Oakman Inns to receive royal accolade

Oakman will be one of 43 recipients from 39 organisations to be given the award recognising UK companies that have created “outstanding training and development programmes which have made a direct and provable impact on their employer’s business performance”.

This is the second time the south-east based operator has been recognised for its training programme in the award’s five-year history.

Oakman Inns CEO Dermot King said: “We are delighted to be recognised by the Princess Royal Training Awards for a second time for our company’s training and development programme.

“We are in the hospitality business and our 28 town centre and country pub rely on our teams to be enthusiastic in their work and enthused by the standards of service we are consistently striving to achieve for our guests."

Employee impact

King added: “Since receiving the award in 2017 for our online learning and career development platform, the growth of our business has resulted in our employee numbers doubling.

“This required us to scale up our programme to meet the changing needs of our business objectives and those of our team members.

“As a result, employee turnover has fallen by 16% while internally promoted chef numbers have increased by 34%.”

Oakman’s HR director Jill Scatchard outlined how the company’s training initiatives have stood them in good stead.

Module details

She said: “Oakmanology 2020 provides the framework and tools to consistently deliver and measure the success of a wide variety of interactive learning courses in a safe and personalised environment.

“We have introduced mini modules such as the Pizzaiolo Mini Module to support our pizza offer and together with the choice of multiple languages and help for dyslexic users, our increasingly diverse workforce can shape their careers at their own pace.  

“In the workplace, their online training is reinforced with ‘on tap’ practical guidance by our team of ‘Training Ninjas’ who are graduates of our unique ‘Train the Trainer’ programme, delivering exceptional skills at site level.”