567 bedrooms and 72 kitchens have to be deep cleaned after a nine month occupancy, ready for the arrival of conference guests. The timescales are very tight – usually we only have a day or two - and it’s a huge task, so it can be quite stressful.” “What is your daily routine?”
communal areas within that block. Although the housekeepers are not responsible for cleaning the students’ bedrooms, I adhere to a preplanned schedule and carry out termly room checks. Additionally, I check stock levels of cleaning products (and toiletries during the summer conference season) and re-order when necessary; deal with staffing issues, health and safety and training; report maintenance issues and check on them once they have been closed to ensure the work has been carried out to a satisfactory standard and respond to the varied questions and queries from students and guests. I also walk the buildings as much as possible to check the standard of cleaning and make myself aware of any vandalism, maintenance or safety issues.” “Is there a good work ethic amongst the housekeepers?” “Yes absolutely. Some of us have been here for many years and there’s a real feeling of being part of a team with everyone working together. Nobody goes home while there is still work to be done.”
“Typically, my day starts with a staff briefing and “Finish this sentence “Not many people know issuing of key cards. Members of the team are this about me but….” allocated a block each and they are responsible Bread display - bronze and Best in Class for cleaning the twelve kitchens and all “I actually trained at the London College of Fashion and qualified as a hairdresser!”
New Boilerhouse café is open Last week saw the official opening of the new Boilerhouse café following the closure of Café Jules in the summer. The new café retains many of the Victorian features of the building such as the original brick walls and wooden supports on the ceilings as well as several modern features including dozens of charging points along the north wall and a stateof-the-art servery and coffee machines. The servery area has been fitted with new chilled, ambient and heated food and drink displays as the new café has a much wider choice of hot and cold food and drinks than the old Café Jules. The café is currently open Monday-Friday from 8.30am-6pm with opening hours due to be extended until 11pm in November, offering a welcoming socialising space after evening events.
Waste and recycling This term, two new initiatives have been set up in an effort to reduce levels of waste and encourage recycling. New waste bins are now in place in The Hub dining room to try to improve recycling rates. Additionally, a number of departments across campus have been selected to trial the use of recycling pods in corridors in place of waste paper bins in individual offices. If successful, the initiative will be rolled out across other departments to reduce waste as a whole.
Our team of staff spent a few days before the grand opening, training and generally familiarising themselves with the new facility. Catering Outlets Manager, Rebecca Nurse said, “We’re delighted to be able to offer our students, staff and visitors this fantastic space for studying and socialising. Please let us know what you what you think of the new food offer by emailing the catering team”.
Post room up-date The design of the reception area and post room within the new Amenity Building in the north A30 campus are currently being finalised. The facility is due to open in September 2017 to coincide with the closure of the Founder’s Post Room.
Construction of the new Amenity Building
Will hands over to Ryan
Welcome to Daniel Green who has been newly appointed in the post room with a full time role, having spent the last two years working on a part time basis, alongside his studies. Daniel graduated from Royal Holloway with a 2:1 in Psychology in the summer.
Hospitality Assured Last November, we were assessed by Hospitality Assured, achieving a total score of 75.9%, which was an improvement of 0.9% on the score achieved in the 2013 assessment. Hospitality Assured (HA) is the standard for service and business excellence, created by the Institute of Hospitality, specifically for customer facing businesses. The process encourages businesses to develop best practice by viewing their own operation from a customer perspective to see where improvements can be made to benefit the business. As a result of the assessors’ feedback last year, a team of eight Hospitality Assured Champions has been set up to represent each area of Campus Services. The champions will meet every term to share ideas and collaborate on future improvements, so that progress is made in each area.
Your Hospitality Assured Champions and their area of responsibility are: John Daly - Security Matthew Woodham - Conferences Terri Sadler - Conferences & Internal Hospitality Clare Holloway - Catering, Outlets Sharon Chandler - Catering, Kitchens Kate Strudwick - Premises, Customer Services Lydia Gibbs - Premises, Residential Sonata Bridikiene - Premises, Academic
At the inaugural Champions meeting, the team were given a detailed report of the ‘2015 areas for consideration’ for the next review, so that they could see how each of them could make a difference in their area and to Campus Services as a whole. As a result of the initial meeting, a list of foreign language speakers, who would be willing to help with translation, has already been compiled, which was an initiative suggested by the HA assessors last year.
The conference office took part in The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning last month, by organising a coffee and cake sale in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Many thanks to all those who took the time to bake cakes and also to those who donated so generously. A total of £217 was raised for this very Will hands over to Ryan worthwhile cause.
The next HA Assessment will take place on 2nd and 3rd November 2016.
Catering study tour to Copenhagen Food Production Manager, Darren Coventry recently joined a group of TUCO members (The University Caterers Organisation) from several different UK universities on a three day study tour to Copenhagen. The tour, entitled ‘Love food? Love Denmark’, incorporated a visit to the MAD Symposium, an international culinary symposium which takes place every summer (“mad” is the Danish word for “food”). Attended by some of the world’s most interesting chefs, the outdoor food festival provides a platform for chefs, farmers and scholars to discuss issues such as culinary history, the relationship between food and food supply systems, sustainability and the social significance of how we eat.
“There was a real buzz at the festival, with the whole city joining in. Even Copenhagen Airport had pop-up restaurants to celebrate,” Darren commented. “My main objective for the trip was to gain new ideas and inspiration for menu development that can be implemented on campus. The study tour was one of the most interesting learning and development opportunities I have ever had. I saw a huge range of different operations and I couldn’t help but be inspired. I am really looking forward to putting some of the new ideas into practice at Royal Holloway”.
The next stop on the study tour was a visit to Copenhagen Cooking, an annual ten day festival, presenting more than 100 unique food events and attracting around 100,000 visitors each year. This year’s event involved street kitchens, dinners and cookery schools and members of the study tour were able to attend workshops covering topics such as open sandwiches, hot dogs and food waste as well as one entitled “Coffee made with tap water and spring water – the difference?”
© Rasmus Flindt Pedersen
Office moves Nicola Bryne joins the conference team as Conference Sales Executive from the Biological Sciences department, where she has worked since January 2014. Nicola was able to build a wealth of experience in organising large international academic conferences in her previous role, most notably in the organisation of the European Spores conference. Terri Sadler has taken up a new role as Internal Hospitality and Wedding Coordinator having worked at Royal Holloway since 2007, most recently as Conference and Events Shift Leader. Finally, Ann Butcher has moved to the Customer Services team as a Customer Services Shift Leader, following 8 years at Royal Holloway. Ann’s previous roles have included Assistant Catering Manager in Founder’s Dining Hall, Kingswood and most recently Crosslands.